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THE PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION, Volume II.

Illustrations, By Pen And Pencil, Of The History, Biography, Scenery,
Relics, And Traditions Of The War For Independence.

By Benson J, Lossing,

With Several Hundred Engravings On Wood, By Lossing And Barritt, Chiefly
From Original Sketches By The Author.

In Two Volumes.

Harper & Brothers, Publishers,

1 8 5 2.



TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

The first eight chapters of this second volume were the last eight
chapters of the first volume with the same illustrations and have not
been duplicated in this ebook of the second volume. DW


[[[Departure for the South.--Mode of Traveling.--Characteristics of the
Journey.--Interesting Associations.]]]

{216}




CHAPTER IX.


```"Thou desolate and dying year!

```Prophetic of our final fall;

```Thy buds are gone, thy leaves are sere,

```Thy beauties shrouded in the pall;

```And all the garniture that shed

```A brilliancy upon thy prime,

```Hath like a morning vision fled

```Into the expanded grave of time."

`````James G. Brooks.


```"That soft autumnal time

````Is come, that sheds upon the naked seene

```Charms only known in this our northern clime--

````Bright seasons far between.

```" The woodland foliage now

````Is gathered lw the wild November blast,

```E'en the thick leaves upon the poplar's bough

````Are fallen to the last."

`````John H. Bryant.

[Illustration: 9224]

N the 22d of November, 1848, I left New York to visit the Southern
portions of the old Thirteen States, made memorable by the events of the
War for Independence. Aware of the lack of public facilities for travel
below the Potomac, and not doubting that many of the localities which I
intended to visit were far distant from public highways, I resolved to
journey with my own conveyance, with an independence and thoroughness
not vouchsafed by steam or stage-drivers. I purchased a strong,
good-natured horse, harnessed him to a light dearborn wagon, stowed my
luggage under the seat, and, taking the reins, on a bright and balmy
afternoon departed on a _drive_ of nearly fourteen hundred miles. The
wisdom of my resolve was a hundred times made manifest, for, in some
portions of the South, horse, mule, or ox could not have been procured
to convey me to places of interest, lying scores of miles apart,
and scores of miles away from stage-routes. It was a lonely journey;
sometimes among mountains, sometimes through swamps, sometimes through
vast pine forests and over sandy plains, and sometimes amid the most
interesting natural scenery, even in mid-winter. It was to me a journey
of great interest; and the dreary days passed in riding from one
hallowed locality to another, after leaving the Appomattox, were all
forgotten when sitting down, pencil in hand, in the midst of some
arena consecrated by patriotism and love of country. Then glorious
associations would crowd thickly upon the memory, weariness and
privations would be forgotten, and the truthful heart would chant,=

```"Great God! we thank thee for this home--

````This bounteous birth-land of the free;

```Where wanderers from afar may come

````And breathe the air of liberty!

```Still may her flowers untrampled spring,

````Her harvests wave, her cities rise;

```And yet, till Time shall fold his wing,

````Remain earth's loveliest paradise!

`````W. J. Pabodie.=

[[[Perth Amboy.--Its original Settlement and Prospects.--Governor
William Franklin.]]]

{217}In succeeding pages I shall endeavor to impart to my readers some
of the pleasures and profits of this Southern journey, extended, after
leaving my horse and wagon at Camden, in South Carolina, to nearly
fourteen hundred miles further.

I left New York at three o'clock in the afternoon in the steam-boat
_Transport_ of the Camden and Amboy Rail-road Company. We passed out at
the Narrows at four o'clock between Forts Hamilton and La Fayette, and,
traversing Raritan Bay, on the southeast side of Staten Island, reached
South Amboy at twilight, where I remained until morning. This little
village is situated upon the bay, at the mouth of the Raritan, and is
the terminus of the rail-way from Philadelphia. On the north side of
the Raritan is Perth Amboy, * a pleasant place, a port of entry, and
a locality of considerable historic interest. It is about twenty-five
miles from New York, and ten from New Brunswick; the latter lies at the
head of steam-boat navigation on the Raritan. Upon this point the
first proprietors of New Jersey intended to build a city. "If the
Lord permit," they said, in their published account of the beauty and
fertility of that region, "we intend, with all convenient speed, to
erect and build our principal town, which, by reason of situation, must,
in all probability, be the most considerable for merchandise, trade, and
fishing in those parts. It is designed to be placed upon a neck or point
of land called Ambo Point, lying on Raritan River, and pointing to
Sandy Hook Bay, and near adjacent to the place where ships in that great
harbor commonly ride at anchor." It was called "a sweet, wholesome, and
delightful place and William Penn said, on taking a view of the land, "I
have never seen such before in my life." The town was laid out into one
hundred and fifty lots, many buildings were erected, and for a time it
was the commercial rival of New York. A city charter was obtained
in 1718. William Eier was the first mayor, and James Alexander--the
father of Lord Stirling, of the Continental army--was the first
recorder. Barracks for soldiers were built there in 1758--9, and were
first occupied by the English troops on their return from Havana in
1761.

Perth Amboy was the place of residence of Governor Franklin when the
Revolution broke out, and was the scene of many stirring events during
that war. ** It was in posses-

* This point, when first mentioned in the East Jersey records, bears the
Indian name of Ompage, of which Ambo or Amboy is a corruption. The white
settlement there was for some time called Perth, in honor of the Earl
of Perth, one of the proprietors; but the name of Ambo was so often
mentioned, that at last it was called Perth Amboy.

** William Franklin, the royal governor of New Jersey, was the only
son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He was born in 1731. He was postmaster
of Philadelphia for a short time, and served as clerk of the House-of
Representatives of Pennsylvania. He was a captain in the French and
Indian war, and fought bravely, under Abercrombie, at Ticonderoga.
He visited England, with his father, toward the close of the war. In
Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who recommended him
to Lord Fairfax. That-nobleman appointed him governor of New Jersey,
and for a time he was very popular with the people. He was a decided
monarchist, and from the beginning of the disputes with Great Britain he
took sides against his father. He involved himself in quarrels with the
Legislature of New Jersey, and the people became very hostile to him
before the close of his administration in 1776. On the 23d of May of
that year, the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey commenced their
session at Trenton, and the royal government soon afterward ceased to
exist. A constitution was adopted in July, 1776. William Livingston
was elected governor in place of Franklin, and that deposed servant
of royalty, declared by the Congress of New Jersey to be an enemy to
liberty, was seized in his own house at Perth Amboy, and conveyed a
prisoner to Windham, Connecticut, at which place, and also in Litchfield
jail, he was confined for some time. [See p. 436, volume i.] On the
arrival of Sir Henry Clinton in America in 1778, Governor Franklin was
exchanged for some American prisoners, and released. He went to New
York, where he served, for a short period, as president of the Board
of Directors of the Associated Loyalists. In West's picture of the
Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, in the year 1783,
Governor Franklin is a prominent personage-represented. A copy of this
picture will be found in another part of this work. Franklin went to
England at the close of the war, where he resided until his death in
November, 1813, enjoying a pension of $4000 per annum. He and his father
were reconciled in 1784, after an alienation often years. The doctor,
however, could not forget his political delinquency. In his will, after
devising to his son all the books and papers of his in possession of the
governor, and also all debts standing against him on his account-books,
he says, "The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of
public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate
he endeavored to deprive me of." * Governor Franklin's wife died in
1778, just before his release from imprisonment. On a monumental tablet
in St. Paul's Chureh, New York, it is inscribed that, "compelled to part
from the husband she loved, and at length despairing of the soothing
hope of his return, she sunk of accumulated distresses," &e. His son,
William Temple Franklin, who edited his grandfather's works, died at
Paris in May, 1823.

* Sparks's Life of Franklin, 599.

[[[Dunlap's Recollection of military Affairs at Perth Amboy.--Journey to
Crosswicks.--Missionary Operations there.]]]

{218}sion of the British much of the time; and one of the many pictures
of life of varied hue there presented, is given by William Dunlap (who
was born there), in his _History of the Arts of Design_. "Here were
centered," he says, "in addition to those cantoned in the place, all
those [troops] drawn in from the Delaware, Princeton, and Brunswick; and
the flower and pick of the army, English, Scotch, and German, who had at
that time been brought in from Rhode Island. Here was to be seen a party
of forty-second Highlanders, in national costume, and there a regiment
of Hessians, their dress and arms a perfect contrast to the first. The
slaves of Anspach and Waldeek were there--the first somber as night,
the second gaudy as noon. Here dashed by a party of the seventeenth
dragoons, and there scampered a party of Yagers. The trim, neat, and
graceful English grenadier; the careless and half-savage Highlander,
with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the immovably stiff' German,
could hardly be taken for parts of one army. Here might be seen soldiers
driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded with household
furniture, instead of the hay and oats they had been sent for.

"The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which
transplanted the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into
the hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the
garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the
return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps, and the
heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning
wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of
the evils and the soul-stirring scenes of war. These lessons, and
others more disgusting, were my sources of instruction in the winter of
1776--7." * [[November 23, 1848]] I left Amboy for Trenton, by the way
of Crosswicks, before sunrise the next morning. The air was clear and
frosty; the pools by the road side were skimmed with ice, and fields and
fences were white with hoar frost. The deep sand of the road made the
traveling heavy, yet, before the sun was fairly up, my strong horse had
taken me half the way to Spottswood, ten miles distant. I passed
through Spottswood, Old Bridge, Hightstown, and Cranberry, to Allentown,
twenty-eight miles from Amboy, where I dined. These villages have a neat
and thrifty appearance. Over the level, sandy country through which the
road passes, extensive peach orchards are spread out, covering hundreds
of acres. Crosswicks, ** the scene of some stirring events in the
Revolution, is situated upon a ridge on the left bank of Crosswicks
Creek, four miles from Allentown, and the same distance from the
Delaware Ptiver. The creek is in a deep ravine, here spanned by a fine
latticed bridge, erected upon the site of the old one of the Revolution.
It was settled by the Quakers in 1681, and was a place of sufficient
importance in colonial times to be once a meeting-place of the
Provincial Assembly. Among the Indians at Crossweeksung, Brainerd and
Tennant [[1748]] labored successfully, *** and the influence of the
Quakers upon that tribe was sensibly felt. Here a small detachment of
the American army was stationed after the first engagement at Trenton,
where the Hessians were captured; and here one division of the British
troops, marching from Philadelphia toward Monmouth, in June, 1778, were
pretty severely handled by a party of Americans. The troops of the enemy
marched in three divisions from Philadelphia: one by Mount Holly, one
through Columbus, and the third by Bordentown, on the Delaware, near the
mouth of Crosswicks Creek. Near the latter place was a draw-bridge, and
as the British attempted to repair it for the purpose of crossing, the
militia regiments of Colonels Frelinghuysen, **** Van Dyke, and Webster,
stationed near, rushed

* History of the Arts of Design, vol. ii.

** This name is derived from the Indian appellation of the plaee,
Crossweeksung, signifying a separation. The creek separates into two
branches not far from the village.

*** In less than one year after Brainerd commenced preaching among them,
he baptized no less than seventy-seven persons, of whom thirty-eight
were adults.--Allen's Amer. Biog. Dictionary.

**** Frederik Frelinghuysen was the son of Reverend John Frelinghuysen,
of Raritan, New Jersey. He graduated at Princeton in 1770, and when the
Revolution broke out he entered the military service of his country. He
was a captain of a militia company at the battle of Trenton, December
26, 1776, and, it is said, was the man who shot Colonel Rail, the
commander of the Hessians. He was afterward promoted to the rank of
colonel, which office he held during the war. He was a member of the
old Congress, and, under the administration of Washington, was a senator
from New Jersey. He was for a number of years one of the trustees of
Princeton College. He died in April, 1804, aged about fifty-two years.
Theodore Frelinghuysen, late United States senator from New Jersey, and
Chancellor of the University of New York, is his son.

[[[Skirmish at Crosswicks.--The Friends' Meeting-house.--Mrs.
Idell.--Bordentown]]]

{219}upon them, killed four and wounded several. The enemy left the
bridge at Bordentown, and, marching up to Crosswicks, attempted to
repair the bridge there, which the Americans had almost destroyed. *

[Illustration: 9227]

The alert provincials were ready to receive them; and from their station
on the Woodwardsville side of the creek, they poured upon the Britons
volleys of musketry, which, with a well-aimed shot occasionally from
an old six-pounder, effectually kept them at bay. Being re-enforced the
next day, the enemy repaired the bridge, crossed it, and pursued their
march toward Allentown. During the skirmish, one of the cannon-balls
fired by the Americans struck the north wall of the meeting-house and
lodged therein, where it remained until the building was repaired a
few years ago. The hole made by the ball is yet visible; the dark spot
between the sills of the two upper windows, on the right of the picture,
marks the place.

The American troops at Crosswicks, after the battle of Trenton, used
the meeting-house for barracks; yet, unlike the British soldiers who
occupied churches for a similar purpose, they neither defaced the
building, nor disturbed the society in their public religious duties'.
Every Wednesday and Sunday the soldiers withdrew, the benches were
properly arranged, and worship was held as usual.

During my brief tarry of an hour and a half at Crosswicks, I visited
the venerable Mrs. Idell, who was eighty-three years old. She clearly
remembered the advent of the Americans there, after the battle of
Trenton. She lived with her brother, two or three miles from the
meeting-house. Twelve American officers, on horseback, took possession
of his house while himself and family were in meeting. The parlor was
filled with equestrian accouterments, and she and two other children
"almost lost their wits by fright." The old lady was strong in mind but
feeble in body when I saw her, yet she was able to sit in their plain
old house of worship every meeting-day.

I left Crosswicks at four o'clock, and arrived at Trenton at sunset.
It was a pleasant drive of eight miles through a fertile country; the
well-filled barns and barracks, and the numerous haystacks, denoting
bountiful harvests. I passed a little northward of Bordentown, and had
an occasional glimpse of its spires above the brown tree-tops. As we
may not, in the course of our journey, approach so near this pleasant
village again, let us slacken our pace a little as we go over the crown
of the hill, from whence the vane of the Episcopal church is visible,
and consider its Revolutionary history.

Bordentown is "a city upon a hill," and "can not be hid." It is at the
elbow of the Delaware River, seven miles below Trenton, and from the
brow of the eminence on which it stands there is an extensive view of
that noble stream and the surrounding country. It derives its name from
Joseph Borden, an early settler. Here both the Americans and British had
military stores; and hither both parties, at different times, dispatched
small detachments to surprise and capture, or destroy them. Here a
strong body of Hessians, under

* An American named Clevenger, who had cut away the last sleeper of the
bridge when the enemy approached, was shot in the back of the head and
killed while retreating. He was the only man whom the Americans lost in
the skirmish.

** This view is from the shed in the yard, looking southeast. The
building stands in the center of a large square, is of imported brick,
and very spacious. The Quakers were numerous in this vicinity in the
time of the Revolution, and a large number of the present inhabitants
are members of that sect.

[[[Revolutionary Events at Bordentown.--Joseph Bonaparte.--General
Dickinson.--Trenton.]]]

{220}Count Donop, was stationed at the time of the battle at Trenton.
One of the several expeditions sent out from Philadelphia by the enemy,
in the spring of 1778, was for the purpose of destroying vessels which
were lying in Barnes's and Crosswicks Creeks at this place. Six or seven
hundred troops left Philadelphia about ten in the evening on the 7th
of May, and went up the Delaware in a flotilla consisting of two
row-galleys, three other armed vessels, and twenty-four flat-bottomed
boats. They had fair winds for ten miles of the way, * when a calm
ensued, and they were obliged to row the remainder of the distance. They
expected to reach Bordentown and perform their destructive work before
dawn, but they did not arrive there until late in the forenoon. Before
landing, they burned two frigates at the White Hills, a little below the
village, and afterward destroyed several smaller vessels. They landed
without much opposition, burned the residence of Joseph Borden,
committed some petty malicious trespasses, and then re-embarked. The
next day they proceeded up the river as far as Bile's Island, intending
to make a descent upon Trenton; but General Dickinson, ** and the troops
under his command, gave them such a warm reception, that they hastily
turned their prows southward. On their way down they landed at Colonel
Kirk-bride's farm, on the Pennsylvania side, burned his buildings, and
seized considerable property. A party of militia, whom General Dickinson
sent down the river, succeeded in capturing a sloop which the enemy had
filled with plunder, and took prisoners six men who were on board. The
marauders returned to Philadelphia with very little booty, and not a
particle of glory. ***

At Bordentown, from 1816 until 1842, Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of
Spain, and brother of Napoleon, resided. His park and grounds comprised
about fifteen hundred acres of land, which his taste and well-directed
expenditure of money redeemed from almost barrenness, and made
beautiful. His mansion was enriched with the most exquisite works of art
in painting and sculpture, for the gratification of himself and friends;
and while he was ever willing to display these for the pleasure of the
poor, his hand was open to their wants.

The sun was vailed, at its setting, when I arrived at Trenton, **** by
an ominous red vapor that betokened a storm. True to the "sign," the
morning following was lowery, and a chilly east wind made sketching in
the open air any thing but pleasant. I was busy with my pencil until
the rain began to fall at noon. At two o'clock the sun peeped out for
a moment, and smiled so pleasantly (yet deceptively) that I ordered my
horse, and, accompa-

* The distance from Philadelphia to Bordentown is twenty-six miles.

** Philemon Dickinson was a gallant officer of the Revolution. He was a
Whig of the truest dye, and entered the Revolutionary army at the outset
of the contest. Although possessed of an ample fortune, he cheerfully
hazarded it for the good of his country, preferring poverty with
liberty, to wealth with slavery. He was at the head of the Jersey
militia in the battle of Monmouth, where he displayed the greatest
bravery. He was a member of Congress from his state after the
establishment of the present Federal government, and in various civil
and military stations he discharged his duty faithfully. Twelve years
of the latter part of his life were passed in domestic retirement at his
seat near Trenton, where he died on the 4th of February, 1809, at the
age of sixty-eight years.

*** Howe, in the Historical Collections of New Jersey, page 101, records
one or two incidents of this incursion which were related to him by
a person who was a resident there at the time. He said the British
officers dined at the house of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence, who, with his family, was absent at the
time. A young lady, eighteen years old, named Mary Comely, provided
the dinner for them. While they were dining, she was informed that the
soldiers were robbing the houses of her mother and grandmother, on the
opposite side of the street. She went in, and stealthily cut a piece
from the skirt of one of the soldiers' coats. This she handed to the
commander, and by it he detected the thief. By this means the property
of her relations and some neighbors was restored. A Whig, in order
to save his property, slew a sheep, and made a good dinner for the
soldiers; but, before the meal was ready, the bugle sounded for the
troops to form in line. The dinner was partaken of by Colonel Baylor and
his light horse, who arrived toward evening.

**** Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, situated upon the east bank
of the Delaware, at the Falls, thirty miles from Philadelphia. The first
settlements were made by Quakers, on both sides of the river, about
1679. The region in the vicinity of the Falls was called by the
Delaware Indians, Sankhican, a name signifying gun or firelock, from the
circumstance that a tribe of Mohawks, who used guns, occupied that spot.
A purchase of a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Assanpink
was made by Colonel William Trent, of Philadelphia, in 1714, and from
him Trent Town or Trenton derives its name.

[[[M'Conkey's Ferry, where Washington crossed the Delaware.--Long
Bridge.--Capture of Forts Washington and Lee.]]]

{221}nied by the Honorable G. W. Smyth, of Belvidere, started for
M'Conkey's Ferry (now Taylorsville), eight miles above Trenton, the
place where=

```On Christmas day, in seventy-six,

```Our gallant troops, with bayonets fixed,

````To Trenton marched away,"=

and, with Washington, crossed the Delaware, on the memorable night of
that festival.

[Illustration: 9229]

We had ridden scarcely a mile before the rain came pattering down upon
our wagon-top, and when we returned at evening the storm had increased
in violence to that of a drenching summer shower. The road passes along
the bank of the Delaware, and on a bright summer day it must be one
of the pleasantest drives imaginable. There are several beautiful
country-seats on the way, with grounds tastefully laid out and shaded.
Two miles from Trenton is the State Lunatic Asylum, an immense building,
having nine quadrangles, and presenting a front of four hundred and
eighty feet. The feeder for the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the
artificial channel made along the river bank for the production of water
power at Trenton, are crossed and paralleled by the road all the way to
Yardleyville, between which and Taylorsville the great dam constructed
to supply these streams stretches across the Delaware. Taylorsville
is on the Pennsylvania side, at M'Conkey's Ferry. A noble bridge, six
hundred feet long, here spans the river. It is supported by eight piers,
eighteen feet above the water when the stream has its usual depth. The
bridge is of timber, the piers of solid masonry, with an icebreaker
on the upper side. The view here given is from below the bridge on the
Pennsylvania side, looking northeast, and exhibits the Jersey shore
at the precise point where the American army landed, an event which
we shall consider presently. Mr. Taylor, an old resident of the place,
pointed out the spot, on each side of the river, where a log-house stood
at the time. The one on the Pennsylvania side was upon the site of the
_Temperance House_, in Taylorsville; that upon the Jersey shore was
exactly at the end of the bridge.

It was very dark when we reached Trenton in the midst of the storm. With
the feelings of the silly mortal who thought a brook would soon run dry
because the stream was so swift, I hoped for a bright morning because
the rain came down deluge-like. Let us turn from the present and commune
an hour with the past.

Fort Washington, on the east bank of the Hudson, near New York city,
fell into the hands of the enemy on the 16th of November, 1776, and
the garrison of nearly three thousand men became prisoners of war. The
skirmish at White Plains had recently [[October 28, 1776]] occurred, and
Washington, penetrating the design of the enemy to pass into New Jersey
and march to the capture of Philadelphia, had already crossed the Hudson
with the main body of the American army, after securing some positions
on the east bank, between Kingsbridge and the Highlands. He encamped at
Hackensack, in the rear of Fort Lee where General Greene was in command.
Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at Dobbs's Ferry, with six thousand
men, on the 18th, and landing at Closter, a mile and a [[November,
1776]] half from English Neighborhood, proceeded to attack Fort Lee. The
garrison made a hasty retreat, and joined the main army at Hackensack,
five miles distant. All the baggage and military stores at Fort Lee fell
into the hands of the enemy. It was an easy conquest for Cornwallis; and
had he followed up this successful beginning with energy,

[[[Retreat of the Americans across New Jersey.--Decrease of the
Army.--Tardy Movements of General Lee.]]]

{222}there is every probability that he would have captured Washington
and his army. The latter commenced a retreat toward the Delaware when
Cornwallis approached, hoping to be sufficiently re-enforced by the New
Jersey and Pennsylvania militia to be enabled to make a successful stand
against the invaders at some intermediate point. But late reverses had
dispirited the militia, and Washington found his army diminishing at
every step rather than augmenting.

[Illustration: 9230]

By the last of November scarcely three thousand troops remained in the
American army. For three weeks he fled before Cornwallis across the
level districts of New Jersey. Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and
Trenton were successively evacuated by the Americans and occupied by the
enemy. Often the music of the pursued and the pursuers would be heard
by each other, yet no action occurred. Arrived at Trenton on the 8th
of December, Washington and his army crossed the Delaware in boats.
The last one had reached the Pennsylvania shore just as one division of
Cornwallis's army, with all the pomp of victors, marched into Trenton.
This was about twelve o'clock at night. The British commander, with the
main body of the troops, halted within six miles of Trenton.

Washington had hoped to make a stand at New Brunswick, but was
disappointed. The service of the Jersey and Maryland brigades expired on
the day he left that place, and neither of them would remain longer
with the army. General Lee had been left at White Plains in command of
a detachment of the army, consisting of nearly three thousand men.
Washington wrote to him from Hackensack, requesting him to lead his
division into New Jersey immediately to re-enforce his melting army. Lee
did not heed the request, and the commander-in-chief finally sent him
a positive order to that effect. This order was repeated, and yet he
delayed; and so tardy was his march in the rear of the royal army, that
it was three weeks before he reached Morristown. It is evident from
Lee's conduct, and the tenor of his letters at that time, that it was
not so much a spirit of determined disobedience which governed
his actions, as a strong desire to act independent of the
commander-in-chief, and perform some signal service which would redound
to his personal glory. * He was as ambitious as he was impetuous and
brave. He had endeavored, but in vain, to induce General Heath, who was
left in command at Peekskill, to let him have a detachment of one or
two thousand men, with which to operate. Heath refused to vary from his
instructions, and it was well he did. Washington continued to urge Lee
to form a junction with him; yet, as late as the 11th of December,
two days after the passage of the Delaware, a letter written by Lee to
Washington, at Morristown, hinted at various contemplated movements, not
one of which referred to a junction of forces. This was the last letter
Washington received from Lee during his march. Two days afterward, while
pursuing his slow and reluctant progress toward the Delaware, Lee was
taken prisoner. His troops lay at a place called Vealtown, while he
lodged at Basking Ridge, nearly three miles distant, at the inn of a
Mrs. White, now a private dwelling, situated upon rising ground at the
southeast entrance of the village. Colonel Harcourt, at the head of a
scouting party of British cavalry, apprised of the position of General
Lee,2 made a furious charge upon his quarters on

* It was at this time that the close and confidential intimacy which
existed between Washington and Colonel Joseph Reed was disturbed by a
letter from Lee to the latter. It will be remembered that Reed was with
Washington at Cambridge during the siege of Boston, and was the most
confidential friend of the commander-in-chief. On the 21st of November
he wrote a letter to Lee, from Hackensack, in which, pointedly alluding
to Washington, he complained of the indecision of officers, at the
same time complimenting Lee for his opposite quality. This letter was
answered in a tone and spirit little calculated to command the respect
of Washington for either party. Reed had left camp before its arrival,
and, as usual, his letters were opened by the commander-in-chief.
In this way the latter became acquainted with its contents. Free
explanations were made, and mutual confidence was afterward restored,
which continued through life.

** Following the account of Wilkinson, in his Memoirs (who was with Lee
at the time), historians say that a Tory communicated the fact of Lee's
presence at White's Tavern to Colonel Harcourt. There is no positive
evidence that such was the fact; on the contrary, it is asserted, in the
Historical Collections of New Jersey, that one of the compilers of
that work was informed by Colonel J. W. Drake, of Mendham, that the
individual was a Mr. Mackelwraith, an elder of a Presbyterian church,
who was surrounded in the road by Harcourt and his men, pressed into
service, and compelled to show them Lee's quarters. When the assailants
arrived, the guard were sunning themselves on the south side of the
house, and were suddenly separated from their arms; hence the feebleness
of their resistance.

[[[Capture of General Lee.--Longevity of the Captor's Horse.--Biography
of Lee.--His Division commanded by Sullivan.]]]

{223}the morning of the 13th of December, dispersed the guard, and
captured the commander. * Lee had just finished a letter to General
Gates when the dragoons appeared. So sudden was the arrest, and so quick
was the departure, that he was hurried away on horseback, bare-headed,
nothing but slippers on his feet, and a blanket coat on his back, and
conveyed in safety to New York. General Sullivan, who was taken prisoner
at the battle on Long Island, in August previous, had been exchanged,
and was now with Lee's division of the army.

[Illustration: 8231]

On the capture of Lee the command devolved on Sullivan, and he soon
afterward crossed the Delaware and joined Washington.

General Lee was an able and efficient officer, and his loss, at that
time, was very severely felt. The estimation in which the enemy held
his services may be understood by the declaration, "We have taken the
American palladium." His disobedience is indefensible; yet, viewing
subsequent events in their various relations, that very disobedience was
probably instrumental in working out greater good than compliance would

* Mr. James the English novelist, now (1851) residing in this country,
informed a friend of the writer that he possesses a manuscript drawing
of Colonel Harcourt, and of the horse which he rode on that occasion.
The horse lived to the extraordinary age of fifty years.

** Charles Lee was born in Wales in 1731. He was the son of General John
Lee of the British army. He was a commissioned officer in the army of
George II. at a very early age (some say eleven years), and ardently
pursued military knowledge. He acquired many of the Continental
languages. He came to America in 1756, and distinguished himself in
the wars with the French and Indians. He dwelt, for a time, with the
Mohawks, and was made a chief of the tribe, under the name, in
the Mohawk dialect, of Boiling Water. In 1762 he bore a colonel's
commission, and served under Burgoyne in Portugal. After engaging for
a while in political strife in England, he went to the Continent,
and during three years, from 1770, he rambled all over Europe. He was
received with favor by the great, and finally became aid to Poniatowski,
kin" of Poland. For two years he basked in that monarch's favor, and
then went, with the king's embassador, to Turkey. From Constantinople he
went to Paris, and in 1773 again came to America. He became acquainted
with General Gates, and, through his persuasions, purchased a tract of
land in Berkley county, Virginia. Resigning a commission which he held
in the British army, he accepted one from Congress when the Continental
army was organized in the summer of 1775. He accompanied Washington to
Cambridge, and from that period until his capture in December, 1776, he
was engaged in very active service, particularly at the South. In May,
1778, he was exchanged for General Prescott, who was captured on Rhode
Island, and within a month afterward he was engaged in the fierce battle
of Monmouth. In that conflict he was disobedient to the commands of the
chief, and was arrested for his misconduct. His trial resulted in
his suspension, a verdict which gave general satisfaction, for it
was believed that he was aiming at supreme command. The verdict was
confirmed by Congress in 1780, and he left the army. He lived a while at
Berkley, morose and secluded. He finally went to Philadelphia, and
took lodgings in a house now known as the "Slate-roof House," once the
residence of William Penn, where he died, soon afterward, in poverty and
obscurity. His death occurred on the 2d of Oetober, 1782, at the age of
fifty-one. General Lee was a brilliant man in many things, but his life
exhibited a most perfect specimen of antitheses of character. He was bad
in morals and manners, profane in language, and neither feared or loved
God or man. He wrote his will a few days before his death, in which he
bequeathed his soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth, saying,
"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church
or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist
meeting-house; for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so
much bad company when living, that I do not choose to continue it when
dead." His last words on his death-bed were, "Stand by me, my brave
grenadiers!" He was buried in Christ Church-yard, Philadelphia, with
military honors. Quite a large concourse of citizens attended his
funeral. Mrs. Mercy Warren seems to have formed a correct estimate of
Lee's character from her own observations on the occasion of his dining
with herself and husband at Watertown, while the army was at Cambridge.
In a letter to Samuel Adams, she speaks of him as "plain in his person
to a degree of ugliness; careless even to unpoliteness; his garb
ordinary; his voice rough; his manners rather morose; yet sensible,
learned, judicious, and penetrating." Such is the character of Lee which
I received from the lips of Mrs. Hamilton, who expressively called him
"a crabbed man."

[[[The Delaware between Washington and Cornwallis.--Weakness of the
American Army.--Gloomy Aspect of Affairs.]]]

{224}have done. Let us return to the consideration of the movements of
the two armies upon the Delaware.

Washington took the precaution, when he crossed the river, to secure
every boat and bateau, so that Cornwallis had no means for continuing an
immediate pursuit. The latter had intended to cross a portion of troops
early the next morning between M'Conkey's and Coryell's Ferry, for the
purpose of capturing a number of boats which the Americans had collected
on the Pennsylvania side. But these had been taken away, and he had
no alternative but to construct boats, or wait for the freezing of the
Delaware, so that he might pass his troops over on the ice.

Washington had but twenty-two hundred men under his command when
he crossed the river; and two days afterward, in consequence of the
expiration of the term of service of a portion of these, he had but
seventeen hundred--indeed, not more than one thousand on whom he could
rely. The proclamation of General Howe, mentioned on page 308, vol. i.,
[[November 30, 1776]] had been circulated freely in the Jerseys since
the day of its publication, and had produced wide-spread disaffection
to the patriot cause. * New Jersey was now in possession of a victorious
enemy, and nothing but the feeble barrier of the Delaware lay between
Cornwallis and his well-disciplined army, and Philadelphia, the
Federal capital, where Congress was in session. The public treasury was
exhausted, and the Congress bills of credit were beginning to be looked
upon with suspicion and disfavor. Hourly the American army was melting
away, and despondency was brooding over every patriot's mind. Clouds
and darkness were gathering thick on every side. The campaign had been
little else than a series of discomfitures, ** and the inefficient
provisions made by Congress for keeping up an army were manifest to all.
Distrust of Congress and of the army began to prevail in all minds,
and the sun of American liberty seemed about to set amid the clouds of
hopeless despair. Yet Washington was firm and undaunted. His faith in
the ultimate triumph of the Americans seems never to have burned with a
brighter and steadier light than at this dark moment. Although December
frosts were rapidly preparing a bridge over which the enemy might cross
the Delaware and march triumphantly to the conquest of Philadelphia and
all Pennsylvania, yet he was calm, determined, hopeful. When asked
what he would do if Philadelphia should be taken, he replied, "We will
retreat beyond the Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, to
the Alleghany Mountains." While there was a shadow of an army in the
field--while Congress maintained its sittings and unity--while a single
ray of hope for success remained, no thought of abandoning the righteous
cause was harbored in the mind of that great and good man. Already, in
the very darkest hour, he

* Among the prominent men who had espoused the Republican cause at the
commencement and now abandoned it, was Tucker, president of the New
Jersey convention which had sanctioned the Declaration of Independence,
and Joseph Galloway, a member of the first Continental Congress. For ten
days after the issuing of the proclamation, two or three hundred persons
a day came in to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown. Their
disappointment is mentioned on page 308, vol. i.

** Although the Americans had generally suffered defeat, yet, from a
summary of prisoners taken by each party, during 1776, given in Sparks's
Life and Writings of Washington (iv., 547), the Americans were quite
successful in making captures. The number of American prisoners taken
by the British was 4854; the number of British taken by the Americans,
2860; making a difference in favor of the enemy of 1994. In this
statement is not included the 431 Americans captured at the Cedars, but
includes the Hessians taken at Trenton. The number of American officers
taken was 304--staff 25; privates, 4101: total, 4430. In addition to
men, the Americans lost, according to Gordon (ii., 131), 12 mortars
and cannons of brass, and 235 of iron; 23,979 empty shells, and 17,122
filled; 2684 double-headed shot; a large quantity of grape-shot; 2800
muskets; 400,000 cartridges; 16 barrels of powder; a quantity of bar
iron; 500 intrenching tools; 4 covered wagons; 200 hand-barrows, carts,
crows, mantelets, chevaux-de-frize, &c.; 4000 barrels of flour, at
Forts Washington and Lee; baggage, tents, and a large quantity of other
stores.

[[[Putnam in Command at Philadelphia.--Reorganization of the
Army.--Adjournment of Congress to Baltimore.--The Quakers.]]]

{225}had conceived the masterly stroke of military skill which presently
brought forth such a radiant spark of hope and joy upon the frozen banks
of the Delaware. *

After passing the Delaware, the salvation of Philadelphia became the
object of Washington's greatest solicitude. He dispatched General Putnam
thither, who, with General Mifflin, commenced the erection of defenses
at different points around the city. Congress, now alive to the
necessity for the most energetic action, put forth all its powers. It
resolved to defend Philadelphia to the last extremity. A stirring appeal
to the people was adopted and sent forth, and a thorough organization
of the army was begun, in accordance [[December 11, 1776]] with a plan
matured by Washington and a committee of Congress, while the American
army was upon Harlem Heights, a few months previous. According to this
plan, all the hitherto scattered Continental forces were to be embraced
in one grand army, consisting of eighty battalions of seven hundred and
fifty men each, to be raised in the several states. Massachusetts and
Virginia were each to furnish fifteen battalions; Pennsylvania, twelve;
North Carolina, nine; Connecticut, eight; South Carolina, six; New York
and New Jersey, four each; New Hampshire and Maryland, three each; Rhode
Island, two, and Georgia, one. As an inducement for men to enlist and
supply the places of those whose term of service was about expiring,
liberal bounties were offered. ** A loan of five millions of dollars at
four per cent, interest was authorized.

On the 12th of December, Congress invested General Putnam with almost
unlimited power in Philadelphia, placing under his control all the
munitions of war in the city, and also authorizing him to employ all the
private armed vessels in that harbor for the defense of the place. On
the same day, under the advice of Putnam and Mifflin, Congress resolved
to retire to Baltimore, because Philadelphia, now being made the seat of
war, could not furnish that quiet so necessary to wise and dispassionate
legislation. *** A committee of three, consisting of Robert Morris,
George Clymer, and George Walton, was appointed to remain in
Philadelphia, to act in behalf of Congress, during its absence. That
body, pursuant to adjournment, reassembled in Baltimore on the 20th. The
Whigs in Philadelphia were in great consternation when Congress
left. They feared the Loyalists in their midst quite as much as the
approaching enemy. On the departure of Congress, the active Loyalists
assumed a bold tone; and General Putnam, who was sent thither to fortify
the city, was in daily expectation of an insurrection in favor of the
royal cause. Nearly the whole body of Quakers, though passive, belonged
to that party.

* In a letter to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, written on the 14th
of December, six days after he crossed the Delaware, he said, alluding
to the approach of Gates with a considerable force, "They may, in
conjunction with my present force and that under General Lee, enable us
to attempt a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lie a good deal
scattered, and to all appearanee in a state of security. A lucky blow in
this quarter would be fatal to them, and would most certainly rouse
the spirits of the people, which are quite sunk by our late
misfortunes."--Writings of Washington, iv., 220, 221. General Greene,
to whom Washington communicated his plans, wrote to Governor Cooke, of
Rhode Island, on the 21st, "We are now on the west side of the Delaware.
Our force is small when collected together; but, small as it is, I hope
we shall give the enemy a stroke in a few days. Should fortune favor
the attack, it may put a stop to General Howe's progress." Colonel
Reed wrote to Washington on the 21st, "Will it not be possible, my
dear general, for your troops, or such part of them as can act
with advantage, to make a diversion, or something more, at or about
Trenton?"--Ibid., 542, 543.

** Each soldier was to have a bounty of twenty dollars, besides an
allotment of land, at the end of the war, to all who survived, or to
the families of those who should fall in the service. The allotment of
a common soldier was to be one hundred acres; of an ensign, one hundred
and fifty; of a lieutenant, two hundred; a captain, three hundred; a
major, four hundred; a lieutenant colonel, four hundred and fifty; and
a colonel, five hundred. This allotment was to be extended only to those
who enlisted "during the war."

*** A rumor having gone abroad that Congress was about to disperse, that
body resolved that Washington should be desired to contradict "the false
and malicious report spread by the enemies of America," in his general
orders. The commander-in-chief, in a letter to the President of Congress
from Trenton Falls, written on the 12th, wisely declined publishing such
refutation, and gave good reasons for his course. It was a fortunate
circumstance," says Sparks (Washington, iv., 210), "that General
Washington did not publish this resolve to the army, for, the next day
after it was passed, Congress actually adjourned from Philadelphia,
to assemble again in Baltimore." The resolution was transmitted to
Washington by the secretary of Congress, but it does not appear among
the published proceedings of that body.

[[[Howe's Plans.--Injudicious Disposition of the British
Troops.--Augmentation of Washington's Forces.]]]

{226}In the mean while, Washington was preparing to strike the enemy.
General Howe, the commander-in-chief of the British forces, remained in
New York, and the operations in New Jersey were under the control and
direction of Lord Cornwallis. It appears from Howe's dispatches * that
he did not contemplate pursuing the Americans further than the Delaware,
but designed sending a strong force up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne, who
was to penetrate the country from Canada. Cornwallis urged the capture
of Philadelphia as a paramount measure, and Howe consented. Yet, with
all his vigilance and skill, the arrangement of the British army in
the Jerseys was not creditable to the sagacity of Cornwallis. It was
scattered in detachments along an extended line. A body of Hessians,
under Colonel Hall, was stationed at Trenton, and another, under Count
Donop, was posted at Bordentown.

The English troops were divided into a chain of cantonments, extending
from New Brunswick to the Delaware, and down that river to a point below
Burlington. Small detachments were also stationed at Black Horse and
Mount Holly. Cornwallis looked with such contempt upon the weak and
scattered forces of Washington, and was so certain of an easy victory
beyond the Delaware, where, rumor informed him, the people were almost
unanimous in favor of the king, that he did not regard great vigilance
as necessary. He had returned to head-quarters at New York; and so
confident were the British generals that the contest would be ended by
taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis had prepared to sail
for England on leave of absence. ** His military stores were chiefly at
New Brunswick, and there was his strongest detachment.

Lee's division, under Sullivan, and the regiments from Ticonderoga,
united with Washington on the 21 st. The increased pay of officers,
the proffered bounties to the[[December, 1776]] soldiers, and the great
personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the effect to retain
in the service, for a few weeks at least, more than one half of the
old soldiers. The militia of Pennsylvania turned out with considerable
alacrity; and on the 24th, between five and six thousand Americans were
gathered around the standard of Washington. *** The commander-in-chief's
head-quarters were at Newtown, a little village on a small branch of the
Nesharning, two miles northeast from Bristol. ****

There were about fifteen hundred Hesssians and a troop of British light
horse at Trenton; these Washington determined to surprise. The posts
at Mount Holly, Burlington, Black Horse, and Bordentown were to be
attacked, at the same time, by the Pennsylvania militia, under Generals
Cadwallader (v) and Ewing, the former to cross near Bristol, the latter
below Trenton Falls; while Washington, leading the main body of the
Continental troops in person, assisted by Generals Sullivan and Greene,
and Colonel Knox of the ar-

* Parliamentary Register, xi., p. 260, 362.

** Ramsay says that Colonel Rail, being under some apprehension for the
safety of Trenton, applied to General Grant for a re-enforcement. That
officer, partaking of the confidence of others, said to the messenger,
"Tell the colonel he is very safe. I will undertake to keep the peace in
New Jersey with a corporal's guard."

*** By the adjutant's return on the 22d of December, the army of
Washington amounted to ten thousand one hundred and six men. Of this
number, five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine were sick, on
command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four
thousand seven hundred and seven. To these must be added the effective
men of Lee's division and the Pennsylvania militia.

**** Washington occupied the house now (1848) owned by Dr. Lee, on the
west side of the creek; General Greene was at the large brick house, now
Hough's Hotel; and General Mercer was at Mr. Keith's, a little out
of the town. It is related that on the morning of the day when the
Americans marched to M'Conkey's Ferry, General Mercer told Mrs. Keith
that he dreamed, the previous night, that he had been attacked and
overpowered by a huge black bear. Mercer was killed by the British and
Hessians at Princeton a few days afterward, and those who knew of his
dream superstitiously regarded it, as a premonition of his fate.

* (v) John Cadwallader was a native of Philadelphia. He was a member
of the Pennsylvania Convention in 1775. He entered the army, and was
appointed brigadier by Congress in February, 1777. He participated
in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He
fought a duel with General Conway, the quarrel which led to it growing
out of the intrigue of that officer with Gates and others against
Washington. Conway was badly, but not mortally wounded. Cadwallader
removed to Maryland after the war, and became a member of its State
Legislature. He died on the 10th of February, 1786, aged forty-three
years. He was a gentleman of large fortune, and dispensed its blessings
with a liberal hand. He has many descendants in Philadelphia and
vicinity.

[[[Successful Diversion, by Putnam, in favor of Washington.--The
American Army cross the Delaware on Christmas Night.]]]

{227}tillery, was to cross the Delaware at M'Conkey's Ferry, and march
down upon the enemy at Trenton. The river yet remained quite free from
ice, and every thing seemed auspicious. Unknown to General Washington,
Putnam, who had been made acquainted with the design of attacking
Trenton, sent Colonel Griffin, with a body of four hundred and fifty
militia, across from Philadelphia into New Jersey, to make a diversion
in favor of the Trenton expedition. Griffin was instructed to proceed
to Mount Holly, for the purpose of attracting the attention of Colonel
Donop at Bordentown. He was ordered not to fight, but to retreat down
the river when the enemy should appear. This movement had the desired
effect. Donop, who should have been near enough to support Colonel Rall,
* moved against Griffin with his whole force of two thousand men; and so
dilatory was he in his marches after the retreat of the Americans, that
it was two days before he returned to his post. **

Christmas night was selected by Washington for the execution of the
enterprise. He well knew the German habit of celebrating that day with
feasting and drinking, and reasoned wisely on the probability of a large
portion of the Hessians being half disabled by intemperate indulgence.

The division with which Washington was to cross the Delaware consisted
of two thousand four hundred men, with twenty pieces of artillery.
At dusk they paraded [[December 25, 1776]] at M'Conkey's Ferry (now
Taylorsville), expecting to reach Trenton by midnight. The cold weather
of the twenty-four hours preceding put serious obstacles in the way. The
river was so full of floating ice that at first it was doubtful whether
a crossing could be effected at all. A storm of sleet and snow had
just commenced, and the night became excessively dark and dreary. The
perilous voyage began early in the evening, in boats and bateaux, but
it was nearly four o'clock in the morning before the little army was
mustered on the Jersey shore. *** Washington there separated his troops
into two divisions, one to march by the lower, or river road, the
other by the upper, or Pennington road. The distance to Trenton by each
highway was about equal. The commander-in-chief ordered both divisions,
immediately on forcing the out-guards, to push directly into the town,
that they might charge the enemy before they had time to form. To
surprise them before daylight was out of the question; sudden movements
and physical force must supply the place of strategy. Washington,
accompanied by Generals Lord Stirling, Greene, Mercer, and Stevens,
commanded the division on the upper road; Sullivan led that upon the
river road. Both divisions marched so silently that they were
not discovered by the enemy until within a short distance of the
picket-guards on the outskirts of the village. Each encountered the
out-guards at the same time, and a brisk skirmish ensued; the pickets
of the enemy firing from behind houses while retreating to the main body
into the town, closely pursued by the Americans. The Hessian drums beat
to arms, and in a few moments the disordered ranks were marshaled into
battle order by the brave Colonel Rall. Part of Washington's division
pushed down King (now Warren) Street, and a part down Queen (now
Greene) Street. Sullivan's division entered by the mansions of Colonels
Dickinson and Rutherford, through Second and Front Streets. By this
disposition of the patriot forces at the time of the attack, the enemy
were hemmed in by the Assanpink, or Assumpink (a considerable stream
running through the town), on the south, and the invading troops. At
the head of King Street, Captain Forest opened a six-gun battery, which
commanded the avenue. Captain William A. Washington, and Lieutenant
James Monroe, **** perceiving that the enemy were

* The name of this officer is spelled, by different writers, Rohl,
Ralle, Roll, Rhalle, Rhal, Rahl, Rawle, Rall.

** Gordon, ii., 152. Stedman, i., 231.

*** Among the most prominent and active men engaged in ferrying the
army, tradition has preserved the names of Uriah Slack, William Green,
and David Laning.

**** Captain Washington was afterward greatly distinguished as colonel
of a corps of cavalry in the campaigns of the South. James Monroe was
afterward President of the United States. Both officers were slightly
wounded while performing this exploit.

[[[The Battle in Trenton.--Colonel Rail mortally Wounded.--Capture of
the Hessians.]]]

{228}endeavoring to form a battery in the same street, near where the
canal feeder now crosses the way, rushed forward with a small party,
drove the artillery-men from their guns, and captured two of the pieces
just as the gunners were about to fire.

[Illustration: 9236]

These were the first decided movements of the belligerents at the moment
of surprise.

When Colonel Rhall had formed his men for action, he attempted to
advance and repel his assailants; but, being completely hemmed in, and
his troops panic-stricken, all was confusion.

[Illustration: 8236]

The Americans were pressing closer and closer, and with deadly aim were
thinning the Hessian ranks. At length a bullet mortally wounded Colonel
Rhall, and he fell from his horse, pale and bleeding. His aids and
servant bore him to his quarters at the house of a Quaker named Stacey
Potts, while Lieutenant-colonel Scheffer, his next in command, took his
place at the head of the troops. But all order was at an end. Seeing
their commander fall, the Hessians fled in dismay, the main body
attempting to escape by the road to Princeton. Their retreat was cut off
by Colonel Hand, with a body of Pennsylvania riflemen. The fugitives,
ignorant of the smallness of the force that stood in their way, and
having the enthusiasm of only the mercenary soldier, threw down their
arms and implored mercy. * The light horse and some infantry, in all
about six hundred, fled, at the first alarm, to Bordentown. These would
have fallen into Washington's hands, had not the

* Explanation of the plan.--This map shows the country around Trenton,
and the military operations there at the close of 1776 and commencement
of 1777. h shows the position of Hand's rifle corps on the 26th of
December, where they stopped the retreat of the Hessians; i, the
Virginia troops; k, the Hessians; wi, m, m, skirmishes, January 2d; n,
a, Cornwallis, January 3d.

** The warmest of the conflict took place near the junction of Warren
and Perry Streets, and the Presbyterian church in Second Street. The
enemy laid down their arms on the field between the Presbyterian church
and Park Place, then called the Old Iron-works.

*** This is a frame building standing upon Warren Street, opposite
Perry, near the corner of Bank Alley. The buildings on the left are also
of ante-Revolutionary origin. This house was a tavern at the time,
kept by Stacey Potts, the grandfather of Stacey G. and Joseph C. Potts,
Esqrs., of Trenton. In a pane of glass, in the front window on the left
of the front door, lower story, may be seen a hole made by a bullet,
shot during the battle. Colonel Rall died in the front room in the
second story, immediately over this window. It is related that
a daughter of Mr. Potts, who was at a neighbor's when the firing
commenced, was running toward her father's house, when a musket-ball
struck her comb from her head and slightly injured her scalp.

[[[Complete Victory of the Americans.--Washington's Visit to the dying
Rall.--Parole of Honor signed by the Hessian Officers.]]]

{229}ice and high wind prevented General James Ewing * from crossing the
Delaware at Trenton as previously arranged. The troops at Bordentown,
under Donop, might also have been captured if Cadwallader could have
crossed, with his force, at Bristol. He succeeded in landing a battalion
of infantry, but the ice on the margin of the river was in such a
condition that it was impossible to get the artillery across. The
infantry were ordered back, and the design was abandoned.

The victory of the Americans at Trenton was complete. They lost in the
engagement only two privates killed, and two others who were frozen to
death. The enemy lost six officers and between twenty and thirty men
killed, and twenty-three officers and eight hundred and eighty-six
non-commissioned officers and privates made prisoners. In addition to
these, many others were found concealed in houses and secured, making
the whole number of prisoners about one thousand. The trophies were six
brass field-pieces, a thousand stand of arms, twelve drums, and four
colors. Among the latter was the splendid flag of the Anspachers. **

As the enemy were in the vicinity in greatly superior numbers and
appointments, Washington thought it prudent to recross the Delaware,
with his prisoners and spoils, into Pennsylvania. At evening they all
marched to M'Conkey's Ferry, and reached the place of the American
encampment on the other side before midnight of the day of victory. ***
Just before leaving Trenton, Washington and Greene visited the dying
Hessian commander at his quarters, and, with a heart overflowing with
generous emotions in that hour of splendid triumph, the American
chief offered the brave Rall those consolations which a soldier and a
Christian can bestow. This kindness and attention from his conqueror
soothed the agonies of the expiring hero. The remembrance of the deed
seems to play like an electric spark around the pen of the historian
while recording it.

Well-attested tradition says that Colonel Rall and his troops were, as
Washington supposed they would be, yet under the influence of a night's
carousal after the Christmas holiday. On the morning of the battle, Rall
was at the house of Abraham Hunt, who _traded_ with friend and foe. Hunt
was sometimes suspected of being a Tory, but never of being a

* The name of this officer is variously given. Washington in his
dispatch to the President of Congress, wrote it Ewing; Marshall, in his
Life of Washington, spells it Irvine; Wilkinson, In his Memoirs, has it
Irvin; Botta, Irvin; and Gordon, Erwing. Ewing is the correct name. He
was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1736. He commenced his
military career under Braddock in 1755, and was with that general when
he was slain. He was a brigadier general of the Pennsylvania militia at
the commencement of the Revolution, but did not enter the regular army.
He was vice-president of the commonwealth, under President Dickinson, in
1782, and was several times member of the State Legislature. He died at
his country-seat, in Hellam township in March, 1806, aged seventy years.

** The regiments which surrendered were those of Anspach, Knyphausen,
and Rall. The flag here alluded to is in the possession of George
Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia, who has
deposited it, with the flag surrendered at Yorktown, and other relics,
in the museum at Alexandria, Virginia. Drawings, with descriptions of
these flags, will be found in another part of this work.

*** At the head-quarters of Washington, at Newtown, the captive Hessian
officers signed the following parole of honor. I copied it, with the
accompanying signatures, from the original among Gates's papers, in the
collections of the New York Historical Society.

*** "We, the Subscribers, Hessian Officers, made Prisoners of War by the
American Army, under Command of his Excellency, General Washington,
at Trenton, on the 26th inst., being allowed Our Liberty, under such
Restrictions as to place as may be from time to time appointed, do give
Our parole of Honour, that we will remain at the place, and within the
limits appointed for us by his Excellency the General, the Honorable
Congress, Council of Safety, or Commissary of Prisoners of War,
Peaceably behaving ourselves, and by no way Send or give Intelligence to
the British or Hessian Army, or speak or do any thing disrespectful or
Injurious to the American States while we remain Prisoners of War.

[[[Colonel Rail's fatal Carousal.--Names and Signatures of the Hessian
Officers attached to the Parole.]]]

{230}true Whig. He had invited Colonel Rhall and others to a Christmas
supper at his house. Cards were introduced, and play continued
throughout the night, accompanied with wine-drinking.

[Illustration: 0238]

A negro servant was kept as a sort of porter and warden at the door.
Just at dawn, a messenger came in haste with a note to Colonel Rall,
sent by a Tory on the Pennington road, who had discovered the approach
of the Americans. The negro refused admittance to the messenger, saying,
"The gemmen can't be disturbed." The bearer knew the importance of the
note, and, handing it to the negro, ordered him to carry it immediately
to Colonel Rail. Excited by wine, and about to "deal," the colonel
thrust the note into his pocket. Like the Theban polemarch, who, in
the midst of a convivial party, on receiving dispatches relative to a
conspiracy, refused to open them, saying, "Business to-morrow," Rall did
not look at the message, but continued his amusement. Soon afterward,
the roll of the American drums fell upon his drowsy ear. The rattle of
musketry, the rumble of heavy gun-carriages, and the tramp of horses
aroused his apprehensions, and by the time he could fly to his quarters
and mount his horse, the Americans were driving his soldiers before them
like chaff.' "Business to-day--pleasure to-morrow," is the motto of all
vigilance and thrift.

"We will also restrain our Servants and Attendants who are allowed to
remain with us, as far as in our power, to the same Conditions.

"Newtown, December 30th, 1776."

* Stedman (a British officer) says that the Hessians felt themselves so
secure at Trenton that they neglected almost every service necessary
for security. "When Rhalle," he says, "endeavored to collect his troops,
many of his men were absent on pillaging parties; and those who were on
the spot were more busily employed in securing their plunder in wagons
than in putting the town in a proper state of defense."--History of the
American War, i., 332.

[[[Retreat of the Enemy from Bordentown.--Their Line of Posts broken
up.--Good Effect of the Victory at Trenton.]]]

{231}When the British and Hessians at Bordentown heard of the disaster
at Trenton, most of them retreated to Princeton, while a few fled toward
South Amboy and Brunswick.

[Illustration: 0239]

* This is a copy, by permission, of a picture by Flagg, the possession
of Joseph C. Potts. Esq., of Trenton. On the left is seen Generals
Washington and Greene; in the center is Mrs. Potts, and near her stands
her husband. On the left Colonel Rall reclines upon a couch, and behind
him, supporting his pillow, is his servant. I was informed that the
portrait of Rall was painted from a description given by a person who
knew him, and who pronounced the likeness good, as he remembered him.
Generals Cadwallader and Mifflin crossed over into New Jersey, with a
considerable force, and the whole line of the enemy's cantonments along
the Delaware was broken up and driven into the interior. This bold
stroke, resulting in brilliant success, was the hinge upon which the
cause of the Americans seemed to turn. The English, who had regarded the
patriots with contempt, and believed their power to be utterly broken,
were overwhelmed with astonishment. The Tories and pliant Whigs, lately
so exultant and loyal, were greatly alarmed and silent; while the
friends of liberty, rising from the depths of despondency, stood erect
in the pride and strength of their principles, and confident of ultimate
complete success. The prestige of the Hessian name was broken, and
the terror which they inspired, as foes invincible, passed away. The
faltering militia flocked with eagerness to the standard of Washington;
and many of the soldiers of the campaign, who were about to leave the
army with disgust, joyfully enlisted. Cornwallis, who was on the eve of
departure for England, believing the rebellion virtually at an end, was
ordered back to New Jersey. General Grant, who was with the main army
at New Brunswick, advanced to Princeton, and the British forces in
the Jerseys were as much concentrated in the direction of Trenton as
circumstances would allow. While Washington was achieving the victory
at Trenton, the Continental Congress, sitting in Baltimore, were taking
measures to strengthen his hands. The extreme jealousy of a military
ascendency, which had hitherto restrained the majority in Congress from
giving the commander-in-chief such ample powers as necessity manifestly
demanded, now yielded Washington made a military Dictator. He Re-crosses
the Delaware to Occupy Trenton. Efficient Aid by Robert Morris.

{232}to expediency, and, by a resolution adopted on the 27th of
December, before they could [[1776]]possibly have heard of the affair
at Trenton, they constituted Washington, in all respects, a Dictator, in
the old Roman sense of the term. *

Inspirited by his success at Trenton, the panic of the enemy, and their
retirement from the Delaware; his army strengthened by new recruits
and the junction of the militia who had guarded the#lower posts on the
river, Washington determined to recross the Delaware and occupy Trenton,
and then make such offensive movements against the British as prudence
[[December, 1776]] should dictate. This he accomplished on the 30th. The
term of service of a large portion of the Eastern militia was now about
expiring. He prevailed on them to remain six weeks longer, by promising
to each soldier a bounty of ten dollars. The military chest was not in
a condition to permit him to fulfill his promise, and he wrote to Robert
Morris, the great patriot financier of the Revolution, for aid, pleading
the urgent necessity of the case. It was necessary to have hard money,
and the sum was large. The requirement seemed almost impossible to
meet. Government credit was low, but confidence in Robert Morris was
unbounded. In a desponding spirit, unusual for him, Morris left his
counting-room at a late hour, musing upon the probabilities of meeting
the demand. On his way he met a wealthy Quaker, and made known his
wants. "Robert, what security canst thou give?" asked the Quaker. "My
note, and my honor," promptly replied Morris. "Thou shalt have it," was
the answer; and the next morning Robert Morris wrote to Washington, "I
was up early this morning to dispatch a supply of fifty thousand dollars
to your excellency. It gives me great pleasure that you have engaged
the troops to continue; and if further occasional supplies of money are
necessary, you may depend on my exertions either in a public or private
capacity." *** Washington, on reaching Trenton, and advised [[January 2,
1777]] of the approach of Cornwallis with a strong force from Princeton,
encamped on the south side of the Assanpink (now in South Trenton), upon
the high ground extending eastward from a small bridge that spanned
the stream. He took this position in order to place the stream between
himself and the advancing enemy. The American force, one half of which
was composed of undisciplined militia, was only about five thousand
strong; while that of the enemy was equally large, composed almost
exclusively of British regulars,

* The following is the preamble and resolution: "This Congress, having
maturely considered the present crisis, and having perfect reliance
on the wisdom, vigor, and uprightness of General Washington, do hereby
"Resolve. That General Washington shall be, and he is hereby, vested
with full, ample, and complete powers to raise and collect together, in
the most speedy and effectual manner, from any or all of these United
States, sixteen battalions of infantry, in addition to those already
voted by Congress; to appoint officers for the said battalions of
infantry; to raise, officer, and equip three thousand light horse, three
regiments of artillery, and a corps of engineers, and to establish their
pay; to apply to any of the states for such aid of the militia as he
shall judge necessary; to form such magazines, and in such places, as he
shall think proper; to displace and appoint all officers under the
rank of brigadier general, and to fill up all vacancies in every other
department in the American army; to take, wherever he may be, whatever
he may want for the use of the army, if the inhabitants will not sell
it, allowing a reasonable price for the same; to arrest and confine
persons who refuse to take the Continental currency, or are otherwise
disaffected to the American cause, and return to the states of which
they are citizens their names, and the nature of their offenses,
together with the witnesses to prove them. "That the foregoing powers be
vested in General Washington for and during the term of six months from
the date hereof, unless sooner determined by Congress."--Journals of
Congress, ii., 475. This resolve was transmitted to Washington by
the committee of Congress who remained in Philadelphia when that body
adjourned to Baltimore. "Happy is it for this country," they wrote to
Washington, "that the general of their forces can safely be intrusted
with the most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty,
nor property be in the least degree endangered thereby."---MS. letter,
Dec. 31s£, 1776, quoted by Sparks, iv., 552. When Congress adjourned, on
the 12th, they gave Washington equal powers, but did not define them.

** Morris had sent Washington a small sum of money two days before, and
these transactions are doubtless those alluded to by the writer of
the life of Robert Morris, in the fifth volume of the Biography of the
Signers of the Declaration of Independence, who erroneously says, that
"it (the money) enabled General Washington to gain the signal victory
over the hireling Hessians at Trenton," &e. The sum sent on the 28th
of December was 410 Spanish dollars, two English crowns, half a French
erown, and ten and a half English shillings.

[[[Approach of Cornwallis toward Trenton.--Battles at Trenton Bridge and
the Ford.--The Americans in Peril.]]]

{233}thoroughly disciplined. Washington sent out strong parties, under
General Greene, to harass the enemy on their march, and it was almost
sunset before Cornwallis reached Trenton.

[Illustration: 9241]

The Americans retreated before him, and it was with difficulty that
they passed over the bridge to the main army. * The bridge, and the
ford above, where the rail-way now crosses, were strongly guarded by
artillery. Cornwallis drew up his army in solid column, and, marching
down Queen (now Greene) Street, attempted to force the bridge, but was
three times repulsed by the American cannon. A strong detachment also
attempted to cross the ford, and get in the rear of the patriots;
but they, too, were forced back by the vigorous action of cannon and
small-arms. The Americans kept up a heavy cannonade until dark, when
the British fell back in confusion, having lost many men. ** At each
repulse, the Americans raised a loud shout along their lines; and at
last, Cornwallis, believing their force to be much greater than it
really was, ceased hostilities, lighted his camp-fires, and awaited the
morning for further movements.

Washington and his army were now in a most critical situation. It was
evident that a general engagement must take place the next day, and,
in such a conflict, the result in favor of the enemy could hardly be
considered doubtful. The commander-in-chief, as usual, called a council
of war. The alternative first proposed was a retreat down the Delaware
and a passage across the river at Philadelphia, or a battle on the spot.
Both were considered extremely hazardous. Washington then proposed
a stealthy withdrawal from the Assanpink, and a circuitous march to
Princeton, to get in the enemy's rear, beat up his quarters at that
place, and, if circumstances should be favorable, to fall upon his
stores at New Brunswick. This proposition was approved; but the ground,
on account of a thaw, was too soft to permit an easy transit of their
forty pieces of cannon. This was a serious difficulty. While the
council was in session, the wind changed to the northwest, and became
so exceedingly cold that within two hours the ground was as hard as a
pavement: the great difficulty was overcome by a power mightier than
that of man. The favorable moment was speedily improved. Along the front
of his army Washington lighted numerous camp-fires, made of the
fences in the neighborhood. These were evidence to the enemy that
his antagonist was encamped for the night; and Cornwallis assured Sir
William Erskine, who urged him to make an attack that evening, that he
would certainly "catch the fox [meaning Washing-

* See a notice of Mr. Howland, of Providence, in connection with this
event, on page 63.

** I have not met with any official account of the number killed on this
occasion. A writer in the Connecticut Journal of January 22, 1777, says
the enemy were "obliged to retreat and give over the attempt, after
suffering great loss, supposed at least 150 killed." In a minute account
by an eye-witness, published in the Princeton Whig of November 4, 1842,
the writer says "the creek was nearly filled with their dead."

*** This view is from the north side of the Assanpink, a few rods above
the bridge, looking south. The bridge, seen upon the right, is built of
stone, and very strong, and is upon the site of the old one. The creek
is curbed by a dam near the bridge, and forms the sheet of water seen
in the picture. The old "Stacey Mill" of the Revolution, the largest
building in the sketch, was quite dilapidated from the effects of fire
and flood, when I was there. The two old houses on the left of it are of
stone, covered with stucco, and were there at the time in question. On
the bank, between them and the house of Mr. Timothy Abbott, seen on the
extreme left, was a building used as a tavern, in the Revolution. It was
demolished a few years ago. Along the high bank, from the mill eastward
to the rail-way, now covered with houses and gardens, and also westward,
some distance toward the Delaware, the Americans were encamped. The
bank was being terraced when I visited Trenton, and will, in time, be a
beautiful spot.

[[[Cornwallis Out-generaled.--March of the Americans toward
Princeton.--Their Approach discovered by the Enemy.]]]

{234}ton] in the morning." Great was his astonishment and alarm at dawn
to find the patriot camp-fires still burning, but not a man, nor hoof,
nor tent, nor cannon there. All was silent and dreary on the south
side of the Assanpink; and no man of the British army knew whither
the Americans had fled, until the din of battle in the direction of
Princeton came faintly upon the keen morning air at sunrise.

[Illustration: 9242]

Cornwallis heard the booming of cannon, and, although mid-winter, he
thought it was the rumbling of distant thunder. The quick ear of Erskine
decided otherwise, and he exclaimed, "To arms, general! Washington has
out-_generaled_ us. Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton!"

At one o'clock in the morning Washington had silently withdrawn his army
from Trenton, and made his way, along a new road, * toward Princeton,
ten miles distant. This circuitous route was taken to avoid a detachment
of the enemy lying at Maidenhead, on the direct road to Princeton. The
baggage was sent down to Burlington. The commander-in-chief ordered his
camp-fires to be kept burning, and the patrols to march their accustomed
rounds until near daylight, when those who fed the flames, and also the
patrols, were directed to retreat hastily to the main body. The movement
was made with great skill and order, for the pickets of both armies on
the Assanpink were within speaking distance of each other when the fires
were lighted and the guards set.

Proceeding by the way of Sandtown (see map on page 228), Washington
reached the upper bridge over Stony Brook, near Princeton, a little
before sunrise, and arranged his column near the Quaker meeting-house.
A brigade of the enemy, under Lieutenant-colonel Mawhood, consisting of
the seventeenth, fortieth, and fifty-fifth regiments, with three troops
of dragoons, had quartered in Princeton the previous night; and at the
moment of Washington's arrival, two of the regiments had commenced
their march for Trenton, to re-enforce Cornwallis. The main body of
the Americans, after crossing Stony Brook, wheeled to the right, and
advanced cautiously along a by-road, through low grounds, directly for
Princeton. General Mercer, having under him Captains Stone, Fleming,
Neal and others, with about three hundred and fifty men, many of them
youths belonging to the first families in Philadelphia, was detached to
take possession of the lower bridge at Worth's Mill, on the old highway
to Trenton. This movement had a three-fold object; the securing of the
bridge, the interception of fugitives from Princeton, and the checking
of any retrograde movement of the rear of Cornwallis's army.

It was an exceedingly clear, cold, and brilliant morning; every thing
was jeweled with the hoar frost. As the Americans emerged from behind
a piece of woods a little south of the Quaker meeting-house, their arms
glittering in the bright sun, they were discovered by the seventeenth
regiment of the enemy, then under march upon a hill (now Millett's) on
the old Trenton road. Washington observed the enemy at the same moment,
and both commanders prepared for an encounter. Mawhood wheeled both his
regiments and recrossed the bridge, just as Mercer, by a quick movement,
reached it. Both parties, by rapid evo-

* The venerable Mr. Howland, of Rhode Island, already mentioned, who was
with the army in this retreat, informed me that their progress was very
much retarded by the stumps of trees in this new road. Many were bruised
by stumbling over them, and some of the wheels of the baggage-trains
were broken. This is known as the Quaker Road. But for this necessary
slowness of march, the Americans would have reached Princeton before
dawn, and very probably been able to push on and capture the British
stores at New Brunswick.

** This aneient stone building (1 on the map of the Princeton battle,
page 235) is yet standing, and used by the Quakers as a place of
worship. This sketch is from the yard in front, looking north. The
woods behind which the Americans marched, after crossing the bridge, yet
remain; and Stony Brook, made subservient to the wants of the Delaware
and Raritan Canal, as a feeder, is but little changed since its music
was mingled with the din of battle.

[[[First Skirmish near Princeton.--Effect of British
Bayonets.--Dispersion of the Americans.--Washington on the Field.]]]

{235}lutions, endeavored to get possession of the high ground on the
right, toward Princeton, and westward of the house of William Clark.
Mercer, with his troops, soon reached the house and orchards of Clark,
a little eastward of the present turnpike, when, perceiving the British
line approaching from the opposite side of the height, he pushed through
the orchard to a hedge fence, from behind which his riflemen discharged
a deadly volley.

[Illustration: 8243]

It was quickly returned by the enemy, who instantly charged. The
Americans were armed only with rifles, and could not withstand the
furious attack of British bayonets.

After the third fire, they abandoned the fence, broke, and fled in
disorder. The enemy pursued the flying patriots until they came to
the brow of the slope, near Clark's, when, for the first time, they
discovered the American column of regulars, and the Pennsylvania
militia, commanded by Washington in person, advancing to the support
of Mercer. The flying Americans were checked and speedily arranged in
battle order. Captain Moulder's artillery formed in battery on the right
of Thomas Clark's house, about a quarter of a mile south of the scene
of the first conflict. Mawhood discovered the commanding form of
Washington passing from column to column, and bringing order out of
confusion. He immediately ceased pursuit, and, drawing up his artillery,
attempted to charge and take Moulder's battery. The effort was
vain. Being dreadfully galled by the grape-shot of the patriots, and
perceiving Hitchcock's and another Continental regiment advancing from
behind the American column, Mawhood wheeled, and retreated toward the
high ground in the rear, leaving his artillery upon the field. These the
Americans were unable to carry off, on account of a want of horses. The
action con-

* Note.--This plan of the battle of Princeton I copied from a large
drawing in the library of Princeton College, made from surveys by
Professor Albert B. Dod, and drawn by W. A. Dod and S. B. Alexander.
Explanation of the References.--a, head of the American column when
first seen by the British; 6, head of column after Mercer's engagement;
o, retreat of the British; **, pursuit of the Americans; 1, Quaker
meeting-house; 2, Clark's house, where Mercer died; 3, 4, the British
seventeenth regiment; 5, 6, Mercer beginning the battle; 7, 8, the
seventeenth attempting to dislodge Moulder; 9, 10, Pennsylvania militia
under Washington; 11, Hitchcock's regiment; 13, display of Continentals;
14, Nassau Hall, or Princeton College, in the village; 15, Richard
Stockton's residence, and Cornwallis's head-quarters for a time;
16, Worth's Mill, on Stony Brook; 17, Millett's, the position of the
seventeenth regiment at sunrise; 18, the fortieth and fifty-fifth
regiments of the British retreating, after the action, toward Rocky
Hill. The rail-way station is seen upon the Delaware and Raritan Canal,
southeast of Princeton village.

[[[General Mercer mortally Wounded by Bayonets.--His Bravery till the
Last.--Place of his Death.--View of the Battle-ground.]]]

{236}tinued only about fifteen minutes, but was very severe. Washington
was exposed to the hottest fire, while encouraging the militia by voice
and example. General Mercer dismounted after the first fire, the gray
horse he was riding having been disabled by a musket-ball that wounded
his fore leg; and while on foot, endeavoring to rally his broken troops,
he was felled to the ground by a blow from a musket dealt by a British
soldier.

[Illustration: 0244]

When his rank was discovered, the enemy, believing it to be Washington,
raised an exulting shout, and cried, "The rebel general is taken!"
Several rushed to the spot, exclaiming, "Call for quarters, you d--d
rebel!"

"I am no rebel," cried Mercer, indignantly, while half a dozen bayonets
Were at his breast; and, instead of calling for quarter, he determined
to die fighting. He struck several blows at his enemies with his sword,
when they bayoneted him and left him for dead. **Upon the retreat of the
British, General Mercer was conveyed to the house of Thomas Clark (now
John Clark's), then a new building, where he was tenderly nursed by the
late Miss Sarah Clark, of the Society of Friends, and a colored woman
belonging to the family. He [[January, 1777]] languished in great pain
until the 12th, when he expired in the arms of Major

* This view, looking north, is from the carriage gate of Mr. John
Clarke, owner of the house in which General Mercer died, whieh is
situated about seventy rods from the Trenton turnpike. That dwelling is
represented in the foreground of the picture, on the extreme right. The
distant view includes almost the whole field of action. Near the center
of the picture, over the head of the dark figure, is seen the house of
William Clark, and his out-buildings. The barn, a little more to the
left, with a tree in front, is upon the spot from whence Mereer rushed
forward to the hedge-fence. That fence was upon the line of the present
turnpike, denoted in the sketch by the fence passing down the slope
beyond the large tree on the extreme left. The "high ground" for whieh
both parties were aiming, to seeure advantage, is seen in the extreme
distance. The dark spot between the tree in the second field and the
barn denotes the spot where Mereer fell. The house of William Clark,
in the distance, is about a quarter of a mile from the one in the
foreground, where Mercer died. The hollow between the two houses was the
space between the belligerents when Washington advanced to the support
of Mercer. The place of conflict is about a mile and a quarter south of
Princeton. The turnpike passes directly through it.

** The story went abroad, at that time, that General Mercer was cruelly
bayoneted after he had delivered up his sword; but his dying assertion
that he did not give up his weapon until he was powerless to wield it,
exonerates the British soldiery from this foul accusation.

[[[Loss of the Americans.--Death of General Mercer.--His
Monument.--Skirmish near Nassau Hall in Princeton]]]

{237}George Lewis, a nephew of Washington, and captain of the horse
guards. * Dr. Benjamin Rush was also with him until he died. **

The loss of the Americans in this engagement was about thirty, among
whom, besides General Mercer, were Colonels Harslet and Potter, Major
Morris, Captains Shippen, Fleming, and Neal, all officers of much
promise.

[Illustration: 9245]

The loss of General Mercer was irreparable. He had been a companion in
arms with Washington in the campaign against the French and Indians in
1755, and was greatly beloved by all. Highly educated, patriotic, brave,
and noted for strict integrity, he was regarded as one of the most
promising of the general officers with whom the chief was associated. He
fell at the moment of victory, for the next instant the shout of success
from American lips greeted his ear. Among those of the enemy, mortally
wounded, was Captain William Leslie, a son of the Scotch Earl of Levin,
of whom mention is made in the note on page 332, vol. i.

The broken and routed seventeenth regiment fled to the Trenton road,
crossed the bridge, and hastened to join Cornwallis, who had been
brought forward with great haste by the firing. Washington pushed on
to Princeton, and in a ravine near the college encountered a sharp
resistance from the fifty-fifth regiment. This corps was also routed,
and fled toward Brunswick, accompanied by the fortieth, which took
little part in the action. In the college buildings at Princeton (which,
with the Presbyterian church, had been used for bar-

* Washington first heard that Mercer was killed on the battle-field, and
it was not until he reached Somerset Court-house that he was apprised
of the true situation of that officer. He immediately dispatched
young Lewis, with a flag to Cornwallis, requesting that every possible
attention might be paid to the wounded general, and asking permission
for Lewis to remain with him. Cornwallis cheerfully complied with the
request.

** On the 14th of January, 1777, the body of General Mercer was conveyed
to Philadelphia, and buried in Christ Church-yard. Over it was placed a
plain marble slab, with the simple inscription, In memory of Gen. Hugh
Mercer, who fell at Princeton, Jan. 3d, 1777." There his dust reposed
until 1840, when his countrymen of the St. Andrew's and the Thistle
Society removed his remains to Laurel Hill Cemetery, and erected a
beautiful marble monument to his memory, near the chapel. The funeral
ceremonies took place on the 26th of November. William B. Reed, Esq.,
pronounced a eulogium on the occasion. The pall was borne by Commodores
Read, Biddle, and Stewart, and Colonel Miller. The First Troop of City
Cavalry, which took part in the battle of Princeton, composed the guard
of honor. There are no survivors of the original corps. The monument was
made by John Struthers and Son, Philadelphia, and bears the following
inscriptions, which give the most important incidents of his public
life. East side, or principal front: "Dedicated to the Memory of
General Hugh Mercer, who fell for the Sacred Cause of Human Liberty,
and American Independence, in the Battle of Princeton. He poured out his
blood for a Generous Principle." West side: "General Mercer, a Physician
of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, was distinguished for his skill and
learning, his gentleness and decision, his refinement and humanity,
his elevated honor, and his devotion to the great cause of Civil
and Religious Liberty." North side: Monument to General Mercer.
"General Mercer, a native of Scotland was an assistant Surgeon in the
Battle of Culloden, and the companion of Washington in the Indian
Wars of 1755 and 1756. He received a Medal from the Corporation of
Philadelphia, for his courage and conduct in the Expedition against the
Indian Settlement of Kittaning." * South side: "The St. Andrew's
Society of Philadelphia offer this humble tribute to the memory of an
illustrious Brother. When a grateful posterity shall bid the trophied
memorial rise to the martyrs who sealed with their blood the charter of
an Empire's liberties, there shall not be wanted a monument to him whom
Washington mourned as the worthy and brave Mercer." General Mercer was
about fifty-six years ol age when he was slain.

* Dr. Mercer resided at Fredericksburg when the Revolution broke out.
He espoused the cause, left his profession, commanded three regiments
of minute-men in 1775, and in 1776 drilled and organized large bodies
of Virginia militia. On the 5th of June, 1776, Congress gave him the
commission of a brigadier. Congress resolved (see Journals, iii., 98)
that a monument should be erected to his memory at Fredericksburg, and
that his youngest son should be educated at the expense of the Republic.
The monument is yet to be erected. The son (Colonel Hugh Mercer, of
Fredericksburg) was educated, and yet survives, at the age of about
fourscore.

[[[Destruction of the King's Portrait in Nassau Hall.--Prisoners
taken.--Skirmish at Worth's Mills.--Cornwallis at Princeton.]]]

racks by the enemy) there remained a portion of a regiment. Washington
drew up some cannon within a short distance of these buildings, and
commenced firing upon them.

[Illustration: 9246]

The first ball, it is said, entered the prayer hall, a room used as a
chapel, and passed through the head of a portrait of George the Second,
suspended in a large frame upon the wall. After a few discharges,
Captain James Moore, of the Princeton militia, with a few others
of equal daring, burst open a door of Nassau Hall, and demanded the
surrender of the troops within. They instantly complied, and, with
several invalids, were made prisoners.

At the close of the action at Clark's, where Mawhood, with the
seventeenth, was routed, Washington detached a small party, under Major
Kelley, of the Pennsylvania militia, to destroy the bridge over Stony
Brook, at Worth's Mills. They had scarcely began the work of destruction
when the van of the British troops, advancing from Trenton upon
Princeton, appeared upon the hill at Millett's. Cornwallis heard the
firing in the direction of Princeton, and suspecting the object of his
enemy to be the seizure of his stores at New Brunswick, he made a forced
march in pursuit, and arrived near Stony Brook just after the first and
decisive battle had been fought. When the British discovered the party
engaged in demolishing the bridge, they opened upon them a discharge of
heavy round-shot, which drove them away; not, however, until the
loose planks were thrown into the stream, and the bridge was rendered
impassable for the artillery and baggage. Delay was dangerous, perhaps
fatal, and Cornwallis ordered the troops to dash into and ford the
swollen stream. *

[Illustration: 8246]

It was almost breast-deep, and half filled with ice; yet the soldiers
obeyed, and, in their mail of frozen clothes, hastened on toward
Princeton. When near the town, the advanced guard was brought to a halt
by the discharge of an iron thirty-two-pounder, which the enemy had
left on a temporary breast-work at the west end of the village. **
Cornwallis, apprehending that Washington had determined to make a stand
at Princeton, halted his column, and sent out reconnoitering parties of
horsemen. In the mean while, a large detachment approached the

* Major Kelley continued cutting away a portion of the bridge while the
balls of the enemy were menacing his life. He was cutting away a log
on which some of the timbers rested, when it gave way sooner than was
expected, and he was precipitated into the stream. His men, supposing
him to be lost, fled to Princeton. He got out of the water; but his
frozen clothes and exhaustion so retarded his progress, that he was made
a prisoner by the enemy.

** This cannon is now in the center of the Campus, in the rear of the
College of New Jersey, at Princeton. It was one of the pieces which
Washington was unable to carry away with him.

*** This substantial stone bridge, over Stony Brook, is upon the site of
the wooden one destroyed on the 3d of January, 1777. The old mill on the
left is now owned by Josiah S. Worth, a son of the proprietor during
the Revolution. This sketch was made from the road on the bank of the
stream, along which Mercer and his detachment marched to secure the
bridge.

[[[Disappointment of the Enemy.--The Loss sustained.--Washington's
Pursuit.--Fatigue of the Americans.]]]

{239}battery cautiously, intending to take it by storm. These movements
delayed them an hour, and when they arrived at the breast-work and the
village, great was their astonishment and chagrin to find both deserted,
and not a _rebel_ in sight! Washington, with his little army and
prisoners, was far on his way toward the Millstone Enver, in hot pursuit
of the fortieth and fifty-fifth regiments.

The battle at Princeton and its results, following closely upon the
brilliant affair at Trenton, produced a strong impression upon the
public mind favorable to the commander-in-chief and the patriot cause.

[Illustration: 8247]

Considering the numbers engaged, it was one of the severest conflicts of
the war, and in no engagement did the skill and bravery of both parties
appear more conspicuously. The enemy lost about one hundred in killed,
and three hundred in wounded and prisoners. The loss of the Americans
was about one hundred, including several valuable officers. Never was
a general more exposed to death than was Washington, when leading the
troops to the support of Mercer's riflemen; yet he escaped without a
wound. *

Washington pursued the fugitive regiments as far as Kingston, beyond
the Millstone River, three miles northeast of Princeton. There he held
a council of war with his officers, on horseback. The rich prize at
New Brunswick was very tempting, and a wish was generally expressed to
continue the march thither and secure the British stores. Such a step
would have been fatal; for Cornwallis, with fresh troops, and superior
in numbers, was in close pursuit; while the Americans, who had fought at
Trenton on the 2d, marched all night before the battle of Princeton
on the 3d, and had not slept for thirty-six hours, were completely
exhausted. More than half of them had not been able to procure breakfast
or dinner; many were destitute of shoes or stockings, and in every
way were utterly unable to contend with an enemy. To save his army,
Washington filed off on the left, at Kingston, along a narrow road
running to Rocky Hill. He destroyed the bridge at Kingston, which
checked the progress of Cornwallis for some time, and, after having
crossed the Millstone twice, he reached Pluckemin that evening. On
the way, overcome by fatigue, many soldiers laid down and slept on the
frozen ground. Washington remained no longer at Pluckemin than to give
his troops rest and refreshments, and then advanced to Morristown, where
he established his winter quarters. His subsequent movements, by which
New Jersey was soon purged of the enemy, are mentioned on page 307, vol.
i.

Cornwallis repaired, and then crossed the bridge at Kingston, and,
believing Washington to be on the road to New Brunswick, pushed eagerly
forward--so eagerly, over the rough

* Mr. Custis, in his Recollections of the Life and Character
of Washington, gives a graphic picture of the scene when the
commander-in-chief brought the militia and riflemen into action. "The
discomfited Americans rally on the instant, and form into line. The
enemy halt, and dress their line. The American chief is between the
adverse posts, as though he had been placed there a target for both. The
arms of both are leveled. Can escape from death he possible? Fitzgerald
(Washington's aid), horror-struck at the death of his beloved commander,
dropped the reins upon his horse's neck, and drew his hat over his face,
that he might not see him die. A roar of musketry succeeds, and then a
shout. It was the shout of victory. The aid-de-camp ventures to raise
his eyes. Oh, glorious sight! the enemy are broken and flying; while
dimly, amid the glimpses of the smoke, is seen the chief alive,
unharmed, and without a wound, waving his hat, and cheering his comrades
to the pursuit. Colonel Fitzgerald, celebrated as one of the finest
horsemen in the American army, now dashed his rowels in his charger's
flanks, and, heedless of the dead and dying in his way, flew to the side
of the chief, exclaiming, 'Thank God! your excellency is safe!' while
the favorite aid, a gallant and warm-hearted son of Erin, a man of thews
and sinews (and albeit unused to the melting mood), gave loose to his
feelings, and wept like a child, for joy. Washington, ever calm amid
scenes of the greatest excitement, affectionately grasped the hand of
his aid and friend, and then ordered, 'Away, my dear colonel, and bring
up the troops; the day is our own!'"

[[[Capture of British Baggage-wagons.--Evacuation of New Jersey by the
British.--Estimate of Washington's Character in Europe.]]]

{240}and frozen roads, that several of his baggage-wagons were broken
down. Leaving them in charge of a detachment of between two and three
hundred men, * he pressed onward, and reached New Brunswick at sunset.
Again the Americans had eluded his pursuit; yet he rejoiced in the
safety of his stores.

The armed parties frequently sent out by Washington from his
hill-quarters were generally successful, and the people, incensed at the
bad faith of the English and the depredations of the Hessians, joined
the Americans in all their expeditions. The British quarters were
straitened, their supplies were cut off', and in a short time New Jersey
was evacuated by the enemy. Alluding to these results, the eloquent
Charles Botta observes, "Achievements so stirring gained for the
American commander a very great reputation, and were regarded with
wonder by all nations, as well as by the Americans. The prudence,
constancy, and noble intrepidity of Washington was admired and applauded
by all. By unanimous consent he was declared to be the savior of his
country; all proclaimed him equal to the most renowned commanders of
antiquity, and especially distinguished him by the name of the American
Fabius. His name was in the mouths of all; he was celebrated by the pens
of the most distinguished writers. The most illustrious personages of
Europe lavished upon him their praises and their congratulations. ** The
American general, therefore, wanted neither a cause full of grandeur to
defend, nor occasion for the acquisition of glory, nor genius to
avail himself of it, nor the renown due to his triumphs, nor an entire
generation of men perfectly well disposed to render him homage."

Washington exercised the dictatorial powers which Congress had conferred
upon him with energy and great circumspection, and with a single eye to
the good of his country. His recommendations were promptly seconded by
Congress, and soon great vitality was visible every where. He took care
to provide for meritorious officers in his appointments, when organizing
the sixteen battalions authorized by Congress. At that time public
clamor was strong against Dr. Morgan, * the successor of the traitor,
Church, as head of the medical de-

* A small company of fifteen or twenty militia, having learned the
situation of this baggage, resolved to capture it. After dark, they
arranged themselves among the trees, in a semicircular form, around the
place where the soldiers were guarding their wagons, and, on a concerted
signal, they set up a tremendous shout, and commenced firing. The
British, believing the assailants to be as strong in numbers as
themselves, and taken completely by surprise, retreated with a few of
the wagons that were fit for traveling, and fled to New Brunswick. Those
left behind were taken to the American camp, and found to contain, what
the army greatly needed, woolen clothes.

** It is said that Frederic the Great of Prussia declared that the
achievements of Washington and his little band of compatriots, between
the 25th of December and the 4th of January, were the most brilliant of
any recorded in the annals of military achievements.

*** Morgan afterward procured an inquiry into his conduct by a committee
of Congress, and was honorably acquitted. Doctor John Morgan was born in
Philadelphia in 1735. He completed his medical studies under Dr. Redman,
and entered the army as surgeon and lieutenant during the French and
Indian war He went to Europe, to prosecute his studies, in 1760, where
he attended the lectures of the celebrated Hunter. He was admitted to
the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1764. He returned to Philadelphia in
1765, and was elected professor of the theory and practice of medicine
in the medical school founded by Dr. Shippen and others. He was ever
active in literary and scientific projects. He, was appointed by
Congress director general and physieian-in-chief to the general
hospital in 1775, in place of Dr. Church, and immediately repaired to
head-quarters at Cambridge. He was removed from office, without just
cause, in 1777. * He died October 15, 1789, aged about fifty-four years.
Dr. Benjamin Rush was his successor in the professor's ehair..

* The following are the names of the principal officers in the medical
department, appointed on the 11th of April, 1777: William Shippen, Jun.,
director general; Waller Junes, physician general of the hospital in the
middle department; Benjamin Rush, surgeon general of the hospital in the
middle department; John Cochran, physician and surgeon general of the
army in the middle department; Isaac Forster, deputy director general of
the hospital in the eastern department; Amini Uuhannah Cutter, physician
general of the hospital in the eastern department; Philip Turner,
surgeon general of the same; William Burnet, physician and surgeon
general of the army in the eastern department; Jonathan Potts, deputy
director general of the hospital in the northern department; Malachi
Treat, physieian general of the same; Dr. Forque, surgeon general of the
same; John Bartlett, physician and surgeon general of the army in the
northern department.

[[[Appointment of general Officers for the Continental Army.--Its
Reorganization.--Visit to the Princeton Battle-ground.]]]

{241}partment, and he was dismissed by Congress, and Dr. Shippen, * of
Philadelphia, [[January 9, 1777]] was appointed in his place, with Dr.
Craik ** as his assistant.

On the 19th of February, Stirling, St. Clair, Lincoln, Mifflin, and
Stephen were commissioned as major generals; while Arnold, on account
of his conduct at Montreal, where he obeyed the injunction "put money
in thy purse," at the expense of honor and honesty, was overlooked. This
soured him, and doubtless planted the first noxious seed of treason
in his heart. During the spring, eighteen new brigadiers *** were
commissioned. Four regiments of horse were enlisted, under Colonels
Bland, Baylor, Sheldon, and Moylan. Cadwallader and Reed were both, in
turn, offered the general command of the horse, but declined. Timothy
Pickering was appointed adjutant general in the place of Joseph Reed,
who had resigned. Mifflin remained at the head of the quarter-master's
department, which was regulated, and more thoroughly organized by the
appointment of subalterns.

[Illustration: 8249]

Congress attempted to reorganize the commissary department, and claimed
the right to make subordinate appointments. So much did this new
arrangement interfere with the efficiency of the department, that Joseph
Trumbull, Jun., commissary general, resigned. The meddling of Congress
with the smaller appointments and the minute affairs of chief officers
in the various departments of the army, was very mischievous in effect;
for the personal friends of members of that body, often incompetent,
were appointed to places requiring talent, energy, and honesty. On the
whole, however, the army was upon a better footing in the spring of 1777
than it had ever been.

I visited Princeton and the battle-grounds subsequently to my tarry at
Trenton when on my way south. It was a very cold evening in December
when I arrived there [[December 12, 1849]]from Philadelphia, the snow
about ten inches deep upon the ground. Early the next morning, in
company with Colonel Cumming of Princeton, who kindly offered to
accompany me, I rode first to the battle-ground and Clark's house, where
General Mercer died, and made the sketch on page 236. The air was
very keen, and the snow half-kneedeep, circumstances which were quite
unfavorable to deliberate sketching in the open fields. I persevered,
however, and was successful in delineating such objects as I desired.
From Clark's house we crossed the fields to the Quaker meeting-house,
and then rode to the bridge at Worth's Mills, where I made the sketch
on page 238. Returning to Princeton on the old Trenton road, we met Mr.
Worth, an aged man, and present proprietor of

* William Shippen was a graduate of the College of New Jersey, at
Princeton, in the class of 1754. He completed his medical education at
Edinburgh. He delivered the first lectures on anatomy ever pronounced in
America, at Philadelphia, in 1764; and on the finishing of the medical
school in that city, he was appointed its first professor of anatomy, in
1765. He first addressed ten students; * he lived to address two hundred
and fifty at one time. He was appointed director general of the medical
department on the 11th of April, 1777. He resigned his professorship
in the medical college, in 1806, into the hands of his colleague,
Dr. Wistar. Dr. Shippen died at Germantown, July the 11th, 1808, aged
seventy-four years.

* James Craik was a native of Scotland. He accompanied Washington in the
expedition against the French and Indians in 1754; and in 1755 was with
Braddock, and assisted in dressing his wounds. He was director general
of the hospital at the, siege of Yorktown, in 1781. After the war,
Washington invited him to settle near Mount Vernon, and he was the
physician of the patriot chief until his death. He died in Fairfax
county, Virginia, February 6, 1814, aged eighty-three years.

* These were Poor, of New Hampshire; Glover, Paterson, and Learned,
of Massachusetts; Varnum, of Rhode Island; Jedediah Huntington, of
Connecticut; George Clinton, ol New York; Wayne, De Hass, Cadwallader,
Hand, and Reed, of Pennsylvania; Weeden, Muhlenburg, Woodford, and
Scott, of Virginia; Nash, of North Carolina; and Conway, an Irishman by
birth, but a Frenchman by education.

* Dr. Shippen experienced a great deal of persecution when he first
commenced his lectures on anatomy, a good deal of feeling against him
having been excited by the utterance of horrid tales respecting his
dissections. The public mind was filled with ideas such as made the
burden of the Ghost's Complaint:

     "The body-snatchers! they have come
     Don't go to weep upon my grave,
     And made a snatch at me;
     And think that there I be;
     It's very hard them kind of men
     They haven't left an atom there
     Won't let a body be!
     Of my anatomy!"


[[[Morven, Stockton's Estate.--Desolated by the British.--Sufferings and
Death of the Owner.--Annis Stockton.]]]

{242}the mill, who gave me a narrative of events there, substantially as
related. We stopped at Morven, in the suburbs of Princeton. This is the
homestead estate of Commodore Stockton, and the residence, during the
Revolution, of his paternal grandfather, Richard Stockton, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence.

[Illustration: 9250]

There, affluence and taste lent its power in dispensing its blessings
to the poor, and in creating the joys of social intercourse, before the
Revolution; there, suffering and woe held terrible rule after Cornwallis
and his army swept over the plains of New Jersey. Like others of the
signers of the great Declaration, Mr. Stockton was marked for peculiar
vengeance by the enemy. So suddenly did the flying Americans pass by
in the autumn of 1776, and so soon were the Hessian vultures and their
British companions on the trail, that he had barely time to remove his
family to a place of safety before his beautiful mansion was filled with
rude soldiery. The house was pillaged; the horses and stock were driven
away; the furniture was converted into fuel; the choice old wines in
the cellar were drank; the valuable library and all the papers of Mr.
Stockton were committed to the flames, and the estate was laid waste.
The plate had been hastily buried in the woods, in boxes. A treacherous
servant revealed their place of concealment, and two of the boxes were
disinterred and rifled of their contents; the other was saved. ** Mr.
Stockton and his family took refuge with a friend in Monmouth county.
His place of concealment was discovered by a party of refugee Loyalists,
who entered the house at night, dragged him from his bed, and, treating
him with every indignity which malice could invent, hurried him to
Amboy, and from thence to New York, where he was confined in the
loathsome provost jail. There he suffered dreadfully; and when, through
the interposition of Congress, he was released, his constitution was
hopelessly shattered, and he did not live to see the independence of his
country achieved. He died at Morven, in Princeton, in February, 1781,
blessed to the last with the tender and affectionate attentions of his
Annis, whom he called "the best of women." *** Night and day she was
at his bed-side, and when his spirit was about to depart, she wrote,
impromptu, several verses, of which the following is indicative of her
feelings:=

```"Oh, could I take the fate to him assign'd,

````And leave the helpless family their head,

```How pleased, how peaceful to my lot resign'd.

````I'd quit the nurse's station for the bed!"=

Morven is a beautiful spot, and, hallowed by such associations, it is
exceedingly attractive to the resident and stranger.

* This sketeh is from the lawn in front, which is shaded by venerable
pines and other ornamental trees. The mansion stands upon level grounds,
beautifully laid out, having carriage entrances from the street. Every
thing was covered with snow when I was there, and dreariness prevailed
where summer charms delight the visitor.

** Mrs. Ellett, in an interesting biography of Annis Stockton, the
wife of the signor, says that Mrs. Field, her daughter, now residing in
Princeton, has several pieces of silver that were in this box. She also
relates that when Mrs. Stockton (who was quite a literary lady) heard of
the destruction of the library, she remarked that there were two
books in it she would like to have saved--the Bible, and Young's Night
Thoughts. Tradition says that these two books were the only ones left.
Mrs. Field has in her possession the original portraits of her father
and mother. Both were pierced with bayonets.--Women of the Revolution,
iii., 16.

*** A biographical sketeh of Mr. Stockton may be found among those of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, printed in the Appendix.
His portrait is in the frontispiece of this volume.

[[[Nassau Hall.--Governor Belcher's Donation.--Rittenhouse's
Planetarium.--Life of its Inventor.]]]

{243}Nassau Hall, the principal edifice of the College of New Jersey, is
a spacious building, one hundred and seventy-six feet long, fifty wide,
and four stories high, built of stone. It was erected in 1757. The
college was commenced by Jonathan Dickinson, in Elizabethtown, and was
first incorporated in 1756. Governor Belcher was one of its earliest
and most efficient patrons. He made "generous donation of his library of
books, * with other valuable ornaments," to the college; and, upon his
recommendation, Nassau Hall was so called in memory "of the glorious
King William the Third, who was a branch of the illustrious house of
Nassau." The Hall stands in the center of spacious grounds, fronting
on the principal street in Princeton. The edifice on the left of Nassau
Hall, containing the college library and the philosophic hall, was
erected after a conflagration in 1802. The library contains about eight
thousand volumes, and the libraries of two societies of the institution
about four thousand more, making twelve thousand volumes. There is
also a mineralogical cabinet, a museum of natural history, and a fine
collection of drawings made for the purpose of elucidating lectures
on astronomy and architecture. There is also a good collection of
philosophical apparatus there, which includes that wonderful piece of
scientific mechanism, the planetarium of Doctor David Rittenhouse. **
Through the politeness of Professor MacLean, I was permitted to examine
its construction, and view the wonderful precision with which the
machinery performed its difficult functions. On the front is inscribed,

"INVENTED

BY DAVID RITTENHOUSE, A.D. 1768;

REPAIRED AND EXTENDED BY HENRY VOIGHT,

1806;

BOTH OF PHILADELPHIA."

Dr. Gordon, writing in 1790, says of this planetarium, "There is not
the like in Europe. An elegant and neatly-ornamented frame rises
perpendicular near upon eight feet, in the front of which you are
presented, in three several apartments, with a view of the celestial
system, the motions of the planets around the sun, and the satellites
about the planets. The wheels, &c., that produce the movement are behind
the wooden perpendicular frame in which the orrery is fixed. By suitable
contrivances, you in a short time tell the eclipses of the sun and moon
for ages past and ages to come; the like in other cases of astronomy."
It is said that it was Lord Cornwallis's intention to carry this
planetarium away, and take it to England with him; but the Americans
kept him too busily engaged in affairs of greater personal moment,
while in Princeton, to permit him to plunder the college of this
great treasure. This intention on the part of an enemy was not as
reprehensible as the proposition which Silas Deane, the American
commissioner, made, who suggested the propriety of presenting it to the
French government as a bonus for its good will!

I have mentioned that the first cannon-ball which entered Nassau Hall,
when Washington opened a fire upon it, passed through the portrait of
George the Second, and destroyed it. The frame was uninjured, and left
suspended upon the wall. It is alleged that Wash-

* It consisted of four hundred and seventy-four volumes, many of them
very rare and of great value. The Hall being used alternately by the
American and British troops during the war, a large portion of the books
were purloined or destroyed. The few that remained were destroyed by
fire in 1802, when the Hall was burned, leaving nothing but the strong
walls, which were not materially injured by the fire.

* David Rittenhouse was born near Germantown, Pennsylvania, on the 8th
of April, 1732. His ancestors were from Holland. His early life was
spent in agricultural pursuits, and was marked by a love of mathematical
studies. Feeble health would not allow him to pursue the labor of
a farm, and he became, by self-instruction, a proficient clock and
mathematical instrument maker. It was while working at his trade he
planned and executed his orrery, a piece of mechanism far superior, for
its intended purposes, to any thing before constructed. It was purchased
by the College of New Jersey. Another was made by him, after the same
model, for the College of Philadelphia. He pursued his trade in that
city for several years. His first philosophical publication was an
account of his calculations of the transit of Venus, as it was to happen
on the 3d of June, 1769. He observed the phenomenon, a spectacle never
seen but twice before by an inhabitant of earth, and he was so much
affected by its proof of the accuracy of his calculations, that he
fainted. He was engaged in government surveys, fixing territorial
boundaries, &c., during the Revolution, and became one of the leading
practical philosophers of the day. On the death of Franklin in 1791, he
was chosen president of the Philosophical Society, which office he held
by annual election until his death. He was treasurer of Pennsylvania
from 1777 to 1789. In 1792 he was appointed director of the Mint of the
United States, but his ill health compelled him to resign the office
in 1795. He died on the 26th of June, 1796, aged sixty-four years. His
birth-place is yet standing, a mile west of Germantown.

[[[Portraits of Washington and Mercer by Peale.--Character of the
College of New Jersey.--White Hall.]]]

{244}ington, in order to make good to the college the damage sustained
by the cannonade, made the trustees a present, from his private purse,
of two hundred and fifty dollars, which sum they, expended in procuring
a full-length portrait of the eommander-in-chief.

[Illustration: 9252]

It was painted by Charles Wilson Peale, and occupies the identical frame
in which hung the king's portrait. The annexed sketch is an outline of
this interesting picture. In the back-ground is seen Nassau Hall, and in
the middle and fore-ground a sketch of the battle of Princeton, in which
the death of Mercer is represented.

[Illustration: 8252]

The portrait of Mercer there given was painted from his brother, who sat
for it, and who greatly resembled him. It was considered a good likeness
by those who knew the general. The portrait given below I copied from
Peale's picture, in which I have preserved the languid expression of a
wounded man, as given him by the artist. On the left is seen a portion
of the skirt of Washington's coat, and his chapeau. Many pleasing
memories crowd upon the mind of the visitor to this aneient seat
of learning, where so large a number of the active young men of the
Revolution who lived in the Middle States were educated.

[Illustration: 7252]

Under the guidance of the learned and patriotic Dr. Witherspoon, who
in the pulpit, academic hall, or legislative forum, was the champion of
good, it was the nursery of patriots. He was a lineal descendant of John
Knox, the great English reformer, and, like that bold ancestor, he never
shrunk from the post of danger, if called to it by duty. Like _Yale_
under Daggett, and _Harvard_ under Langdon, the _College of New Jersey_,
under Witherspoon, made its influence felt in the council and the field
during the war for independence.

Of the meetings of Congress at Princeton in 1783, and the Farewell
Address of General Washington to the armies [[November 2, 1783]] of the
United States, written at Rocky Hill, a a few miles distant, I shall
hereafter write. Let us now return to Trenton.

As I hoped and anticipated, the storm that came down so furiously, on my
return from M'Conkey's Ferry, subsided during the night, and the morning
sun came forth, only half hidden by broken clouds. Accompanied by Mr.
Smythe, my companion on the previous day when I visited the ferry, I
went out early to view and sketch localities of interest about Trenton,
all of which are given in preceding pages, except "White Hall," a large
stone building, standing on the south side of Front Street. This was
used for barracks by the Hessians during their occupancy of Trenton in
1776.

[[[The Floral Arch in Honor of Washington.--His Triumphal Journey.--His
Reception by the Ladies at Trenton.]]]

{245}I called upon Stacey G. Potts, Esq., who kindly permitted me
to copy a picture in his possession, painted by G. W. Flagg, and
illustrating the interesting scene of the capture of Emily Gieger,
an incident of one of Greene's Southern campaigns. The picture and
narrative will be found in another part of this work. Mr. Potts informed
me that the floral arch erected in honor of Washington, while on his
way from Mount Vernon to New York city to take the oath of office as
President of the United States, was erected upon the bridge over the
Assanpink, close by the "Stacey Mill," seen in the picture on page 233.
The arch was preserved on the premises of the Misses Barnes, near the
Episcopal church in Warren Street, until 1824, when it was placed in
front of the State House to grace the reception of La Fayette. Remains
of the arch, when I visited Trenton, were in the possession of Dr.
Francis Ewing of that city, and supported the branches of a venerable
rose-bush in his garden. With a notice of the events connected with that
arch we will close the historic volume and bid adieu to Trenton.

The journey of Washington from Mount Vernon to New York was like a
triumphal march. He had hardly left his porter's lodge, when he was
met by a company of gentlemen from Alexandria, who escorted him to that
town. Every where the people gathered to see him as he passed along
the road, and every town sent out its first citizens to meet him on his
approach. Entertainments were given in his honor, and public addresses
were received by him and answers returned. Militia companies escorted
him from place to place, and his approach to the principal cities was
announced by the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. At Trenton,
his reception was of a peculiar nature, full of pure sentiment and the
most loyal patriotism. There, a little more than twelve years before,
one of his most brilliant military feats was achieved, and it was a
fitting place for an unusual display of respect and reverence. The
ladies took the matter in hand, and upon Trenton Bridge they caused to
be erected an areh, which they adorned with laurel leaves and
flowers from the forests and their hot-houses, and the first spring
contributions from their gardens. Upon the crown of the arch, in large
letters, formed of leaves and flowers, were the words "December 26th,
1776 and on the sweep beneath was the sentence, also formed of flowers,
"The Defender of the Mothers will be the Protector of the Daughters."
Beneath this arch the president elect was obliged to pass on entering
Trenton. There he was met by a troop of females. On one side a row of
little girls, dressed in white, and each bearing a basket of flowers,
were arranged; on the other side stood a row of young ladies similarly
arrayed, and behind them were the married ladies. The moment Washington
and his suite approached the arch, the little girls began to strew
flowers in the road, and the whole company of the fair sang the
following ode, written for the occasion by Governor Howell: * =

````"Welcome, mighty chief, once more

````Welcome to this grateful shore.

````Now no mercenary foe

````Aims again the fatal blow--

`````Aims at thee the fatal blow=



````"Virgins fair and matrons grave,

````Those thy conquering arm did save,

````Build for thee triumphal bowers.

````Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers-"

`````Strew your hero's way with flowers!"=

After passing the arch, the general turned his horse's head toward the
choir, and listened to this tribute of sweet voices with much emotion.
After receiving the salutations of the citizens, Washington handed to
the Reverend J. F. Armstrong a note acknowledging his

* Governor Richard Howell was a native of Delaware. He commanded a
New Jersey regiment from 1776 to 1779, when, in consequence of a new
arrangement of the army, he resumed the profession of the law. In 1788
he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, which office
he held until June, 1793, when he was chosen governor of the state.
To this office he was elected eight years successively. He died, April
28th, 1802, aged forty-seven years.

[[[Interest of the Scene.--Washington's Note to the
Ladies.--Reflections.--Grave of Mr. Armstrong.]]]

{246}obligations to the ladies of Trenton. * The whole scene was one of
exceeding interest. A hundred-fold more glorious was that arch, erected
by such hands, to greet the presence of such a hero, than the gorgeous
triumphal arches under which passed the blood-stained Roman conquerors,
with their pageants of misery, and the rich spoils of desolated
kingdoms. It was the tribute of the pure in heart to the truly great--=

```"Great, not like Cæsar, stain'd with blood,

````But only great as he was good."=

* The following is a copy of the note: "General Washington can not leave
this place without expressing his acknowledgments to the matrons and
young ladies who received him in so novel and grateful a manner at
the triumphal arch in Trenton, and for the exquisite sensation he
experienced in that affecting moment. The astonishing contrast between
his former and actual situation at the same spot, the elegant taste
with which it was adorned for the present occasion, and the innocent
appearance of the white-robed, choir who met him with the congratulatory
song, has made such an impression upon his remembrance as, he assures
them, will never be effaced. "Trenton, April 21, 1789."

* This note was read to the ladies, who were called together at
the house of Judge Smith, and then deposited in the hands of that
gentleman's wife. It passed into the hands of Miss Lydia Imlay, his
adopted daughter, who preserved it with great care until just before her
death, when she gave it to the late Chief-justice Ewing. It was placed
in a handsome frame, and is now a precious relic in possession of his
family. The grave of Mr. Armstrong is in the old burial-ground of the
Presbyterian church at Trenton. Upon his plain monument is the following
inscription: "Sacred to the memory of the Rev. James Francis Armstrong,
thirty years a pastor of the church at Trenton, in union with the church
at Maidenhead. Born in Maryland of pious parents, he received the
elements of his classical education under the Rev. John Blair, finished
his collegiate studies in the College of New Jersey, under the Rev. Dr.
Witherspoon, and was licensed to preach the Gospel in the year 1777. An
ardent patriot, he served through the War of Independence as chaplain.
In 1790 he was chosen a trustee of the College of New Jersey. A warm and
constant friend, a devout Christian, a tender husband and parent, steady
in his attentions on the judicatories of the Church, throughout life he
was distinguished as a fervent and affectionate minister of the Gospel,
and resigned his soul to his Creator and Redeemer on the 19th of
January, 1816. 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.' Amen! Even so
come, Lord Jesus."

[[[Departure from Trenton.--Buck's County.--St. Tammany.--Old
Villages.--Frankford.]]]

{247}




CHAPTER X.


```"The autumnal glories all have pass'd away!

````The forest leaves no more in hectic red

```Give glowing tokens of their brief decay,

````But scatter'd lie, or rustle to the tread,

```Like whisper'd warnings from the moldering dead.

````The naked trees stretch out their arms all day.

```And each bald hill-top lifts its reverend head

````As if for some new covering to pray."

`````Mrs. E. C. Kinney.=

[Illustration: 9255]

HE sun was shining in its noontide glory when I crossed the great
Trenton Bridge over the Delaware to Morrisville, and reined my horse to
the right into the Falsington road, for Philadelphia, twenty-eight miles
distant. Unlike a summer rain, the storm developed no new beauties in
the fields and orchards, but "a mantle dun" continued to overspread the
landscape, and a cold north wind was heralding the approach of winter. I
was now in the fertile region of "old Bucks" * in Pennsylvania, and
with a loose rein traversed the gentle undulating country over which
the Continental battalions often marched and countermarched. It was the
anniversary of the evacuation of New York by the British--the departure
of the last hostile foot from [[November 25, 1783]] our free shores.
The mind, laden with the associations of the place and hour, its
soul-stirring thoughts kept me such entertaining company, that the sun
went down, and I entered the suburban district of Kensington, in the
"Northern Liberties" of Philadelphia, before I was fairly conscious that
a dozen miles had been traveled. It was but little more than four hours'
journey with my strong and vigorous horse.

After leaving Falsington, the traveler obtains frequent glimpses of the
Delaware and its white sails, on the left. The several small villages on
the way (Falsington, Hulmeville, and Frankford being the largest) bear
marks, in their dwellings, of considerable antiquity, if that word
may properly be applied to American edifices. Many of them are small,
steep-roofed stone houses, with little windows and wide doors, built
before the war of the Revolution broke out, and presenting a great
contrast with the New England villages, which seem as if just finished,
with the white paint scarcely dry. It was almost sunset when I arrived
at Frankford, quite a large town upon the Tacony Creek, five miles
northeast of

* Tradition currently reports that the renowned Indian chief Tamene, or
St. Tammany, was buried near a spring about three and a half miles
west of Doylestown, in this county. He was an unequaled chief among
the Delawares. Heckewelder says that when Colonel George Morgan, of
Princeton, visited the Western Indians, by order of Congress, in 1776,
he was so beloved for his goodness, that the Delawares conferred upon
him the name of their venerated chief. Morgan brought back to the whites
such glowing accounts of the qualities of that ancient chief, that in
the Revolutionary war he was dubbed a saint, and his name was placed
on some calendars. He was called by politicians, St. Tammany, and
established as the patron saint of republican America. Tammany societies
were organized, and Tammany halls dedicated, and on the 1st of May (the
festival of the saint), meetings of the societies were held. "On that
day," says Heckewelder, "numerous societies of his votaries walked
together in procession through the streets of Philadelphia, their hats
decorated with bucks' tails, and proceeded to a handsome rural place
out of town, which they called the wigwam, where, after a long talk,
or Indian speech, had been delivered, and the calumet of peace and
friendship had been duly smoked, they spent the day in festivity
and mirth." The Tammany Society of New York is yet in existence. Its
meetings are held regularly at Tammany Hall, on the east side of the
City Hall Park.

[[[Revolutionary Events at Frankford.--Kensington.--Arrival in
Philadelphia.--Christ Church and its Sounding-board.]]]

{248}Philadelphia. Here the Americans kept quite a strong picket, during
the occupation of Philadelphia by the British in 1777--8, after the
battles of Brandywine and Germantown. Near here was stationed the fine
corps of light infantry guards under Colonel Twistleton (afterward Lord
Say and Sele); and here, also, the active partisan corps called the
_Queen's Rangers_, under Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe (afterward Governor
of Canada), was recruited, and disciplined by actual service.

In November, 1777, the Rangers, in concert with Major Gwyn, attempted
to surprise the American post at Frankford. They approached the town
cautiously, and rushing in, expected to secure prisoners and booty; but
the patriots had temporarily withdrawn. Some days afterward, another
attempt to take the post was made. An American officer and twenty men
were made prisoners. They were raw and undisciplined militia. Each man
had the countersign, _Richmond_, written with chalk in his hat that
he might not forget it. Soon after capturing these men, a patrol of
cavalry, under Major Gwyn, which had pursued a party toward Bristol,
came retreating in great confusion. They had been attacked, both in
front and rear, by a troop of horsemen under Count Pulaski. Thoroughly
alarmed, the whole British force at Frankford crossed the Tacony, and
returned in haste to Philadelphia.

Parties of the _Queen's Rangers_ were almost every day at Frankford,
where the Americans did not keep a fixed post. Simcoe had trained his
men to quick and energetic movements with the bayonet, and his standing
order was, "Take as many prisoners as possible, but never destroy life
unless absolutely necessary." On one occasion, a patroling party of the
Rangers approached Frankford undiscovered by an American sentinel at the
bridge. They were so near that they might easily have killed the guard,
but a boy was sent to warn him to run for his life. He did so, and
no more sentinels were posted there afterward; "a matter of some
consequence," says Simcoe, "to the poor people of Philadelphia, as they
were not prevented from getting their flour ground at Frankford Mills." *

Passing through a portion of the Kensington suburb of Philadelphia,
its mud and wretchedness, its barking dogs and squalling babies, where
society seems in a transition state from filth to cleanliness, and
consequently from vice to godliness, I wheeled down Second Street, amid
its glowing shops, and reined up at _Congress Hall_, just as the last
hue of daylight faded away. It was Saturday night, a season as welcome
to the traveler as a "cross day" in the calendar to the faithful. I was
in Philadelphia' the city of brotherly love; the quiet Sabbath near; a
glorious harvest of Revolutionary reminiscences spread out around me,
inviting the pen-sickle to reap for my garner; and the broad and sunny
South, its chivalry and its patriotism, beckoning me onward. Busy
thought kept sleep at bay until midnight.

The Sabbath morning dawned brilliant and frosty. As I went up to
worship in the venerable _Christ Church_, around which cluster so many
interesting associations of the past, I felt that it was a two-fold
sanctuary--a sanctuary of religion and of patriotism. The exterior is
the same as it was when the later colonial governors and officers of
state--when Washington and Franklin--when Congress and the officers of
the Continental army went there to worship; but the interior has been
greatly changed by that iconoclast, _improvement_--that breaker of the
images which patriotism delights to worship! One vestige of the olden
time remains untouched--the pulpit _sounding-board_, the indispensable
canopy of the old pastors.=

```"That sounding-board, to me it seem'd

````A cherub poised on high--

```A mystery I almost deem'd 1````Quite hid from vulgar eye

```And that old pastor, rapt in prayer,

```Look'd doubly awful 'neath it there."

`````--E. Oakes Smith.=

* Simcoe's Military Journal, page 28. At that time the Philadelphians
were dependent chiefly upon the Frankford Mills for their flour. It was
with the pretense of going thither for flour, that Lydia Darrah left
Philadelphia and hastened to the American camp at Whitemarsh, apprised
Washington of an intended attack upon him, and, by her patriotic
vigilance, doubtless saved the American army, under the
commander-in-chief, from destruction or captivity. This circumstance is
noted on pages 301--302.

[[[The Grave of Dr. Franklin, and others.--His early-written Epitaph.--
Description of Christ Church]]]

{249}Within its wall-inclosed grave-yard in the rear is the dust of
many of the early and distinguished citizens of Philadelphia, the most
renowned of whom was Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

[Illustration: 9257]

His grave is beside that of his wife, and daughter (Mrs. Bache), in
the northwest corner of the yard. "I wish," he said in his will, "to be
buried by the side of my wife, if it may be, and that a marble stone
be made by Chambers, six feet long, four feet wide, plain, with only a
small molding round the upper edge, and this inscription:=

`````"Benjamin

`````and Deborah

`````Franklin.

`````178--"=

His wishes were complied with. The date on the stone is 1790. * In the
same inclosure General Mercer, who was killed at Princeton, was first
buried; also Major-general Charles Lee, whose aversion to burial with
Dissenters has been noticed. Standing amid its graves, and overshadowed
by the venerable church, the American feels that he is upon consecrated
ground indeed--consecrated by something holier than the voice of man
setting it apart as a resting-place for the dead.

Here, wide open, is a broad page of our national history; let us sit
down this still Sabbath afternoon and peruse a portion of it preparatory
to a ramble on the morrow.

On the beautiful banks of the Delaware **--the Indian's
_Mack-er-isk-iskan_--dwelt for ages the powerful tribes of the Lenni
Lenapes ***--the Original People. They claimed the broad land from the
Hudson to the Poto-

* As early as 1727, when Franklin was only twenty-two years of age, he
wrote the following epitaph for himself:

     The Body of
     Benjamin Franklin,
     Printer,
     Like the cover of an old Book.
     Its contents torn out
     (And stripped of its lettering and gilding),
     Lies here, food for worms.

     But the work shall not be lost,
     For it will (as he believed) appear once more
     In a new and more elegant edition,
     Revised and corrected by
     The Author.

* This epitaph was first printed in a Boston newspaper (the New England
Courant), established and printed by Dr. Franklin.

** This name was given to the bay and river in honor of Lord De la Ware,
who was Governor of Virginia in 1611.

*** This has been sometimes used as a generic term, and applied to all
the tribes of the Algonquin family.

**** This view is from Second Street, looking northwest. It was built
at various periods. The first (western) end was erected in 1727; the
eastern or front portion was raised in 1731; and a small steeple was
reared in 1753-4. A small church edifice was built upon its site in
1695, and the later edifice was raised around the old one while worship
continued in it. The bell of the old church was hung in the crotch of
a tree near by. The new church was furnished with an organ in 1729. The
design of the church was made by Dr. John Kearsley, an eminent physician
of Philadelphia. In 1752-3 it was proposed to build a fine steeple upon
the church, and, in order to raise funds lor the purpose, a lottery
was established--"a scheme to raise £1012 10s. to finish the steeple
to Christ Church, and to purchase a ring of bells, and a clock." The
"Philadelphian Steeple Lottery" was successful, and the structure, as
it now appears, was finished in 1754. A chime of bells, weighing eight
thousand pounds, was purchased in England, at a cost of $4500. These
bells were taken down from the steeple by the commissary general, on the
approach of the British to Philadelphia in 1777. and conveyed to Trenton
for safety. They were returned, and hung again after the enemy evacuated
the eity. Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, says that these bells
were first tolled on the occasion of the funeral of Governor Anthony
Palmer's wife, the mother of twenty-one children, all of whom died of
consumption. On the top of the steeple is a miter, hearing the following
inscription: "The Right Reverend William White, D.D., consecrated Bishop
of the Episcopal Church of Pennsylvania, February 4th, 1787." The miter
is four feet in circumference at the bottom, and has thirteen holes in
it, indicative of the number of the original states. Bishop White was
one of the first chaplains of the Continental Congress, and the first
bishop of Pennsylvania. It is related that when he was a boy, living
next door to a Quaker family in Market Street, he used to play with
their little daughter. She often said, when she grew up, that Billy
White was born for a bishop, for she never could persuade him to play
any thing but church. He would tie her apron around his neck for a gown,
and stand behind a chair for a pulpit, while she, seated before him on a
low bench, was to be the congregation.

[[[The Natives on the Delaware and Schuylkill.--The Delawares--Their
Character portrayed by William Penn.]]]

{250}mac as their grand council-house. While they called themselves the
_original people_, they repeated the tradition that at some remote age
their ancestors came from beyond the Mississippi, conquering, on their
way, the more civilized nations, whose monuments are so profusely
scattered over the rich valleys westward of the Alleghany Mountains.
They were divided into three principal tribes, the _Turtle_, the
_Turkey_, and the _Wolf_. The two former occupied the northern portions
of New Jersey north of the Ptaritan, extending from the Hudson across
the Delaware into Pennsylvania, and are known to the whites as the
_Minsi_ division; the latter, known as the _Delawares_, inhabited the
southern portions of New Jersey and the entire valley of the Schuylkill.
* Their settlement extended up the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, and
they had a local council-fire at the Minisink flats, above the Delaware
Water-gap. When these tribes first became known to the English, they
were tributary to the Five Nations of New York, who applied to them the
scornful epithet of "women." They were forbidden to sell lands or
make war without the consent-of their conquerors, and were reduced
to absolute vassalage. In the course of time, however, the [[1650]]
Delawares were enabled to throw off the yoke of the conquerors. At
Tioga, in 1756, the great Teedyuscung extorted from the chiefs of the
Six Nations an acknowledgment of the independence of his people.

When the whites first visited the Delaware with a view to settlement,
the Lenni Lenapés, broken into many small tribes, were scattered along
the shores of the river on either side. ** They received the whites with
open-handed hospitality. "In liberality they excel," wrote William Penn.
"Nothing is too good for their friend. Give them a fine gun, coat, or
other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks. Light of heart,
strong affections, but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live;
feast and dance perpetually. They never have much, nor want much. Wealth
circulates like the blood--all parts partake; and, though none shall
want what another hath, yet exact observers of property." Penn drew a
charming picture of their hospitality, their liberal distribution of
presents when received, and the universal happiness that prevailed among
them; and then, with the hand of

* The two most noted chiefs of the Delawares at the time of our
Revolution, was Captain White Eyes and Captain Pipe. The former became
chief sachem in 1776, and espoused the patriot cause. He was a firm
friend to the missionaries, and earnestly desired the conversion of his
people to Christianity, and the enjoyment of the accompanying blessings
of civilization. He died of the small-pox, at Philadelphia, in 1780.
Captain Pipe secretly favored the British at the opening of the
Revolution, but the vigilant White Eyes frustrated all his plans for a
while. The Delawares at length became divided, and most of them, under
Captain Pipe, joined the British. We have met these chiefs once before
(page 264, vol. i.) and shall meet them again when we consider the Indian
war of the Revolution beyond the Alleghanies.

** The Assanpink Indians were at the Falls of the Delaware (Trenton);
the Rankokas and Andastakas at Christina Creek, near Wilmington; the
Nishaminies near Bristol; the Shackamaxons about Kensington; the Mantas,
or Frogs, near Burlington; the Minseys, or Minisinks, at the Forks
of the Delaware: and three or four other tribes were in New Jersey,
Maryland, and Virginia. A few Mingoes were among these.

[[[First Settlements on the Delaware by the Dutch and Swedes.--Troubles
with the Indians.--Gustavus Adolphus.]]]

{251}truth, holds up this record of the curse which boasted civilization
carries with it as continually as its own shadow: "Since the Europeans
came into these parts, they are grown great lovers of strong liquors,
rum especially, and for it exchange the richest of their skins and furs.
If they are heated with liquors, they are restless till they have enough
to sleep; that is their cry, '_Some more, and I will go to sleep;_' but,
when drunk, one of the most wretched spectacles in the world."

In 1609, Captain Henry Hudson, then in the service of the Dutch East
India Company, touched near Cape May, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, but,
finding shoal water, put to sea, and soon afterward sailed through
the Narrows into New York Bay. The Dutch established a trading-post on
Manhattan Island, now New York. The establishment increased, and in
1621 the Dutch West India Company was formed. In 1623, this company took
formal possession of the country discovered by Hudson, including the
Delaware, or South River, as they called it, in contradistinction to the
North River, now the Hudson. The foundation of New Amsterdam was laid,
and Captain Jacobus May was sent to take possession and colonize in the
most southern part of New Jersey. He gave Cape May the name it still
bears. Near where Gloucester, in New Jersey, now stands, he built
Fort Nassau. This was the first white settlement on the shores of the
Delaware, but it was not permanent. In 1631, Captain David Pieterson
de Vries entered the Delaware River with two ships and about thirty
colonists. He was associated with Godyn, Bloemart, and Van Rensselaer,
wealthy Dutch _patroons,_ establishing a permanent settlement on
the Delaware for the purpose of cultivating tobacco and grain, and
prosecuting the whale and seal fishing. He built Fort Oplandt, near
Lewiston, Delaware. DeVries returned to Holland, and when he came back,
in 1632, his colony was destroyed. The arms of Holland, emblazoned on a
piece of tin, had been raised upon a pole. An Indian stole the metal
to make a tobacco-box of it. Osset, the commander, quarreled with the
Indians, and the latter fell upon the colonists, while at work in the
fields, and butchered every one of them. De Vries made peace with the
tribe, but, finding Fort Nassau deserted, and the whole settlement
a desolation, he left the bay forever; for, before the Dutch could
re-establish their power, the patent granted to Lord Baltimore,
proprietor of Maryland, gave them an English competitor for the lower
portions of the territory on the west side of the Delaware.

The discoveries of the Dutch in the New World soon attracted the
attention of the enlightened Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. He
conceived a scheme for planting a Swedish colony in America, an idea
suggested and heartily seconded by William Usselinx, a wealthy and
enterprising Netherlander. A commercial company was formed; the stock
was open to all Europe, and Gustavus pledged four hundred thousand
dollars to the enterprise. Slavery was repudiated as a disadvantage to
the proposed colony. "Slaves," they said, "cost a great deal, labor
with reluctance, and soon perish from hard usage. The Swedish nation
is laborious and intelligent, and surely we shall gain more by a free
people with wives and children." America seemed to them a paradise, and
Gustavus suggested that the proposed colony might prove an advantage
to all oppressed and persecuted Christians. At that moment Germany, and
indeed Protestant Christendom, was menaced with a total subversion of
the principles of the Reformation; and against the increasing power
of the pope--a power composed of religious influence and imperial
soldiers--Gustavus took the field. All other considerations were, for
the moment, absorbed by this one movement; and yet the idea of planting
a free colony in the New World held a conspicuous place in the mind of
the Swedish monarch. At Nuremberg, only a few days before the battle of
Lützen, where he lost his life, he recommended the great scheme, "the
jewel of his kingdom," to the Germans. His views were warmly seconded by
Oxenstiern, the eminent statesman, who controlled the political affairs
of Sweden during the minority of Queen Christina.

In 1638, a colony of Swedes from Gottenburg, under the command of Peter
Minuits, a former governor of New Amsterdam, arrived in the Delaware,
and landed at Cape Henlo-

* See page 391, vol. i.

[[[Extension of Swedish Settlements.--Opposition of the
Dutch.--Stuyvesant's Conquests.]]]

{252}pen. Charmed with the beauty of the place, they called it Paradise.
They approached the Indians with kindness, and purchased from them their
lands upon the Delaware from Cape Henlopen to the falls at Trenton,
and named the region New Sweden. They built a church and fort on the
Minquaas, or Mingoes (now Christiana) Creek, where Wilmington now
stands, and there laid out a town. The Dutch claimed a title to all this
region by virtue of prior discovery and settlement, and Governor Keift
protested against this intrusion. Other emigrants came; some from
Maryland, who settled near the Schuylkill, and others from New Haven,
who established themselves on the Jersey shore. These Keift promptly
expelled, but did not disturb the Swedes.

John Printz succeeded Minuits as governor in 1643. With him came John
Campanius, from Stockholm, as chaplain for the colony. They came in
the ship _Fame_, accompanied by two war vessels, the _Swan_ and the
_Chantas_. Governor Printz selected Tinicum Island, * at the mouth of
Darby Creek, for a residence. There he built a strong fort of hemlock
logs, and a church, and beautified the neighborhood with orchards and
pleasure-grounds. Quite a village of fine houses, for the times,
sprung up, and New Gottenburg, as it was called, was for some years the
metropolis of New Sweden. Emigrants continued to arrive in considerable
numbers from Old Sweden, and they scattered neat dwellings and
cultivated acres all along the Delaware, from the present Wilmington to
Philadelphia.

In 1651, the Dutch determined to maintain their power on the Delaware,
and erected Fort Kasimer, on the south of Minquaas Creek, now the
site of New Castle, in Delaware. Printz protested, and also built
Fort Elsinberg on the Jersey shore, near the mouth of Salem Creek. The
garrison was soon put to flight by a foe more numerous and annoying
than Indians or Dutch, and the place was significantly named
_Mosquitoesburg_.

John Claudius Rising, or Risingh, succeeded Printz in 1652. Risingh was
more belligerent than his predecessor, and captured Fort Kasimer, either
by storm or stratagem, in 1654, hoisted the Swedish flag over it,
and called it Fort Trinity. Sven Schute, a bold Swedish warrior, was
appointed to the command of its garrison. This act excited the ire of
the Dutch at New Amsterdam, and in 1655 Governor Stuyvesant, with seven
ships, and six or seven hundred men, went up the Delaware, took all
the Swedish forts, and desolated New Gottenburg, on Tinicum Island.
The Swedes obtained honorable terms of capitulation, and the settlers
prospered under the Dutch rule. The Indians remained the firm friends of
the Swedes; and when the Dutch attempted to prevent a Swedish ship with
emigrants from passing up the Delaware in 1656, the natives interfered,
and the _Mercurius_ sailed up unmolested. The Dutch and Swedes continued
to occupy the Delaware in common for nine years, the former possessing
the political authority. In 1664, Charles the Second, of England, having
granted a charter to his brother James, the Duke of York, for the whole
of the New Netherlands, including the Dutch and Swedish settlements on
the Delaware, the English conquered the whole country, and changed the
name of New Amsterdam to New York. Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret
obtained a grant of the province of New Jersey from the Duke of York in
1665. The latter was appointed governor, and Bergen and other portions
of East Jersey began to be settled. That province was divided into East
and West Jersey in 1676. 'Lord Berkeley transferred his half of West
Jersey, in 1677, to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Billinge, both of
them Quakers. Becoming embarrassed, Billinge transferred his interest
to trustees, for the benefit of his creditors. William Penn was one of
those trustees, and thus he became interested in the settlements in the
New World. Between 1676 and 1680, the eastern shore of the Delaware,
from Burlington to Salem, became quite populous with Quakers, who came
chiefly from Yorkshire in England.

Admiral Sir William Penn, the father of the founder of Pennsylvania,
left, at his death, claims to a considerable amount against the crown,
for his services. His son, with the two-

* This is the island upon which the lazaretto now stands, and is not the
low, sandy island in the middle of the Delaware above.

[[[Charter granted to William Penn.--Emigrations. Arrival of Penn.--His
Biography. Annexation of Delaware.]]]

{253}fold motive of settling these claims and providing an asylum for
his persecuted Quaker brethren, applied to King Charles the Second for
a grant of land in the New World. He was successful, and on the 4th of
March, 1681, a charter was granted. The assent of the Duke of York
on the north, and of Lord Baltimore on the south, was obtained to
the provisions of the charter, and a province on the west side of
the Delaware, three degrees of latitude in breadth by five degrees
of longitude in length, was named by the kind's proclamation, as
well as[[April, 1631.]] in the charter, Pennsylvania, in honor of the
illustrious Admiral Penn.

[Illustration: 8261]

The proprietor immediately published "certain conditions or concessions"
to adventurers; and an association, composed principally of Quakers, was
formed at London and Bristol, called "The Free Society of Traders,"
who emigrated to America to purchase lands in the new province. William
Markham, a kinsman of Penn's, had been sent forward as his deputy to
take possession of the country and prepare for the colonists.

On the 30th of August, 1682, Penn, and quite a large number of
emigrants, chiefly Quakers, sailed in the _Welcome_, from England. They
arrived at New Castle on the 7th of October. The settlers of every kind
received the new proprietor with great joy, for the fame of his noble
and excellent character had preceded him. At Upland (now Chester) he
convened an assembly, where he made known his plans and benevolent
designs. His words were heard with delight, and the people flocked
around him with the affectionate feelings of children. The Swedes said,
"It was the best day they ever saw." At this assembly an Act of Union
was adopted, conformable to a deed which he had obtained, by which
the "three lower counties," Essex, Kent, and Sussex (now the State of
Delaware), were annexed to Pennsylvania. A few days afterward, Penn
proceeded to Shackamaxon (now Kensington, in Philadelphia), where he
entered into a treaty with the Indians, and established with them an
everlasting covenant of peace and friendship. This was the memorable
treaty held

* William Penn was born in London, October 14th, 1644, and in his
fifteenth year entered, as a gentleman commoner, a college in Oxford.
Brilliant talents and unaffected goodness characterized his early
youth. While at Oxford, he heard an itinerant Quaker preach, and was so
impressed with the doctrines which he taught, that he joined, with
other students similarly impressed, in withdrawing from the established
worship and holding meetings by themselves. He was fined for
non-conformity and expelled from college when he was sixteen years of
age. Parental discipline attempted to reclaim him, but in vain. He was
sent to France, where he passed two years, and became a very polished
young gentleman. He studied law in Lincoln's Inn until the breaking
out of the plague in London in 1665. He was sent to Ireland in 1666, to
manage an estate for his father, but, associating with Quakers there,
he was recalled. He could not be persuaded to take off his hat in the
presence of his father or the king, and for this inflexibility he
was expelled from his father's house. He became an itinerant Quaker
preacher, and made many proselytes. He suffered much "for conscience'
sake," sometimes by revilings, sometimes by imprisonments. He wrote
much, and preached with daily increasing fervor. In 1668 he wrote his
_No Cross, no Crown_; and in 1670 he was tried at the Old Bailey, but
acquitted by the jury. His father died soon afterward, leaving him a
very large estate, but he continued to travel, preach, and write as
usual. Having obtained a charter for a province in America, and settled
his government on a sure basis, he formed a plan for a capital city, and
named it Philadelphia--brotherly love. Two years after it was founded it
contained two thousand inhabitants. On returning to England in 1684,
he obtained the release of thirteen hundred Quakers then in prison. He
resided mostly in England, but visited his colony occasionally. He was
seized with a paralytic disorder in 1712, which terminated his life on
the 30th of July, 1718, at the age of seventy-three. His posterity held
his possessions till the Revolution. His last surviving son, Thomas
Penn, died in 1775.

[[[Penn's Just Dealings with the Natives.--Effect of his
Justice.--Treaty Monument.]]]

{254}beneath the wide-spread branches of a huge elm. "Under the shelter
of the forest, now leafless by the frosts of autumn," says Bancroft,
"Penn proclaimed to the men of the Algonquin race, from both banks of
the Delaware--from the border of the Schuylkill, and, it may have been,
from the Susquehanna--the same simple message of peace and love which
George Fox had professed before Cromwell, and Mary Fisher had borne to
the Grand Turk.

[Illustration: 8262]

The English and the Indian should respect the same moral law, should be
alike secure in their pursuits and their possessions, and adjust every
difference by a peaceful tribunal, composed of an equal number of men
from each race."

"We meet," said Penn, "on the broad pathway of good faith and good will;
no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness
and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes chide
their children too severely; nor brothers only; for brothers differ. The
friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that
the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break. We are the same
as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts; we are all one
flesh and blood."

Treaty Monument. *

```"' Thou'lt find.' said the Quaker, 'in me and mine,

```But friends and brothers to thee and to thine,

```Who abuse no power and admit no line

````'Twixt the red men and the white.'

```And bright was the spot where the Quaker came

```To leave his hat, his drab, and his name,

```That will sweetly sound from the trump of Fame

````Till its final blast shall die.

```The city he rear'd from the sylvan shade.

```His beautiful monument now is made;

```And long have the rivers their pride display'd

````In the scenes that are rolling by."

`````Hannah F. Gould.=

The children of the forest were touched by the sacred doctrine which the
"Quaker king" avowed. They received the presents of Penn in sincerity,
and in hearty friendship they gave the belt of wampum. "'We will live,'
said they, 'in love with William Penn and his children as long as the
moon and the sun shall endure.'"

Thus was established the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its foundations
laid deep and broad upon the sacred rules of truth and justice, the
cardinal principles of the Quakers, who formed the prime element of
the new state. That sect stood out in bold relief as exemplars of moral
purity in an age and among a people eminently licentious. The court,
the fountain-head of example, was wholly impure in morals, skeptical in
religion, and unscrupulous in politics. Unlike the other Puritan sects,
which gave royalty so much trouble, the Quakers taught morality more by
example than by precept; yet they were ever bold in the

* This monument stands near the intersection of Hanover and Beach
Streets, Kensington, on the spot where the celebrated Treaty Tree stood.
The tree was blown down in 1810, when it was ascertained to be 283 years
old. When the British were in possession of Philadelphia, during the
winter of 1778, their foraging parties were out in every direction for
fuel. To protect this tree from the ax, Colonel Simcoe, of the Queen's
Rangers, placed a sentinel under it. Of its remains, many chairs,
vases, work-stands, and other articles have been made. The commemorative
monument was erected by the Penn Soeiety. Upon it are the following
inscriptions: North side.--"Treaty ground of William Penn and the Indian
nation, 1682. Unbroken Faith." South side.--"William Penn, born 1644.
Died, 1718." West side.--"Placed by the Penn Soeiety, A.D. 1827, to
mark the site of the great Elm Tree." East side.--"Pennsylvania founded,
1681, by deeds of Peace."

[[[Character and Influence of the Quakers.---Founding of the
Pennsylvania Commonwealth, and of the City of Philadelphia.]]]

{255}avowal of their principles. Their benevolence was as extensive as
the round world; their plans designed no less than the establishment of
universal religion. No station was too exalted for their faithfulness to
reach. George Fox spoke boldly, face to face, to the king, as did Paul
before Agrippa; and he did not fail to catechise, by letter, even Pope
Innocent XI. No station was too low for their paternal care, and no
instrument too humble to be made useful as a preacher of righteousness.
"Plowmen and milk-maids, becoming itinerant preachers, sounded the alarm
throughout the world, and appealed to the consciences of Puritans and
Cavaliers, of the pope and the Grand Turk, of the negro and the savage.
Their apostles made their way to Rome and Jerusalem, to New England and
Egypt; and some were even moved to go toward China and Japan in search
of the unknown realms of Prester John." * Democracy, in its largest
sense, was their political creed. "We lay a foundation," said Penn, "for
after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that
they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent; _for
we put the power in the people_." With such views he framed his
government; with the simplicity of honest truth and love he made the
treaty with the Indians. This treaty was not confirmed by oath, nor
ratified by signatures and seals; no written records were made, "and its
terms and conditions had no abiding monuments but on the heart. There
they were written like the laws of God, and were never forgotten." **
Kindness was more powerful in subduing than the sword, and justice had
greater weight with the Indian warrior than gunpowder. "New England
had just terminated a disastrous war of extermination; the Dutch were
scarcely ever at peace with the Algonquins; the laws of Maryland refer
to Indian hostilities and massacres which extended as far as Richmond.
Penn came without arms; he declared his purpose to abstain from
violence; he had no message but peace; and not a drop of Quaker blood
was ever shed by an Indian." *** They themselves were conscious of the
power of rectitude. "We have done better," they said, in the _Planter's
Speech_, in 1684, "than if, with the proud Spaniards, we had gained the
mines of Potosi. We may make the ambitious heroes whom the world admires
blush for their shameful victories. To the poor dark souls round about
us we _teach their rights as men._"

Near the close of 1682 Penn purchased lands lying between the Delaware
and the Schuylkill, at their confluence, for the purpose of founding a
capital city. Already the Swedes had built a church there; **** and the
situation was "not surpassed," in the estimation of Penn, "by one
among all the many places he had seen in the world." With great joy and
brilliant hopes they marked the boundaries of streets on the trunks of
the chestnut, maple, ash, and walnut trees of the original forest, and
gave them names derived from these natural landmarks. They called the
city Philadelphia--_brotherly love_--and with unexampled rapidity the
forest disappeared, and pleasant houses uprose upon the "virgin Elysian
shore." In March, 1683, the second Assembly of the province convened in
the infant city, and, at the suggestion of Penn, the original "form of
government" was so amended, that the "charter of liberties" signed by
him at that time rendered the government of Pennsylvania, [[August,
1684]] all but in name, a representative democracy. Penn soon afterward
returned to England, having first appointed five commissioners, with
Thomas Loyd as president, to administer his government during his
absence. Every thing went on prosperously, and nothing occurred to
disturb the quiet of the new state until 1691, when the "three lower

* Bancroft, ii., 337.

** Ibid., ii., 382.

*** Ibid., ii., 383.

**** Several years before the arrival of Penn, the upper Swedish
settlement on the Delaware erected a blockhouse at Wicaco, now the
district of Southwark. The block-house was converted into a church for
the convenience of the settlement, the port-holes serving for windows.
The first sermon was preached in it in 1677. This edifice stood upon a
pleasant knoll sloping to the river. North of it, where Christian
Street is, was an inlet, and beyond this was another knoll, on whieh
was ereeted the house of three Swedish brothers, Sven, Oele, and Andries
Swenson [Swanson], from whom Penn purchased the site of Philadelphia.
This building was noticed by Kahn in 1748; and Mr. Watson, in his Annals
of Philadelphia, (i., 148), says, "the original log-house was standing
until the British occupied Philadelphia, when it was taken down and
converted into fuel." A brick church was built upon the site of the old
block-house in 1700, and is still standing on Swanson Street, a little
distance from the navy yard.

[[[Secession of Delaware.--Penn's Difficulties.--His liberal
Concessions.--Pennsylvania Charter.--Penn's Heirs.]]]

{256}counties on the Delaware" already mentioned, withdrew from the
Union on account of some dissatisfaction with the proceedings of a
majority of the council. With the reluctant consent of Penn, a deputy
governor was appointed over them. Charles the Second died in 1685,
and his brother James, the Duke of York, ascended the throne. The bad
private character of James, his duplicity, and his known attachment to
the Roman Catholics, made him detested by a majority of the people of
England, and, three years after his accession, he was driven into exile.
His scepter passed into the hands of his daughter Mary and her husband
William, prince of Orange.

[Illustration: 0264]

William Penn was suspected of adherence to the cause of the fallen
monarch, and of secret efforts to effect his restoration. For this he
was imprisoned; and in 1692 his provincial government was taken from
him by Gov. Fletcher, of New York, under a royal commission. These
suspicions were speedily removed, and in 1694 Penn's proprietary rights
were restored to him.

Penn again visited his colony in 1699, but he did not find that
prevailing peace which gladdened his heart when he left it. Discontents
had arisen among the people, and they were clamorous for further popular
concessions. Ever intent upon the happiness of the people, he presented
them with a more liberal charter than the former ones. It conferred
greater powers upon the people, and the Assembly declared, in signing
it, that "they thankfully received the same from the proprietor and
governor, this twenty-eighth day of October, 1701." This charter
remained unaltered until the separation of the province from Great
Britain, and the adoption of a constitution in 1776. The delegates from
the lower counties had withdrawn from the general Assembly, and refused
allegiance to the new charter of the Union with Pennsylvania. Penn
labored to bind them harmoniously together, but without success, and in
1703 a total separation was agreed upon. From that period, Pennsylvania
and the "three lower counties," or Delaware, had separate Legislatures,
although the same governor continued to preside over both. A scheme was
now elaborating in the British cabinet to abolish all of the proprietary
governments in America, and Penn hastened back [[1701.]]to England to
oppose it. **

He never returned to America, but died in England in 1781, leaving his
interest in Pennsylvania and Delaware to his three sons, John, Thomas,
and Richard Penn (then minors), who

* This is a representation of the seal and signature of William Penn
attached to the Pennsylvania charter. The names of the subscribing
witnesses to the instrument are James Claypoole, Francis Plumsted,
Thomas Barker, Philip Ford, Edward Pritchard, Andrew Soule, Christopher
Taylor, Charles Lloyd, William Gibson, U. More, George Rudyard, Harbt.
Springett.

** The parting message of Governor Penn to the Assembly is a pattern
of brevity, and might be studied with profit by some of our chief
magistrates. It was communicated just before his departure for England,
and was as follows: "10th month, 15th, 1708. "Friends,--Your union is
what I desire; but your peace and accommodating one another is what I
must expect from you; the reputation of it is something--the reality
much more. I desire you to remember and observe what I say. Yield in
circumstances to preserve essentials; and being safe in one another, you
will always be so in esteem with me. Make me not sad now I am going
to leave you; since it is for you, as well as for your friend, and
proprietor, and governor, William Penn."

** Just before leaving, Penn granted a city charter to Philadelphia,
and Edward Shippen was appointed the first mayor. He appointed Andrew
Hamilton, of New Jersey, lieutenant governor of his province, and James
Logan secretary.

[[[Penn's Successors hostile to the Indians.--Popular Feeling against
the Proprietaries.--Dr. Franklin.]]]

{257}continued to administer the government--by deputies, most of
the time--until the Revolution. The commonwealth of Pennsylvania then
purchased all their interest in the province for five hundred and eighty
thousand dollars. *

It would be a pleasant and profitable task to trace the history
of Pennsylvania in detail, from the period of Penn's death to the
commencement of the war for independence, but our plan and limits forbid
it. Having taken a general view of the settlement and establishment of
the province, we must be content with a consideration of leading events
bearing directly upon the Revolutionary struggle.

John, a grandson of William Penn, and son of Richard, then one of the
proprietors living in England, was lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania
when the Stamp Act and kindred measures of government stirred up a
rebellious spirit in the colonies. The province was then engaged in
hostilities with the Delawares, Shawanese, and Seneca Indians, who
were committing dreadful atrocities on the western frontier. It seemed
necessary for Governor Penn to assume the attitude of an enemy toward
the people with whom his grandfather lived so affectionately; and it is
painful to contemplate the fact that he offered, by proclamation, in
the city of Philadelphia, a bounty for the capture of Indians or their
scalps! ** The war was successful; and in the autumn of 1764 the Hostile
[[July 1764]] Indians sued for peace.

Internal commotions now became more frequent, and ominous of political
disruption. For years the province had been agitated by quarrels between
the Assembly and the proprietors on the subject of prerogatives. The
popular mind was led by Dr. Franklin and his associates, who contended
that the proprietary estates should be taxed in common with other
property. The proprietors, resting upon the privileges of their charter,
resisted the measure, and in John Penn they had a powerful, because
interested, champion. All hope of a reconciliation through concession
being at an end, Franklin and others had previously proposed to
petition the king to purchase the jurisdiction of the province from
the proprietors, and vest the government directly in the crown. The
proposition was favorably considered by the people at large, and
the petition was accordingly drawn up by Franklin. It set forth the
increasing property, and, as a consequence, the increasing power of the
proprietaries, and the danger to be apprehended from the influence of
such a power in the state intervening between the crown and the people.
This was the first great step toward revolution in Pennsylvania--an
attempt to crush feudal power and remove all barriers between the
supreme governor and the governed. Many leading men, whose relationship
to the proprietaries, and attachment to things made reverend by age,
opposed the petition; but the Quakers, whose principles had been set at
naught by the successors of William Penn, were in favor of the measure.
Several successive Assemblies favored the proposition, and Dr. Franklin
[[November, 1764]] was appointed provincial agent to urge the measure
before the king. This

* The founder of Pennsylvania, by the expenses incident to the
establishment of his government, together with many acts of private
benevolence, so impaired his paternal estate as to make it necessary
to borrow $30,000, the most of which was secured by a mortgage on his
province. This was the commencement of the state debt of Pennsylvania,
now amounting to about $40,000,000.

** The bounties were as follows: "For every male above the age of ten
years captured, $150; scalped, being killed, $134; for every female
Indian enemy, and every male under ten years, captured, $130; for every
female above the age of ten years, scalped, $50!

[[[The Stamp Act.--Spirit of the People.--Party Rancor.--Franklin
Lampooned.--William Bradford.]]]

{258}was the beginning of the system of colonial agencies which so
efficiently aided the progress of the Revolution.

In Philadelphia, as in other commercial towns, opposition to the Stamp
Act was a prevailing sentiment. Intelligence of its enactment, and the
king's assent, produced great excitement; and, as the day on which it
was to go into effect approached, open hostility became more and more
manifest. Party spirit, at that time, was peculiarly rancorous in
Pennsylvania, and the political opposers of Dr. Franklin asserted that
he was in favor of the odious act. The fact that he had procured the
office of stamp-master for Philadelphia for his friend John Hughes (as
he did for Ingersoll of Connecticut), gave a coloring of truth to the
charge, and his family and property were menaced with injury. * He was
lampooned by caricatures ** and placards; but they had little effect
upon the great mass of the people, by whom he was admired and confided
in.

The store-keepers of Philadelphia resolved to cease importing British
goods while the Stamp Act was in force; the people resolved to abstain
from mutton, so that wool for the purpose of domestic manufacture might
be increased; and among other resolves concerning frugality in living,
they determined to restrain the usual expenses of funerals. Benjamin
Price, Esq., was buried in an oaken coffin and iron handles; and
Alderman Plumstead was conveyed to the grave without a pall or
mourning-dresses. When the commission for Hughes and the stamps arrived,
all the bells were muffled and tolled; the colors were hoisted half
mast, and signs of a popular outbreak appeared. The house of Hughes was
guarded by his friends; but the current of popular feeling ran so high
and menacing that he resigned his office. As in New York, the odious act
was printed and hawked about the streets, headed _The Folly of England,
and the Ruin of America_. *** The newspaper of William Bradford, ****
the leading printer in Philadelphia, teemed with denunciations of the
act; and on the

* His wife, in a letter written on the 22d of September! 1765, from
"near Philadelphia," informs him that a mob was talked of; that several
houses were indicated for destruction; and that she was advised to
remove to Burlington for safety. "It is Mr. S. S." she said, "that is
setting the people mad, by telling them that it was you that had planned
the Stamp Act, and that you are endeavoring to get the Test Act brought
over here." The courageous woman declared she would not stir from her
dwelling, and she remained throughout the election (the immediate cause
of excitement at that time) unharmed.

** In one of these, called The Medley, Franklin is represented among the
electors, accompanied by the Devil, who is whispering in his ear,
"Thee shall be agent, Ben, for all my realm." In another part of the
caricature is the following verse:

     "All his designs concenter in himself,
     For building castles and amassing pelf.
     The public! 'tis his wit to sell for gain,
     Whom private property did ne'er maintain."

*** Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, ii., 271.

**** William Bradford was a grandson of William Bradford, the first
printer who settled in the colony. * He went to England in 1741, and the
next year returned with printing materials and books. In December, 1742,
he published the first number of the Pennsylvania Journal, which was
continued until about the close of the century, when his son Thomas, who
was his business partner, changed its name to the True American. While
carrying on the printing business, he opened, in 1754, at the corner
of Market and Front Streets, "The London Coffee-house," and in 1762
a marine insurance office, with Mr. Kydd. His republican bias was
manifested during the Stamp Act excitement; and when the war of the
Revolution began, he joined the Pennsylvania militia. As a major and
colonel, he fought in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and was
at Fort Mifflin, below Philadelphia, when it was attacked. After the
British army left Philadelphia, he returned with a broken constitution
and a shattered fortune. A short time before his death, a paralytic
shock gave him warning of its approach. To his children he said, "Though
I bequeath you no estate, I leave you in the enjoyment of liberty." He
died on the 25th of September, 1791, aged seventy-two years.

* His son, Andrew, was also a printer, and carried on business in
Philadelphia after his father had retired to New York on a pension
from government of sixty pounds a year. In a poetic effusion printed by
Keimer, the first employer of Dr. Franklin, in 1731, is the following
allusion to the Bradfords:

     "In Penn's wooden country type feels no disaster,
     The printers grow rich; one is made their postmaster.
     His father, a printer, is paid for his work,
     And wallows in plenty, just now, in New York.
     Though quite past his labor, and old as my gran'mum,
     The government pays him pounds sixty per annum."

[[[The Pennsylvania Journal.--Repeal of the Stamp
Act.--Rejoicings.--Dickenson's Letters.]]]

{259}day preceding the one in which the law was to go in force, it
contained the emblematic head and "doleful" communication seen in the
engraving. *

[Illustration: 0267]

The repeal of the Stamp Act the following year produced great rejoicing
in Philadelphia. The intelligence of the repeal was brought by Captain
Wise. He was invited to drink punch at the Coffee-house, ** where a
gold-laced hat was given him, and presents were distributed among his
crew. The punch was made common; and many of the "first men played
hob-and-nob over their glasses with sailors and common people." The city
was brilliantly illuminated at night; a large quantity of wood was given
for bonfires; many barrels of beer were distributed among the populace;
and the next day the governor and mayoralty gave a feast to three
hundred persons at the State House gallery. At that feast it was
unanimously resolved by those present to dress themselves, at the
approaching birth-day of the king, in new suits of English manufacture,
and to give their homespun garments to the poor. The anniversary of the
king's birth-day, in June, was also celebrated with great displays
of joy and loyalty; and the people, in the plenitude of their good
feelings, did not heed the advice of Franklin and Richard Penn, "not to
exult as at a great victory."

When the British Parliament devised other schemes for taxing the
Americans, Pennsylvania, like Massachusetts and all the other colonies,
was aroused, and the rights of the American people were every where
freely discussed. John Dickenson sent forth his powerful "Letters of a
Pennsylvania Farmer," *** and the circular letter from Massachusetts,
recapitu-

* This is one third the size of the original, and gives a fac simile, in
appearance, of the device.

** The London Coffee-house, established, as we have seen, by William
Bradford ten years before, on the corner of Front and Market Streets,
was the daily resort of the governor and other public functionaries, and
there vendues were generally held. John Pemberton, a Quaker, owned the
house in 1780; and in his lease to Gifford Dally, he stipulated that
swearing should be discouraged there, and that the house should be
closed on "the first day of the week.'" This would be an excellent
clause in like leases at the present day.

*** See page 476, vol. i

[[[Firmness of Pennsylvania.--Tea Ships.--Destruction of Tea at
Greenwich.--Revolutionary Movements.]]]

{260}lating arguments against taxation, was received with loud acclaim.
Alarmed at the progress of opposition in the colonies, Hillsborough, the
colonial secretary, sent forth his countervailing circulars. Governor
Penn was instructed to enjoin the Assembly to regard the Massachusetts
circular as seditious and of a dangerous tendency, and to prorogue the
Assembly if they should countenance it. The Assembly, firm in the right
cause, practically asserted their privilege to correspond with the other
colonies, and they heartily seconded the proposition of Virginia for
a union of the provinces in a respectful petition to the king for a
redress of grievances. Leagues, non-importation agreements, committees
of correspondence, and other revolutionary machinery, such as were
zealously engaged in New England, were equally active in Pennsylvania;
and when the British government poured all its wrath upon Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, in word and deed, stood up as the bold champion and
sympathizing friend of the New Englanders. Its course was more temperate
than its sister colony, but not less firm. While a convention at
Philadelphia recommended the people of Boston to try all lenient
measures for relief, they assured them that "the people of Pennsylvania
would continue firmly to adhere to the cause of American liberty."

In December, 1773, two of the "detested tea-ships" sailed up the
Delaware as far as Gloucester Point. There they were ordered to anchor,
and to proceed no further, at their peril. The authority acting on the
occasion was a committee from a meeting of full eight thousand persons,
then congregated in the State House yard. They allowed the captain
of one of the ships (the Polly) to go up to the city and witness the
manifested feelings of the people, by which he might determine which was
the wiser course to pursue, to persist in landing the tea, or to
weigh anchor for Europe. He chose the latter, and in the mean time
the consignees of the tea were all forced to resign. In November, the
following year, the brig Greyhound, bound to Philadelphia with a cargo
of tea, landed at Greenwich, on the Jersey shore. There the cargo was
discharged, and placed in the cellar of a house standing in front of the
market grounds. On the evening of the 22d, about fifty men, disguised
as Indians, took the chests from the cellar, piled them in a neighboring
field, and burned them. Suits were brought against some of the leading
young men who were engaged in this transaction, but the war breaking
out, and courts of justice being abolished or suspended, they were
abandoned. *

On the 18th of June, 1774, another meeting of at least eight thousand
persons convened in Philadelphia. The governor had been requested to
call a special session of the Assembly, but refused. ** John Dickenson
and Thomas Willing were appointed chairmen of the meeting: the whole
proceedings were revolutionary. They recommended a Continental Congress;
formed a committee to correspond with the counties and with the other
colonies in relation to the appointment of deputies to a general
Congress, and to solicit subscriptions for the sufferers at Boston. A
convention of deputies from all parts of the province was recommended,
and, as peaceably as it convened, the mass meeting adjourned.

[[1774]] A meeting of deputies from the several counties was held on the
15th of July, in which the kindred sentiments of loyalty and patriotism
glowed with intensity. They resolved "that they owed allegiance to
George the Third; that they ardently desired the restoration of their
ancient harmony with the mother country on the principles of the
Constitution; that the inhabitants of the colonies were entitled to the
same rights and liberties

* The following are the names of the leading young men who composed
this New Jersey Tea-party: Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, Richard Howell (afterward
major in the army and governor of the state), David Pierson, Stephen
Pierson, Silas Whitecar, Timothy Elmer, Rev. Andrew Hunter, Rev. Philip
Fithian, Alexander Moore, Jr., Clarence Parvin, John Hunt, James Hunt,
Lewis Howell, Henry Starks, James Ewing, father of the late chief
justice of New Jersey, Dr. Thomas Ewing, Josiah Seeley, and Joel
Fithian.

** In 1771 Governor John Penn returned to England, leaving executive
affairs in the hands of Andrew Hamilton, the president of the council.
In the autumn of that year, Richard Penn, a younger brother of John,
arrived with credentials as lieutenant governor. He held the office
until September, 1773, when John Penn returned, and resumed the reins of
government. It was during the latter part of the first administration of
John Penn, and those of Hamilton and Richard Penn, that the hostilities
in the Valley of Wyoming occurred, of which we have written in the first
volume.

[[[Members of Assembly instructed.--Quakers Opposed to the
Revolution.--"Testimony" of their Yearly Meeting in 1775.]]]

{261}within the colonies as subjects born in England were entitled to
within that realm, and that the right of representation in the British
Parliament was implied by the asserted power of the government to tax
them." The convention also adopted a series of instructions for the
Assembly about to convene, in which, in the strongest terms, colonial
rights were asserted. These were from the pen of John Dickenson, and,
though loyal in spirit, they were firm in resistance to the arm of
oppression. * When the Assembly met, these instructions were regarded as
binding, and were faithfully carried out. Joseph Galloway (who afterward
became a Tory), the speaker of the Assembly, Samuel Rhoades, Thomas
Mifflin, Charles Humphries, John Morton, George R-oss, Edward Biddle,
and subsequently John Dickenson, were appointed delegates to represent
Pennsylvania in the Continental [[July 22, 1774]] Congress, to assemble
in Philadelphia in September following.

We have seen that, from the founding of Pennsylvania, the Quakers held a
commanding social and political influence in the commonwealth.
Although this influence was much diminished at the commencement of the
Revolution, a large influx of Germans and adventurers from New England
having populated extensive districts of the province, their principles,
precepts, and practices had great weight with the public mind. They had
generally taken affirmative ground in the popular peaceable measures
adopted to procure redress of political grievances, and warmly approved
of the conduct of the first Continental Congress; but when an appeal to
arms became an apparent necessity, and the tendency of action in
popular conventions and legislative assemblies pointed to that dreadful
alternative, their love of order, and their principles of non-resistance
by force of arms, positively enjoined in their "Discipline," made them
pause. They held extra and protracted meetings, even till after
night, to determine what to do. There was a spirit abroad favorable
to enforcing a compliance with the letter of the American Association
recommended by the first Congress--an association designed to draw,
in strong lines of demarcation, the separation between the friends of
Congress and the friends of the king. To this spirit the Quakers were
opposed, because it usurped the dearest prerogatives of conscience,
and pronounced the exercise of honest opinions to be a political
misdemeanor. They not only paused, but cast the weight of their
influence into the scale of royalty, believing it to be the guardian of
law and order.

While a Provincial Convention was in session in Philadelphia, in which
the elo[[May, 1775]]quence of Thomas Mifflin, a young Quaker, was
urging his countrymen to a resort to arms, his sect, not sharing his
enthusiasm, were holding their yearly meeting in the same city. That
meeting, swayed in its opinions and action by James Pemberton, one of
the most prominent and sound men of his day, put forth its "Testimony,"
in which the members of the society were exhorted to withhold all
countenance from every measure "tending to break off' the happy
connection of the colonies with the mother country, or to interrupt
their just subordination to the king." ** From that time until the close
of the war, the

* "Honor, justice, and humanity," they said, "call upon us to hold,
and to transmit to posterity, that liberty which we received from our
ancestors. It is not our duty to leave our wealth to our children, but
it is our duty to leave liberty to them. No infamy, iniquity, or cruelty
can exceed our own, if we, born and educated in a country of freedom,
entitled to its blessings, and knowing their value, pusillanimonsly
deserting the post assigned us by Divine Providence, surrender
succeeding generations to a condition of wretchedness from which no
human efforts, in all probability, will be sufficient to extricate them,
the experience of all states mercifully demonstrating to us that, when
arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and
bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a few years, degenerated
into abject and wretched vassals. To us, therefore, it appears, at this
alarming period, our duty to God, to our country, to ourselves, and to
our posterity, to exert our utmost ability in promoting and establishing
harmony between Great Britain and these colonies on a constitutional
foundation."

** The following is a copy of that document, taken from the Pennsylvania
Evening Post, No. 402: The TESTIMONY of the people called, Quakers,
given forth by a meeting of the Representatives of said people in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, held at Philadelphia the twenty-fourth
day of the first month, 1775: Having considered, with real sorrow, the
unhappy contest between the Legislature of Great Britain and the people
of these colonies, and the animosities consequent thereon, we have, by
repeated public advices and private admonitions, used our endeavors
to dissuade the members of our religious soeiety from joining with the
public resolutions promoted and entered into by some of the people,
which, as we apprehended, so we now find, have increased contention, and
produced great discord and confusion. The Divine Principle of grace and
truth which we profess leads all who attend to its dictates to demean
themselves as peaceable subjects, and to discountenance and avoid
every measure tending to excite disaffection to the king as supreme
magistrate, or to the legal authority of his government, to which
purpose many of the late political writings and addresses to the people
appearing to be calculated, we are led by a sense of duty to declare our
entire disapprobation of them, their spirit and temper being not only
contrary to the nature and precepts of the Gospel, but destructive of
the peace and harmony of civil society, disqualifies men, in these times
of difficulty, for the wise and judicious consideration and promoting of
such measures as would be most effectual for reconciling differences
or obtaining the redress of grievances. From our past experience of the
clemency of the king and his royal ancestors, we have ground to hope and
believe that decent and respectful addresses from those who are vested
with legal authority, representing the prevailing dissatisfactions and
the cause of them, would avail toward obtaining relief, ascertaining
and establishing the just rights of the people, and restoring the public
tranquillity; and we deeply lament that contrary modes of proceeding
have been pursued, which have involved the colonies in confusion, appear
likely to produce violence and bloodshed, and threaten the subversion of
the Constitutional government, and of that liberty of conscience for the
enjoyment of which our ancestors were induced to encounter the manifold
dangers and difficulties of crossing the seas and of settling in the
wilderness. We are therefore incited, by a sincere concern for the peace
and welfare of our country, publicly to declare against every usurpation
of power and authority in opposition to the laws and government, and
against all combinations, insurrections, conspiracies, and illegal
assemblies; and as we are restrained from them by the conscientious
discharge of our duty to Almighty God, "by whom kings reign and princes
decree justice," we hope, through his assistance and favor, to be
enabled to maintain our testimony against any requisitions which may be
made of us, inconsistent with our religious principles and the fidelity
we owe to the king and his government, as by law established; earnestly
desiring the restoration of that harmony and concord which have
heretofore united the people of these provinces, and been attended by
the Divine blessing on their labors. Signed in and on behalf of the said
meeting, James Pemberton, Clerk at this time.

** This Testimony gave offense to many Friends in Philadelphia who were
favorable to the patriots. Some left, and formed a separate meeting.
They built themselves a brick meeting-house at the southwest corner of
Fifth and Arch Streets; and others so far seceded as to form a military
company, under Captain Humphreys, which they called The Quaker Company.

[[[James Pemberton and others sent to Virginia.--Arrest and Removal of
Governor Penn and Chief-justice Chew.]]]

{262}Quakers, as a body, were friends of the king, though generally
passive, so far as public observation could determine. But in secret,
and through their "testimonies," they gave "aid and comfort to the
enemy."

[Illustration: 9270]

To such an extent did they exert their influence against the patriots,
that Congress thought it proper to recommend the executives of the
several states to keep a watch upon their movements. That body also
earnestly recommended the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania to
apprehend and secure the persons of eleven of the leading Quakers
of Philadelphia. * Among these was August 23, James Pemberton, whose
likeness is here given. He[[August 28, 1777]] remained two years in
Virginia, where he wrote a journal, a portion of which is published in
the "_Friends' Miscellany_," vol. vii.

Unlike other Tories, the Quakers were so passive that little positive
evidence of their acting against the patriots could be

* The reason given for this measure by Congress was, "that when the
enemy, in the month of December, 1776. were bending their progress
toward the city of Philadelphia, a certain seditious publication,
addressed "To our friends and brethren in religious profession in these
and the adjacent provinces," signed John Pemberton, in and on behalf of
the meeting of sufferings, held at Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, the 26th of the 12th month, 1776," was published, and, as
your committee is credibly informed, circulated among many members of
the society called Quakers, throughout the different states." The
paper originated in Philadelphia, and Joshua Fisher. Abel James, James
Pemberton, Henry Drinker, Israel Pemberton. John Pemberton, John James,
Samuel Pleasants, Thomas Wharton, senior, Thomas Fisher, and Samuel
Fisher, of that city, leading members of the society, were banished to
Fredericksburg, in Virginia. The Board of War was also instructed to
remove the Honorable John Penn, the governor, and Benjamin Chew, the
chief justice of Pennsylvania, thither, for safe custody.--See Journals
of Congress, iii., 290. The papers and records of the yearly meeting
of the Quakers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which were captured by
Sullivan, in an expedition against the Loyalist regiments living on
Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy, gave Congress the first positive
proof of the general disaffection of the sect.

[[[Execution of Roberta and Carlisle.--Justice of their
Punishment.--Carpenters' Hall.]]]

{263}obtained; and very few of them, suffering from confiscation of
property or other penalties, became refugees at the close of the war.
John Egberts and Abraham Carlisle, of Philadelphia, members of this
sect, suffered death at the hands of the Whigs, in November, 1778.

[Illustration: 9271]

This act has been cited a hundred times as evidence against the claims
to the exercise of uniform humanity on the part of the patriots, and
magnified into a foul murder, justified by no plea of public expediency.
The facts prove otherwise; for if it was ever expedient to take the life
of a dangerous citizen, then Roberts and Carlisle suffered justly. While
they abstained from open hostility to the Revolutionary government, and
refused to bear arms for the king, they gave secret aid, far more potent
to the enemies of liberty. They were employed by Joseph Galloway and
his loyal friends as secret agents in detecting foes to the government.
While Howe had possession of Philadelphia, Carlisle granted permissions
to pass the lines, watched at the entrance of the city to point out
obnoxious persons coming from the country, and many were arrested
and cast into prison on his bare suggestion.. Under the meek garb and
demeanor of the Quaker was a Torquemada, exercising the functions of
an inquisitor general. When Howe ordered a detachment, under
Lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie, to go out upon the Frankford road, and
fall upon a party of American militia, who, he was informed, were lying
in the woods, Egberts and Carlisle, who would not _bear arms_ for the
wealth of the Indies, acted as guides in conducting Abercrombie to the
massacre of their countrymen. According to the rules of war and of state
policy, their execution was expedient and salutary in effect. It was
a subject for bitter vituperation on the part of the Tories, and even
those who would fain have saved them from death were charged with
dishonorable motives. "Governor Livingston went to Philadelphia," wrote
John Potts to Joseph Galloway, "and urged his endeavors to prevail on
the banditti in power there to save Roberts and Carlisle, not from
any principle of honor or conscience--you know him too well--but from
motives, as he thought, of policy." I think it may be safely asserted
that where one Tory lost his life at the hands of the Whigs during the
Revolution, fifty Whigs were slain in cold blood by the Tories. The
reason is obvious--a heart warmed with love of country is benevolent and
humane; its active opposers may fairly be presumed to be mercenary, and
consequently cruel.

The supper-bell has rung; let us close the chronicle for to-night, and
in the morning go out in search of localities made memorable by events
connected with our war for independence.

On Monday morning I visited [[November 27, 1848]]Carpenters' Hall, the
building in which the first Continental Congress held its brief session.
Having had no intimation concerning its appearance, condition, and
present use, and informed that it was situated in "Carpenters' Court,"
imagination had invested its exterior with dignity, its interior with
solemn grandeur, and its location a spacious area, where nothing "common
or unclean" was permitted to dwell. How often the hoof of Pegasus
touches the leafless tree-tops of sober prose when his rider supposes
him to be at his highest altitude! How often the rainbow of imagination
fades, and leaves to the eye nothing but the forbidding aspect of a
cloud of plain reality! So at this time. The spacious court was but a
short and narrow

* This building is constructed of small imported bricks, each alternate
one glazed, and darker than the other, giving it a checkered appearance.
Many of the old houses of Philadelphia were built of like materials.
It was originally erected for the hall of meeting for the society of
house-carpenters of Philadelphia. It stands at the end of an alley
leading south from Chestnut Street, between Third and Fourth Streets.

[[[Desecration of Carpenters' Hall.--Congress Hall.--Prevalence of a
Desire for Union.]]]

{264}alley; and the _Hall_, consecrated by the holiest associations
which cluster around the birthtime of our republic, was a small
two-story building, of somber aspect, with a short steeple, and all of a
dingy hue. I tried hard to conceive the apparition upon its front to
be a classic frieze, with rich historic triglyphs; but it would not do.
Vision was too "lynx-eyed," and I could make nothing more poetic of it
than an array of impudent letters spelling the words=

````C. J. WOLBERT & CO., AUCTIONEERS

````FOR THE SALE OF

````Real Estate and Stocks,

````Fancy Goods,

````Horses, Vehicles, and Harness.

[Illustration: 8272]

What a desecration! Covering the façade of the very Temple of Freedom
with the placards of groveling mammon! If sensibility is shocked with
this outward pollution, it is overwhelmed with indignant shame on
entering the hall where that august assembly of men--the godfathers of
our republic--convened to stand as sponsors at the baptism of infant
American Liberty, to find it filled with every species of merchandise,
and the walls which once echoed the eloquent words of Henry, Lee, and
the Adamses, reverberating with the clatter of the auctioneer's voice
and hammer. Is there not patriotism strong enough and bold enough in
Philadelphia to enter this temple and cast out all them that buy and
sell, and overthrow the table of the money-changers?"

The hall in which Congress met is upon the lower floor, and comprehends
the whole area of the building. It is about forty-five feet square, with
a recess in the rear twenty-five feet wide and about twelve feet deep,
at the entrance of which are two pillars, eighteen feet high. The second
story contains smaller apartments which were used by Congress, and
occupied by the society as committee rooms. In one of these, emptied of
all merchandise except a wash-tub and a rush-bottomed chair, let us sit
down and consider the events connected with that first great Continental
Council.

We have already, in former chapters, considered the causes which
awakened a desire in the colonies for a political union, and which
impelled them to resistance. For many years a strong sympathy had
existed between the several colonies, and injuries done to one, either
by the aggressions of the French and Indians, or the unkind hand of
their common mother, touched the feelings of all the others, and drew
out responsive words and acts which denoted an already strong bond
of unity. Widely separated as some of them were from each other by
geographical distance, and diversity of interest and pursuits, there
were, nevertheless, political, social, and commercial considerations
which made the Anglo-Americans really one people, having common
interests and common hopes. Called upon as free subjects of Great
Britain to relinquish, theoretically and practically, some of the
dearest prerogatives guaranteed to them by Magna Charta and hoary
custom--prerogatives, in which were enveloped the most precious kernels
of civil liberty--they arose as one family to resist the insidious

[[[First Movements toward a General Congress.--Election of
Delegates.--Names of the Representatives of each Colony.]]]

{265}progress of on-coming despotism, and yearned for union to give
themselves strength commensurate to the task. Leading minds in every
colony perceived the necessity for a general council, and in the spring
of 1774, the great heart of Anglo-America seemed to beat as with one
pulsation with this sublime idea. That idea found voice and expression
almost simultaneously throughout the land. Rhode Island has the
distinguished honor of first speaking out publicly on the subject. A
general Congress was proposed at a town meeting in Providence on the
17th of May, 1774. A committee of a town meeting held in Philadelphia on
the 21st, four days afterward, also recommended such a measure; and on
the 23d, a town meeting in New York city uttered the same sentiment. The
House of Burgesses of Virginia, dissolved by Lord Dunmore, assembled at
the Raleigh Tavern, * in Williams-burgh, on the 27th, and on that day
warmly recommended the assembling of a national council; and Baltimore,
in county meeting, also took action in favor of it on the 31st. On the
6th of June, a town meeting at Norwich. Connecticut, proposed a general
Congress; on the 11th, a county meeting at Newark, New Jersey, did the
same; on the 17th, the Massachusetts Assembly, and, at the same time,
a town meeting in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, strenuously recommended the
measure; and a county meeting at New Castle, Delaware, approved of it
on the 29th. On the 6th of July, the committee of correspondence at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, expressed its approbation of the measure.
A general province meeting, held at Charleston, South Carolina, on the
6th, 7th, and 8th of that month, urged the necessity of such a Congress;
and a district meeting at Wilmington, North Carolina, held on the 21st,
heartily responded affirmatively. Thus we perceive that, within the
space of sixty-four days, twelve of the thirteen colonies spoke out
decidedly in favor of a Continental Congress, Georgia alone remaining
silent. ** The Massachusetts Assembly designated the 1st of September,
1774, as the time, and Philadelphia as the place for the meeting of
the Congress. *** Other colonies acquiesced, and at Philadelphia the
delegates convened.=

```"Now meet the fathers of this western clime,

````Nor names more noble graced the roll of Fame.

```When Spartan firmness braved the wrecks of time.

````Or Rome's bold virtues fann'd the heroic flame.=


```"Not deeper thought th' immortal sage inspired

````On Solon's lips, when Grecian senates hung;

```Nor manlier eloquence the bosom fired,

````When genius thunder'd from the Athenian tongue."

`````Trumbull.**** =

On Monday, the 5th of September, fifty-four delegates, from twelve
colonies, assembled in Carpenters' Hall. (v) It was a congregation of
men, viewed in every important aspect,

* A drawing of the Raleigh Tavern, and also of the Apollo Room, in whieh
the Assembly met, will be found in another part of this work.

** Connecticut elected its delegates on the 3d of June; Massachusetts
on the 17th; Maryland on the 22d; New Hampshire on the 21st of July;
Pennsylvania on the 22d; New Jersey on the 23d; New York on the 25th;
Delaware on the 1st of August; Virginia on the same day; South Carolina
on the 2d; Rhode Island on the 10th; and North Carolina on the 25th.

*** See pages 510, 511, vol. i.

**** The author of M'Fingal. These lines are from his Elegy on the
Times, published while this first Congress was in session.

* (v) The following are the names of the members who composed the first
Continental Congress:

     New Hampshire.--John Sullivan, Nathaniel Folsom.

     Massachusetts.--Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
     Robert Treat Paine.

     Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.--Stephen Hopkins,
     Samuel Ward.

     Connecticut.--Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas Deane..

     New York.--James Duane, John Jay, Isaac Low, John Alsop,
     William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Henry Wisner.

     New Jersey.--James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, William
     Livingston, Richard Smith, John De Hart.

     Pennsylvania.--Joseph Galloway, John Morton, Charles
     Humphreys, Thomas Mifflin, Samuel Rhodes, Edward Biddle,
     George Ross, John Dickenson.

     Delaware.--Cæsar Rodney, Thomas M'Ivean, George Read.

     Maryland.--Robert Goldsborough, Samuel Chase, Thomas
     Johnson, Matthew Tilghman, William Pann.

     Virginia.--Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George
     Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison,
     Edmund Pendleton.

     North Carolina.--William Hooper, Joseph Hughes, Richard
     Caswell.

     South Carolina.--Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Thomas
     Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, Edward Rutledge.

[[[Character of the first Continental Congress.--Its
Organization.--Peyton Randolph.--Charles Thomson.]]]

{266}such as the world had never seen. "For a long time," says the
eloquent Charles Botta, "no spectacle had been offered to the attention
of mankind of so powerful an interest as this of the present American
Congress. It was, indeed, a novel thing, and, as it were, miraculous,
that a nation hitherto almost unknown to the people of Europe, or only
known by the commerce it occasionally exercised in their ports, should,
all at once, step forth from this state of oblivion, and, rousing as
from a long slumber, should seize the reins to govern itself; that
the various parts of this nation, hitherto disjointed, and almost in
opposition to each other, should now be united in one body, and moved by
a single will; that their long and habitual obedience should be suddenly
changed for the intrepid counsels of resistance, and of open defiance to
the formidable nation whence they derived their origin and laws. *

The men who composed that first Congress were possessed of the purest
minds, the loftiest and most disinterested patriotism, and moral
characters without spot or blemish. Instinctively the people had turned
to their _best men_ for counsel and action when the crisis arrived; and
the representatives there assembled composed the flower of the American
colonies. "There is in the Congress," wrote John Adams, "a collection of
the greatest men upon this continent in point of abilities, virtues,
and fortunes." The sectional factions and personal ambitions, which
afterward disturbed the harmony and injured the character of the
Continental Congress, ** had no tangible shape in this first Assembly.
They felt, with all the solemnity of wise and virtuous men, the weight
of the momentous responsibility resting upon them. They knew that toward
them all eyes were turned, all hearts were drawn; that not only America,
but the whole civilized world, was an interested spectator of their
acts; and that for posterity, more than for cotemporaries, they held a
trust of value infinitely beyond human estimation. Impressed with the
consciousness of such responsibility, the delegates commenced their
labors.

[[September, 1774]] Congress was organized by the choice of Peyton
Randolph, *** of Virginia, as president, and Charles Thomson, **** of
Pennsylvania, as secretary. The credentials of

* Otis's Botta, i 128.

** In the opinion of Charles Thomson, who was Secretary of Congress for
fifteen consecutive years, no subsequent national Assembly during the
war could compare with the first in point of talent and purity. He
represents the Congress that sat at York, in Pennsylvania, while
Washington and his army were suffering at Valley Forge, as a body of
weak men compared to former delegations. It was in that Congress that
a faction favored the scheme for making Gates commander-in-ehief of the
army in place of Washington.

*** Peyton Randolph was a native of Virginia, descended from one of
its oldest and most respected families. Like other young men of the
aristocracy, he was educated in England. He chose the profession of the
law, and sueh were his talents that he was appointed attorney-general of
the province in 1756, at the age of twenty-seven years. In that year he
engaged, with one hundred gentlemen, to band as volunteers, and march
against the Indians on their Western frontiers. He was for some years
a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and was at one time
its speaker. He was one of the delegates from Virginia in the first
Continental Congress, presided over that body with dignity, and was
elected to the presidential chair by the second Congress, the following
year. On account of ill health, he was obliged to resign his station on
the 24th of May, 1775, and return to Virginia. He afterward resumed his
seat in Congress. He died at Philadelphia, of apoplexy, on the 22d of
October, 1775, aged fifty-two years. The accompanying likeness of Mr.
Randolph I copied from a miniature by Charles Wilson Peale, in the
possession of his son, Titian R. Peale, Esq., of Washington City.
The original portrait from life, painted by Peale, is in the Congress
library; the miniature is a copy by the same artist. Mr. Randolph was a
Free-mason; the scarf seen across his breast is a part of the regalia of
a grand master. The portrait was painted for a lodge of the fraternity.

**** Charles Thomson was born in Ireland, in 1730, and came to Ameriea,
with his three elder brothers, in 1741. They landed at New Castle,
Delaware, with no other dependence than their industry. He was educated
by Dr. Allison, the tutor of several of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. He was afterward a teacher at the Friends' Academy, at
New Castle. From thence he went to Philadelphia, where he obtained the
advice and lasting friendship of Dr. Franklin. He was called to the
responsible duty of keeping the minutes of the proceedings of the first
Continental Congress in 1774, and from that time until he resigned his
offiee, in 1789, he was the sole secretary of that body. He married
Hannah Harrison, the aunt of General Harrison, late President of the
United States. Mr. Thomson died at Lower Merion, Montgomery county,
Pennsylvania, August 16, 1824, aged ninety-four years. The likeness of
Secretary Thomson here given I copied from a portrait painted from life
by Charles Wilson Peale, and in the present possession of P. T. Barnum,
Esq., of New York. It agrees with the description of him given by the
Abbé Robin, who was attached to Rochambeau's staff. Alluding to those
who paid their respects to Roehambeau when he was in Philadelphia, he
says: "Among others, Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress, the soul of
that political body, came also to receive and present his compliments.
His meager figure, furrowed countenance, his hollow, sparkling eyes, his
white, straight hair, that did not hang quite so low as his ears, fixed
our thorough attention and filled us with surprise and admiration."

[[[Opening of the first Continental Congress.--Patrick Henry.--The First
Prayer in Congress.]]]

{267}the various delegates were then presented, and now came a pause;
who should take the lead? what measure should be first proposed?

They had come together from distant provinces, some instructed by the
power that appointed them, others left free to act as circumstances
should require.

[Illustration: 8275]

There was a profound silence, and deep anxiety was depicted upon every
countenance. No one seemed willing to break that silence, until a
grave-looking member, in a plain, is it?" A few, who knew the stranger,
answered, There was no more hesitation; he who startled the people of
colonial America, nine years before, by his bold resolutions against the
Stamp Act, and, a few months afterward, by the cry of "Give me liberty
or give me death!" now gave the impulse to the representatives of that
people in grand council assembled, and set in motion that machinery of
civil power which worked so nobly while Washington and his compatriots
were waging war with the enemy in the field.

[Illustration: 9275]

Two days afterward, another im-[[September 7.]] impressive scene
occurred. It was the _first prayer in Congress_, offered up by the
Reverend Mr. Duché. ** The first day had been occupied in the reception
of credentials and the arrangement of business; the second, in the
adoption of rules for the regulation of the session; and now, when about
to enter upon the general business for which they were convened, the
delegates publicly sought Divine aid. It was a spectacle of great
interest, for men of every creed dark suit of "minister's gray" and
unpowdered wig, arose. "Then," said Bishop White, who was present,
and related the circumstance, "I felt a regret that a seeming _country
parson_ should so far have mistaken his talents and the theater for
their display."

[Illustration: 6275]

But his voice was so musical, his words so eloquent, and his sentiments
so profoundly logical, that the whole House was electrified, and the
question went from lip to lip, Who is it? who It is Patrick Henry, of
Virginia!" *** John Adams thus wrote:

"When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be
opened with prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay", of New York, and Mr.
Rutledge, of South Carolina, because we were so divided in religious
sentiments--some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some
Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists--that we could not join in
the same act of worship. Mr. Samuel Adams arose, and said 'that he was
no bigot, and could hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety and virtue
who was at the same time a friend to his country. He was a stranger in
Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duché (Dushay they pronounce it)
deserved that character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duché, an
Episcopal clergyman, might be desired to read prayers before the
Congress to-morrow morning.' The motion was seconded, and passed in
the affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our president, waited on Mr. Duché,
and received for answer that, if his health would permit, he certainly
would. Accordingly, next morning, he appeared with his clerk, and in
pontificals, and read several prayers in the Established form, and then
read the Psalter for the seventh day of September, a part of which was
the 35th Psalm. You must remember this was the next morning after we
had heard the rumor of the horrible cannonade of Boston. It seemed as if
Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning.

"After this, Mr. Duché, unexpectedly to every body, struck out into an
extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I
must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced.
Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervor,
such ardor, such correctness, such pathos, and in language so elegant
and sublime, for Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay,
especially the town of Boston. It had an excellent effect upon every
body here. I must beg you to read that Psalm. If there is any faith in
the Sortes Virgillianae, or Sortes Homericæ, or especially the Sortes
Biblieæ, it would be thought providential." Bishop White, who was
present, says that Washington was the only member who knelt on that
occasion.

* See Watson's Annals, vol. i., 422. his wife on the 8th of September,
concerning that first prayer in Congress.

[[[Sessions with closed Doors.--Sympathy with
Massachusetts.--Declaration of Rights.--"American Association."--Mr.
Duché.]]]

{268}were there. In this service their creeds were forgotten, and the
hearts of all united in the prayer which flowed from the pastor's
lips; a prayer which came from a then patriot's heart, though timidity
afterward lost him the esteem of his friends and countrymen. *

The Congress resolved to sit with closed doors, for enemies were around
them with open eyes and busy tongues, and nothing was to be made
public without special orders. Having no means at hand to ascertain the
relative importance of the colonies, it was agreed "that each colony or
province should have one vote in determining questions." One of their
first acts was to express an opinion that the whole continent ought
to support Massachusetts in [[ a September 10.]] resistance to the
unconstitutional change in her government; (a) and they afterward
resolved that any person accepting office under the new system ought to
be held in detestation as a public enemy. (b) Merchants were advised to
enter into non-importation agreements;(c) and a letter was addressed to
General Gage, remonstrating against the fortifications on Boston Neck,
and his arbitrary exercise of power. (d) On the 11th of October, a
_Declaration of Colonial Rights_, prepared by a committee of two from
each province, was adopted, in which was set forth the grievances
complained of, and the inalienable rights of British subjects" in every
part of the realm. As a means of enforcing the claim of natural and
delegated rights, fourteen articles were agreed to as the basis of an
_American Association_, pledging the associate's to an entire commercial
non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, and
the non-consumption of tea and British goods. In one clause the slave
trade was specially denounced, and entire abstinence from it, and from
any trade with those concerned in it, formed a part of the association.
Committees were to be appointed in every county, city, and town, to
detect and punish all violations of it; and all dealings [[October 20.]]

* Mr. Duché was at that time an ardent Whig, but subsequently became an
enemy to his country. He was the son of a Huguenot, who eame to America
with William Penn. In youth he was a good orator, and, after taking
holy orders in England, he became a very popular Episcopal clergyman in
Philadelphia, his native eity. He was appointed chaplain to Congress on
the 9th of July, 1776, but resigned in October. When the British took
possession of Philadelphia, Mr. Duché, alarmed at the gloomy aspect
of affairs, forsook the patriot cause, and, in a letter to Washington,
endeavored to persuade the general to do likewise, and to "represent
to Congress the indispensable necessity of rescinding the hasty and
ill-advised Declaration of Independence." Washington transmitted this
letter to Congress, and Mr. Duché was obliged to leave the country. He
became a preacher in the Lambeth Asylum, where he was greatly respected.
He returned to America in 1790, and died in Philadelphia in 1794, aged
about sixty years. Mr. Duché was a man of much benevolence of character.
He gave the amount of his salary ($150), while chaplain of Congress, to
be distributed among families whose members had been slain in battle.
He married a sister of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence.

** This Declaration of Rights may be found in the Appendix.

[[[State Papers issued by Congress.--Debates. Diversity of
Opinion.--Dartmouth's Circular.--Joseph Galloway.]]]

{269}with such enemies of American liberty were to be immediately broken
off. One hundred and fifty copies of the Articles of Association were
ordered to be printed.

A memorial to the inhabitants of the several British-American colonies,
written by Richard Henry Lee, and an eloquent address to the people of
Great Britain, from the pen of John Jay, were adopted by Congress on the
21st. A petition to the king, drawn [[October, 1774]] by John Dickenson,
was approved of on the 22d. Short letters to the colonies of St.
John's Island (now Prince Edward's, Nova Scotia), Georgia, and the two
Floridas, inclosing the doings of Congress, and inviting them to join
the Association, were also adopted on that day; and on the 26th, the
last day of the session, they approved of an elaborate address to the
inhabitants of Canada. This was drawn up by Mr. Dickenson with his usual
ability. Having made provision for another Congress to meet on the 10th
of May following, * the first general council closed its session by
adopting a second humble petition to the king, and a vote of thanks to
the advocates of colonial rights in both houses of Parliament.

Congress was in actual session only thirty-one days out of the
eight weeks of the term, the remainder of the time being occupied in
preparatory business. It was a session of extraordinary activity, and
a great amount of business of vast importance was transacted,
notwithstanding many unnecessary speeches were evidently made. ** They
were certainly more to the purpose than are most of the harangues in
Congress at the present day, or, considering the diversity of opinion
that must have existed upon the sentiments of the various state papers
that were adopted, the session would have continued for several months.
We have no means of knowing what harmony or what discord characterized
those debates. The doors were closed to the public ear, and no reporters
for the press have preserved the substance of the speeches. That every
resolution adopted was far from receiving a unanimous vote, is very
evident; for we find, by the subsequent declarations and acts of
delegates, that some of the measures were violently opposed. Many
deplored the probability of an open rupture with the mother country, and
refused acquiescence in any measure that should tend to such a result.
Indeed, the sentiments of a large majority of the delegates were
favorable to an honorable reconciliation, and the Congress was
determined not to present the least foundation for a charge of rushing
madly into an unnatural contest without presenting the olive branch
of peace. Such was the tenor of its petitions and addresses; and every
charge of a desire on the part of Congress for a war that might lead
to independence rested solely upon inference. Galloway, *** Duane, and
others, even opposed the American Association;

* The following circular letter was sent to all the royal governors in
America, soon after the proceedings of the Continental Congress were
received in England. It was a "Bull" without horns, and did not alarm
the patriots. "Whitehall, Jan. 4th, 1775. "Certain persons stiling"
(sic) "themselves delegates of his majesty's colonies in America,
having presumed, without his majesty's authority or consent, to assemble
together, at Philadelphia, in the month of September and October last;
and having thought fit, among other unwarrantable proceedings, to
resolve that it will be necessary that another Congress should be
held in this place on the 10th of May next, unless redress for certain
pretended grievances be obtained before that time, and to recommend that
all the colonies in North America should choose deputies to attend such
Congress, I am commanded by the king to signify to you his majesty's
pleasure, that you do use your utmost endeavors to prevent such
appointment of deputies within the colony under your government;
and that you do exhort all persons to desist from such unwarrantable
proceedings, which can not but be highly displeasing to the king. "I am,
sir, your most obedient servant, Dartmouth.

** "Every man in this assembly," wrote John Adams to his wife, "is a
great man, an orator, a critic, a statesman; and therefore every man,
upon every question, must show his oratory, his criticism, his
political abilities. The consequence is, that business is spun out to an
immeasurable length."

*** Joseph Galloway was one of the most popular of the leaders in
Pennsylvania when the war of the Revolution broke out. He was once the
confidential friend of Franklin, and had worked shoulder to shoulder
with him against the proprietaries. He was elected a delegate to the
first Continental Congress. In that body he submitted a plan, as a
measure of accommodation, which seemed quite feasible. It proposed
a union of the colonies, with a grand council authorized to regulate
colonial affairs jointly with the British Parliament, each to have a
mutual negation on each other. * This plan was favorably received, and
on the question of its adoption it was rejected by a majority of only
one. The debates were very warm, and it was on this occasion that Samuel
Adams, regarding the proposition as a concession to tyranny, exclaimed,
"I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were
revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish,
and only one of a thousand were to survive and retain his liberty! One
such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness than a
thousand slaves; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them
what he has so nobly preserved." * Before the meeting of the next
Congress, Galloway manifested lukewarmness; and in 1776 he abandoned
the Whigs, and became the most virulent and proscriptive Loyalist of
the time. He joined the royal army in New York, where he continued until
1778, when, accompanied by his only daughter, he went to England.
There he remained until his death in September, 1803, at the age of
seventy-three years. His pen, for many years, was continually employed
in correspondence with Loyalists in America, and upon subjects connected
with the war. The prominent position which he at first held among the
Whigs, and his virulence against them after his defection, made him the
target for many an arrow of indignant wit. Trumbull, in his M'Fingall,
gave him some hard hits; and a writer in the Pennsylvania Journal of
February 5, 1777, thus castigates him with some lines, after saying to
the printer,

     "If you think them severe enough, print 'em, egad I''
     "Gall'way has fled, and join'd the venal Howe,
     To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow;
     A traitor to his country and its laws,
     A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause.
     Unhappy wretch! thy interest must be sold
     For Continental, not for polish'd gold.
     To sink the money thou thyself cried down,
     And stabb'd thy country to support the crown.
     Go to and fro, like Lucifer on earth,
     And curse the Being that first gave thee birth.
     Away to Scotland and thyself prepare,
     Coal dust and brimstone is their only fare;
     Fit materials for such Tory blood,
     Who wrong their country and deny their God.
     There herd with Bute, Mansfield, and his brother;
     Bite, twist, sting, and poison one another."

*** Galloway's estate, valued at $200,000, was confiscated by
Pennsylvania. A large part of it was derived from his wife. A
considerable portion was restored to his daughter.

* This plan is printed in Sabine's Lives of the Loyalists, p. 309.

[[[Opinions concerning the Adamses.--Sketch of Galloway's public
Life.--Disposition of his Estate.]]]

{270}and they regarded the Adamses as men not only too much committed
to violent measures by the part they had taken in Boston, but that they
were desperate men, with nothing to lose, and hence unsafe guides to
gentlemen who had estates to forfeit.

[Illustration: 9278]

And yet Galloway, when he became a proscriptive Loyalist, and one of the
most active enemies of the Republicans, was forced to acknowledge the
stern virtues of many of the patriots of that assembly, and among them
Samuel Adams. "He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, and thinks
much," he said, "and is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object.
It was this man who, by his superior application, managed at once the
factions in Congress at Philadelphia, and the factions in New England." *

The proceedings of this first Congress went forth to the world with all
the weight of apparent unanimity, and throughout the colonies they were
hailed with general satisfaction. The American Association adopted and
signed by the delegates was regarded by the people with great favor,
and thousands in every province affixed their signatures to the pledge.
These formed the fibers of the stronger bond of the _Articles of
Confederation_ afterward adopted, and may be considered the commencement
of the American Union.

* Galloway's Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and
Progress of the American Rebellion: London, 1780. In this pamphlet
the writer handles Sir William Howe and other British commanders with
severity.

* Mr. Adams reiterated this sentiment when debating the resolution for
independence twenty months afterward.

** Just before he left Philadelphia he discovered that his daughter
was about to elope with Judge Griffin, who was afterward president of
Congress. This doubtless hastened his departure.

*** Murray, confidential secretary to the Pretender, Prince Charles
Edward.

[[[The State House.--Independence Hall.--Hancock's Chair.--Portraits of
Penn and La Fayette.]]]

{271}




CHAPTER XI.


```"This is the sacred fane wherein assembled

````The fearless champions on the side of Right;

```Men at whose Declaration empires trembled,

````Moved by the truth's immortal might.=

```"Here stood the patriot--one union folding

````The Eastern, Northern, Southern sage and seer,

```Within that living bond which, truth upholding,

````Proclaims each man his fellow's peer.=


```"Here rose the anthem which all nations, hearing,

````In loud response the echoes backward hurled;

```Reverberating still the ceaseless cheering,

````Our continent repeats it to the world.=

```"This is the hallowed spot where first unfurling *

````Fair Freedom spread her blazing scroll of light;

```Here, from oppression's throne the tyrant hurling,

````She stood supreme in majesty and might!"

`````George W. Dewey.=

[Illustration: 9279]

ROM Carpenters' Hall I went up Chestnut Street to the venerable State
House, situated upon its southern side, between Fifth and Sixth Streets.
* Hallowed by so many patriotic associations, it has become a Caaba to
every American when first visiting the city of Penn. It is cherished by
the people of Pennsylvania because of the memories of colonial times,
immediately antecedent to the Revolution, which embalm it; and it is
cherished by the people of the whole Union as the most revered relic
of the war for independence, because it contains the hall wherein the
Declaration of that independence was discussed, and adopted in council,
and signed, and sent forth to the world.

[Illustration: 8279]

Being used for public business, this edifice, unlike Carpenters' Hall,
is free from the desecrations of mammon, and the Hall of Independence is
kept closed, except when curious visitors seek entrance, or some special
occasion opens its doors to the public. **

Nothing now remains of the old furniture of the hall except two antique
mahogany chairs, covered with red leather, one of which was used by
Hancock as president, and the other by Charles Thomson as secretary of
Congress, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On the
walls hang two fine paintings; one a full-length portrait, life size, of
William Penn, by the late Henry Inman, and the other a portrait,

* The erection of this edifice was begun in 1729, and completed, in
1734. The two wings were added in 1739-40, and it was then one of the
largest and most costly edifices for civil purposes in America. Previous
to its erection, the annual sessions of the Legislature of Pennsylvania
were held at private houses. The first purchase of grounds for the
building included only about half the depth to Walnut Street. In 1760
the other half square was purchased, and the whole space inclosed by
a heavy brick wall. John Vaughan, who came from England to reside in
Philadelphia, planted the grounds with elm-trees and shrubbery in 1783.
Afterward the brick wall was removed, and the present neat iron railing
erected in its place. The cost of the main building of the State House
and its steeple was about $28,000. The style of the architecture
was directed by Dr. John Kearsly, Senior, the same amateur who gave
architectural character to Christ Church. The glass and lead sashes cost
$850. The glazing was done by Thomas Godfrey, afterward celebrated as
the inventor of the quadrant.

** It was made the hall of audience for La Fayette in 1824, when, as the
"nation's guest," he visited Philadelphia. The room had been materially
altered by the removal of wainscoting and other architectural ornaments,
yet its general features were sufficiently preserved to awaken in the
bosom of the veteran the liveliest emotions. In that hall John Hancock
signed the commission of the marquis as major general in the Continental
army; and there, during the struggle, the young hero was frequently
greeted by the supreme legislature as a public benefactor. It was there
that he shared the honors (not on the same day) with Washington, of a
grateful reception by Congress, after the capture of Cornwallis; and
there he took leave of that body, for the last time during the war, and
returned to France. In that room the body of the late ex-president, John
Quincy Adams, lay in state while on its progress to the family vault at
Quincy.

[[[Picture of the Treaty Tree.--Statue of Washington.--Liberty
Bell.--Its History.]]]

{272}same size, of La Fayette, taken from life by the late Thomas Sully.
The former is a superb picture, and exhibits, in the back-ground, a
representation of the Treaty Tree.

[Illustration: 9280]

Upon the floor stands a statue of Washington, upon a high pedestal,
wrought in wood by Mr. Rush, of Philadelphia. Near it is a piece of
stone, said to be a part of the door-step of the balcony in the rear of
the State House, upon which John Nixon stood and read the Declaration
of Independence to the people * for the first time, on the 8th of July,
1776.

These compose the _souvenirs_ of Independence Hall.

I ascended to the steeple, where hangs, in silent grandeur, the "Liberty
Bell."

[Illustration: 8280]

It is four feet in diameter at the lip, and three inches thick at the
heaviest part. Its tone is destroyed by a crack, which extends from the
lip to the crown, passing directly through the names of the persons who
cast it. An attempt was made to restore the tone by sawing the crack
wider, but without success; the melody of the "glory-breathed tone" that
thrilled the hearts of the people on the birth-day of the nation could
not be reawakened. The history of this bell is interesting. In 1752,
a bell for the State House was imported from England. On the first
trial-ringing, after its arrival, it was cracked. It was recast by Pass
and Stow, of Philadelphia, in 1753, under the direction of Isaac Norris,
Esq., the then speaker of the Colonial Assembly.

And that is the bell, "the greatest in English America," which now
hangs in the old State House steeple and claims our reverence. **
Upon fillets around its crown, cast there twenty-three years before the
Continental Congress met in the State House, are the words of Holy Writ,
"_Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof_." *** How prophetic! Beneath that very bell the representatives
of the thirteen colonies "proclaimed liberty." Ay, and when the debates
were ended, and the result was announced, on the 4th of July, 1776, the
iron tongue of that very bell first "proclaimed liberty throughout all
the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof," by ringing out the joyful
annunciation for more than two hours, its glorious melody floating clear
and musical as the voice of an angel

* Watson says that Captain Hopkins, of the navy, read the Declaration
on that occasion, but testimony appears to predominate in favor of the
claims of John Nixon to that honor.

** When the British army approached Philadelphia, in 1777, this bell,
was taken down and carried to a place of safety. Already the ancient
steeple, on account of decay, had been taken down, and a simple belfry
put in its place. The present steeple is quite modern.

*** Leviticus, xxv., 10.

[[[Independence not Early nor generally Desired, except by a
Few.--Patrick Henry's Prediction.]]]

{273}above the discordant chorus of booming cannon, the roll of drums,
and the mingled acclamations of the people.=

```"That old bell is still seen by the patriot's eye,

```And he blesses it ever, when journeying by;

```Long years have pass'd o'er it, and yet every soul

```Will thrill, in the night, to its wonderful roll;

```For it speaks in its belfry, when kiss'd by the blast,

```Like a glory-breathed tone from the mystical past.

```Long years' shall roll o'er it, and yet every chime

```Shall unceasingly tell of an era sublime;

```Oh yes! if the flame on our altars should pale,

````Let its voice but be heard, and the freemen shall start,

```To rekindle the fire, while he sees on the gale

````All the stars and the stripes of the flag of his heart."

`````William Ross Wallace.=

Here, upon this dusty beam, leaning against the old "Liberty Bell," let
us sit a while, and peruse that brilliant page in our history, whereon
is written the record of the _Declaration of our Independence._

It is now impossible to determine the precise time when aspirations for
political independence first became a prevailing sentiment among the
people of the colonies. The thought, no doubt, was cherished in many
minds years before it found expression; but it was not a subject for
public discussion more than a few months before it was brought before
Congress by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia. A few men, among whom were
Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Timothy
Dwight, and Thomas Paine, seem to have had an early impression that
political independence was the only cure for the evils under which
the colonies groaned; yet these ideas, when expressed, met with little
favor, even among the most ardent patriots. * English writers declare
that, from the beginning, the colonies aimed at political independence;
and Chalmers asserts that there were documents among the Board of
Trade to prove that such had been the desire and intent of the colonies
through every administration, from the time of the Revolution in
England, in 1688. As early as 1773, according to Mr. Wirt, Patrick
Henry, speaking of Great Britain, said, "She _will_ drive us to
extremities; no accommodation _will_ take place; hostilities _will soon_
commence; and a desperate and bloody touch it will be." This, Mr. Wirt
asserts, was said in the presence of Colonel Samuel Overton, who at once
asked Mr. Henry if he thought the colonies sufficiently strong to oppose
successfully the fleets and armies of Great Britain. "I will be candid
with you," replied Mr. Henry; "I doubt whether we _shall_ be able,
_alone_, to cope with so powerful a nation; but," continued he, rising
from his chair with great animation, "where is France? where is Spain?
where is Holland? the natural enemies of Great Britain. Where will
they be all this while? Do you suppose they will stand by, idle and
indifferent spectators to the contest? Will Louis XVI. be asleep all
this time? Believe me, _no!_ When Louis XVI. shall be satisfied, by
our serious opposition and our _Declaration of Independence_, that all
prospect of a reconciliation is gone, then, and not till then, will he
furnish us with arms, ammunition, and clothing; and not with them only,
but he will send his fleets and armies to fight our battles for us; he
will

* Says Dr. Dwight, "I urged, in conversation with several gentlemen
of great respectability, firm Whigs, and my intimate friends, the
importance, and even the necessity, of a declaration of independence
on the part of the colonies, and alleged for this measure the very same
arguments which afterward were generally considered as decisive,
but found them disposed to give me and my arguments a hostile and
contemptuous, instead of a cordial reception. Yet, at this time, all the
resentment and enthusiasm awakened by the odious measures of Parliament,
by the peculiarly obnoxious conduct of the British agents in this
country, and by the recent battles of Lexington and Breed's Hill,
were at the highest pitch. These gentlemen may be considered as
representatives of the great body of the thinking men in this country.
A few may perhaps, be excepted, but none of these durst at that time
openly declare their opinions to the public. For myself, I regarded the
die as cast, and the hopes of reconciliation as vanished, and believed
that the colonists would never be able to defend themselves unless they
renounced their dependence on Great Britain." Dwight's Travels in New
England, i., 150.

[[[Testimony of Washington and others concerning the Loyalty of the
Colonies.--Paine's Common Sense.--]]]

{274}form a treaty with us, offensive and defensive, against our unnatural
mother. Spain and Holland will join the confederation! Our independence
will be established! and we shall take our stand among the nations of
the earth!" How literally these predictions were soon fulfilled the pen
of history has already recorded.

Dr. Franklin talked of total political emancipation as early as 1774;
and yet Jay, Madison, Richard Penn, and others positively assert that,
until after the meeting of the second Congress in 1775, there was no
serious thought of independence entertained. Washington, in a letter to
his early friend, Captain Mackenzie, written in October, 1774, said,
in reply to an intimation of that officer that the province of
Massachusetts was seeking independency, "Give me leave to add, and I
think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish or interest
of that government, or any other upon this continent, separately or
collectively, to set up for independence."

Although smarting under the lash of ministerial aggressions upon their
rights, the colonists, prompted by the pride of political and social
birth-right, as children of Great Britain, maintained a loyal spirit,
and a separation from the British empire was a proposition too startling
to be readily embraced, or even favorably received by the great mass of
the people, who regarded "Old England" with filial reverence. But
when Britain sent fleets and armies hither to coerce submission to her
injustice; "to plunder our seas, ravage our coasts, burn our towns,
harass our people, and eat out their substance when king, Lords,
and Commons became totally "deaf to the voice of justice and of
consanguinity," the colonies were obliged to "acquiesce in the necessity
which compelled them to dissolve the political bands which connected
them with the parent state, and to assume among the powers of the
earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature's God entitled them."

"The lightning of the Crusades was in the people's hearts, and it needed
but a single electric touch to make it blaze forth upon the world,"
says James, in writing of an earlier disruption of political systems.
Likewise, the flame of desire for absolute independence glowed in every
patriot bosom at the beginning of 1776, and the vigorous paragraphs of
_Common Sense_, * and kindred publications, laboring with the voice of
impassioned oratory

* This was the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, and
published about the commencement of 1776. It is said to have been
prepared at the suggestion of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia. It was the
earliest and most powerful appeal in behalf of independence, and
probably did more to fix that idea firmly in the public mind than any
other instrumentality. After giving many and weighty reasons why the
Americans should seek independence, he said, "It matters little, now,
what the King of England either says or does. He hath wickedly broken
through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience
beneath his feet, and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence
and cruelty procured for himself a universal hatred. It is now the
interest of America to provide for herself.... Independence is the only
_bond_ that will tic and keep us together. We shall then see our object,
and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing,
as well as cruel, enemy. Wc shall then, too, be on a proper footing to
treat with Great Britain; for there is reason to conclude that the pride
of that court will be less hurt by treating with the American States
for terms of peace, than with those whom she denominates "rebellious
subjects" for terms of accommodation. It is our delaying it that
encourages her to hope for conquest, and our backwardness tends only to
prolong the war.... O ye that love mankind! ye that dare oppose not only
the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the Old World is
overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia
and Africa hath long expelled her; Europe regards her like a stranger,
and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh! receive the fugitive,
and prepare, in time, an asylum for mankind." Such were the trumpet
tones of "Common Sense" which aroused the people to action. So highly
was its influence esteemed, that the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted
the author $2500. Washington, writing to Joseph Reed from Cambridge, on
the 31st of January, 1776, said, "A few more of such flaming arguments
as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk [two towns burned by the
British], added to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning
contained in the pamphlet "Common Sense," will not leave numbers at a
loss to decide" upon the propriety of a separation. Again, writing to
the same gentleman two months afterward, he said, "By private letters
which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that "Common Sense"
is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men."

* "Common Sense" was the signature which Paine usually affixed to his
earlier political writings. Paine also wrote a series of political
pamphlets called "The Crisis," which were admirably adapted to the state
of the times, and which did much toward keeping alive the spirit of
determined rebellion against the unjust government of Great Britain.
They were put forth at different times, from the close of 1776 until the
end of the war. The first number was published in December, 1776. Paine
was then in Washington's camp.

* The pamphlet was read to every corporal's guard, and its strong and
truthful language had a powerful effect in the army and among the people
at large. * The second "Crisis" was published in January, 1777. It was
addressed to Lord Howe, ** and ridiculed his proclamations, &c. The
third number was published at Philadelphia on the 19th of April, 1777.
This was devoted to an examination of events since the Declaration of
Independence, and a reiteration of arguments in favor of that measure.
In September, immediately after the battle on the Brandywine, the fourth
"Crisis" was published. It was a cheering trumpet-blast for the army.
In March, 1778, the fifth "Crisis" was published at Lancaster, in
Pennsylvania. It consisted of a letter to Sir William Howe, and an
address to the inhabitants of America. The sixth "Crisis," consisting of
a letter to the British commissioners (Carlisle, Clinton, and Eden),
was published at Philadelphia, in October, 1778. The seventh number
was published at Philadelphia, on the 21st of November, 1778. It was
addressed to the people of England. The eighth "Crisis," which was a
second address to the people of England, was published in March, 1780;
in June following the ninth number was published; and in October of the
same year, a long discussion on the subject of taxes, called "A Crisis
extraordinary," was published. *** The last three numbers were written
at the instigation of Robert Morris, the financier, with the knowledge
and approval of Washington. Two others were published during the
war; one discussed general topics, the other, published in May, 1782,
considered "The present State of News."

* When the first number of the "Crisis" reached England, it was seized
and ordered to be burned near Westminster Hall by the common hangman.
A large concourse of people assembled; the fire was put out by the
populace, and dead dogs and cats were thrown on the ashes. Acts of
Parliament were then cast upon the heap, and consumed. Sir Richard
Steele wrote a political pamphlet called "The Crisis," in 1714, for
which he was expelled from his seat in the House of Commons.

* A portion of North Carolina made a much earlier and very important
movement toward independence, of which I shall hereafter write in
detail. I refer to the Mecklenberg Convention, in May, 1775.

** Bradford, p. 104.

*** After its adoption, the Convention proceeded to the establishment
of a regular independent government, a course which Congress shortly
afterward recommended to all the states.

**** The Assembly directed the oath of allegiance thereafter to be in
the name of the Colony of Rhode Island, instead of to the King of Great
Britain.

* Among other equally strong paragraphs was the following: "I have as
little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has
ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to
military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who had so
earnestly and repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war by every
decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the
infidel in me as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of
the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I can
not see on what grounds the King of Great Britain can look up to heaven
for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker
has as good a pretense as he."

** Paine also wrote a poetical Epistle to Lord Howe, of which the
following is the closing stanza:

     "Since, then, no hopes to civilize remain,
     And mild philosophy has preach'd in vain,
     One pray'r is left, which dreads no proud reply,
     That he who made you breathe will make you die."

***This was written in March, but was not published until Autumn.

[[[First public Movements favorable to Independence.--Paine's
Crisis.--The Ministry order it to be Burned.--The Result.]]]

{275}at every public gathering of the people, uncapped the volcano, and
its brilliant coruscations were seen and hailed with a shout throughout
our broad land.

The colonial assemblies soon began to move in the matter. North Carolina
was the first to take the bold progressive step toward independence.
By a vote of a convention held on the 22d of April, 1776, the
representatives of that state in the Continental Congress were
authorized "to concur with those in the other colonies in declaring
independence." * Massachusetts took a similar step. On the 10th, the
General Assembly requested the people of that colony, at the then
approaching election of new representatives, to give them instructions
on the subject of independence. ** Pursuant to this request, the people
of Boston, in town meeting assembled on the 23d, instructed their
representatives to use their best endeavors to have their delegates in
Congress "advised that, in case Congress should think it necessary, for
the safety of the united colonies, to declare themselves independent of
Great Britain, the inhabitants of that colony, with their lives and the
_remnants_ of their fortunes, would most cheerfully support them in the
measure." The Convention of Virginia passed a similar resolution on the
17th of May, *** but going further, by instructing their representatives
to _propose_ a declaration of independence. So, also, did the Assembly
of Rhode Island, during its session in that month. **** On the 8th
of June the New York delegates asked for special instructions on that
subject; but the Provincial Assembly, deeming itself incompetent to
instruct without the previous sanction of the people, did no more than
to recommend them to signify their sentiments at the new election just
at hand. The Assembly of

[[[Timidity in the State Legislatures.--State Governments
Recommended.--Lee's Resolution for Independence.]]]

{276}Connecticut, on the 14th of June, instructed the delegates from
that colony to give their assent to a declaration of independence;
on the 15th the New Hampshire Provincial Congress issued similar
instructions, and on the 21st, the new delegates from New Jersey were
instructed to act in the matter as their judgments should dictate.

In the Pennsylvania Assembly, several months previously, the subject of
[[November, 1775]] independence had been hinted at. The Conservatives
were alarmed, and procured the adoption of instructions to their
delegates adverse to such an idea. In June these restrictions were
removed, but the delegates were neither instructed nor officially
permitted to concur with the other colonies in a declaration of
independence. The Convention of Maryland, by a resolution adopted
about the last of May, positively forbade their delegates voting for
independence. Georgia, South Carolina, and Delaware took no action on
the subject, and their delegates were left free to vote as they pleased.

Thus stimulated by affirmative action in various colonies, the
desire for independence became a living principle in the hall of the
Continental Congress, and that principle found utterance, albeit with
timorous voice. Congress resolved, "That it be recommended to the
several assemblies and conventions of the united colonies, where [[May
10, 1776]] no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs
hath hitherto been established, to adopt such a government as shall, in
the opinions of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the
happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America
in general." * This was certainly a bold step, yet not sufficiently
positive and comprehensive as a basis of energetic action in favor
of independence. The hearts of a majority in Congress yearned with an
irrepressible zeal for the consummation of an event which they knew to
be inevitable, yet there seemed to be no one courageous enough in that
assembly to step forth and take the momentous responsibility of lifting
the knife that should sever the cord which bound the American colonies
to the British throne. The royal government would mark that man as an
arch rebel, and all its energies would be brought to bear to quench his
spirit or to hang him on a gibbet.

We have seen that Virginia instructed her representatives in Congress
to _propose_ independence; she had a delegate equal to the task. In the
midst of the doubt, and dread, and hesitation which for twenty days had
brooded over the national assembly, Richard Henry Lee ** arose, and,
with his clear, musical voice, read aloud the resolution,

"That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states; and that all political connection between us and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." John
Adams immediately seconded the resolution. To shield them from the royal
ire, Congress directed its secretary to omit the names of its mover
and seconder, in the Journals. The record says, "Certain resolutions
respecting independency being moved and seconded, _Resolved_, that the
consideration of them be deferred until to-morrow morning; and that the
members he enjoined to attend punctually at ten o'clock, in order
to take the same into their consideration." The resolution was not
considered until three days afterward, when it was resolved to "postpone
its further consideration [[June 10]] until the first day of July next;
and, in the mean while, that no time be lost, in case Congress agree
thereto, that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to that
effect." This committee was appointed on the 11th, and consisted of
Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia; John Adams, of Massachusetts; Benjamin
Franklin, of Pennsylvania; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; and Robert R.
Livingston, of New York.[[June 7, 1776.]] On the evening of

* John Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Richard Henry Lee were appointed
a committee to prepare a preamble to this resolution. See Journals of
Congress, ii., 158. In this preamble it was declared "irreconcilable
to reason and a good conscience for the colonists to take the oaths
required lor the support of the government under the crown of Great
Britain/' It was also declared necessary that all royal power should
be suppressed, and "all the powers of government exerted under the
authority of the people of the colonies, for the preservation of
internal peace, virtue, and good order, as well as for the defense of
their lives, liberties, and properties, against the hostile invasions
and civil depredations of their enemies."--Journals, ii., 166.

** A portrait of Mr. Lee will be found among those in the frontispiece
to this volume, and a sketch of his life, with those of the other
signers, in the Appendix.

[[[Absence of R. H. Lee.--Jefferson's Draft of the Declaration.--Reasons
why he was Chosen to Write it.]]]

{277}the 10th, Mr. Lee received intelligence by express that his wife
was seriously ill, and he was compelled to ask leave of absence for
a short time. He left Philadelphia the next morning, and this fact
accounts for the omission of his name in the formation of the committee
on that day. Mr. Jefferson was appointed chairman of the committee,
and to him his colleagues assigned the task of preparing the draft of a
declaration to be presented to Congress. * It was drawn with care, and
was unanimously adopted by the committee, after a few verbal alterations
by Adams and Franklin.

On the 1st of July, pursuant to agreement, Mr. Lee's motion was brought
up in the committee of the whole House, Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia
(father of the late President Harrison), in the chair. The draft of a
declaration of independence was reported at the same time, and for
three consecutive days it was debated by paragraphs seriatim. Many
alterations, omissions, and amendments were made. The following is
a copy of that original draft, before any amendments were made in
committee of the whole. The passages omitted by Congress are printed in
italics, and the substitutions are given in notes at the bottom of the
page. **

"_A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America,
in general Congress assembled._

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable **
rights; that among these are

* Mr. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence at his lodgings,
in the house of Mrs. Clymer, on the southwest corner of Seventh and High
Streets, Philadelphia.--See Watson's Annals, ii., 309. John Adams, in
his autobiography, gives the following reasons why Mr. Jefferson was
chosen to write the Declaration: "Mr. Jefferson had been now about a
year a member of Congress, but had attended his duty in the House a
very small part of the time, and when there had never spoken in public.
During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him
utter three sentences together. "It will naturally be inquired how it
happened that he was appointed on a committee of such importance.
There were more reasons than one. Mr. Jefferson had the reputation of a
masterly pen; he had been chosen a delegate in Virginia in consequence
of a very handsome public paper which he had written for the House of
Burgesses, which had given him the character of a fine writer. Another
reason was, that Mr. Richard Henry Lee was not beloved by the most of
his colleagues from Virginia, and Mr. Jefferson was sent up to rival
and supplant him. This could be done only by the pen, for Mr. Jefferson
could stand no competition with him, or any one else, in elocution
and public debate. "The committee had several meetings, in which were
proposed the articles of which the Declaration was to consist, and
minutes made of them. The committee then appointed Mr. Jefferson and
me to draw them up in form, and clothe them in a proper dress. The
sub-committee met, and considered the minutes, making such observations
on them as then occurred, when Mr. Jefferson desired me to take them
to my lodgings, and make the draft. This I declined, and gave
several reasons for so doing: "1. That he was a Virginian, and I a
Massachusettensian. 2. That he was a Southern man, and I a Northern
one. 3. That I had been so obnoxious for my early and constant zeal in
promoting the measure, that every draft of mine would undergo a more
severe scrutiny and criticism in Congress than one of his composition.
4. And lastly, and that would be reason enough, if there were no other,
I had a great opinion of the elegance of his pen, and none at all of my
own. I therefore insisted that no hesitation should be made on his part.
He accordingly took the minutes, and in a day or two produced to me his
draft."

** On the 8th of July, four days after the amended Declaration was
adopted, Mr. Jefferson wrote the following letter, and sent it, with
the original draft, to Mr. Lee:" "Philadelphia, July 8, 1776. "Dear
Sir,--For news, I refer you to your brother, who writes on that head. I
inclose you a copy of the Declaration of Independence, as agreed to by
the House, and also as originally framed; you will judge whether it
is the better or the worse for the critics. I shall return to Virginia
after the 11th of August. I wish my successor may be certain to come
before that time: in that case, I shall hope to see you, and not Wythe,
in convention, that the business of government, which is of everlasting
concern, may receive your aid. Adieu, and believe me to be your friend
and servant, Thomas Jefferson. "To Richard Henry Lee, Esq."


[[[Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence, and Amendments.]]]

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or _to_ abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments, long established,
should not be changed for light and transient causes. And, accordingly,
all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, _begun at a distinguished period,_ and pursuing invariably
the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such
has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to _expunge_ ** their former systems
of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of _unremitting_ ** injuries and usurpations; among which
appears no solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest;
but _all_ have-, *** in direct object, the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a
candid world; _for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by
falsehood._

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has _neglected utterly_ **** to
attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right
of representation in the Legislature; a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly _and continually_, for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise,
the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states: for that
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migrations hither; and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.

_He has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in
some of these states_, (v) refusing his assent to laws for establishing
judiciary powers.

He has made _our_ judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of
their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices _by a self assumed power_, and
sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their
substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies _and ships of
war,_ without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to,
the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

* Altar

** Utterly neglected

*** Repeated

* (v) He has obstructed the administration of justice, by

*** Having

[[[Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence, and Amendments.]]]

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing taxes on us without our consent;

For depriving us * of the benefits of trial by jury;

For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses;

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these _states;_ **

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and
altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, _withdrawing his governors, and_ ***
declaring us out of his _allegiance and_ protection, and waging war
against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy **** unworthy the head of a
civilized nation.

He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers
the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions
_of existence; he has excited treasonable insurrections of our
fellow-citizens with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of
our property._

He has constrained _others_ (v) taken captive on the high seas, to bear
arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends
and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people,
who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation
thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is
the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep
open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted
his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or
to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors
might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very
people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which
he has deprived them by murdering the people upon whom he obtruded them:
thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one
people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of
another. (vi)

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in
the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only
by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act
which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler

* In many cases

** Colonies

*** By

**** Scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally

* (v) Our fellow-citizens

* (vi) It has been asserted that this paragraph was expunged because it
was not palatable to those delegates who were slaveholders, and that it
was stricken out lest it should cause them to cast a negative vote on
the question. There is no proof that such selfish motives actuated any
member of that assembly. It was a sacred regard for truth which caused
it to be stricken out. No such charge as the paragraph contained
could justly be made against George III., then under arraignment. The
slave-trade was begun and carried on long before the reign of any of
his house, and it is not known that he ever gave his assent to any thing
relating to slavery, except to abolish it, and to declare the trade a
piracy. By a resolution offered by Charles F. Mercer, of Virginia, and
adopted by Congress in 1817, the slave-trade was declared "a piracy."
Mr. Jefferson was the first American statesman, and probably the first
writer of modern times, who denounced that infamous traffic as "a
piratical warfare."--See Life of Richard Henry Lee, i., 176.

[[[Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence, and
Amendments.--The Debaters.]]]

{280}of a _people who mean to be free.' * Future ages will scarce
believe that the hardiness of one man adventured, within the short
compass of twelve years only, to build a foundation, so broad and
undisguised, for tyranny over a people fostered and fixed in principles
of freedom._

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have
warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their Legislature to
extend a ** jurisdiction over _these our states._ *** We have reminded
them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here, _no one
of which could warrant so strange a pretension; that these were effected
at the expense of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth
or the strength of Great Britain; that in constituting, indeed, our
severed forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby
laying a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them; but that
submission to their Parliament was no part of our Constitution, nor
ever in idea, if history may be credited; and_ we **** appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, _as well as to_ (v) the ties of our
common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which _were likely to_
(vi) interrupt our connection and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity; _and when occasions
have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing
from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their
free election, re-established them in power. At this very time, too,
they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over, not only
soldiers of our common blood, but [Scotch (vii) and] foreign mercenaries
to invade and destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to
agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these
unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for
them_; we must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces
our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies
in war; in peace, friends.

_We might have been a free and great, people together; but a
communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their
dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness and to
glory is open to us too; we will climb it apart from them, and acquiesce
in the necessity which denounces our eternal separation._

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in
general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by
the authority of the good people of these _states, (viii) reject and
renounce all allegiance and subjection to the kings of Great Britain,
and all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we
utterly dissolve all political connection which may heretofore have
subsisted between us and the Parliament or people of Great Britain; and,
finally, we do assert the colonies to be free and independent states_;
and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do
all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And,
for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Mr Lee's resolution, declaring the colonies "free and independent
states," was adopted on the 2d of July, and that day, rather than the
4th, should be celebrated as our national anniversary. It was only the
_form of the Declaration_, which accompanied the resolution, that was
adopted on the latter day.

The debates on the question of the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence were long and animated, for there was very little unanimity
in feeling and opinion when they began in June. Richard Henry Lee, the
Adamses, of Massachusetts, Dr. Witherspoon, of New Jersey, and Edward
Rutledge, of South Carolina, were the chief speakers in favor of the
measure, and John Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, against it. Although it
was evident, from

* Free people

** An unwarrantable

*** Us

**** Have

* (v) And we have conjured them by

* (vi) Would inevitably

* (vii) Doctor Witherspoon, who was a Scotchman by birth, moved the
striking out of the word Scotch.

* (viii) Colonies {281}

[Illustration: 0289]

[Illustration: 0290]

Note. This draft is in the handwriting of Mr. Jefferson. The amendments
were made by Dr. Franklin and John Adams. The alterations, by
interlining, in the portion here given, are in the handwriting of Mr.
Adams. It will be perceived, by a comparison, that nearly the whole
of this paragraph was omitted in the Declaration adopted on the 4th of
July.

[[[Action of the several Colonies on the Subject of
Independence.--Adoption of the Declaration.]]]

{282}the first introduction of the resolution, that a majority of the
colonies would vote for it, its friends were fearful that a _unanimous_
vote of the colonies could not be obtained, inasmuch as the Assemblies
of Maryland and Pennsylvania had refused to sanction the measure, and
South Carolina, Georgia, and New York were silent. The delegates from
Maryland were unanimously in favor of it, while those from Pennsylvania
were divided. On the 24th of June, at a convention held in Philadelphia,
the people expressed their willingness, by resolution, "to concur in
a vote of Congress, declaring the united colonies free and independent
states and by the unwearied exertions and great influence of Charles
Carroll, William Paca, Samuel Chase, and others, the Convention of
Maryland recalled their former instructions on the 28th of June, and
empowered their delegates "to concur with the other colonies in a
declaration of independence." The most important barriers to unanimity
were now broken down. When a vote was taken in committee of the whole
House, all the colonies assented to the Declaration, except Pennsylvania
and Delaware; four of the seven delegates of the former voting
against it, and the two delegates who were present from Delaware were
divided--Thomas M'Kean favoring it, George Read opposing it. Mr. M'Kean,
burning with a desire to have his state speak in favor of the great
measure, immediately sent an express after Cæsar Rodney, the other
delegate from Delaware, then eighty miles distant. Rodney was in the
saddle within ten minutes after he received Mr. M'Kean's letter, and
arrived in Philadelphia on the morning of the 4th of July, just before
the final vote was taken. Thus Delaware was secured. On that day the
Declaration was taken up for final decision. Robert Morris and John
Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, were absent. The former was in favor of,
the latter was against the measure. Of the other five who were present,
Doctor Franklin, James Wilson, and John Morton were in favor of it, and
Thomas Willing and Charles Humphreys were opposed to it; so the vote of
Pennsylvania was also secured in favor of the Declaration. The question
was taken, and on the 4th of July, 1776, a unanimous vote of the
thirteen colonies * was given in favor of the great Declaration which
pronounced them _Free and independent states_. *** The annunciation was
made in the following plain manner in the journal of Congress for that
day:

"Agreeably to the order of the day, the Congress resolved itself into
a committee of the whole, to take into their further consideration the
Declaration; and, after some time, the president resumed the chair,
*** and Mr. Harrison reported that the committee have agreed to a
declaration, which they desired him to report. **** The Declaration
being read, was agreed to as follows:

_A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED._

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident--that all men are created equal;
that they are

* Georgia was not represented in the Congress of 1774. On the 20th
of July, 1775, Congress received a letter from the convention of that
colony, setting forth that it had acceded to the general Association,
and appointed delegates to attend Congress.--See Journals of Congress,
i., 161.

** On the 9th of September, 1776, Congress resolved, "That in all
Continental commissions, and other instruments, where heretofore the
words 'United Colonies' have been used, the style be altered, for the
future, to the 'United States.' I--Ibid., ii., 328. From that day the
word colony is not known in our history.

*** John Hancock was then President of Congress. He was chosen to that
post on the 19th of May, 1775, as successor to Peyton Randolph, who was
called to his home in Virginia. Randolph was now dead.

**** The great importance of this event does not seem to have
been realized even by many men in public life. Anderson, in his
Constitutional Gazette, announced the fact thus, as a mere on dit,
without commentary or further reference to the subject: "On Tuesday
last the Continental Congress declared the united Colonies free and
independent States."

[[[The Declaration of Independence as Adopted.]]]

{283}endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government,
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and,
accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces
a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards
for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these
colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former systems of government. The history of the present King of
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over
these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should
be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right
of representation in the Legislature--a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise;
the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that
purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising
the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent
to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of
officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance..

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the
consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to,
the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing taxes on us without our consent;

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;

[[[The Declaration of Independence as Adopted.]]]

{284}For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended
offenses;

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and
altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments;

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection,
and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas,
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages,
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in
the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only
by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act
which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. *

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. "We
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their Legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind--enemies in
war--in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in
general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent states: that they are absolved from all allegiance to
the British crown, and that all political connection between them and
the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and
that,, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war,
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when the final decision was
announced by Secretary Thomson to the assembled Congress in Independence
Hall. It was a moment of solemn interest; and when the secretary sat
down, a deep silence pervaded that august assembly.

* The undisputed records of our colonial history bear ample testimony
to the truth of every charge contained in this indictment. These I have
cited in a small volume containing Biographical Sketches of the Signers
of the Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration Historically
Considered.

[[[Ringing of the Liberty Bell.--Signers of the Declaration.--Its
Reception in New York and elsewhere.]]]

{285}Thousands of anxious citizens had gathered in the streets of
Philadelphia, for it was known that the final decision was to be made on
that day. From the hour when Congress convened in the morning, the old
bellman had been in the steeple. He placed a boy at the door below, to
give him notice when the announcement should be made. As hour succeeded
hour, the gray-beard shook his head, and said, "They will never do it!
they will never do it!" Suddenly a loud shout came up from below, and
there stood the blue-eyed boy, clapping his hands and shouting, "Ring!
ring!" Grasping the iron tongue of the old bell against which we are
now leaning, backward and forward he hurled it a hundred times, its
loud voice proclaiming "Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the
inhabitants thereof." The excited multitude in the streets responded
with loud acclamations, and with cannon-peals, bonfires, and
illuminations, the patriots held a glorious carnival that night in the
quiet city of Penn.

The Declaration of Independence was signed by John Hancock, the
president of Congress, only, on the day of its adoption, and thus it
went forth to the world. Congress ordered it to be entered at length
upon the journals. It was also ordered to be engrossed upon parchment,
for the delegates to sign it. This last act was performed on the second
day of August following, by the fifty-four delegates then present;
it was subsequently signed by two others, * making the whole number
fifty-six. ** A fac simile of their signatures, carefully copied from
the original at Washington City, is given on the two following pages.
The Declaration was every where applauded; and in the camp, in
cities, churches, and popular assemblies, it was greeted with every
demonstration of joy. Washington received it at head-quarters in New
York on the 9th of July, *** and caused it to be read, at six o'clock
that evening, at the head of each brigade. It was heard with attention,
and welcomed with loud huzzas by the troops; and on that same evening
the populace pulled down the leaden equestrian statue of George III.,
which was erected in the Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway, in
1770, and broke it in pieces. The material was afterward consigned to
the bullet-molds. Other demonstrations of mingled joy and indignation
were made in New York then, which will be more fully noticed hereafter.

The Declaration was read to a vast assemblage collected in and around
Faneuil Hall, in Boston, by Colonel Crafts, at noon, on the 17th of
July. When the last paragraph escaped his lips, a loud huzza shook
the old "Cradle of Liberty." It was echoed from without; and soon the
batteries on Fort Hill, Dorchester, Nantasket, and Long Island boomed
forth their cannon acclamations in thirteen rounds. A banquet followed,
and bonfires and illuminations made glad the city of the Puritans. In
Philadelphia, the grand demonstration was made on the 8th of July. From
the platform of an observatory, erected near the

* These were Thomas M'Kean, of Delaware, and Matthew Thornton, of New
Hampshire. The former, on account of absence with a regiment of City
Associators, of which he was colonel, did not sign it until October.
Doctor Thornton was not a member of Congress when the Declaration
was signed, but, being elected in the autumn following, he obtained
permission to sign the instrument, and affixed his signature to it in
November.

** The delegates represented the several states as follows: New
Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
Massachusetts: John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat
Paine. Rhode Island: Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver
Wolcott. New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis,
Lewis Morris. New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis
Hopkin-son, John Hart, Abraham Clark. Pennsylvania: Robert Morris,
Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James
Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson. George Ross. Delaware: Cæsar Rodney,
George Read, Thomas M'Kean. Maryland: Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone,
William Paca, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. Virginia: George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson,
Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. North Carolina: William
Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas
Hayward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton. Georgia: Button
Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

*** On the same day, the Provincial Assembly of New York, then in
session at White Plains, adopted a resolution expressive of their
approbation of the measure, at the same time pledging their lives
and fortunes in support of it. They also, by resolution, gave their
delegates in Congress liberty to act in future, upon all public
measures, in accordance with their best judgments. See Journals of
Congress, ii., 250. {286}

[Illustration: 0296]

{287}

[Illustration: 0297]

Walnut Street front of the State House, by Rittenhouse, many years
before, for the purpose of observing a transit of Venus, John Nixon read
the Declaration to a vast concourse of people gathered from the city and
surrounding country. When the reading was finished, the king's arms over
the seat of justice in the court room * were torn down and burned in
the street; and at evening bonfires were lighted, the houses were
illuminated, and it was not until a thunder-shower at midnight compelled
the people to retire, that the sounds of gladness were hushed. Newport,
New London, Williamsburgh, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, and other
large towns, manifested their great joy; and from every inhabited
hill and valley, town and hamlet of the old Thirteen States, arose the
melodies of freedom, awakened by this great act of the people's proxies.
Thousands of hearts in Europe, beating strongly with hope for the
future, were deeply impressed. Bold men caught the symphony, and
prolonged its glad harmony, even until it wooed sleeping slaves from
their slumbers in the shadows of despot-

* The second story of the State House was occupied by the courts; and
while the Continental Congress was in session below, the Provincial
Assemblies met above.

[[[The Principles of the Declaration, and their Effects.--Opinions of
Raynal, Mirabeau, and Napoleon.]]]

{288}ism forth to the clear light, panoplied in the armor of absolute
right. France was aroused, and turning in its bed of submission, like
the Titans beneath old Ætna, to look for light and shook thrones,
crumbled feudal altars, whereon equality was daily sacrificed, and so
rent the vail of the temple of despotism, that the people saw plainly
the fetters and instruments of unholy rule, huge and terrible, within
the inner court.

[Illustration: 9298]

They pulled down royalty, overturned distinctions, and gave the first
impulse to the revolutions which have since spread from that focus
to purify the political atmosphere of Europe. Back to our glorious
manifesto the struggling nations look, and, when they wish to arraign
their tyrants, that indictment is their text and guide. * Its specific
charges against George the Third of course are irrelevant, but the great
truths set forth have no limit in their application and appositeness.=

```"Throughout the world its voice is sounding!

````Life and death are in its call!

```Kings and thrones in dust confounding;

````Millions rising o'er their fall!

```Brothers, on! till, bless'd as we,

```They've plenty, peace, and Liberty!"

`````Mrs. R. Balmanno.=


```"E'en now the word that rous'd our land

````Is calling o'er the waves, 'Awake!'

```And pealing on from strand to strand,

````Wherever ocean surges break.

```Up to the quicken'd car of toil

```It rises from the teeming soil,

````And bids the slave his bonds forsake.

```Hark! from the mountain to the sea,

```The Old World echoes 'Liberty!'

````Till thrones to their foundations shake."

`````Mary E. Hewitt.=

It was an easy matter to declare the colonies free and independent; it
was not so easy

* "With what grandeur, with what enthusiasm, should I not speak of those
generous men who erected this grand edifice by their patience, their
wisdom, and their courage!" wrote the Abbé Raynal in 1781. "Hancock,
Franklin, the two Adamses, were the greatest actors in this affecting
scene; but they were not the only ones. Posterity shall know them all.
Their honored names shall be transmitted to it by a happier pen than
mine. Brass and marble shall show them to remotest ages. In beholding
them, shall the friend of freedom feel his heart palpitate with
joy--feel his eyes float in delicious tears. Under the bust of one of
them has been written, He wrested thunder from heaven and the scepter
from tyrants.* Of the last words of this eulogy shall all of them
partake."--Essay on The Revolution in America.

* I ask," exclaimed Mirabeau, on the tribune of the National Assembly of
France, while descanting upon our Declaration, "I ask if the powers who
have formed alliances with the States have dared to read that manifesto,
or to interrogate their consciences after the perusal? I ask whether
there be at this day one government in Europe--the Helvetic and Batavian
confederations and the British isles excepted--which, judged after the
principles of the Declaration of Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, is
not divested of its rights?" And Napoleon afterward, alluding to the
same scene, said, "The finger of God was there!"--See Bailey's Preface
to Records of Patriotism.

** This gives the appearance of the shorter steeple, which took the
place of the stately one taken down in 1774. This was its appearance
during the Revolution. A huge clock case was upon each gable of the main
building of the State House.

* "Eripuit colo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis

* This line was the exergue of a medal which was struck in Paris in
honor of Franklin, when he was the United States embassador at the court
of Versailles in 1777. It was written by Turgot, the Controller-general
of the Finances of France, who died four years afterward.

[[[Organization of State Governments.--Adjournment of Congress to
Baltimore.--__Trip to Red Bank.]]]

{289}to _maintain_ that declaration. The die being east, Congress
put forth all its energies to secure union and harmony among the
confederated states, and these, in turn, perceived the necessity
of prompt action in civil affairs. The resolves in Congress in May,
recommending the several states to organize governments for themselves,
based upon democratic principles, were heeded, and, soon after the
publication of the Declaration of Independence, most of the states
took action on the subject, and formed constitutions. New Hampshire had
already formed a state government. The charters of Connecticut [[January
5, 1776]] and Rhode Island, being considered sufficiently democratic,
were not altered. New Jersey had adopted a constitution two days before
the Declaration of Independence was voted in Congress. (a) Virginia
adopted one on the 5th of July; Pennsylvania, on[[ a July 2, 1776]]
the 15th; Maryland, on the 14th of August; Delaware, on the 20th of
September; North Carolina, on the 18th of December; Georgia, on the 5th
of February, 1777; New York, on the 20th of April; South Carolina, on
the 19th of March, 1778; and Massachusetts deferred the important work
until the 1st of September, 1779. In the mean while, the necessity for
Federal union became apparent, and this subject occupied the thoughts
and active efforts of the statesmen of America. They finally elaborated
a scheme of general government; and on the 15th of November, 1777,
Congress adopted _Articles of Confederation_, having debated the subject
three times a week for nearly seven months. Copies of these articles
were sent to the various state Legislatures for approval, but they did
not receive the sanction of all until March, 1781, when they became the
organic law of the Union, and continued such until the adoption of the
Federal Constitution in 1787.

During the summer and autumn of 1776, military operations were active,
and that session of Congress was one of the busiest during the war. The
disastrous battle of Long Island or Brooklyn occurred in August; the
skirmishes at Harlem, Kingsbridge, Throg's Neck, and White Plains; the
fall of Forts Washington and Lee; the retreat of the American army under
Washington across the Jerseys, and the menacing approach of a large
British army toward Philadelphia, all occurred in rapid succession
during the autumn. Disasters, gloom, and despondency were on every side;
and Congress, alarmed at the proximity of British and Hessian troops,
then only awaiting the freezing of the Delaware to march to the capture
of Philadelphia, withdrew to Baltimore on the 12th of December, as we
have already seen, where they resumed their deliberations on the 20th.

Let us close the record, and, like the fugitive Congress, leave the old
State House for a season.

Toward noon, accompanied by a friend (Mr. Samuel Agnew), I left the city
[[November 27, 1848]] to visit the remains of the old forts at Red Bank,
on the Jersey shore of the Delaware, a few miles below Philadelphia.
Unable to gain positive information respecting a ferry, we concluded to
drive down to Fort Mifflin, and obtain a passage there. We crossed the
Schuylkill, and, passing through the cultivated country on its
right bank, missed the proper road to Fort Mifflin, and reached the
termination of the one we were traveling, at a farm-house. Here we
ascertained that we could not obtain ferriage at the fort, so we crossed
the Schuylkill again, upon a bateau, near its mouth, and, returning to
the city suburbs, found the proper avenue to League Island, * whence we
could be ferried to Red Bank. Our blunder consumed two hours, and then
we had to wait almost another hour upon the dike which defends League
Island from the waters of the Delaware, before a skiff, for which we
telegraphed by a white handkerchief upon a ratan, came over to us. The
river is there about a mile wide; and while the waterman was slowly
rowing across, we dined upon bread and cheese, cold sausage, and grape
jelly, which the kind consideration of my friend's wife had furnished at
our departure. It was a rather uncomfortable pic-nic on that unsheltered
dike in the keen November wind.

Leaving my horse in a stall at the ferry, we crossed to the great coal
depot, upon Eagle

* This is a low island just below the city suburbs, and, until protected
by a heavy stone dike, was formerly almost covered with water at high
tide. It is now a very fertile piece of reclaimed land, and is reached
from the main by a bridge, the intervening channel being quite narrow.

[[[Fort Mercer.--Donop's Grave.--Whitall's House.--De Chastellux's Visit
there.]]]

{290}Point, on the Jersey shore, about half a mile above the site of
Fort Mercer, at Red Bank. We met a resident gentleman on the way to the
fort, who kindly turned back and pointed out the various localities.

[Illustration: 9300]

The embankments and trenches are quite prominent, and will doubtless
long remain so, for a forest of young pines now covers and protects
them from the destroying hand of cultivation. The form of the fort and
outworks, as denoted in the sketch, was easily distinguished, and the
serried lines of the soldiers' graves were palpable along the brow
of the high bank. These are the graves of those who were slain in the
battle which occurred there in the autumn of 1777. They were buried in
boxes, and now their remains are often exposed by the washing away of
the banks.

[Illustration: 8300]

At the southern line of the fort, close by the bank, are the remains of
the hickory-tree which was used as a flag-staff during the battle; and
near it are traces of the gateway of the fort. A little below, and in
the path leading to the house of Mr. Whitall, is the grave of Count
Donop, marked by a small, rough sandstone, about fourteen inches in
height.

Vandal fingers have plucked relic-pieces from it, and so nearly was the
rude inscription effaced that I could only decipher a portion of the
words, Donop was lost, as seen in the sketch. **

[Illustration: 7300]

Even his bones have not been allowed to molder in his grave, but are
scattered about the country as cherished relics, his skull being in
possession of a physician of New Jersey!

A few rods south of Donop's grave, close by the river bank, is the
ancient residence of the Whitall family. It is a two-story house, built
of brick, and is now (1851) one hundred and three years old. The date
of its erection is given on the north gable, where the characters "I A
W [James and Anna Whitall] 1748," are delineated by dark, glazed brick.
The Whitalls were Quakers, and of course, although Whigs, took no part
in the war. This fact made some suspect the old man of Toryism. *** I
was informed by the present owner that, when the attack was made upon
the fort, and his grandmother was urged to flee from the house, she
refused, saying, "God's arm is strong, and will protect me; I may

* Red Bank, where these remains are, is in the township of Woodbury,
in Gloucester county, New Jersey. The fortifications erected there were
little more than earthen embankments, and a ditch covered by abatis.
The arrow in the sketch denotes the direction of Fort Mifflin, on the
opposite side of the Delaware.

** The Marquis de Chastellux, who visited this spot in 1781, says, in
his Journal (i., 260), "We had not gone a hundred yards before we came
to a small elevation, on which a stone was vertically placed, with this
short epitaph: 'Here lies buried Colonel Donop'" M. de Mandait was the
guide on the occasion. He acted in the double capacity of engineer and
officer of artillery at the battle, and had the charge of arranging
and defending the post, under Colonel Green. "He assured us," says the
marquis, "we could not make a step without treading on the remains of
some Hessian, for near three hundred were buried in the front of the
ditch."

*** De Chastellux, in recording his visit, says: "On landing from our
boat, he [Manduit] proposed conducting us to a Quaker's, whose house is
half a musket-shot from the fort, or rather the ruins of the fort; for
it is now destroyed, and there are scarcely any reliefs of it remaining.
'This man,' said M. de Manduit, 'is a little of a Tory; I was obliged
to knock down his barn, and fell his fruit trees; but he will be glad
to see M. de La Fayette, and will receive us well.' We took hint at his
word; but never was expectation more completely deceived. We found
our Quaker seated in the chimney corner, busied in cleaning herbs. He
recollected M. de Manduit, who named M. de La Fayette to him; but he
did not deign to lift his eyes, nor to answer any of our introducer's
discourse, which at first was complimentary, and at length jocose.
Except Dido's silence, I know nothing more severe; but we had no
difficulty in accommodating ourselves to this bad reception, and made
our way to the fort.--Travels, i., 259.

[[[Anecdote of Mrs. Whitall.--Old Cannon.--Distant View of Fort
Mifflin.]]]

{291}do good by staying." She was left alone in the house; and while the
battle was raging, and cannon-balls were driving like sleet against and
around her dwelling, she calmly plied her spinning-wheel in a room in
the second story. At length a twelve-pound ball, from a British vessel
in the river, grazing the American flag-staff (the walnut-tree) at the
fort, passed through the heavy brick wall on the north gable, and with a
terrible crash perforated a partition at the head of the stairs, crossed
a recess, and lodged in another partition, near where the old lady was
sitting.

[Illustration: 0301]

Conceiving Divine protection a little more certain elsewhere after this
manifestation of the power of gun-powder, the industrious dame gathered
up her implements, and with a step quite as agile as in youth, she
retreated to the cellar, where she continued spinning until called to
attend the wounded and dying who were brought into her house at the
close of the battle. She did, indeed, "do good" by remaining; for, like
an angel of mercy, she went among the maimed, unmindful whether they
were friend or foe, and administered every relief to their sufferings,
in her power. She scolded the Hessians for coming to America to butcher
the people. At the same time, she bound up their wounds tenderly, and
gave them food and water. The scar made by the passage of that iron ball
is quite prominent in the gable; it is denoted in the engraving by
the dark spot. I saw within the house where the missile cut off the
wood-work in its passage, and where it lodged.

On the green, between the Whitall house and the river, lies a portion
of an iron cannon which burst during the engagement. That event killed
several of the Americans. The picture represents its present appearance,
with its breech blown away. Beyond it is the Delaware, and in the
distance, opposite, is seen Fort Mifflin, lying almost upon the water
level on Fort or Great Mud Island, near the western shore. In the far
distance, bounding the view, are the hills of Pennsylvania, toward
Valley Forge.

In the summer of 1777, Sir William Howe, the British commander-in-chief,
sailed from New York (a) with a large land force, and with a naval
armament under his brother [[ a July 23]] Richard, Earl Howe, and,
landing at the head of Chesapeake Bay, (b) commenced [[ b August 25.]]
a victorious march toward Philadelphia. Washington, informed of the
movement, went out from Philadelphia to meet him, and had proceeded
beyond the Brandywine, in the neighborhood of Wilmington, when the
van of the enemy appeared at Kennet Square. The battle of Brandywine
occurred soon afterward, (a) in which the Americans were [[ a September
11]] defeated, and driven back toward Philadelphia. The enemy pushed
steadily forward, and entered the city in triumph. (b) In anticipation
of the possibility [[ b September 26.]] of such an event, the Americans
had applied themselves diligently to the erection of obstructions in
the Delaware, to prevent the ascent of the British fleet, and also in
rearing batteries upon the shores to cover them. Upon isolated marshes,
or low islands of mud,

[[[Military Works on the Delaware.--Obstructions in the River.--Their
Removal by the British.--Capture of Billingsport.]]]

{292}made green by reeds, a little below the mouth of the Schuylkill,
they erected a strong redoubt, with quite extensive outworks, and called
it Fort Mifflin. These islands were called Great and Little Mud Islands.
The former, on which the redoubt and main works were erected, has been
called Fort Island ever since that time.

[Illustration: 8302]

On the opposite shore of New Jersey, a strong redoubt, called Fort
Mercer, was also erected, and well supplied with artillery. In the deep
channels of the river between, and under cover of these batteries, they
sunk ranges of strong frames, with iron-pointed wooden spikes, called
_chevaux de frise_, which formed almost invulnerable _stackadoes_.

Three miles further down the river, at Byllinge's Point * (now
Billingsport), was a redoubt with extensive outworks, covering strong
_stackadoes_, which were sunken there in the navigable channel of the
river, between the main and Billing's Island.

In addition to these works, several armed galleys and floating batteries
were stationed in the river, all forming strong barriers against the
fleet of the enemy. This circumstance troubled the British general, for
he foresaw the consequences of having his supplies by water cut off,
and the danger to which his army would be exposed in Philadelphia if
unsupported by the fleet.

Immediately after the battle at Brandywine, Earl Howe sailed down the
Chesapeake, and entered the lower Delaware with several light vessels,
among which was the Roebuck, commanded by Captain Hammond. That officer
represented to General Howe, that if a sufficient force could be sent
to reduce the fortifications at Billingsport, he would take upon himself
the task of opening a passage for vessels through the _chevaux de frise,
or stackadoes_, at that point. Howe readily consented to attempt
the important measure. Two regiments, under Colonel Stirling, were
dispatched from Chester, in Pennsylvania, for that purpose. They crossed
the river a little below Billingsport, marched in the rear of the
unfinished works, and made a furious assault upon the garrison. The
Americans were dismayed at this unexpected attack, and believing
themselves incompetent to make a successful defense, they spiked their
cannons, set fire to the barracks, and fled. The English remained long
enough to demolish the works on the river front; when Hammond, by the
great exertions of his men, made a passage-way seventy feet wide in the
_chevaux de frise_, and, with six vessels, sailed through, and anchored
near Hog Island. Stirling returned to Chester, and, with another
detachment, proceeded to camp, as an escort of provisions, bearing to
General Howe intelligence of his success.

[Illustration: 6302]

Howe now determined to make a general sweep of all the American works
on the Delaware, and, preparatory thereto, he called in his outposts and
concentrated his whole army near to and within Philadelphia. Two Rhode
Island regiments, belonging to General Varnum's *** brigade, under
Colonel Christopher Greene, garrisoned the fort at Red Bank, and

*So called in honor of Edward Byllinge, the purchaser of Lord Berkley's
moiety of the province of New Jersey. Slight remains of this redoubt, it
is said, yet remain.

** This cut, copied from an old print, shows the form of the chevaux de
frisé. A is a profile view, and B a plan. The spikes were made of heavy
timbers, about thirty feet in length. Partially filled with heavy stone,
they presented a formidable obstacle to vessels. It is said that these
obstructions were mainly planned by Dr. Franklin, and constructed under
the immediate supervision of M. Du Plessis Manduit, a French engineer.

*** James Mitchell Varnum was born at Dracut, Massachusetts, in 1749,
and graduated in the first class at Providence College in 1769. He
afterward studied law at East Greenwich, became an active politician in
Rhode Island, espoused the patriot cause, and joined the army in 1775.
In February, 1777, he was commissioned a brigadier in the Continental
service. He served under Sullivan in the operations on Rhode Island, in
1778, and the next year resigned his commission and left the army. He
was a delegate to Congress in 1786, and the following year was appointed
a judge of the Northwestern Territory. He died at Marietta, Ohio,
January 10, 1790, aged forty-one. His brother, Joseph Bradley Varnum,
was also an officer in the Revolution; a member, from Massachusetts, of
the first Congress after the adoption of the Federal Constitution; was
four years speaker of the Lower House, and succeeded Timothy Pickering
as United States senator in 1811. He died on the 11th of September,
1821, aged seventy-one years.

[[[The American Fleet in the Delaware.--Hessian Expedition against Fort
Mercer.--Storming of the Fort.]]]

{293}about the same number of the Maryland line, under
Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Smith, occupied Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island.
The American fleet in the river, consisting chiefly of galleys and
floating batteries, was commanded by Commodore Hazlewood. * It was quite
as important to the Americans to maintain these forts and defend the
river obstructions as it was to the British to destroy them. It was
therefore determined to hold them to the last extremity, for it was
evident that such continued possession would force Howe to evacuate
Philadelphia.

Count Donop, with four battalions, consisting of twelve hundred picked
Hessians, was sent by Howe to attack Fort Mercer, at Red Bank. They
crossed the Delaware, and landed at Cooper's Ferry, on the 21st of
October. The same evening they marched [[1777]] to Haddonsfield, in New
Jersey, a little above Gloucester. As they approached Timber Creek,
on their way down the river, the Americans took up the bridge, and the
enemy were obliged to march four miles up the stream to a shallow ford.
They arrived at the edge of a wood, within cannon-shot of Fort Mercer,
on the morning of the 22d. Their appearance, full-armed for battle,
was the first intimation the garrison had of their approach. Although
informed that the number of Hessians was twenty-five hundred, the little
garrison of four hundred men, in a feeble earth fort, and with only
fourteen pieces of cannon, were not intimidated. They made immediate
preparations for defense. While thus engaged, a Hessian officer, who was
permitted to approach the fort with a flag and a drummer, rode up,
and insolently proclaimed, "The King of England orders his rebellious
subjects to lay down their arms; and they are warned that, if they stand
the battle, no quarters whatever will be given!" ** "We ask no quarters,
nor will we give any!" was the prompt reply of Colonel Greene. The
Hessian and the drummer rode hastily back to Donop, and the assailants
began at once the erection of a battery within half cannon-shot of
the outworks of Fort Mercer. All was activity and eagerness for combat
within the fort. The outworks were unfinished, but the redoubt was a
citadel upon which the garrison placed much reliance. Skill and bravery
were called to combat fierceness, discipline, and overwhelming numbers.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when a brisk cannonade was opened
from the Hessian battery, and at a quarter before five a battalion
advanced to the attack, on the north part of the fort, near a morass
that covered it. Finding the first advance post and the outworks
abandoned, but not destroyed, the enemy imagined that they had
frightened the Americans away. Filled with this idea, they raised the
shout of victory, and, with the drummer just mentioned beating a lively
march, rushed toward the redoubt, where not a man was to be seen. They
were about to ascend the ramparts, to plant the flag of conquest upon
a merlon, when, from the embrasures in front, and from a half-masked
battery upon their left flank, formed by an angle of an old embankment,
a shower of grape-shot and musket-balls poured upon them with terrible
effect, driving them back to the remote intrenchments.

Another division of the enemy, under the immediate command of the brave
Donop, attacked the fort on the south side at the same time, passed
the abatis, traversed the fosse or ditch, and some actually leaped the
pickets, and mounted the parapet of the redoubt; but the fire of the
Americans was so heavy and continuous that they were soon

* The following is a list and description of the American fleet:
Thirteen galleys, one bearing a thirty-two pounder; two carrying each
a twenty-four pounder; ten each an eighteen pounder. Twenty-six
half-galleys, each carrying a four pounder. Two xebeques, each carrying
in bow two twenty-four pounders; in stern, two eighteen pounders;
in waist, four nine pounders. Two floating batteries (the Arnold
and Putnam), one carrying twelve eighteen pounders, one ten eighteen
pounders. One provincial ship, ten eighteen pounders. Fourteen
fire-ships. The brig Andre Doria, of fourteen six pounders. One
schooner-galley, in bow two eighteen pounders; in stern, two nine
pounders. One brig-galley, in bow two eighteen pounders; in stern, two
nine pounders. There were also a number of fire-rafts.

** De Chastellux, i., 262.

[[[Repulse of the Hessians at Red Bank.--Count
Donop.--Lieutenant-colonel Greene.--Monument at Red Bank.]]]

{294}forced back, and driven out with great loss. They retreated
precipitately to Haddonfield, under Lieutenant-colonel Linsing, (Donop,
and Mingerode, his second in command, being wounded), leaving between
three and four hundred of their comrades behind. They were considerably
galled, when first retreating, by the American galleys and floating
batteries in the river. The conflict was short, but severe. The precise
loss of the enemy is not known. Marshall estimates it at four hundred
in killed and wounded. Colonel Donop, the commander of the expedition,
fell, mortally wounded, at the first fire. After the engagement, while
Manduit, the French engineer, who directed the American artillery on the
occasion, was out with a detachment, fixing the palisades, he heard a
voice among the slain, saying, "Whoever you are, draw me hence." It was
the voice of Count Donop. Manduit had him conveyed into the fort, and
the next day to Mr. Whitall's, where he attended him until his death,
which occurred three days afterward. "It is finishing a noble career
early" [he was thirty-seven], said Donop to Manduit, "but I die the
victim of my ambition and of the avarice of my sovereign." * The loss of
the Americans within the fort was eight men killed, twenty-nine wounded,
and a captain taken prisoner while reconnoitering. The number killed by
the bursting of the cannon, mentioned on a preceding page, is not known.
So close was the combat at one time, that several Hessians were pierced
by the gun-wads of the Americans. **

The conduct of Lieutenant-colonel Greene *** on this occasion was highly
applauded, and [[November 4, 1777]] Congress ordered the Board of War to
present him with an elegant sword.

This tribute was given to his family at the close of the contest, when
Colonel Greene was no longer living to receive it. He had been basely
murdered in his quarters, near Croton River, in Westchester county, New
York, by a band of Tories, consisting of about one hundred and fifty
dragoons, under Colonel Delaney, who surprised his post. Colonel Greene
fell after his single arm had slain several of his assailants. They
attempted to carry him off, but he died upon the road. Major Flagg, a
meritorious officer, was killed at the same time; also two subalterns
and twenty-seven men were killed or wounded. ****

In commemoration of the battle at Red Bank and the valor of Colonel
Greene, a monument of blue veined marble, about fifteen feet high, was
erected in 1829, just within the northern line of the outworks of
Fort Mercer, and within a few feet of the margin of the Delaware. This
tribute to the memory of valor and patriotism was made by some New
Jersey and Pennsylvania volunteers. While it is a testimony of one of
the most noble traits in human character, it bears an exhibition of the
existence of another of the most detestable. In the inscription were the
words _New Jersey and Pennsylvania_, in a single prominent line. Some
Jersey scoundrel almost obliterated the word Pennsylvania; and afterward
some Pennsylvania Vandal, in the fierceness of his retaliatory zeal for
the credit of his state, disgraced it, so far as insignificance could do
it, by obliterating the words New Jersey. The whole line is destroyed;
and that marble shaft perpetuates a remembrance of unknown barbarians as
well as of honored patriots. (v)

* De Chastellux, i., 266.

** Marshall. Ramsay. De Chastellux. Major Ward's Letter.

*** Christopher Greene, a native of Rhode Island, was a brave and
accomplished soldier. When the battles at Lexington and Concord awakened
the nation, he went to the field. After the battle of Bunker Hill he
was appointed colonel of a Rhode Island regiment, and in that capacity
accompanied Arnold through the wilderness to Quebec, and fought bravely
under the walls of that city, when beleaguered by Montgomery. In the
autumn of 1777, he was placed in chief command at Fort Mercer, at
Red Bank, with his own and Angell's regiments, which formed a part of
General Varnum's brigade. He there behaved with gallantry, and received
marks of approbation from Congress. He continued in active service
until his death, which occurred on the 13th of May, 1781, at the age
of forty-four years. Lieutenant-colonel Greene left a widow, with three
sons and four daughters. She was the child of J. Lippitt, Esq., of
Warwick, Rhode Island.

**** See Heath's Memoirs. Bolton, in his History of Westchester County
(ii., 391), says that the house in which Greene was quartered belonged
to Richard Davenport, and is situated at the end of a narrow lane which
diverges from the Pine's Bridge road, about a mile below the residence
of William Smith. When he wrote (1848) the house was in the possession
of Joshua Carpenter, a grandson of Davenport.

* (v) The following is a copy of the inscriptions upon the monument:
South side.--"This monument was erected on the 22d Octo., 1829, to
transmit to Posterity a grateful remembrance of the Patriotism and
Gallantry of Lieutenant-colonel Christopher Greene, who, with 400 men,
conquered the Hessian army of 2000 troops (then in the British service),
at Red Bank, on the 22d Octo., 1777. Among the slain was found their
commander, Count Donop, whose body lies interred near the spot where
he fell." West side.--"A number of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Volunteers, being desirous to perpetuate the memory of the distinguished
officers and soldiers who fought and bled in the glorious struggle for
American Independence, have erected this monument, on the 22d day of
October, A.D. 1829."

[[[Attack on Fort Mifflin.--American Flotilla.--Lieutenant-colonel
Smith.]]]

{295}The firing of the first gun from the Hessian battery upon Fort
Mercer was the signal for the British vessels to approach and attack
Fort Mifflin. They had already made their way through the lower barrier
at Billingsport, and the Augusta, a sixty-four gun ship, and several
smaller vessels, were anchored just above it, waiting for flood tide.

[Illustration: 8305]

As soon as Fort Mercer was attacked, the Augusta, with the Roebuck,
of forty-four guns, two frigates, the Merlin, of eighteen guns, and
a galley came up, but were kept at bay by the American galleys and
floating batteries. These galleys did good execution, not only upon the
British vessels, but by flanking the assailants at Red Bank.

The attack upon Fort Mifflin was deferred [[October 23, 1777]] until
next morning, when, the Hessians being driven from Fort Mercer, the
whole power of the American flotilla was brought to bear upon the
British fleet. A heavy cannonade was opened upon Fort Mifflin, and
attempts were made to get floating batteries in the channel in the
rear of Mud Island. Lieutenant-colonel Smith, * the commandant at Fort
Mifflin, who was vigilant and brave, thwarted every attempt thus to
outflank him (if the term may be used in reference to a garrison in a
fort), and by a gallant defense essentially aided the American flotilla
in repulsing the enemy. The fire was so fierce and incessant, that the
British ships endeavored to fall down the river. A hot shot struck and
set fire to the Augusta; and at noon, while lying aground upon a mud
bank near the Jersey Monument at Red Bank. **

* Samuel Smith was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, July 27th,
1752. His education, commenced at Carlisle, was completed at an academy
at Elkton, in Maryland, after his father made Baltimore his place of
residence. He was in his father's counting-house five years, and then,
in 1772, sailed for Havre in one of his father's vessels, as supercargo.
Having traveled extensively in Europe, he returned home to find his
countrymen in the midst of the excitements of the opening of the
Revolutionary hostilities. The battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker
Hill had been fought. Fired with patriotic zeal, he sought to serve
his country in the army, and in January, 1776, obtained a captain's
commission in Colonel Smallwood's regiment. He was soon afterward
promoted to the rank of major, and early in 1777 he received a
lieutenant colonel's commission. In that capacity he served with
distinction in the battles of Brandywine and Fort Mifflin, suffered at
Valley Forge, and participated in the action on the plains of Monmouth.
At the close of the war he was appointed a brigadier general of militia,
and commanded the Maryland quota of troops in the "Whisky Insurrection"
in Pennsylvania. He served as major general in the war of 1812, and
commanded the troops assembled for the defense of Baltimore in 1814.
During a riot in Baltimore in 1836, when the civil power was inadequate
to quell the violence of the mob, the aged general, then eighty-four
years old, appeared in the streets with the United States flag, placed
himself at the head of peaceful citizens, and very soon restored order
and tranquillity. In the autumn of that year he was elected mayor of the
city, which office he held until his death on the 22d of April, 1839,
at the age of eighty-seven years. General Smith was elected a
representative in Congress in 1793, and served until 1803. He was again
elected in 1816, and served six years longer. He was also a member
of the United States Senate for a period of twenty-three years. The
accompanying portrait is from an engraving by St. Memin, an artist who
engraved a large number of the distinguished men of our country at about
the commencement of the present century. The signature is from a frank,
kindly sent to me by his son, General Smith, president of the Maryland
Historical Society.

** This view includes the monument, a portion of the Delaware, and the
mouth of the Schuylkill, on the western shore.

[[[Successful Defense of Fort Mifflin.--Preparations for another
Attack.--Plan of the Fort.]]]

{296}shore, she blew up. The engagement continued with the other vessels
until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Merlin also took fire
and blew up, near the mouth of Mud Creek. The conflict now ceased; the
Roebuck dropped down the river, and passed below the _chevaux de frisé_
* at Billingsport, and the Americans remained masters of the Delaware
forts for a short season. **

[Illustration: 8306]

It was, indeed, cut a short season that quiet possession of the river
was vouchsafed the patriots. Although repulsed, his ships beaten back,
and his mercenary allies decimated, Howe was not discouraged; and he
labored eagerly and hopefully to dislodge the Americans from their
strong posts upon the only avenue through which his army could receive
food and clothing, and his magazine supplies for the winter.

[Illustration: 9306]

A timely re-enforcement from New York enabled him to act with energy. He
took possession of Province Island, lying between Fort Mifflin and the
main, and at different points works were thrown up to strengthen his
power and annoy the patriots. This was on the 1st of November; and from
that time never, was a garrison more harassed than that at Fort Mifflin;
and never was patience and courage more nobly exhibited than was then
shown by Lieutenant-colonel Smith and his compatriots.

Old Fort Mifflin was upon the lower end of Mud (now Fort) Island, having
its principal fortification in front, for the purpose of repelling ships
that might come up the river.

On the side toward Province Island (a low mud bank, nearly covered at
high water, and separated from Mud Island by a narrow channel) the fort
had only a wet ditch, without ravelin or abatis. This part was flanked
by a blockhouse at each of its angles. These were not strong. When the
Americans saw the enemy take possession of Province Island, and begin
the planting of batteries to bruise their weakest points, they were
sensible that Fort Mifflin would be untenable if the British completed
their works. Such, too, was the painful conviction of Washington, and
from his camp at Whitemarsh he put forth all his energies to prevent
the evil. But, weak in numbers, and deficient in every thing which
constitutes the strength of an army, he was obliged to see the
enemy, day alter day, rearing his battle-works, without being able to
interpose. He had sent anxious requests to General Gates to forward
re-enforcements from the North, Burgoyne's invading army being cap-

* The Merlin, like the Augusta, had got aground, and stuck so fast that
it was impossible to get her off. The obstructions which the Americans
had placed in the river had caused such a change in the channels, that
the pilots of the British vessels were completely at fault.

** On the 4th of November, ten days after the battle, Congress honored
Lieutenant-colonel Smith and Commodore Hazlewood, by voting each an
elegant sword.--Journals of Congress, iii., 374.

*** Explanation.--A, the inner work or redoubt; bbb, a high, thick stone
wall, built by Montressor, with indentations, where the men boiled
their kettles. This wall was pierced with loop-holes for musketry. cccc
block-houses, built of wood, with loop-holes, and mounting four
pieces of cannon each, two on the lower platform; ddd, barracks; eee,
stockadoes; fff trous de Loup; g g, ravelins. On the southeast side were
two strong piers, and a battery mounting three cannons.

[[[Washington's Efforts to Re enforce his Army.--Conduct of Gates and
Putnam.--Second Attack on Fort Mifflin.]]]

{297}tured, and no other formidable enemy requiring a large force in
that quarter; but that officer, doubtless willing to see his _rival_
unsuccessful, gave no heed to his orders until longer non-compliance
would have been positive disobedience. * To break up the encampment at
Whitemarsh, and move the army to the west side of the Schuylkill, would
be to leave depositories of stores and hospitals for the sick within
reach of the enemy. It would also leave the fords of the Schuylkill in
the custody of the royal troops, and render a junction of the expected
Northern forces with the main army difficult, if not impossible.
Furthermore, it might bring on a general engagement, which, with
his weakened forces, the commander-inchief knew might be fatal. Thus
situated, Washington viewed the progress of the enemy in his designs
upon Fort Mifflin with intense anxiety.

The British erected five batteries on Province Island, of eighteen,
twenty-four, and thirty-two pounders, within five hundred yards of
Fort Mifflin. They also brought up, by the new channel made between Hog
Island and the main by the changing of the current by the _chevaux
de frise_, a large floating battery, mounting twenty-two twenty-four
pounders, within forty yards of an angle of the fort. They also brought
to bear upon the fort four sixty-four gun ships, within nine hundred
yards, and two forty gun ships. Altogether the enemy had fourteen strong
redoubts, and these were well manned and furnished with heavy artillery.
On the 10th of November, the enemy opened their batteries on land and
water, and for six consecutive days poured a storm of bombs and round
shot upon the devoted fortification. With consummate skill and courage,
Lieutenant-colonel Smith directed the responses from the ordnance of the
fort. The artillery, drawn chiefly from Colonel Lamb's regiment, were
commanded by Lieutenant Treat, who was killed on the first day of
the siege, by the bursting of a bomb. On that day the barracks alone
suffered, but on the morning of the 11th the direction of the enemy's
fire was changed; a dozen of the strong palisades were demolished, and
a cannon in an embrasure was disabled. The firing did not cease until
midnight, and many of the garrison were killed or wounded. Colonel
Smith, the commander, had a narrow escape. He had just gone into the
barracks to write a letter to General Varnum, when a ball passed through
a chimney. He was struck by the scattered bricks, and for a time lay
senseless. He was taken across to Red Bank, and the command devolved on
Lieutenant-colonel Russell, of the Connecticut line. That officer was
disabled by fatigue and ill health, and Major Thayer, of the Rhode
Island line, volunteered to take his place. Major Henry, who sent daily
reports to Washington of the progress of the siege, was also wounded
on the 11th, but he continued with the garrison. On the 12th, a two-gun
battery of the Americans was destroyed, the northwest block-house and
laboratory were blown up, and the garrison were obliged to seek shelter
within the fort. The enemy continued to throw shells at night, and
fearful indeed was the scene. At

* Gates had ample stores and a formidable force; and had he acted with
the energy of true patriotism, he might have re-enforced Washington, by
which the Delaware forts could have been saved, and the enemy driven
out of Philadelphia. But he was vainly expecting soon to supersede
Washington in the chief command, and he treated his orders with
indifference. So tardy were his movements, when he concluded to comply,
that Washington sent Colonel Hamilton to hasten his march. When Hamilton
arrived at Albany, he found Gates reluctant to part with any of his
troops; but, after much persuasion, he consented to send Morgan's
corps and some thin brigades to the commander-in-chief. Hamilton
was indignant, and by plain speech caused Gates to send a stronger
re-enforcement. These, on their march down the Hudson, encountered a
check from Putnam, who, dreaming of glory to be derived from an attack
on New York, had actually detained a part of the force sent forward by
Gates, and had marched them to Tarrytown, while he had himself advanced
to White Plains. Thus, by tardy movements in Congress, and the undutiful
ambition of subordinate officers, Washington was often foiled. Hamilton,
by advice of Governor Clinton, assumed the authority of issuing a
peremptory order to Putnam to put the Continental troops in motion for
Whitemarsh.

* I now, sir," he wrote, "in the most explicit terms, by his
excellency's authority, give it as a positive order from him, that all
the Continental troops under your command may be immediately marched
to King's Ferry, there to cross the river, and hasten to re-enforce the
army under him." The Massachusetts militia and some new recruits were
to replace the Continental soldiers thus sent away. So much did Hamilton
censure Putnam when he returned to head-quarters, that it was thought a
court martial would arraign the veteran; but the matter was passed
over without notice, obedience having followed the peremptory order of
Washington's representative.

[[[Gallant Defense of Fort Mifflin.--Destructive Effects of Cannons and
Bombs.--Plan of Operations on the Delaware]]]

{298}sunrise on the 13th, thirty armed boats made their appearance; and
during that night the heavy floating battery was brought to bear upon
the fort.

[Illustration: 0308]

It opened with terrible effect on the morning of the 14th, yet that
little garrison of only three hundred men managed to silence it before
noon. Hitherto the enemy did not know the real weakness of the garrison;
on that day a deserter, in a boat, carried information of the fact to
the British, who were seriously thinking of abandoning the siege, for
they had suffered much. Hope was revived, and preparations were made for
a general and more vigorous assault. At daylight, on the 15th, the Iris
and Somerset, men-of-war, passed up the east channel to attack the fort
on Mud Island in front. Several frigates were brought to bear on
Fort Mercer; and the Vigilant, an East Indiaman of twenty twenty-four
pounders, and a hulk with three twenty-four pounders, made their way
through a narrow channel on the western side, and gained a position to
act in concert with the batteries on Province Island, in enfilading the
American works. At ten o'clock, while all was silent, a signal-bugle
sent forth its summons to action, and instantly the land batteries and
the shipping poured a terrible storm of missiles upon Fort Mifflin. The
little garrison sustained the shock with astonishing intrepidity, and
far into the gloom of evening an incessant cannonade was kept up. Within
an hour, the only two cannons in the fort which had not been dismounted
shared the fate of the others. Every man who appeared upon the platform
was killed by the musketeers in the tops of the ships, whose yards
almost hung over the American battery. Long before night not a palisade
was left; the embrasures were ruined; the whole parapet leveled; the
block-houses were already destroyed. Early in the evening Major Thayer
sent all the remnant of the garrison to Red Bank, excepting forty men,
with whom he remained. Among those sent was the brave Captain

* Note. Explanation of the Map.--This shows the main operations upon the
Delaware between the middle of October and the close of November, 1777.
Fort Mifflin is seen on the lower end of Mud Island. A, B, two British
transports; C, the Experiment; D, the Vigilant frigate; E, the Fury
sloop; F, a passage opened through the stockadoes; G,
American fleet burned at Gloucester; H. the village of Woodbury and
Cornwallis's encampment on the 21st of November, 1777; I, camp on the
24th, between the branches of Timber Creek; J, a battery of two eighteen
pounders and two nine pounders; K, fort at Billingsport, Colonel
Stirling's corps, and Cornwallis's camp on the 18th of November; L,
redoubt on Carpenter's Island; M, on Province Island, to cover the
bridge in the direction of Philadelphia; N, a battery of six twenty-four
pounders, one eight-inch howitzer, and one eight-inch mortar; 0, a
battery with one eight-inch howitzer and one eight-inch mortar; P, a
battery with one thirteen-inch mortar; n, two twelve pounders; o, one
eighteen pounder; S, stockadoes in the channel in front of Fort
Mifllin; a, a small vessel; b. wreck of the Merlin; c, the Liverpool:
d. Cornwallis galley; e, the Pearl; f the Somerset; g, the Roebuck; h,
wreck of the Augusta; i, the Iris; j. ship sunk; k, the Vigilant; l, the
Fury; W, the Whitall house, just below Fort Mercer. The parallelograms
around Fort Mercer denote the attack bv Donop, on the 22d of October.
The small island between Red Bank Island and the Jersey shore is
Woodbury Island, on which the Americans erected a small battery. The
creek, just below Fort Mercer, is Woodbury Creek, a deep and sluggish
stream, near the Delaware.

[[[Retreat of the Garrison.--Destruction of the Fort.--Movements in New
Jersey.--Fort Mercer Abandoned.]]]

{299}(afterward Commodore) Talbot, of the Rhode Island line, who was
wounded in the hip, having fought for hours with his wrist shattered by
a musket ball. At midnight, every defense and every shelter being
swept away, Thayer and his men set fire to the remains of the barracks,
evacuated the fort, and escaped in safety to Red Bank. Altogether it was
one of the most gallant and obstinate defenses made during the war. In
the course of the last day, more than a thousand discharges of cannon,
from twelve to thirty-two pounders, were made against the works on Mud
Island. Nearly two hundred and fifty men of the garrison were killed and
wounded. The loss of the British was great; the number was not certainly
known. *

Fort Mercer was still in possession of the Continental troops. Howe
determined to dislodge them; for, while they remained, the obstructions
in the river could not, with safety, be removed. While a portion of
his force was beating down Fort Mifflin, he was busy in fortifying
Philadelphia. He had extended intrenchments across from the Delaware to
the Schuylkill. Having received more re-enforcements from New York, he
sent Cornwallis to fall upon Fort Mercer in the rear. That officer,
with a detachment of about two thousand men, crossed the Delaware from
Chester to Billingsport, where he was joined by some [[November 18,
1777]] troops just arrived from New York. Washington had been apprised
of this movement, and had detached General Huntington's brigade to join
that of Varnum in New Jersey. He also ordered Major-general Greene to
proceed with his division to the relief of the garrison, and to oppose
Cornwallis. That able officer, accompanied by La Fayette, who had
not yet quite recovered from a wound received in the battle on the
Brandywine, crossed the Delaware at Burlington, and marched with a
considerable force toward Red Bank. He expected to be re-enforced
by Glover's brigade, then on its march through New Jersey, but was
disappointed. Ascertaining that the force of Cornwallis was greatly
superior to his own in numbers, General Greene abandoned the plan of
giving him battle, and filed off toward Haddonfield. Colonel Greene,
deprived of all hope of succor, evacuated Fort Mercer, leaving the
artillery, with a considerable quantity of cannon-balls and stores, in
the hands [[November 20]] of the enemy. Cornwallis dismantled the fort
and demolished the works. His army was augmented by re-enforcements,
and, with about five thousand men, he took post at and fortified
Gloucester Point, whence he might have a supervision of affairs in Lower
Jersey. Morgan's rifle corps joined General Greene, but the Americans
were not strong enough to venture a regular attack upon Cornwallis. A
detachment of one hundred and fifty riflemen, under Lieutenant-colonel
Butler, and an equal number of militia, under La Fayette, attacked a
picket of the enemy three hundred strong, killed between twenty and
thirty of them, drove the remainder quite into the camp at Gloucester,
and returned without losing a man. General Greene soon afterward
withdrew from New Jersey and joined Washington, and Cornwallis returned
to Philadelphia. The American fleet, no longer supported by the forts,
sought other places of safety. On a dark night, the galleys, one
[[November 21, 1777]] brig, and two sloops, crept cautiously along the
Jersey shore past Philadelphia, and escaped to Burlington. Seventeen
other vessels, unable to escape, were abandoned by their crews, and
burned at Gloucester. ** The American defenses on the Delaware were now
scattered to the winds; the obstructions in the river were removed;
the enemy had full possession of Philadelphia; Congress had fled to the
interior, and the broken battalions of the patriot army sought winter
quarters on the banks of the Schuylkill, at Valley Forge.

Gloomy indeed were the November twilights of 1777 to the eye and
heart of the patriot, for there were no brilliant omens of a pleasant
to-morrow. Not so was the bright sunset and radiant twilight of that
November evening in 1848, when we left the ruins at Red Bank and sought
a waterman to convey us back to League Island. There was no cloud in the
heavens; an orange glow suffused the chambers of the west where the
king of day had gone to his couch, and promises of a fair to-morrow were
revealed in the clear sky.

* Gordon, ii., 276. Botta, ii., 51. Washington's Letters.

** See plan on the preceding page.

[[[Ancient Philadelphia.--The "Slate-roof House" and its
Associations.]]]

{300}




CHAPTER XII.


```"New streets invade the country; and he strays,

```Lost in strange paths, still seeking, and in vain,

```For ancient landmarks, or the lonely lane

```Where oft he play'd at Crusoe, when a boy.=


```"All that was lovely then is gloomy now:

```Then, no strange paths perplex'd him, no new streets,

```Where draymen bawl, while rogues kick up a row,

```And fish-wives grin, while fopling fopling meets."

`````William Elliott.=


````"But all are passing fast away;

`````Those abstruse thinkers too--

````Old churches, with their walls of gray,

`````Must yield to something new.

````Be-Gothic'd things, all neat and white,

`````Greet every where the traveler's sight."

`````Elizabeth Oakes Smith.=

[Illustration: 9310]

ET us stroll through ancient Philadelphia this clear frosty morning
[[November 28, 1848]] ing, and visit the few fossil remains of the
primitive period that lie amid the elegant structures and "be-Gothic'd
things" of the present, like trilobites in secondary limestone. We shall
have little to do with the great town stretching away to the Schuylkill;
it is near the banks of the Delaware that we must seek for the places
hallowed by the remembrance of=

```"The deeds of our fathers in times that are gone;

```Their virtues, their prowess, the fields they have won;

```Their struggles for freedom, the toils they endured,

```The rights and the blessings for us they procured."=

One of the most interesting buildings in Philadelphia is the "Slate-roof
House," on the southeast corner of Norris's Alley and Second Street,
a little south of Chestnut Street. It was built about 1690 for Samuel
Carpenter, and was occupied by William Penn as his city residence in
the year 1700. * There was the birth-place of John Penn, the governor
of Pennsylvania when the Revolution broke out, the only child of William
Penn born in this country. From that circumstance he was called "the
American." There, in 1702, Lord Cornbury, then governor of New York
and New Jersey, was magnificently entertained, with his suite of fifty
persons. James Logan, William Penn's agent, also entertained him at
Pennsbury, in a style quite in dissonance with the plain character of
Quakers. This house was sold to William Trent, the founder of Trenton,
in 1703. For nearly fifty years afterward it was occupied by some of
the first men of Philadelphia (among whom was Deputy-governor Hamilton),
when it became noted as a superior boarding-house. There General Forbes,
the successor of Braddock, died in 1759. In 1764 it was rented by the
Widow Graydon, mother of Captain Graydon, the author of "Memoirs of
Sixty Years' Life in Pennsylvania." Captain Graydon describes the house
as "a singular, old-fashioned structure, laid out in the style of a
fortification, with abundance of angles, both salient and re-entering
Its two wings projected to the street in the manner of bastions, to
which the main building, retreating from sixteen to eighteen feet,
served as a curtain. It had a spacious

* Penn had a fine eountry residence, sometimes called "The Palace," in
Bucks county, on the bank of the Delaware, nearly opposite Bordentown.
It was constructed in 1683, at an expense of $35,000.

[[[Loxley's House.--Mrs. Darrah and the British Adjutant General.]]]

{301}yard half way to Front Street, ornamented with a double row of
venerable, lofty pines, which afforded a very agreeable rus in urbe in
the heart of the city." *

[Illustration: 9311]

John Adams and other members of the first Continental Congress boarded
in the _Slate-roof House_; and there many British officers had lodgings
while the city was in possession of the royal troops in 1778. A young
ladies' boarding-school was kept there at one time, in which a daughter
of General Wayne was educated. ** General Arnold occupied it as his
residence while military governor of Philadelphia in 1778; and there
were given those splendid entertainments before and after his marriage
with Miss Shippen, which contributed to involve him in those debts that
aided in producing his defection to the American cause.

Strolling down South Second Street, I came to an antiquated building, at
No. 177, known as "Loxley's House." Its gallery in front was sometimes
used as a preaching-place by Whitefield. The house was then out of town,
over "the Second Street Bridge." In front of it was a gentle hill,
whose slopes afforded a fine resting-place for the immense audiences
who listened to the great missionary. On that hill Captain (afterward
General) Cadwallader used to drill his "silk stocking company." ****

[Illustration: 8311]

Mr. Loxley, the first owner of the house, was a lieutenant of artillery
under Braddock, and was present at the defeat of that general at the
Great Meadows.

During the Revolution, the Loxley House was the residence of a Quaker
named William Darrah, or Darrach, whose wife, Lydia, was a true heroine
and patriot. While the British had possession of Philadelphia, the
adjutant general made his quarters at Darrah's; and it being a secluded
spot, the superior officers of the army used frequently to hold their
confidential meetings there. On one of these occasions, the adjutant
general ordered Mrs. Darrah to make the upper back room ready for the
reception of his friends, who were expected to stay late; "And," he
added, in giving his order, "be sure, Lydia, your family are all in bed
at an early hour."

His manner was emphatic; and Mrs. Darrah, fearing to disobey, prepared
for their reception. The order impressed her quick perception with
curiosity, and she resolved to know the purport of the meeting. When the
officers came the family were in bed, Lydia alone being up to receive
them. This done, she retired to her own couch without undressing.
She was restless, and at length a higher impulse than mere curiosity
determined her to become a listener. Softly she stole from her room,
and, without shoes, traversed the passage to the door of the apartment
where the officers were assembled. She applied her ear to the keyhole,
when, after a few minutes of silence within, a voice read distinctly
an order of Sir William Howe for the troops to quit the city the next
night, and march out to an attack upon Washington's camp at Whitemarsh.
Lydia had heard enough, and, gliding back to her room, she threw herself
on her bed, but not to sleep. In a few minutes there

* Memoirs, page 53.

** Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, i., 163.

*** This view is from Second Street. The building is of imported brick,
except the modern addition between the wings, which is now occupied as
a clothing store by an Israelite. The house is suffered to decay,
and doubtless the broom of improvement will soon sweep it away, as a
cumberer of valuable ground.

**** Watson, i., 412.

[[[Information sent to Washington's Camp by Mrs. Darrah.--Disappointment
of the British.]]]

{302}was a rap at the door; she knew its meaning, and feigned deep
slumber. At the third knock she arose quickly, and let the adjutant
general and his friends depart.

Mrs. Darrah now possessed a momentous seeret. She was a true friend
to her country, and she felt that she had a duty to perform, and that
quickly. In the still hour of the night she sent up a silent petition
for heavenly guidance, and at dawn she was astir.

[Illustration: 9312]

She awoke her husband, and informed him that flour was wanted for family
use, and that she must go immediately to Frankford for it, a common
occurrence in those days. * It was a cold December Decembers, morning,
the snow several inches deep[[December 3, 1777]] upon the ground. On
foot, and with her bag in hand, she started on her errand, stopping at
the head-quarters of General Howe ** to obtain a passport to leave the
city. Mrs. Darrah reached Frankford, nearly five miles distant, at an
early hour, and, leaving her bag at the mill, pressed forward toward the
American outposts to inform Washington of the intended night attack.
She met Lieutenant-colonel Craig, who had been sent out by the
commander-in-ehief to gain information respecting the enemy. To him she
told the secret, and, hastening baek to the mill, shouldered the bag
of flour, and returned home with a heart full of thankfulness for being
made an instrument of usefulness to her country, as she believed, and as
the result proved.

From her window, on that cold starry night whieh succeeded her morning
mission, she watched the departure of the British troops to make the
attack on Washington's camp. And again she watched from that window when
the distant roll of a drum heralded their return from "a fool's errand,"
indeed; for, "forewarned, forearmed," the Americans were on the alert,
and fully prepared to receive the enemy when they came. Foiled, the
British returned to their encampment in the city. The adjutant general
came to his quarters. He summoned Lydia to his room, and, locking his
door with an air of mystery, bade her be seated. "Were any of your
family up, Lydia," he asked, "on the night when I received company in
this house?"

"No," she unhesitatingly replied; "they all retired at eight o'clock."
This was true, though Lydia afterward arose. "It is very strange," said
the officer. "You, I know, Lydia, were asleep, for I knocked at your
door three times before you heard me; yet it is certain that we were
betrayed. I am altogether at a loss to conceive who could have given
information to Washington of our intended attack! On arriving near his
encampment, we found his cannon mounted, his troops under arms, and so
prepared at every point to receive us, that we have been compelled to
march back without injuring our enemy, like a parcel of fools." *** Mrs.
Darrah enjoined Lieutenant-colonel Craig not to disclose her name, for
she feared the fury of the enemy; history has therefore omitted the
name of Lydia Darrah in its record of events at that time, and left
well-authenticated tradition alone to embalm it. ****

I walked down to the navy yard, and visited the old Swedes' Chureh,
on Swanson Street, near by. Its present pastor, the Reverend Mr. Clay,
permitted me to view its interior.

* See page 248.

** General Howe's quarters were in a house on High Street, one door east
from the southeast corner of Sixth Street, where President Washington
resided. Three houses, Nos. 192 to 194 High Street, now occupy the
site of this mansion. This view is copied, by permission, from Watson's
Annals.

*** Mrs. Ellett's Women of the Revolution, i., 171.

**** Washington, in a letter to Congress, dated Whitemarsh, 10th
December, 1777," mentions the fact that, on Thursday night previous,
Howe, with all his foree, left the eity, and the next morning appeared
on Chestnut Hill, in front of the American right wing. He says, "From
a variety of intelligence, I had reason to expect that General Howe was
preparing to give us a general action." Writing to Governor Livingston
on the 11th, he savs, Howe "came out with his whole force last Thursday
evening, and, after maneuvering round us till the Monday following,
decamped very hastily, and marched back to Philadelphia."

[[[Swedes' Church.--Wharton's Mansion-house.--The
Mischianza.--Immorality of the Army.]]]

{303}Within and without it has been too much modernized to give a very
perfect idea of its original appearance. In its burial inclosure, among
graves that were dug a century and a half ago, rest the remains
of Wilson, the great American ornithologist. Here was the first
burial-place in Philadelphia; and here was offered the first Christian
worship upon the western bank of the Delaware above the Schuylkill.

Near the Swedes' Church, and fronting the river at the present navy
yard, stood _Wharton's Mansion-house._ It was of large dimensions, with
broad lawns and stately trees around it. There, on Monday, the 18th of
May, 1778, was given a great entertainment in honor of Sir William Howe
and his brother Richard, earl Howe (the naval commander), then on the
eve of their departure from America. It was called the _Mischianza_, an
Italian word signifying a medley.

[Illustration: 8313]

This entertainment was probably the most magnificent exhibition of
extravagance and folly ever witnessed in America. It very properly drew
forth the indignant comments of not only the Whigs in America, but of
the true friends of government here and in England, as an appropriate
finale to the sensualities of the British army during its winter
encampment in Philadelphia. * The loose discipline of the army, during
those six months of idleness, did more to weaken the power of the enemy
than all the battles they had yet experienced here, and fully
justified the remark of Franklin, that "General Howe has not taken
Philadelphia--Philadelphia has taken General Howe." Major Andre, in
the subjoined letter ** to a friend, has given a graphic picture of the
_Mischianza_. It was published in a London magazine in August., 1782.

* The following advertisement, which appeared in a Philadelphia paper
while the British had possession of the city, will serve to show the
impudent profligacy of some of the English officers at that time:
"Wanted to hire with two single gentlemen, a young woman, to act in the
capacity of housekeeper, and who can occasionally put her hand to any
thing. Extravagant wages will be given, and no character required. Any
young woman who chooses to offer, may be further informed at the bar of
the City Tavern.--Watson's Annals, ii., 288.

** "Philadelphia, May 23,1778."

** "For the first time in my life I write to you with unwillingness. The
ship that carries home Sir William Howe will convey this letter to you;
and not even the pleasure of conversing with my friend can secure me
from the general dejection I see around me, or remove the share I must
take in the universal regret and disappointment which his approaching
departure hath spread throughout the army. We see him taken from us at a
time when we most stand in need of so skillful and popular a commander;
when the experience of three years, and the knowledge he hath acquired
of the eountry and the people, have added to the confidence we always
placed in his conduct and abilities. You know he was ever a favorite
with the military; but the affection and attachment which all ranks of
officers in this army bear him can only be known by those who have at
this time seen them in their effects. I do not believe there is upon
record an instance of a commander-in-chief having so universally
endeared himself to those under his command, or of one who received such
signal and flattering proofs of their love. That our sentiments might be
the more universally and unequivocally known, it was resolved among us
that we should give him as splendid an entertainment as the shortness of
the time and our present situation would allow us. For the expenses, the
whole army would have most cheerfully contributed; but it was requisite
to draw the line somewhere, and twenty-two field-officers joined in
a subscription adequate to the plan they meant to adopt. I know your
curiosity will be raised on this occasion; I shall therefore give you as
particular an account of our Mischianza as I have been able to collect.
From the name, you will perceive that it was made up of a variety of
entertainments.

** Four of the gentlemen subscribers were appointed managers--Sir John
Wrottlesly, Colonel O'Hara, Major Gardiner, and Montresor, the chief
engineer. On the tickets of admission which they gave out for Monday,
the 18th, was engraved, in a shield, a view of the sea, with the
setting sun, and on a wreath, the words Luceo discedens, aucto splendore
resurgam. At the top was the general's crest, with Vive vale! All around
the shield ran a vignette, and various military trophies filled up the
ground. * A grand regatta began the entertainment. It consisted of three
divisions. In the first was the Ferret galley, with Sir William and Lord
Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, the officers of their suites, and some ladies.
The Cornwallis galley brought up the rear, having on board General
Knyphausen and his suite, three British generals, and a party of ladies.
On each quarter of these galleys, and forming their division, were five
flat-boats, lined with green cloth, and with ladies and gentlemen. In
front of the whole were three flat-boats, with a band of music in each.
Six barges rowed about each flank, to keep off the swarm of boats that
covered the river from side to side. The galleys were dressed out in a
variety of colors and streamers, and in each flat-boat was displayed
the flag of its own division. In the stream, opposite the center of
the city, the Fanny, armed ship, magnificently decorated, was placed at
anchor, and at some distance ahead lay his majesty's ship Roebuck,
with the admiral's flag hoisted at the fore-topmast head. The
transport-ships, extending in a line the whole length of the town,
appeared with colors flying, and crowded with spectators, as were
also the opening of the several wharves on shore, exhibiting the most
picturesque and enlivening scene the eye could desire. The rendezvous
was at Knight's Wharf, at the northern extremity of the city. * By half
past four the whole company was embarked, and the signal being made by
the Vigilant's manning ship, the three divisions rowing slowly down,
preserving their proper intervals, and keeping time to the music that
led the fleet. Arrived between the Fanny and the Market Wharf, a signal
was made from one of the boats ahead, and the whole lay upon their oars,
while the music played God Save the King, and three cheers given from
the vessels were returned from the multitude on shore. By this time
the flood-tide became too rapid for the galleys to advance; they were
therefore quitted, and the company disposed of in different barges. This
alteration broke in on the order of procession, but was necessary to
give sufficient time for displaying the entertainment that was prepared
on shore. The landing-place was at the old fort, ** a little to the
southward of the town, fronting the building prepared for the reception
of the company, about four hundred yards from the water by a gentle
ascent. As soon as the general's barge was seen to push from the shore,
a salute of seventeen guns was fired from the Roebuck, and, after some
interval, by the same number from the Vigilant. The company, as they
disembarked, arranged themselves into a line of procession, and advanced
through an avenue formed by two files of grenadiers, and a line of light
horse supporting each file. This avenue led to a square lawn of one
hundred and fifty yards on each side, lined with troops, and properly
prepared for the exhibition of a tilt and tournament, according to the
customs and ordinance of ancient chivalry. We proceeded through the
center of the square. The music, consisting of all the bands of the
army, moved in front. The managers, with favors of blue and white
ribbons in their breasts, followed next in order. The general, admiral,
and the rest of the company proceeded promiscuously. In front appeared
the building, bounding the view, through a vista formed by two triumphal
arches, erected at proper intervals in a line with the landing-place.
Two pavilions, with rows of benches, rising one above the other, and
serving as the advanced wings of the first triumphal arch, received the
ladies, while the gentlemen arranged themselves in convenient order on
each side. On the front seat of each pavilion were placed seven of the
principal young ladies of the country, dressed in Turkish habits, and
wearing in their turbans the favors with which they meant to reward the
several knights who were to contend in their honor. These arrangements
were scarce made, when the sound of trumpets was heard at a distance,
and a band of knights, dressed in ancient habits of white and red silk,
and mounted on gray horses, richly caparisoned in trappings of the
same colors, entered the list, attended by their esquires on foot, in
suitable apparel, in the following order: four trumpeters, properly
habited, their trumpets decorated with small pendant banners; a herald
in his robe of ceremony; on his tunic was the device of his band;
two roses intertwined, with the motto, We droop when separated. Lord
Cathcart, superbly mounted on a managed horse, appeared as chief of
these knights; two young black slaves, with sashes and drawers of blue
and white silk, wearing large silver clasps round their necks and arms,
their breasts and shoulders bare, held his stirrups. On his right
hand walked Captain Hazard, and on his left Captain Brownlow, his two
esquires, one bearing his lance, the other his shield. His device was
Cupid riding on a lion; the motto, Surmounted by Love. His lordship
appeared in honor of Miss Auchmuty.

* A little distance above the present Vine Street.

** This is a copy of the Mischianza Ticket, one half the size of the
original, which, with the drawing of the head dress upon page 306, were
made by Major André. These were presented to John F. Watson, Esq.,
by Miss Craig, one of the ladies who participated in the fête. These
curious relics are attached to manuscript annals of Philadelphia,
prepared by Mr. Watson, and by him generously presented to the Franklin
Library of that city.

* A little below the present navy yard.

     "Then came in order the knights of his band, each attended
     by his squire, bearing his lance and shield.

     "First knight, Honorable Captain Cathcart, * in honor of
     Miss N. White; squire, Captain Peters; device, a heart and
     sword; motto, Love and honor.

     "Second knight, Lieutenant Bygrove, in honor of Miss Craig;
     squire, Lieutenant Nichols; device, Cupid tracing a circle;
     motto, Without end.

     "Third knight, Captain André,2 in honor of Miss P. Chew;
     squire, Lieutenant Andre; device, two game-cocks fighting;
     motto, No rival.

     "Fourth knight, Captain Horneck, in honor of Miss N. Redman;
     squire, Lieutenant Talbot; device, a burning heart; motto,
     Absence can not extinguish.

     "Fifth knight, Captain Matthews, in honor of Miss Bond;
     squire, Lieutenant Hamilton; device, a winged heart; motto,
     Each fair by turns.

     "Sixth knight, Lieutenant Sloper, in honor of Miss M.
     Shippen; *** squire, Lieutenant Brown; device, a heart and
     sword; motto, Honor and the fair.

** "After they had made the circuit of the square, and saluted the
ladies as they passed before the pavilions, they ranged themselves in
a line with that in which were the ladies of their device; and their
herald (Mr. Beaumont), advancing into the center of the square, after
the flourish of trumpets, proclaimed the following challenge: 'The
knights of the Blended Rose, by me their herald, proclaim and assert
that the ladies of the Blended Rose excel in wit, beauty, and every
accomplishment, those of the whole world; and should any knight or
knights be so hardy as to dispute or deny it, they are ready to enter
the list with them, and maintain their assertions by deeds of arms,
according to the laws of ancient chivalry.' At the third repetition of
the challenge, the sound of trumpets was heard from the opposite side of
the square, and another herald, with four trumpeters, dressed in black
and orange, galloped into the list. He was met by the herald of the
Blended Rose, and, after a short parley, they both advanced in front
of the pavilions, when the black herald (Lieutenant More) ordered his
trumpets to sound, and then proclaimed defiance to the challenge in
the following words: "' The knights of the Burning Mountain present
themselves here, not to contest by words, but to disprove by deeds, the
vainglorious assertion of the knights of the Blended Rose, and enter
these lists to maintain that the ladies of the Burning Mountain are not
excelled in beauty, virtue, or accomplishments by any in the universe.'
"He then returned to the part of the barrier through which he had
entered, and shortly after, the black knights, attended by their
squires, rode into the lists in the following order: "Four trumpeters
preceding the herald, on whose tunic was represented a mountain sending
forth flames; motto, I burn forever. "Captain Watson, of the Guards,
as chief, dressed in a magnificent suit of black and orange silk, and
mounted on a black, managed horse, with trappings of the same colors
with his own dress, appeared in honor of Miss Franks. He was attended
in the same manner as Lord Cathcart. Captain Scott bore his lance, and
Lieutenant Lyttleton his shield. The device, a heart, with a wreath of
flowers; motto, Love and glory.

     "First knight, Lieutenant Underwood, in honor of Miss S.
     Shippen; squire, Ensign Haverkam; device, a pelican feeding
     her young; motto, For those I love.

     "Second knight, Lieutenant Winyard, in honor of Miss P.
     Shippen; squire, Captain Boscawen; device, a bay leaf;
     motto, Unchangeable.

     "Third knight, Lieutenant Délavai, in honor of Miss B. Bond;
     squire, Captain Thorne; device, a heart aimed at by several
     arrows, and struck by one; motto, Only one pierce me.

     "Fourth knight, Monsieur Montluissant (Lieutenant of the
     Hessian chasseurs), in honor of Miss R. Redman; squire,
     Captain Campbell; device, a sunflower turning toward the
     sun; motto, Te vise a vous.

     "Fifth knight, Lieutenant Hubbard, in honor of Miss S. Chew;
     squire, Lieutenant Briscoe; device, Cupid piercing a coat of
     mail with his arrow; motto, Proof to all but Love.

     "Sixth knight, Brigade-major Tarlton, in honor of Miss W.
     Smith; squire, Ensign Heart; device, a light dragoon; motto,
     Swift, vigilant, and bold.

** "After they had rode round the lists, and made their obeisance to the
ladies, they drew up fronting the White Knights; and the chief of these
having thrown down his gauntlet, the chief of the Black Knights directed
his esquire to take it up. The knights then received their lances from
their esquires, fixing their shields on their left arms, and, making
a general salute to each other by a very graceful movement of their
lances, turned round to take their career, and, encountering in full
gallop, shivered their spears. In the second and third encounter they
discharged their pistols. In the fourth, they fought with their swords.
At length the two chiefs, spurring forward into the center, engaged
furiously in single combat, till the marshal of the field (Major Gwyne)
rushed in between the chiefs, and declared that the fair damsels of the

* Captain (afterward Earl) Cathcart was a son of Lord Cathcart, the
chief of the knights on this occasion.

** Afterward Major André. The lady in whose honor he appeared was
daughter of Chief-justice Chew. His squire was his brother, a youth of
nineteen, whom the king afterward knighted, as mentioned on page 199.

***Afterward the wife of General Arnold.

* This is from a silhouette cut by Major André.

** Blended Rose and Burning Mountain were perfectly satisfied with the
proofs of love and the signal feats of valor given by their respective
knights, and commanded them, as they prized the future favors of their
mistresses, that they would instantly desist from further combat.
Obedience being paid by the chiefs to this order, they joined their
respective bands. The White Knights and their attendants filed off to
the left, 'the Black Knights to the right, and, after passing each other
at the lower side of the quadrangle, moved up alternately till they
approached the pavilions of the ladies, when they gave a general salute.

** "A passage being now opened between the two pavilions, the knights,
preceded by their squires and the bands music, rode through the first
triumphal arch, and arranged themselves to the right and left. This
arch was erected in honor of Lord Howe. It presented two fronts, in the
Tuscan order; the pediment was adorned with various naval trophies, and
at top was the figure of Neptune, with a trident in his right hand. In a
niche on each side stood a sailor with a drawn cutlass. Three plumes of
feathers were placed on the summit of each wing, and in the entablature
was this inscription: Laus illi debetur, et aime gratia major. The
interval between the two arches was an avenue three hundred feet long
and thirty-four broad. It was lined on each side with a file of troops;
and the colors of all the army, planted at proper distances, had a
beautiful effect in diversifying the scene. Between these colors the
knights and squires took their stations. The bands continued to
play several pieces of martial music. The company moved forward in
procession, with the ladies in the Turkish habits in front; as these
passed, they were saluted by their knights, who then dismounted and
joined them; and in this order we were all conducted into a garden that
fronted the house, through the second triumphal arch, dedicated to the
general. This areh was also built in the Tuscan order. On the interior
part of the pediment was painted a plume of feathers, and various
military trophies. At top stood the figure of Fame. On the right-hand
pillar was placed a bomb-shell, and on the left a flaming heart. The
front next the house was adorned with preparations for fire-works. From
the garden we ascended a flight of steps covered with carpets, which led
into a spacious hall; the panels painted in imitation of Sienna marble,
* inclosing festoons of white marble; the surbase, and all below, was
black. In this hall, and in the adjoining apartments, were prepared tea,
lemonade, and other cooling liquors, to which the company seated
themselves; during which time the knights came in, and on the knee
received their favors from their respective ladies. One of these rooms
was afterward appropriated for the use of the faro-table. As you entered
it, you saw, on a panel over the chimney, a cornucopia, exuberantly
filled with flowers of the richest eolors; over the door, as you went
out, another represented itself shrunk, reversed, and emptied.

** "From these apartments we were conducted up to a ball-room, decorated
in a light, elegant style of painting. The ground was a pale blue,
paneled From a Drawing bv Major Andre. with a small gold bead, and in
the interior filled with dropping festoons of flowers in their natural
eolors. Below the surbase the ground of rose-pink, with drapery
festooned in blue. These decorations were heightened by eighty-five
mirrors, *** decked with rose-pink silk ribbons and artificial flowers;
and in the intermediate spaces were thirty-four branches with wax-
lights, ornamented in a similar manner. "On the same floor were four
drawing-rooms, with side-boards of refreshments, decorated and lighted
in the same style and taste as the ball-room. The ball was opened by the
knights and their ladies, and the dances continued till ten o'clock,
when the windows were thrown open, and a magnificent bouquet of rockets
began the fire-works. These were planned by Captain Montressor, the
chief engineer, and consisted of twenty different exhibitions, displayed
under his direction with the happiest success, and in the highest style
of beauty. Toward the conclusion, the interior part of the triumphal
areh was illuminated, amid an uninterrupted flight of rockets and
bursting of balloons. The military trophies were on each side.

* The chief portions of the decorations were painted by Major André and
Captain Oliver Delaney, of New York. The Sienna marble was on canvas, in
imitation of scene-painting in theaters. They also painted the scenery
for the theater that was established in Philadelphia that winter, the
proceeds of which were given to the widows and orphans of their
soldiers.--Watson's Annals, ii., 292.

** The costume of the ladies was as follows: those of the Blended Rose a
white silk, called a Polonaise, forming a flowing robe, and open in
front to the waist; the pink sash six inches wide, and filled with
spangles; the shoes and stockings also spangled; the 1 lead-dress more
towering than the drawing, and filled with a profusion of pearls and
jewels. The vail was spangled, and bordered with silver lace. The ladies
of the Burning Mountain wore white sashes edged with black, and black
trimmings to white silk Polonaise gowns. There were no ladies of British
officers at the entertainment, except Miss Auchmuty, the new bride of
Captain Montressor. There were not exceeding fifty American young ladies
present; the otters were married, and these were few, lor most of the
ladies had left the city on the approach of the British.--Watson's
Annals, ii., 293.

*** All these mirrors and lusters, according to Mr. Watson, the
annalist, were borrowed from the citizens, and were all sent hack with
the ornaments on. Mr. Watson derived much information on these points
from Mrs. L, the "queen of the Mischianza." The shell and flaming heart
on the wings sent forth Chinese fountains, succeeded by fire-pots. Fame
appeared at top, spangled with stars, and from her trumpet blowing the
following device in letters of light: Les Lauriers sont immortels.
A sauteur of rockets, bursting from the pediment, concluded the feu
d'artifice... "At twelve supper was announced, and large folding-doors,
hitherto artfully concealed, being suddenly thrown open, discovered a
magnificent saloon of two hundred and ten feet by forty, and twenty-two
feet in height, with three alcoves on each side, which served for
side-boards. The ceiling was the segment of a circle, and the sides
were painted of a light straw color, with vine leaves and festoons of
flowers, some in a bright, some in a darkish green. Fifty-six large
pier-glasses, ornamented with green silk artificial flowers and ribbons;
one hundred branches, with three lights in each, trimmed in the same
manner as the mirrors; eighteen lusters, each with twenty-four lights,
suspended from the ceiling, and ornamented as the branches; three
hundred wax tapers, disposed along the supper-tables; four hundred
and thirty covers; twelve hundred dishes; twenty-four black slaves
in Oriental dresses, with silver collars and bracelets, ranged in two
lines, and bending to the ground as the general and admiral approached
the saloon; all these, forming together the most brilliant assemblage
of gay objects, and appearing at once as we entered by an easy descent,
exhibited a coup d'oil beyond description magnificent.

** "Toward the end of supper, the herald of the Blended Rose, in his
habit of ceremony, attended by his trumpets, entered the saloon, and
proclaimed the king's health, the queen, and the royal family; the
army and navy, with their respective commanders; the knights and their
ladies; the ladies in general. Each of these toasts was followed by
a flourish of music. After supper we returned to the ball-room, and
continued to dance till four o'clock.

** "Such, my friend, is the description, though a very faint one, of the
most splendid entertainment, I believe, ever given by an army to their
general. But what must be more grateful to Sir William Howe is the
spirit and motive from which it was given. He goes from this to-morrow;
but as I understand, he means to stay a day or two with his brother on
board the Eagle, at Billingsport. I shall not seal this letter till I
see him depart from Philadelphia

[[[Major Andrè's Description of the Mischianza.]]]

{304}The _Wharton Mansion-house_,

[Illustration: 9314]

with its beautiful lawns and noble trees, the scene of the wicked folly
of the enemies of freedom in the midst of a suffering people, has long
since dis-

[[[Major Andre's Description of the Mischianza.]]]

{305}appeared, and the streets and lanes of the expanding city cover the
site.

[Illustration: 9315]

Let us turn from the spot and its associations, and make our way back to
the city proper.

[[[Major Andre's Description of the Mischianza.]]]

{306}On Walnut Street, near Sixth, was the prison used as the British
Provost in 1778.

[Illustration: 9316]

It was under the charge of that infamously cruel scoundrel, Captain
Cunningham, a burly,

[[[Major Andrè's Description of the Mischianza.--Philadelphia Provost
Prison.--Cunningham.]]]

{307}ill-natured Irishman of sixty years, whose conduct as provost
marshal here and in New York has connected his name with all that
is detestable. There were confined the American prisoners taken at
Brandywine and Germantown, many of whom died of starvation after feeling
the lash of Cunningham's whip, or the force of his heavy boot, and were
buried in the Potter's Field near by, now the beautiful _Washington
Square_. It makes the blood curdle to read of the sufferings of those
who fell under the sway of that monster, so devilish in all his ways.
The miseries of others seemed to give him great delight; and often, in
the sight of the starving prisoners, would he kick over a pail of soup,
or scatter a basket of fruit or cold placed upon the door-stone with
the hope that it shall meet him hereafter as provost marshal in victuals
which some benevolent hand had might nourish the famished soldiers! We
New York. Tradition says he was hung

* This edifice was erected in 1774, and taken down in 1836. The
beautiful new Athenæum occupies a portion of the ground on Sixth Street,
and the remainder is covered by elegant dwellings. It is a singular fact
that the architect who constructed it was the first person incarcerated
in it. He was a Whig, and, having incurred the displeasure of the
British, he was locked up in that prison. The Public Ledger of June
26th, 1837, gives an account of an armorial drawing, representing,
in bold relief, a cuirass, casque, gorget, and Roman battle-ax, with
radiating spears, which was made upon an arch of one of the second story
cells, by Marshall, an English engraver, who was confined there for many
years for counterfeiting the notes of the United States Bank. He was the
son of the notorious "Bag and Hatchet Woman," of St. Giles's, London,
who followed the British army in its Continental campaigns, and gathered
spoils from the slain and wounded on the field of battle. Those who were
dead were readily plundered, and the wounded as readily dispatched. This
woman and son were master-spirits in the purlieus of St. Giles's, among
robbers and counterfeiters. The gang were at length betrayed, and the
parent and child fled to this country, bringing with them considerable
wealth in money and jewels. They lived in splendid style in
Philadelphia, riding in a gorgeous cream-colored phaeton, drawn
by richly-caparisoned horses, driven tandem. Their means were soon
exhausted, when the son married, and commenced business as an engraver.
He counterfeited notes of the United States Bank, was detected, and in
1803 was sentenced to eighteen years' confinement and hard labor in
the Walnut Street Prison, then the State Penitentiary. While he was in
prison, his mother, who had wandered away from Philadelphia in poverty
and destitution, was executed in another state for a foul murder and
arson.

[[[Washington Square.--Office of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.--The
Secretary's Aids.]]]

{308}at Newgate, in England; but the records of that prison, examined by
Mr. Bancroft, exhibit no such name.

Washington Square, the finest promenade in Philadelphia, was inclosed
and set apart as a "Potter's Field"--a place to bury strangers in--in
1704, and was used for that purpose until within the last thirty-five
years. There a great multitude of soldiers, who died of the small-pox
and camp diseases, were buried in 1776--7. It was indeed a Golgotha.
Many of the bodies, buried in pits from twenty to thirty feet square,
were piled upon each other, the topmost barely covered with earth. At
least two thousand American soldiers were buried there within the space
of eight months. The bodies of hundreds of victims of the yellow fever,
in 1793, there found a resting-place. At that time, the ground being
full, interments ceased.

[Illustration: 9318]

It was made a public walk in 1815; and that "city of the dead," shaded
by sixty or seventy varieties of trees, is now traversed daily by
thousands of the inhabitants of the teeming city of the living around
it.

From Washington Square I walked to No. 13 South Sixth Street, to view
the ancient edifice on the premises of the late P. S. Duponceau, Esq.,
mentioned by Watson, in his _Annals_, as the "Office of the Secretary of
Foreign Affairs." * I was disappointed, for improvement had demolished
the venerated building, and stately edifices, dedicated to traffic,
occupied its place. Referring to this building, Mr. Watson observes: "It
is a house appropriately owned by such a possessor [Duponceau]; for in
it he who came as a volunteer to join our fortune, and to aid our cause,
as a captain under Baron Steuben, became afterward one of the under
secretaries to our minister of Foreign Relations, and in that building
gave his active and early services. In the year 1782--3, under that
humble roof, presided, as our then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the
Honorable Robert R. Livingston. Up stairs, in the small front room
facing the street, sat that distinguished personage, wielding, by his
mind and pen, the destinies of our nation. In the adjoining back room
sat the two under secretaries--Louis R. Morris, since governor of
Vermont,3 and our venerated citizen, Mr. Duponceau. These having charge
of the archives of the nation, preserved them all within the inclosure
of a small wooden press! The only room down stairs, on the ground floor,
was that occupied by the two clerks and the interpreter. One of these
clerks, Mr. Henry Remsen, was afterward president of a bank in New
York; *** and the other, Mr. Stone, has been governor of Maryland.
The translator was the Reverend Mr. Tetard, the pastor of the French
Reformed Church." **** The house, at that time, was quite beyond the
verge of city population; now the site is near the center of business.
There are other localities of lesser note, made memorable by events
of the Revolution. I can not note them all, for other scenes of more
general interest demand our attention. The curious in such matters may
find a full reward in perusing Watson's _Annals of Philadelphia_, which
contain nearly all that is worth remembering of the past of that city.

The sites of many scenes of the Revolution are covered up and forgotten
forever. I tried in vain to find some living person who could point ont
the localities of the intrenchments which Howe caused to be thrown
up across the isthmus at Philadelphia, between the Delaware and the
Schuylkill, and the place of the encampment of the British army when
they first occupied the city. I am enabled, however, to point out those
localities through the aid of a more reliable cicerone than tradition, a
rare and valuable map of Philadelphia, (v) published in London in 1779,
the year following the evacuation of that city by the British. It was
drawn by competent engineers in the king's service. It is upon the same
scale as the plan of Philadelphia published in Tanner's Atlas in 1843.
By a careful comparison

* A picture of this building may be found in another part of this work.

** This is a mistake. Mr. Morris was never governor of Vermont. He was
clerk of the lower branch of the Legislature of that state in 1790, and
a member of Congress from 1797 to 1803.

*** Manhattan Bank.

**** Annals, i., 423.

* (v) This map is entitled, "A Plan of the City and Environs of
Philadelphia, with the works and encampments of his majesty's forces,
under the command of Lieutenant-general Sir William Howe, K.B."

[[[British Fortifications in Philadelphia.--The British
Encampment.--Personal Appearance of the British Officers.]]]

{309}of the two I have obtained the following result, which I am
satisfied is quite correct: The line of intrenchments from the Delaware
to the Schuylkill extended from the mouth of Conoquonoque Creek, just
above Willow Street, to the "Upper Ferry" on the Schuylkill, then
nearly on a line with Callowhill Street. They consisted of ten redoubts,
connected by strong palisades. The first redoubt, which was garrisoned
by the Queen's Rangers, under Simcoe, was near the junction of Green and
Oak Streets, and then near the forks of the roads leading to Frankford
and Kensington. The second redoubt was a little west of North Second and
Noble Streets; the third, between North Fifth and Sixth, and Noble and
Buttonwood Streets; the fourth, on Eighth Street, between Noble and
Buttonwood; the fifth, on Tenth, between Buttonwood and Pleasant; the
sixth, on Buttonwood, between Thirteenth and North Broad; the seventh,
on North Schuylkill Eighth, between Pennsylvania Avenue and Hamilton
Street; the eighth, on North Schuylkill Fifth and Pennsylvania Avenue;
the ninth, on North Schuylkill Second, near Callowhill Street; and the
tenth, on the bank of the Schuylkill, at the "Upper Ferry."

The encampment extended westward from North Fifth, between Vine and
Callowhill, as far as North Schuylkill Second. The Hessian grenadiers
were encamped between Callowhill, Noble, Fifth, and Seventh Streets.
The fourth, fortieth, and fifty-fifth British grenadiers, and a body
of fusileers, were on the north side of Callowhill, between Seventh
and Fourteenth Streets. Eight regiments lay upon high ground, known as
Bush's Hills, extending from Fourteenth, nearly on a line with Vine,
to the Upper Ferry. Near the redoubt at the Ferry was another body of
Hessians. The Yagers, horse and foot, were encamped upon a hill near the
junction of North Schuylkill Front and Pennsylvania Avenue. On the Ridge
Road, near Thirteenth Street, and on Eighth, near Green, were corps
of infantry. Light dragoons and three regiments of infantry were posted
near a pond between Vine, Race, North Eighth, and Twelfth Streets.
Gray's, or "Lower Ferry," was at the grounds of the Naval Arsenal,
on the Schuylkill. A little below the "Middle Ferry," at the foot of
Chestnut Street, on the Schuylkill, was a fascine redoubt, and near it
the seventy-first regiment was encamped. Some Yagers were stationed
at the "Point House" (see map on page 298), opposite Gloucester. These
localities, with those of the redoubts mentioned on page 310, were all
out of the city; its extent then being from Christian Street on the
south, to Callowhill Street on the north, or the boundary of Spring
Garden. It was widest between Arch and Walnut Streets, where it extended
from the Delaware to Ninth Street. *

When winter set in, many of the troops, and all the officers, occupied
the public buildings and houses of the inhabitants, also the old British
barracks in the Northern Liberties. The artillery were quartered in
Chestnut Street, between Third and Sixth Streets, and the State House
yard was made a park for their use. During the winter, General Howe
occupied a house on High Street, where Washington afterward resided; **
his brother, Lord

* The following composed the entire number of public buildings in
Philadelphia at that time: State House; Market; Jail; Work-house;
Barracks, built in 1755; College and Academy; City Alms-house; Quakers'
Alms-house; two Quaker meeting-houses; Christ Church; Anabaptist
meeting-house; Presbyterian meeting-house; German Lutheran Church; Roman
Catholic Church; St. Paul's Church; St. Peter's Church; the Swedes'
Church; Quakers' School-house; and a small city court-house. The
hospital and play-house were in the unsettled part of the town.

** See engraving, page 302. Watson has the following notice of the
personal appearance of some of the British officers: "Sir William Howe
was a fine figure, full six feet high, and well proportioned, not unlike
in his appearance to General Washington. His manners were graceful, and
he was much beloved by his officers and soldiers for his generosity and
affability. Sir Henry Clinton, his successor, was short and fat, with
a full face and prominent nose. In his intercourse he was reserved, and
not so popular as Howe. Lord Cornwallis was short and thick-set, his
hair somewhat gray, his face well formed and agreeable, his manners
remarkably easy and affable. He was much beloved by his men. General
Knyp-hausen was much of the German in his appearance; not tall, but
slender and straight. His features were sharp; in manners he was very
polite. He was gentle, and much esteemed. He spread his butter upon his
bread with his thumb! Colonel Tarleton was rather below the middle size,
stout, strong, heavily made, large muscular legs, dark complexion, and
his eyes small, black, and piercing. He was very active. General Howe,
while in Philadelphia, seized and kept for his own use Mary Pemberton's
coach and horses, in which he used to ride about town."--Annals, ii.,
287.

[[[Loss of the Delaware Frigate.--Torpedoes sent down the River from
Bordentown.--"Battle of the Kegs."]]]

{310}Howe, resided in Chestnut Street, in the building occupied by the
Farmers and Mechanics Bank; General Knyphausen lived in South Second,
opposite Little Dock Street; Cornwallis's quarters were in Second, above
Spruce Street; and Major André dwelt in Dr. Franklin's mansion in a
court back from High Street. *

As soon as the British had taken possession of Philadelphia, they
erected three batteries near the river, to protect the city against
the American shipping. ** Before the batteries were finished, Commodore
Hazlewood ordered the Delaware and Montgomery frigates, each of
twenty-four guns, and the sloop Fly, some galleys and gondolas, to move
near and attack them. On the morning of the 27th of September, they
opened a cannonade upon [[1777]] the works. The Delaware grounded, at
the falling of the tide, near the present Upper Ferry to Camden from
Kensington, and, before she could be got off, the guns of the British
batteries compelled her colors to be struck. A schooner was driven
ashore, and the remainder of the vessels escaped down the river. The
affair was badly managed, and disaster followed. These batteries, as
well as the lines of fortifications from the Delaware to the Schuylkill,
have long since passed away.

During the occupation of the city, the enemy were annoyed by the
patriots in various ways. In January, some Whigs at Bordentown sent a
number of kegs down the Delaware, which were filled with powder, and
furnished with machinery, in such a manner that, on rubbing against any
object in the stream, they would immediately explode. These torpedoes
were the invention of Mr. Bushnell, of Connecticut, and will be noticed
hereafter. They were intended for the destruction of the British
shipping then lying in the river opposite Philadelphia. It so happened
that, on the very night when these kegs were sent down, the vessels
were hauled into the docks to avoid the effects of the ice then rapidly
forming. They thus escaped mischief. One of these kegs exploded near
the city, and spread general alarm. Not a stick or chip floated for
twenty-four hours afterward but it was fired at by the British troops.
This _battle of the kegs_ furnished the theme for a facetious poem
from the pen of Francis Hopkinson, Esq., one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. ***

* Mrs. Bache, daughter of Dr Franklin, occupied his house when the
enemy approached Philadelphia. She left the city, and took refuge with
a friend in the eountry. After her return in July, she thus wrote to her
father, who was then in France: "I found your house and furniture, upon
my return to town, in much better order than I had reason to expect from
the hands of sueh a rapacious crew. They stole and carried off with them
some of your musical instruments, viz., a Welsh harp, ball harp, the
set of tuned bells which were in a box, viol-de-gamba, all the spare
armonica glasses, and one or two spare cases. Your armonica is safe.
* They took likewise the few books that were left behind, the chief
of which were Temple's school-books, and the History of the Arts and
Sciences in French, which is a great loss to the public. Some of your
electric apparatus is missing; also, a Captain Andre took with him a
picture of you which hung in the dining-room."

** One of these, with three guns, was on the site of the present navy
yard; another, with four guns, was below the navy land near Reed and
Swanson Streets; another, with three guns, was in front of Wharton's
Mansion, upon an eminence below Front and Christian Streets.

*** Mr. Hopkinson was also the author of "Hail Columbia," one of our
most popular national songs. The following is a copy of

    "THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS.

    "Gallants attend, and hear a friend
    "'Twas early day, as poets say,
    Trill forth harmonious ditty;
    Just when the sun was rising,
    Strange things I'll tell, which late befell
    A soldier stood on log of wood,
    In Philadelphia city.
    And saw a thing surprising.

     "As in amaze he stood to gaze
     (The truth can't be denied, sir),
     He spied a score of kegs, or more,
     Come floating down the tide, sir.
     "A sailor, too, in jerkin blue,
     The strange appearance viewing,
     First d--d his eyes, in great surprise,
     Then said, 'Some mischief's brewing.
     '"These kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold,
     Pack'd up like pickled herring;
     And they've come down t' attack the town
     In this new way of ferry'ng.'
     "The soldier flew, the sailor too,
     And, scared almost to death, sir,
     Wore out their shoes to spread the news,
     And ran till out of breath, sir.
     "Now up and down, throughout the town,
     Most frantic scenes were acted;
     And some ran here, and others there,
     Like men almost distracted.

     "Some fire cried, which some denied,
     But said the earth had quaked;
     And girls and boys, with hideous noise,
     Ran through the streets half naked.

     "Sir William* he, snug as a flea,
     Lay all this time a snoring;
     Nor dream'd of harm as he lay warm
     In bed with Mrs. L... ngt
     "Now, in a fright, he starts upright,
     Awaked by such a clatter;
     He rubs both eyes, and boldly cries,
     'For God's sake, what's the matter?'
     "At his bed-side he then espied
     Sir Erskine, at command, sir;
     Upon one foot he had one boot,
     And t'other in his hand, sir.

     "'Arise! arise!' Sir Erskine cries;
     'The rebels--more's the pity--
     Without a boat, are all afloat,
     And ranged before the city.

     '"The motley crew, in vessels new,
     With Satan for their guide, sir,
     Pack'd up in bazs, or wooden kegs,
     Come driving down the tide, sir.
     "' Therefore prepare for bloody war;
     These kegs must all be routed; '
     Or surely we despised shall be,
     And British courage doubted.'

     "The royal band now ready stand,
     All ranged in dread array, sir,
     With stomach stout to see it out,
     And make a bloody day, sir.
     "The cannons roar from shore to shore;
     The small-arms loud did rattle;
     Since wars began I'm sure no man
     E'er saw so strange a battle.

     "The rebel dales, the rebel vales,
     With rebel trees surrounded,
     The distant woods, the hills and floods.
     With rebel echoes sounded.
     "The fish below swam to and fro,
     Attack'd from every quarter;
     Why sure (thought they), the devil's to pay
     'Mong folk above the water.

     "The kegs, 'tis said, though strongly made
     Of rebel staves and hoops, sir,
     Could not oppose their powerful foes,
     The conq'ring British troops, sir.
     "From morn to night, these men of might
     Display'd amazing courage,
     And when the sun was fairly down.
     Retired to sup their porridge.

     "A hundred men, with each a pen,
     Or more, upon my word, sir,
     It is most true, would be too few,
     Their valor to record, sir.
     "Such feats did they perform that day
     Against these wicked kegs, sir,
     That, years to come, if they get home,
     They'll make their boasts and brags, sir."


* This was a musical instrument invented by Dr. Franklin. He saw, in
London, a musical instrument, consisting of tumblers, and played by
passing a wet finger around their rims. The glasses were arranged on
a table, and tuned by putting water in them until they gave the notes
required. Franklin was charmed by the sweet tones, and, after many
trials, succeeded in constructing an instrument of a different form, and
much superior. His glasses were made in the shape of a hemisphere, with
an open neck or socket in the middle, for the purpose of being fixed
on an iron spindle. They were then arranged, one after another, on this
spindle; the largest at one end, and gradually diminishing in size to
the smallest at the other end The tones depended on the size of the
glasses. The spindle, with its series of glasses, was fixed horizontally
in a case, and turned by a wheel attached to its large end, upon the
principle of a common spinning-w-heel. The performer sat in front of the
instrument, and the tones were brought out by applying a wet finger
to the exterior surface of the glasses as they turned round. It became
quite a popular instrument. A Miss Cecilia Davies acquired great skill
in playing upon it, and, with her sister, performed in various cities in
Europe. She performed in the presence of the imperial court of Vienna at
the celebration of the nuptials of the Duke of Parma and the Archduchess
of Austria. Metastasio composed an ode for the occasion, expressly
designed to be sung by her sister, and accompanied by the
armonica.--Sparks's Life of Franklin, page 264.

[[[Alarm during the Mischianza _Fete_.--Boldness of
Americans.--Interesting Places near Philadelphia.]]]

{311}On the night of the Mischianza, while the enemy were enjoying the
festivities of the _fete_, Colonel Allen M'Lane, father of one of our
ministers to the court of St. James, devised a stratagem to break them
up. At ten o'clock he reached the _abatis_ in front of the British works
with one hundred and fifty men, in four divisions, supported by Clow's
dragoons. They carried camp-kettles filled with combustibles, and at a
given signal they fired the whole line of _abatis_. The British beat
the long alarm roll, and the assailants were attacked and pursued by the
strong guard along the lines. The officers at the _fete_ managed to keep
the ladies ignorant of the cause of the tumult without. M'Lane and his
associates escaped to the hills of the Wissahicon, and bent their
way toward Valley Forge. This was the last time the British felt the
annoyance of the patriots while in Philadelphia; for they soon afterward
evacuated the city, crossed the Delaware, and marched for New York. We
shall overtake them on the plains of Monmouth.

Germantown, Whitemarsh, Barren Hill, and Valley Forge, lying within a
short distance of Philadelphia, are all intimately connected, in their
Revolutionary history, with the city, particularly in relation to
its possession and final evacuation by the British in 1777--8. We
will proceed to these interesting localities, after considering, for a
moment, the patriotism of the _women_ of Philadelphia, which beamed out,
clear as Hesperus, at the darkest hour of the struggle for freedom."

In the summer of 1780 the distress of the American army was very
great, on account of the scarcity of clothing, and the inadequate means
possessed by the commissary depart-

** He is represented by some as Sir William Erskine.

** Sir William Howe.

*** The wife of a Boston refugee, who was then a commissary of prisoners
in Philadelphia, being second only to Cunningham in cruelty, while
others speak of him as an honorable man.

[[[Patriotism of the Philadelphia Women.--Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Bache.--De
Chastellux's Visit to Mrs. Bache.]]]

{312}ment to afford a supply. The generous sympathies of the ladies
of Philadelphia were aroused, and they formed an association for the
purpose of affording relief to the poor soldiers.

[Illustration: 9322]

Never was the energy of genuine sympathy more nobly exercised than by
the patriotic women who joined hands in this holy endeavor. Mrs. Esther
Reed, the wife of General Joseph Reed, though feeble in health, and
surrounded by family cares, entered with hearty zeal into the service,
and was, by the united voice of her associates, placed at the head of
the society. * Mrs. Sarah Bache, daughter of Dr. Franklin, was also a
conspicuous actor in the formation of the association, and in carrying
out its plans.

[Illustration: 8322]

All classes became interested, and the result was glorious. "All ranks
of society seemed to have joined in the liberal effort, from Phillis,
the colored woman, with her humble seven shillings and sixpence, to
the Marchioness De La Fayette, who contributed one hundred guineas in
specie, ** and the Countess De Luzerne, who gave six thousand dollars
in Continental paper. *** Those who had no money to contribute gave the
service of their hands in plying the needle, and in almost every house
the good work went on.

It was charity in its genuine form, and from its purest source--the
voluntary outpourings from the heart. It was not stimulated by the
excitements of our day--neither fancy fairs or bazars; but the American
women met, and, seeing the necessity that asked interposition, relieved
it. They solicited money and other contributions directly and for
a precise and avowed object. They labored with their needles, and
sacrificed their trinkets and jewelry." **** The Marquis De Chastellux,
who was in Philadelphia while these efforts were in progress, was
delighted with the event. In describing a visit to several of the
American ladies, he says, "We began by Mrs. Bache. She merits all the
anxiety we had to see her, for she is the daughter of Mr. Franklin.
Simple in her manners, like her respectable father, she possesses his
benevolence. She conducted us into a room filled with work, lately
finished by the ladies of Philadelphia. This work consisted neither of
embroidered tambour waistcoats, nor net-work edgings, nor of gold
and silver brocade--it was a quantity of shirts for the soldiers of
Pennsylvania. The ladies bought the linen from their own private purses,
and took a pleasure in cutting them out and sewing them themselves. On
each shirt was the name of the married or unmarried lady who made it,
and they amounted to twenty-two hundred." (v) The results of this effort

* Mrs. Reed was a daughter of Dennis de Berdt, a London merchant, and
for some time agent for the colonies. De Berdt's house was the resort
of many Americans in England, among whom was Joseph Reed, who afterward
became his daughter's husband. They were married in London in 1780. Her
father became a bankrupt, and died soon afterward. Esther accompanied
her husband to America immediately after her marriage. The Revolution
soon broke out, and, as Mr. Reed was an active participator in its
earliest hostile scenes, the young wife and mother was kept, almost
from her first residence in America, in a state of excitement and alarm.
Fragile in body, and of nervous temperament, her health suffered; and,
a few months after she became an active member of the association of
ladies for the relief of the American army, she went down into the
grave. She died on the 18th of September, 1780, aged thirty-four years.

** La Fayette contributed this sum in the name of his wife. In his
letter to Mrs. Reed inclosing the amount, he remarked, "Without
presuming to break in upon the rules of your respected association,
may I most humbly present myself as her embassador to the confederate
ladies, and solicit in her name that Mrs. President be pleased to accept
her offering."

M. De Marbois, the French secretary of legation, in a letter to Mrs.
Reed on the occasion, said, "You have been chosen, madam, for that
important duty, because, among them all, you are the best patriot, the
most zealous and active, and most attached to the interests of your
country."

*** Equal to nearly one hundred dollars in specie.

**** Mrs. Ellet's Women of the Revolution, i., 53. Life and
Correspondence of President Reed.

* (v) Travels in North America, i., 197. The marquis, in his account
of his social intercourse in Philadelphia, mentions a visit to Mr.
Huntington, the President of Congress. "We found him,'' he says, "in his
cabinet, lighted by a single candle. This simplicity reminded me of that
of the Fabricius's and the Philopemens.

Mr. Huntington is an upright man, and espouses no party." Mr. Duponceau
relates that Mr. Huntington and himself often breakfasted together on
whortleberries and milk. On one of these occasions Mr. H. said, "What
now, Mr. Duponceau, would the princes of Europe say, could they see the
first magistrate of this great eountry at his frugal repast?"--Watson,
i., 424.

[[[Contributions of Clothing for the Soldiers.--Germantown.--James
Logan.--Speech of Logan, the Indian Chief.]]]

{313}were great and timely. The aggregate amount of contributions in
the city and county of Philadelphia was estimated at seven thousand five
hundred dollars in specie value. Added to this was a princely donation
from Robert Morris of the contents of a ship fully laden with military
stores and clothing, which had unexpectedly arrived. * During the cold
winter that followed, hundreds of poor soldiers in Washington's camp had
occasion to bless the women of Philadelphia for their labor of love.

On the morning of the 29th of November, I left Philadelphia for
Germantown, about six miles distant, accompanied by Mr. Agnew, who
journeyed with me to Whitemarsh, Barren Hill, Valley Forge, and Paoli.
It was a delightful morning, the air a little frosty. The road from
the city to its ancient suburban village passes through a pleasant,
undulating country, and was swarming with vehicles of every kind a
greater portion of the way. The village of Germantown extends along a
fine Macadamized road for nearly three miles, having no lateral streets,
and, though so near a great commercial city, few places in the United
States present more striking appearances of antiquity. Twenty or
thirty of the low, steep-roofed, substantial stone houses, with quaint
pent-eaves and ponderous cornices, built by the early inhabitants,
yet remain, and produce a picturesque feature in the midst of the more
elegant modern mansions of a later generation. ** It was first laid out
and a settlement commenced under a grant to Francis Daniel Pastorius in
1684. He purchased six thousand acres from William Penn, and the whole
was settled by Germans. James Logan, the confidential secretary of Penn,
had a favorite country house upon a hill at the southern end of the
village, which is still called Logan's Hill. ***

* De Chastellux, speaking of Robert Morris, says, "It is scarcely to be
credited that, amid the disasters of America, Mr. Morris, the inhabitant
of a town just emancipated from the hands of the English, should possess
a fortune of eight millions. It is, however, in the most critical times
that great fortunes are acquired. The fortunate return of several ships,
the still more successful cruises of his privateers, have increased his
riches beyond his expectations, if not beyond his wishes." Morris
lost as many as one hundred and fifty vessels, most of them without
insurance, during the war; but, as many escaped, and made immense
profits, his losses were made up to him. In a letter to a friend in
England, Mr. Morris remarked that, notwithstanding he lost immense sums,
he came out of the difficulties, at the peace, "about even." Among the
numerous clerks employed by Mr. Morris was James Rees, who entered his
serviee in 1776. then a lad in his thirteenth year. Mr. Rees died at his
residence in Geneva, New York, on the 24th ol March, 1851, at the age of
eighty-seven years.

** Mr. Watson says (p. 19, vol. ii.), "Many of the old houses in
Germantown are plastered on the inside with clay and straw mixed, and
over it is laid a thin lime plaster. In a house ninety years of age,
taken down, the grass in the clay appeared as green as when first cut.
Oldmixon describes Germantown in 1700 as composed of one street, a mile
in length, lined on each side, in front of the houses, with 'blooming
peach-trees.'"

*** James Logan was the Indian's friend, and, in remembrance of him,
Shikellimus named his son Logan. Shikellimus was a Cayuga chief, and one
of the converts to Christianity under the preaching of the Moravians.
Logan beeame a chief among the Mingoes, and dwelt in the present Mifflin
county, in Pennsylvania. He was a friend of the whites, but suffered
dreadfully at their hands. His whole family were murdered on the Ohio, a
little below Wheeling, by a band of white men who feigned friendship, in
the spring of 1774. In the autumn of that year his consent was asked
to a treaty with Lord Dunmore. On that occasion he made the following
speech to the white messenger, which Mr. Jefferson has preserved: I
appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry,
and he gave him no meat; if he ever came cold and naked, and he clothed
him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war. Logan
remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for
the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 'Logan
is the friend of the while men.' I had even thought to have lived with
you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, * the last spring,
in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not
even sparing my women and children. This called on me for revenge. I
have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance.
For my country I rejoice at the beams of peaee. But do not harbor a
thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not
turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not
one!"--Notes on Virginia.

* It has been satisfactorily demonstrated that Logan was mistaken in
the name of the leader of those who slew his friends. This subject is
noticed more in detail in a subsequent chapter.

[[[Officers of Government at Germantown.--Chew's House.--Destructive
Effects of War.--Benjamin Chew.]]]

{314}In various ways the history of Germantown is intimately connected
with that of Philadelphia, particularly at the time of the Revolution.
It was then the residence of several men distinguished in the annals of
the war; and in 1793, when the yellow fever was raging in Philadelphia,
the officers of both the state and federal governments resided there for
a short time.

[Illustration: 9324]

President Washington occupied the mansion of the Perot family, where
General Howe had his quarters at one time. Jefferson, who was secretary
of state, occupied the building afterward the Bank of Germantown; and
other officers of the general government were in private houses. The
trustees of the Academy agreed to rent that edifice "to the Congress of
the United States, at their next session, for the sum of three hundred
dollars." The whole building was only eighty feet long and fifty
wide, yet it was considered sufficiently large to accommodate the
representatives of the nation at that time.

We proceeded to the north end of the village, and reined up at the
entrance gate of "Chew's House," the most noted and attractive relic of
the Revolution now in Germantown. It stands back several rods from the
street, on the cast side, and is surrounded by noble trees and shrubbery
in profusion. The house is a spacious stone edifice with ample wings. In
various parts of the grounds were the mutilated remains of several fine
marble statues and vases, some standing, others lying upon the ground.
They are evidences of the refined taste of its distinguished owner,
Chief-justice Chew, * and at the same time melancholy mementoes of the
destructive character of war. These fine specimens of sculpture were all
perfect before the conflict known as the Battle of Germantown occurred;
they were battered, broken, and cast down by the cannon-balls hurled on
that occasion. We passed an hour with the venerable present owner of the
mansion, the widow of a son of Chief-justice Chew. She received us with
much courtesy, and seemed to take pleasure in leading us to various
parts of the grounds. The walls of the large room on the south are
covered with old paintings, chiefly family portraits, many of them by
eminent artists, and possessing much merit. Mrs. Chew showed me several
mementoes of the battle, among which are the scars seen at the head of
the great stair-case, which were made by the passage of a cannon-ball
through the house. In the stable we saw the old doors of the mansion,
completely riddled by musket-balls. Mrs. Chew informed us that the house
was so much injured, that four or five carpenters were employed a whole
winter in repairing it.

The battle of Germantown was fought on the morning of the 4th of
October, 1777. Defeated [[September 11, 1777]] on the banks of the
Brandywine, (a) Washington retreated, with his whole army, back to
Philadelphia, and encamped at Germantown. As soon as his

* Benjamin Chew was born in Maryland, November 20th, 1722. He studied
law first with Andrew Hamilton, and afterward in London. He went to
Philadelphia in 1754, where he held the respective offices of recorder
of the city, register of wills, attorney general, and finally beeame
chief justice of Pennsylvania. His course was doubtful when the
Revolution broke out, and he was claimed by both parties. After the
promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, he took a decided stand
against the Whigs, and retired to private life. In 1777 he refused to
sign a parole, and was sent a prisoner to Fredericksburg, Virginia. In
1790 he was appointed president of the High Court of Errors and Appeals,
and held that office until the abolition of the tribunal in 1806. He
died on the 20th of January, 1810, aged nearly eighty-eight years.
His father was the Honorable Samuel Chew, of Delaware, a member of the
society of Friends, who was a judge and a physician.

[[[Maneuvers of the two Armies on the Schuylkill.--The British Army at
Germantown.--Preparations to Attack it]]]

{315}soldiers were rested and refreshed, * he recrossed the Schuylkill,
and marched to [[September 16]] oppose the army of Howe, then pressing
on toward Philadelphia. The two armies met near the Warren Tavern, on
the Lancaster road, within twenty miles of the city. Washington made
preparations to attack the left wing of the enemy, and an engagement was
about to take place a little north of the Goshen meeting-house, when a
violent storm of rain came on suddenly, wet the powder of both parties,
and prevented a conflict.

[Illustration: 8325]

The storm continued all light, and before dawn the enemy left their
position, and moved down the road leading to Swedes Ford. Perceiving
this, Washington crossed the Schuylkill above them at Parker's Ford,
hoping to be able to confront them while on their passage of the river.
Howe did not cross, but wheeled and made a rapid march up the right bank
of the stream toward Reading. Supposing Howe's design to be either to
turn the right of his army, or to get possession of the American stores
deposited at Reading, Washington moved his forces up the river near to
Pottsgrove (now Pottstown), twenty miles above Norristown. Howe's march
seemed to have been a movement to deceive Washington; for, as soon as
the latter moved to Pottsgrove, the former wheeled his army, marched
rapidly down the river, crossed it at the Fatland Ford and vicinity (a
little above Norristown), and pushed forward to Philadelphia. ** (a)
That whole region of country, awed by the [[ a September 18, 1777]]
presence of the British army, was disaffected toward the American cause,
and Washington could obtain no reliable information of the enemy's
movements. With correct intelligence, he probably would have foiled Howe
by skillful maneuvers, and saved Philadelphia. ***

On first taking possession of Philadelphia, Howe stationed the
main division of his army at Germantown. Washington encamped near
Pennibecker's mill, between Perkiomy and Skippack Creeks, about twenty
miles from Philadelphia, where he remained until about the 1st of
October, undetermined what movement to make next, when his forces were
augmented by the arrival of troops from Peekskill on the Hudson, and a
body of American militia. Advised of the weakened state of Howe's army,
in consequence of his detaching a portion for the purpose of reducing
Billingsport, and Forts Mercer and Mifflin, on the Delaware, the
commander-in-ehief conceived a plan for attacking the main division at
Germantown. The British line of encampment there crossed the village at
right angles, at about the center, the left wing extending westward
from the town to the Schuylkill. It was covered in front by the German
chasseurs, some mounted, and some on foot. The right extended eastward
from the village, and was covered in front by the Queen's Rangers, a
light corps under Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe. The center was posted in
the town, and guarded by the fortieth regiment, and another battalion of
light infantry was stationed about three fourths of a mile in advance.

At a council of officers called by Washington, it was arranged that the
divisions of Sullivan and Wayne, flanked by Conway's brigade, were to
enter the town by the way of Chestnut Hill, while General Armstrong,
**** with the Pennsylvania militia, should fall down

* The condition of the American soldiers was, at that time, deplorable,
on account of a want of shoes. Washington, writing to the president of
Congress on the 23d of September, says, "At least one thousand men are
barefooted, and have performed the marches in that condition."

** It was at this time 'that Washington wrote to Gates and Putnam to
send on re-enforcements from the northern armies amid the Highlands. See
page 297.

*** On the approach of the British toward the Schuylkill, Congress, then
in session in Philadelphia, adjourned to Lancaster, where they assembled
on the 27th of September. They adjourned the same day to York, where
they met on the 30th, and continued their sittings there until the
British evacuated the city the following summer.

**** John Armstrong, a native of Pennsylvania, was a colonel in the
provincial forees of that state during the French and Indian wars. He
headed an expedition against the Indians at Kiltaning in 1756, which
destroyed that settlement, dispersed the savages, and took possession of
the stores which the French had sent there for the use of their native
allies. For this service the corporation of Philadelphia passed a vote
of thanks to Armstrong and his three hundred men, and presented him with
a medal and a piece of plate. He was appointed a brigadier general in
the Continental army in 1776, and did gallant service in defense of Fort
Moultrie, at Charleston, in the summer of that year. He was engaged in
the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in the autumn of 1777. Becoming
dissatisfied concerning some promotions in the army, he resigned
his commission at the close of 1777, and became a member of Congress
afterward. He died at Carlisle, March 9, 1795. He was the father of
Major John Armstrong, the author of the "Newburg Addresses," whose life
and character is noticed on page 106.

[[[Approach of the Americans to Germantown.--Attack on the British
Pickets.--Chew's House a Defense.]]]

{316}the Manatawny road by Van Deering's mill, and get upon the enemy
s left and rear. The divisions of Greene and Stephen, flanked by
M'Dougall's brigade, were to enter by making a circuit by way of the
Lime-kiln road, at the market-house, and to attack the enemy s right
wing; and the Maryland and Jersey militia, under Generals Smallwood and
Forman, were to march by the old York road and fall upon the rear of
their right. Lord Stirling, with the brigades of Nash and Maxwell, were
to form a reserve corps. *

After dark, on the evening of the 3d of October, Washington, with his
army, moved silently from his camp on Metuchen Hill, upon Skippack
Creek, toward Germantown. He accompanied the column of Sullivan and
Wayne in person. Small parties were sent out to secure every man who
might give the enemy notice of his approach, and every precaution was
taken to insure complete surprise.

[Illustration: 9326]

He tried to reach the British pickets at Chestnut Hill before daylight;
but the roughness of the roads over which his army marehed prevented,
and it was almost sunrise when he emerged from the woods on that
elevation. His approach had been discovered at early dawn by the British
patrols, who gave the alarm. The troops were soon called to arms, and
placed in battle order on Mount Airy, about a mile north of Chew's house
in Germantown. At seven o'clock Sullivan's advanced party, drawn chiefly
from Conway's brigade, and led by that officer, fell upon the
British pickets at Allen's house, at Mount Airy, where they had two
six-pounders, and drove them back to the main body near, which consisted
chiefly of the fortieth regiment and a battalion of light infantry.
Sullivan's main body now left the road, moved to the right through
the fields, formed in a lane leading from Allen's house toward the
Schuylkill, and joined in the attack with so much vigor and such
overwhelming numbers, that the enemy, after a sharp engagement of twenty
minutes, gave way, and fell back to the village, closely pursued by
the victors. Colonel Musgrave, who commanded the British center, thus
furiously attacked, threw himself, with five companies of the fortieth
regiment, into Judge Chew's large stone house, pictured on page
314, from which such a severe discharge of musketry was poured upon
Woodford's brigade, which was

* Sparks, v., 78.

[[[Scenes at Chew's House.--Remissness of the Militia.--Victory lost to
the Americans.]]]

{317}pursuing the flying enemy, that their progress was checked. The
fire of the small arms of the patriots upon this refuge was quite
ineffectual. General Reed, it is said, proposed to continue the pursuit
of the remainder of the enemy, who were then in great confusion, and
turning their faces toward Philadelphia; but General Knox, of the
artillery, opposed the suggestion, as being against all military rule
"to leave an enemy in a fort in the rear. "What!" exclaimed Reed, "call
this a fort, and lose the happy moment!" They sought for Conway to
decide the point, but he was not to be found. Knox's opinion prevailed,
and pursuit was abandoned.

A flag was now sent by a young man * to demand a formal and immediate
surrender. The bearer was slain by a bullet when within musket-shot
of the house. Cannons were now brought to bear upon the house by the
artillery regiment of Maxwell s brigade; but so strong were the walls
and so courageous were the inmates, that it was found impossible to
dislodge them. Attempts were made to set the house on fire, but without
success. ** Many of the Americans were killed in the assault, while
scarcely a man of the garrison was wounded. The attempt to dislodge
the enemy caused many of the American troops to halt, and brought back
Wayne's division, which had advanced far beyond the house. This totally
uncovered Sullivan's left flank, which was advancing toward the enemy's
left, and disconcerted all their plans.

While this attack on Chew's house was in progress, General Greene had
approached the enemy's right wing, and routed the battalion of light
infantry and the Queen's Rangers. Turning a little to the right, he fell
upon the left flank of the enemy's right wing, and endeavored to enter
the village, not doubting that the Pennsylvania militia under Armstrong,
upon the right, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey on the left,
commanded by Smallwood and Forman, would execute the orders of the
commander-in-chief, by attacking and turning the first left and the
second right flank of the British army. Neither of these detachments
performed their duty. The former arrived in sight of the German
chasseurs, but did not attack them; while the latter appeared too late
for co-operation with Greene s movements. The golden opportunity was
at that moment lost. The whole British army, as it appeared afterward,
astonished at the valor of the assailants and ignorant of their numbers,
were on the point of retreating, and had selected Chester, near the
Brandywine, as the place of rendezvous; but General Grey, finding his
left flank secure, marched with nearly the whole of the left wing, which
was under the general command of Knyphausen, to the assistance of the
center, then hard pressed in the village, where the Americans
were gaining ground every moment. The battle now raged severely In
Germantown, and for a while the issue was doubtful. Colonel Matthews,
with a detachment of Greene's column, composed of a part of Muhlenberg's
and Scott's brigades from the left wing, advanced to the eastward of
Chew's house, assailed a party of English, took one hundred and ten
prisoners, and drove the remainder before him into the town, whither he
followed as far as the market-house. A thick fog, which began to form
at daylight, now completely enveloped every thing, and the contending
parties were unable to discover the movements of each other. Matthews,
with his prisoners, was soon stopped at a breast-work near Lucan's
mills. At the same time, the right wing of the enemy, after discovering
that they had nothing to fear from the Maryland and New Jersey militia,
fell back, and completely surrounded Matthews

* Lieutenant Smith, of Virginia, who was an assistant of Colonel Timothy
Pickering in the office of adjutant general.

** Mrs. Chew informed me that, several years after the war, and soon
after her marriage, while a young man named White was visiting her
father-in-law, the old gentleman, in relating incidents of the battle
in Germantown, mentioned the circumstance that a Major White, an aid of
General Sullivan, and one of the handsomest men in the Continental army,
attempted to fire the house for the purpose of driving out the British.
He ran under a window with a fire-brand, where shots from the building
could not touch him. He was discovered, and a British soldier, running
into the cellar, shot him dead from a basement window. The young man
was much affected by the recital, and said to Judge Chew, "That Captain
While, sir, was my father." Mrs. Chew pointed out to us the window, near
the northwest corner of the house, from which the shot was fired.

[[[Battle of Germantown.--The Americans, deceived, abandon the
Field.--Washington's Chagrin.--The Loss.]]]

{318}and his party. This division of the enemy was composed chiefly of
the fourth brigade, under General Agnew, and three battalions of the
third. The prisoners were rescued; and Matthews, after a desperate
defense, and when most of his officers and men were killed and wounded,
was compelled to surrender, with his little remnant of about one hundred
men. This event enabled two regiments from the enemy's right to march
to the relief of Musgrave in Chew's house. These regiments attacked and
repulsed a party of Americans who had just entered Germantown in flank.
The patriots, unable to discern the numbers of the enemy on account of
the intensity of the fog, retired precipitately, leaving a great many of
their friends dead and wounded, but taking their artillery with them.

General Grey, now having absolute possession of the village, hastened to
the aid of the right wing, which was engaged with the left of Greene's
column. Sullivan's division, with a regiment of North Carolinians,
commanded by Colonel Armstrong, and assisted by a part of Conway's
brigade, having driven the enemy to School-house Lane, in the center
of Germantown, found themselves unsupported by other troops, and their
ammunition exhausted. They could dimly perceive through the fog that the
enemy were collecting in force on the right. At that moment, hearing
the cry of a light horseman that the enemy had surrounded them, and
perceiving the firing at Chew's house, so far in the rear, the Americans
became panic-stricken, and retreated with great precipitation. * The
divisions under Greene and Stephen were the last that retreated, and
these were covered by Count Tulaski and his legion. The prize of victory
was abandoned at the moment when another effort might have secured it.
***

The battle of Germantown, which lasted two hours and forty minutes, was
a very severe one, and the loss on both sides was great, considering the
numbers engaged and the nature of the conflict. The amount of loss
has been variously computed; that of the Americans was estimated by
Washington, a fortnight after the battle, *** at about one thousand men
in killed, wounded, and missing. **** There were fewer killed on the
part of the British, the number probably not exceeding one hundred;
while their whole loss, according to Howe s official account of
the affair, was, in killed, wounded, and missing, five hundred and
thirty-five. (v) Among these were several valuable officers, the
most distinguished of whom were General James Agnew (vi) and
Lieutenant-colonel Bird. Their remains lie inhumed together,

* Sullivan's letter to Mesheek Weare, president of New Hampshire, in
the New York Historical Society; John Eager Howard's letter to Timothy
Pickering; Gordon; Boita; Ramsay; Marshall. The latter author was in
Woodford's brigade, and describes a portion of this battle from his own
observation.

** Washington said, in a letter to the president of Congress, written
on the 7th of October, three days after the battle, ''It is with much
chagrin and mortification I add, that every account confirms the opinion
I at first entertained, that our troops retreated at the instant when
victory was declaring herself in our favor. The tumult, disorder, and
even despair, which, it seems, had taken place in the British army, were
scarcely to be paralleled; and, it is said, so strongly did the idea of
a retreat prevail, that Chester was fixed on as a place of rendezvous.
I can discover no other cause for not improving this happy opportunity
than the extreme haziness of the weather." Writing, at the same time, to
Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, Washington said, "But the morning was
so excessively foggy, that we could not see the confusion the enemy were
in, and the advantage we had gained; and fearing to push too far through
a strong village, we retired, after an engagement of two hours, bringing
off all our artillery with us. We did not know until after the affair
was over how near we were to gaining a complete victory."

*** See letter to his brother, dated October 17th, 1777.

**** According to the report of the Board of War, the Americans lost
in killed, 25 Continental officers, commissioned and non-commissioned;
wounded, 102, and an equal number missing. The militia officers were 3
killed, 4 wounded, and 11 missing. Of rank and file Continentals,
109 were killed, and 378 wounded; militia, 7 killed, and 19 wounded;
artillery officers, 2 killed, and 11 wounded; and matrosses, 6 killed,
and 7 wounded. Total of killed, 152; of wounded, 521. Gordon says (ii.,
234), "Upward of 400 were made prisoners, among whom were 54 officers."
It may here be remarked that the missing men from the army were not
necessarily included in the list of the killed, wounded, or prisoners;
for many ol those were soldiers who took such opportunities to go home.

* (v) Gordon says that, when the British left Germantown, some torn
papers with figures on them were found upon a chimney hearth by the
Americans. On putting the pieces together, it was found that they
contained the returns of the number and rank of the British killed in
the battle. The total was about 800.

* (vi)The following account of the death of General Agnew I copied from
a manuscript letter of Alexander Andrew, a servant of that officer,
written to the wife of the general from Philadelphia, on the 8th of
March, 1778. I give it as an illustration of the character and duties
of a body-servant of a British officer at that time. This letter, and
several written by Agnew himself to his wife at various times, are
in the possession of his grandson, Henry A. Martin, M.D., of Roxbury,
Massachusetts. From one of these I copied the annexed signature of
General Agnew.

* "Philadelphia, 8th March, 1778.

* "Dear Madam,--Though an entire stranger to your ladyship, yet, as I
had the honor to wait on your beloved husband for a considerable time,
which induced me to take the liberty of writing unto you, which I look
upon as a duty of mine to you in memory of a good master, to whom I owe
many obligations, is and will be always ready and willing to serve any
of his if ever in my power. Dear madam. I came into the army in place
of a brother of mine, who was cunning enough to persuade me, young and
foolish enough, to go in his place. I joined the 44th in '72, then in
Kilkenny, from which time I fancied Colonel Agnew took notice of me, and
when the regiment embarked at Cork he took me to be his servant, with
whom I had the honor to live very comfortably and happy until the day of
his death. Being his principal servant, and the only one he ever would
have to wait on him both in public and private, at home and abroad, and
in all places wherever his person was exposed, I was there by his side,
and an eye-witness to all his sufferings in Boston, in Halifax, Staten
Island, Long Island, New York Island, on the expedition to Danberry, in
the Jerseys, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and in three pitched battles,
viz., 27th August, '76, the 11th of September, and 4th of October,
'77, besides a number of skirmishes. On the expedition to Danberry,
the general was knocked down by a ball, which left its mark for above a
month. At the battle of Brandywine, the general had the misfortune to be
grazed by a cannon-ball, but continued to head his brigade. It happened
to be the last engaged that night, and, though he was very much
indisposed, yet he commanded his gallant troops until they beat off and
remained masters of the field. During the action the general remained
at the head of the 64th, which regiment suffered more than any of
the brigade. The army then proceeded to that unfortunate place called
Germantown, the 4th of October being the particular and fatal day of
which your ladyship has cause to remember and I have much reason to
regret. But to let you know the particulars of that day. [Being between
the hours of 9 and 12, as the brigade was following the 3d in an oblique
advancing line, the general, with the piquet at their head, entered the
town, hurried down the street to the left, but had not rode above 20 or
30 yards, which was to the top of a little rising ground, when a party
of the enemy, about 100, rushed out from behind a house about 500 yards
in front, the general being then in the street, and even in front of the
piquet, and all alone, only me, he wheeled round, and, putting spurs to
his horse, and calling to me, he received a whole volley from the enemy.
The fatal ball entered the small of his back, near the back seam of his
coat, right side, and came out a little below his left breast. Another
ball went through and through his right hand. I, at the same instant,
received a slight wound in the side, but just got off time enough to
prevent his falling, who, with the assistance of two men, took him down,
carried him into a house, and laid him on a bed, sent for the doctor,
who was near. When he came he could only turn his eyes, and looked
steadfastly on me with seeming affection. The doctor and Major Leslie
just came in time enough to see him depart this life, which he did
without the least struggle or agony, but with great composure, and
calmness, and seeming satisfaction, which was about 10 or 15 minutes
after he received the ball, and I believe between 10 and 11 o'clock. I
then had his body brought to his former quarters, took his gold watch,
his purse, in which was four guineas and half a Johannes, which I
delivered to Major Leslie as soon as he came home. I then had him
genteelly laid out, and decently dressed with some of his clean and best
things; had a coffin made the best the place could produce. His corpse
was decently interred the next day in the church-yard, attended by a
minister and the officers of the 44th regiment.]

* "He during his life, in his good-humors, often told me that he would
do better for me than being in the army; but, having no certificate from
under his hand, I was ordered to join the regiment, which I am sure I
never would have done. With regard to his effects that were present
with him, were equally divided among all the servants, every thing being
delivered over by Major Leslie to Major Hope. Payne was cook, and came
to the general in Boston; but the other man. Seymour, was only part of
one campaign, though he received an equal proportion of every thing the
same as me. Agen, even a pickt up negro received equal with me, who bore
the burden and heat of the day, silver buckles excepted. Colonel Hope
gave me them extraordinary as a reward (said he) for your good and
faithful services to your master; and them I have, and am ready to part
with them, if your ladyship or Captain Robert chuse to send for them.
All the rest of the things which was in store has been all lately sold
by vandue, ye, even two great-coats made for me and Payne almost a year
ago, was sold, with several other things too tedious to mention, such as
remains of cloth, stockings, &c.

* "Dear madam, I beg you will excuse this liberty; and if your ladyship
please to send me a few lines after the receival of this, I will be
under a great obligation to you; and believe me to be, with sincerity
and due respect, madam, your most obedient and humble servant.

[[[Letter of General Agnew's Servant to the Lady of that Officer
concerning his Death.]]]

{319}in the south burying-ground at Germantown.

[Illustration: 9329]

Over their grave I saw a neat marble slab, erected to their memory by J.
F. Watson, Esq., the annalist. In the north burying-ground

[[[American Officers Killed.--Washington and his Officers
Honored.--General Stephen.--Whitemarsh.]]]

{320}the same gentleman has set up a stone over the graves of Captain
Turner, of North Carolina, Major Irvine, and six soldiers of the
American army, who were slain in the battle, and buried there together.
General Nash, of North Carolina, * and Majors Sherburne and White, **
the two aids of General Sullivan, were also among the slain.

Although the Americans were defeated, or rather retreated from almost
certain victory, no blame was attached to the commander-in-chief and the
general officers under his command. On the contrary, when Washington's
letter to Congress, describing the battle, was [[Octobers 8, 1777]]
read, that body passed a vote of thanks to him for his "wise and
well-concerted attack upon the enemy's army near Germantown," and to
"the officers and soldiers of the army for their brave exertions on that
occasion." *** A medal was also ordered to be struck and presented to
General Washington.**** It was never executed.

Lord Cornwallis sped to the succor of the British camp at Germantown as
soon as intelligence of the attack upon it reached General Howe. He took
with him a corps of cavalry and grenadiers; but when he arrived, the
Americans had left, and retired to their camp [[October, 1777]] Skippack
Creek. There Washington remained until the 29th, when a council of war
was held, (v) and the next day he removed, with the whole army under his
command, to the range of hills about three fourths of a mile northeast
from the village of Whitemarsh, where he intended to go into winter
quarters. Thither we also went on leaving Germantown at noon.

Whitemarsh is situated in a beautiful little valley north of Chestnut
Hill, about fourteen miles from Philadelphia, and six from Mount Airy,
the upper part of Germantown. The sun glowed warm and bright at midday,
and as we passed over Chestnut Hill it revealed many little hamlets in
every direction, half hidden behind variegated groves. Descending the
northern slope of Chestnut Hill, we passed through Whitemarsh village,
and, turning eastward, passed over a lower ridge, crossed a narrow
valley watered by the romantic Wissahicon, and skirting the base of
a range of gentle, cultivated hills, and arrived at the spacious stone
mansion, tottering with age and neglect, where Washington made his
headquarters. The house stands upon the edge of a wet meadow, at the
head of a fine valley, and was a sort of baronial hall in size and
character when Elmar, its wealthy owner at the time of the Revolution,
dispensed hospitality to all who came under its roof. It is sixty

* Francis Nash was a captain in North Carolina in 1771, where he
distinguished himself in the movements in the western part of the state
known as the Regulator War. At the commencement of the Revolution,
the convention of North Carolina commissioned him a colonel, and in
February, 1777, he was commissioned by Congress a brigadier in the
Continental arm. When the intelligence of his death at Germantown
reached that body, it was resolved to request Governor Caswell, of
North Carolina, "to erect a monument of the value of 500 dollars, at the
expense of the United States," in honor of his memory. That monument,
like many others, is yet to be erected.

** See note respecting his death at Chew's house upon page 317.

*** General Adam Stephen was an exception. He was accused of
"unofficer-like conduct" during the action and the retreat. He was found
guilty of being intoxicated, and was dismissed from the army. General
Stephen had been a meritorious Virginia officer in the colonial wars.
He was a captain in the Ohio expedition in 1754. Afterward raised to the
rank of lieutenant colonel, he was intrusted with the command of
Fort Cumberland. He was left in command of the Virginia forces while
Washington went to Boston on an official errand to Governor Shirley in
1755. He was afterward dispatched to South Carolina to oppose the Creek
Indians. On his return, he was placed at the head of troops for the
defense of the Virginia frontier, and was commissioned a brigadier.
Congress appointed him a major general early in 1777, and he behaved
well in the battle of Brandywine. Yielding to a bad habit, he fell into
disgrace at Germantown. On the 3d of December, 1777, the Marquis De La
Fayette was appointed to the command of General Stephen's division.

**** Journals of Congress, iii., 335.

* (v) General Washington reported to that council that the troops under
Sir William Howe at that time, who were stationed in Philadelphia and
its immediate vicinity, fit for duty, numbered ten thousand rank and
file; and that the force under his own command, and fit for duty, was
eight thousand three hundred and thirteen Continental troops, and two
thousand seven hundred militia. There were, in addition, seven hundred
and fifty Continental troops at Red Bank and Fort Mifflin, and a
detachment of three hundred militia on their way to re-enforce these
posts. A body of five hundred militia were likewise on the other side
of the Schuylkill. This was his whole force, and it was likely soon to
suffer a diminution of nearly two thousand by the expiration of the term
of service of Maryland and Virginia levies.

[[[Washington's Head quarters at Whitemarsh.--American
Encampment.--Skirmish at Whitemarsh.]]]

{321}feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and two stories high. Through the
center is a broad passage some fifteen feet wide. The old steps are of
fine soap-stone, neatly wrought, and in many particulars the building
exhibits marks of former elegance.

[Illustration: 9331]

In front, seen by the rough trees on the right, is the ruin of Elmar's
ancient spring-house; and just below it is a modern one, in which
bubbles up a large fountain of pure water. An old thatched barn near by
is said to be a cotemporary of the mansion in its earliest days. At the
western gable of the house is a high bean or catalpa tree, the trunk of
which measures fifteen feet in circumference. The present owner is Mr.
John Fitzwater. With a little care and trifling expense, that venerated
house might be preserved a century longer. Its roof was falling in when
I visited it, and in a few years its stones will doubtless occupy
mean places in the foundation of a more elegant modern mansion, or the
partition walls of cultivated fields.

The American encampment was upon the hills north of Elmar's mansion, its
right wing resting upon Wissahicon Creek, and its left upon Sandy Run.
Near Mather s mill the remains of one of the redoubts are still quite
prominent, and in various places in the vicinity may be seen vestiges of
the chimneys of numerous huts of log and stone erected by the Americans.
Here commenced those sufferings of the soldiers which became so intense
during the winter at Valley Forge. Their chief privation was a want of
shoes and other clothing. On the 22d of November, Washington, in general
orders, offered a reward often dollars to any person who should, by nine
o'clock on the morning following, produce the best substitute for shoes
made of raw hides. The commissary of hides was to furnish the materials,
and the major general of the day was to "judge of the essays, and assign
the reward to the best artist." I have seen no record of the result.
Raw-hide shoes were worn by a few soldiers on their march to Valley
Forge.

Several expeditions were suggested and planned, but a want of shoes
rendered a large portion of the army unfit for marching. A council of
war was called on the 25th of November, to consider the propriety of
making an attack upon Philadelphia while Cornwallis was absent in New
Jersey, whither he had gone to take possession of Red Bank and the
neighboring region. The decision of the council was a negative, and the
scheme was abandoned. Early in December, the enemy attempted to surprise
Washington in his camp, but success was denied them by the patriotic
service of Lydia Darrah of Philadelphia, noticed on page 301. The
British appeared upon Chestnut Hill, about three miles from Washington's
camp, at dawn on the morning of the 5th of December. As soon as their
position was discovered, the Pennsylvania militia were ordered out to
skirmish with their light advanced parties. Brigadier-general Irvine,
who led the detachment, was wounded and made prisoner. On the next day
(Friday) the enemy changed ground, and approached within a mile of
the American lines, where they remained until Sunday, when they moved
further to the left, and seemed to be preparing for a general attack.
Their advanced and flanking parties were warmly attacked by Colonel
Morgan and his rifle corps, and Colonel Gist with the Maryland militia.
The battle was quite severe. Twenty-seven men in Morgan's corps were
killed and wounded, besides Major Morris, a brave and gallant officer,
who was badly maimed. Sixteen or seventeen of the Maryland militia were
[[December, 1777]] wounded. * The loss of the enemy was considerable. On
Monday, the 8th, when

* The Reverend Zachariah Greene, now (1851) living at Hempstead, Long
Island, was wounded in this engagement, and carried to Washington's
quarters. Mr. Greene was the father-in-law of the late Mr. Thompson, the
historian of Long Island.

[[[Retreat of the British to Philadelphia.--Departure of the Americans
from Whitemarsh.--Barren Hill.]]]

{322}the movements of the British gave Washington every reason to
believe that an immediate attack was to be made, he was surprised to
perceive them, instead of advancing, commence a precipitate march, by
two routes, for Philadelphia.

[Illustration: 9332]

As their adjutant remarked to Mrs. Darrah, they had been on a fool's
errand and accomplished nothing. "I sincerely wish," wrote Washington to
the president of Congress, "that they had made an attack, as the issue,
in all probability, from the disposition of our troops and the strong
situation of our camp, would have been fortunate and happy. At the same
time, I must add, that reason, prudence, and every principle of policy,
forbade us from quitting our post to attack them." General Howe, in
his dispatches, said, "They were so strongly intrenched that it was
impossible to attack them." They had no other intrenchments than two
small redoubts, one on each hill near the head-quarters. Three days
afterward Washington broke up his encampment at Whitemarsh, and, in the
midst of a deep snow, marched to the Schuylkill, crossed it at Swedes'
Ford, and established his winter quarters at Valley Forge. Hundreds of
the soldiers made that dreary march of nineteen miles with bare feet,
and the pathway of the patriot army might have been traced all the
way by hundreds of foot-marks in the snow stained with blood. * Let us
follow them thither, and in the head-quarters of the chief, which stands
near the banks of the Schuylkill, sit down and ponder upon the wondrous
love of country which kept that suffering army together during the
winter and spring of 1778.

We left Whitemarsh at about two o'clock for the Schuylkill, passing, on
our way, over Barren Hill, the scene of a skillful military movement
by La Fayette, with a body of Americans, in May, 1778. Barren Hill is
a small village lying upon the western slope of a rough eminence,
about four miles west of Whitemarsh. From its summit a fine view of the
surrounding country may be obtained. There, on the right of the road
leading toward the Schuylkill from Chestnut Hill to Conshohocken
(Matson's Ford), is the old Lutheran church which La Fayette occupied as
quarters during his brief tarry on the hill. According to an inscription
upon a tablet in the western gable, its title is "St. Peter's," and
the time of erection 1761. By the road-side near the church is a
quaint-looking school-house, covered with stucco. The church, the
school-house, and two strong stone houses composed this settlement, then
in the wilderness, when La Fayette made it his point of observation, and
out-maneuvered General Grant. Within the old church-yard, sitting upon
a recumbent sand-stone slab, with half-effaced inscription, I made this
sketch; and here let us open the record and receive instruction from the
chronicler.

As this is the first time in the course of our journey that wc have met
La Fayette as commander-in-chief of an expedition, it is a proper

* Gordon says that, while at Washington's table, in 1784, the chief
informed him that bloody foot-prints were every where visible in the
course of their march. Such was the distress of the soldiers from want
of clothing, that Washington, as a last resort, authorized the proper
officers to take by force, for the use of the army, such articles of
clothing as the people refused to sell. It must be remembered that the
people generally, throughout that section of Pennsylvania, were opposed
to the patriots, and did every thing in their power to distress them.

[[[La Fayette.--His first Impulses favorable to the Americans.--His
Liberality.--Visit to England.]]]

{323}place to consider the circumstances attending his espousal of the
cause of freedom, and his connection with the American Continental army.
He was a young man, not yet nineteen years old, when our Declaration
of Independence went over the seas, and commanded the admiration of
thinkers in the Old World. La Fayette was of noble ancestry. He had
just married the Countess Anastasia de Noailles, daughter of the Duke
De Noailles, a lady of great personal beauty, immense fortune, and
brilliant accomplishments. * When the story of America's wrongs, and
of her holy struggle for the right, just begun, reached his ears, it
inflamed his young heart with the most passionate sympathy, and an
ardent desire to aid them with his purse and sword. ** He openly
espoused the cause of the patriots, and resolved to hasten to their
support. Not all the blandishments of rank and fortune, the endearments
of conjugal love, made doubly so by promise of offspring, nor the sad
tales of reverses to the American arms at the close of 1776, which every
vessel from our shores carried to Europe, could repress his zeal or
deter him from the execution of his noble purpose. He had just offered
his services to Silas Deane, one of the American commissioners at Paris,
*** when the news arrived that the remnant of the American army,
reduced to two thousand insurgents, as they were called, had fled toward
Philadelphia through the Jerseys, before an army of thirty thousand
British regulars. This news frustrated all the plans of Deane for the
moment, for it utterly destroyed the little credit which America then
had in Europe. Franklin arrived at this juncture, and was greatly
pleased with the young marquis and the disinterested zeal which he
exhibited, but honestly advised him to abandon his design until better
hope for success should appear. But this candid advice was of no avail.
The commissioners had not sufficient credit to command the means to fit
out a vessel for the purpose of conveying the marquis and his friends,
with arms, ammunition, and stores. La Fayette offered to purchase a ship
with his own funds. "Hitherto," he said, in the spirit of true heroism,
"I have only _cherished_ your cause; now I am going to _serve_ it.
The lower it is in the opinion of the people, the greater effect
my departure will have; and since you can not get a vessel, I shall
purchase and fit out one, to carry your dispatches to Congress and me
to America." **** He went over to London, and mingled freely with
the leading politicians there. He danced at the house of Lord George
Germaine, the minister for the affairs of America, and at the house
of Lord Rawdon, who had just returned from New York, paid his personal
respects to the king, and met, at the opera, General Clinton, whom he
was afterward to meet on the field of battle at Monmouth. (v) While
he concealed his intentions of going to America, he openly avowed his
sentiments; often defended the Americans; rejoiced at their success at
Trenton; and his opposition spirit obtained for him an invitation to
breakfast with Lord Shelburne. He refused invitations to visit sea-ports
where

* La Fayette himself had an independent revenue of 200,000 livres--about
$37,000.

** In the summer of 1776, La Fayette was stationed on military duty at
Mentz, being then, though only a little past eighteen years of age, an
officer in the French army. The Duke of Gloucester, brother to the King
of England, visited Mentz, and a dinner party was given to him by the
commandant of that place. La Fayette was at the table. The duke had
just received dispatches from England relating to the Declaration of
Independence, the resistance of the colonies, and the strong measures
adopted by the British ministry to crush the rebellion, and he made
their contents the topic for conversation. The details were new to La
Fayette, and he had a long conversation with the duke. The idea of a
people fighting for liberty had a strong influence upon his imagination.
He regarded their cause as just, their struggle noble, and from that
hour his chivalrous enterprise was the chief burden of his thoughts.
He returned to Paris, and there perfected his plans.--Sparks's Life and
Writings of Washington, v., 445.

*** "When," says La Fayette, "I presented my boyish faee to Mr. Deane, I
spoke more of my ardor in the cause than my experience; but I dwelt much
upon the effect my departure would excite in France, and he signed
our agreements."--See Memoirs, written by himself. La Fayette was
accompanied by the Baron De Kalb as interpreter. De Kalb had been
commissioned by the Duke De Choiseul to proeced to America for the
purpose of ascertaining the condition of the revolted colonies. He came
over with La Fayette, and did good service in our army. We shall meet
him again on the field of battle near Camden, in South Carolina. La
Fayette persuaded Count Segur and Viscount De Noailles to accompany him,
but their friends kept them at home. Count Segur accompanied Bonaparte
to Moscow in 1812, and has left a thrilling account of that memorable
campaign.

**** Gordon, ii., 219

* (v) Pictorial History of the Reign of George the Third, i., 302

[[[La Fayette's Attempts to leave France.--Sketch of his Career.--Sword
presented to him by Congress.]]]

{324}vessels were fitting out against the Americans, for he was
unwilling to do aught that might, afterward be construed into an abuse
of confidence. *

After remaining three weeks in England, La Fayette returned to France,
but not to Paris. Information had gone abroad that he was fitting out
a vessel for America, at Bordeaux. It was not good policy for the
government to allow it.

[Illustration: 9334]

He proceeded to Passy, then the residence of Dr. Franklin, where he
found the Baron De Kalb. He remained concealed in the baron's house a
few days, and then proceeded to Bordeaux. His vessel was not ready, but
he felt it neeessary to sail immediately. He left Bordeaux toward the
close of February, and proceeded to Passage, a Spanish port, where he
awaited the receipt of the ship's papers. There two officers reached
him, with an order from the king (_lettre, de cachet_) prohibiting his
departure, and commanding him to repair to Marseilles. He was charged by
ministers with violating his oath of allegiance, and by his family with
conduct calculated to bring ruin on himself and them. His young wife,
however, did not join in their reproaches; she approved of his project,
and urged him to persevere.

La Fayette obeyed orders, and returned to Marseilles. He pleaded the
justice of the

* Memoirs, written by himself.

* The Marquis (Gilbert Motier *) De La Fayette was born on the 6th of
September, 1757, and in 1774, when a little more than seventeen years
old, married the Countesse Anastasie de Noailles, daughter of the Duke
de Noailles, a young lady possessing an immense fortune. He joined our
Revolutionary army in 1777, and with his purse, sword, and counsel, and
his influence with the French court, he greatly aided us in our struggle
for political independence. In Oetober, 1778, he asked and obtained
leave of absence, and returned to France. Congress, in connection with
the resolution for granting him a furlough, also resolved, "That the
minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the court of
Versailles be directed to cause an elegant sword, with proper devices,
to be made, and presented, in the name of the United States, to La
Fayette. Franklin, then minister at the French court, procured the
sword, and sent it to the marquis in August, 1779, accompanied by a
very complimentary letter from his hand, to which La Fayette feelingly
replied. La Fayette returned to America in the spring of 1780, bringing
joyful news [see page 87], and was received with great affection. After
the capture of Cornwallis, in which he performed a conspicuous part,
he again went to France, and, by his own exertions, was raising a large
army of allies for America, when intelligence of peace reached him. He
returned to America in 1784, and was received with unbounded enthusiasm
by his old companions in arms. Again he returned to his native land,
bearing the honors and blessings of a free people. From that time until
his death he was often a conspicuous actor in the great scenes of his
country's history. He was an active member of the Legislative Assembly
of France during the stormy period of the incipience and development of
its first Revolution, from 1789 to 1793. He was always the advocate of
civil liberty, but conservative in his country, where representatives
and constituents were alike inordinately radical. When the Revolution
was at its height, he was obliged to flee from France, because of his
moderation, and, being caught, he was for three years confined in a
dungeon at Olmutz, in Germany. He suffered much in person and fortune
during the convulsions in France, and for several years previous to
1814 he lived in comparative retirement. The first downfall of Bonaparte
brought him again into public life, and in 1815 he was a member of the
Chamber of Deputies. In that assembly he offered the resolution for the
appointment of a committee to demand the abdication of the emperor.
He was again a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1818. In 1824 he
accepted an invitation to visit the United States as the guest of the
nation. The

*In the Biographie des Hommes his name is written Marie-Paul
Joseph-Rock-Yves-Gilbert-Mottiers de La Fayette.

** The following is a copy of the correspondence:

** "Passy, 21th August, 1779.

** "Sir,-The Congress, sensible of your merit toward the United States,
but unable adequately to reward it, determined to present you with a
sword as a small mark of their grateful acknowledgment. They directed it
to be ornamented with suitable devices. Some of the principal actions
of the war, in which you distinguished yourself by your bravery and
conduct, are therefore represented upon it. These, with a few emblematic
figures, all admirably well executed, make its principal value. By the
help of the exquisite artists France affords, I find it easy to express
every thing but the sense we have of your worth, and our obligations
to you. For this, figures, and even words, are found insufficient. I
therefore only add, that, with the most perfect esteem, I have the honor
to be, &c., B. Franklin

**  "P.S. My grandson goes to Havre with the sword, and will have the
honor of presenting it to you."

** The marquis, in reply, after acknowledging the presentation of
the sword, said: "In some of the devices I can not help finding too
honorable a reward for those slight services which, in concert with my
fellow-soldiers, and under the god like American hero's orders, I had
the good luck to render. The sight of these actions, where I was a
witness of American bravery and patriotic spirit. I shall ever enjoy
with that pleasure which becomes a heart glowing with love for the
nation, and the most ardent zeal for their glory and happiness.
Assurances of gratitude, which I beg leave to present to your
excellency, are much too inadequate to my feelings, and nothing but
those sentiments may properly acknowledge your kindness toward me.
The polite manner in which Mr. Franklin was pleased to deliver that
estimable sword, lays me under great obligations to him, and demands my
particular thanks. With the most perfect respect, 1 have the honor to
be, &c., "Lafayette."

[[[Memoir of La Fayette.--Pictorial Devices on his Sword.]]]

{325}cause in which the Americans were engaged; their declared
independence as a people, and various precedents which might justify his
course, and petitioned for leave to proceed. His pleadings were in vain,
and he resolved to risk the displeasure of his king.

[Illustration: 8335]

Stealthily mak-

* I here give a fac simile of the pen-and ink sketches, made by a French
artist, of devices for the guard of the sword presented to La Fayette.
1 copied from the originals in the archives of the State Department at
Washington. Accompanying the sketches is the following description:

* "On one side of the Pommel are the Marquis's army in low relief, and
on the other the device of a New Moon reflecting Rays of Light on a
Country partly covered with wood and partly cultivated--Symbol of the
Republic of the United States--with this motto: Crescam ut prosim. By
this it was intended modestly to express,

     "1. The present Mediocrity of Strength; as the Light of the
     Moon, though considerable, is weaker than that of the Sun.

     "2. Her expectation of becoming more Powerful as she
     increases, and thereby rendering herself more useful to
     Mankind.

     "3. The gratitude with which she remembers that the Light
     she spreads is principally owing to the kind aid of a great
     Luminary [the King of France, whose symbol is the Sun] in
     another Hemisphere.

     "On the Bow is the Legend, 'From the American Congress to
     the Marquis De La Fayette, 1779.

     "The Handle is ornamented with two medallions. In one,
     America, represented by a Woman, presents a Bunch of Laurel
     to a Frenchman. On the other, a Frenchman is treading on a
     Lion.

     "On the Guard are separately represented, in fine Relievo,

     "The affair at Gloucester [Yorktown];

     "The Retreat on Rhode Island;

     "The Battle of Monmouth;

     "And the Retreat at Barren Hill.

     "The Hilt is of massive gold, and the Blade two-edged. Cost
     two hundred Louis. Made by Liger, Sword-cutler, Rue
     Coquilliere. at Paris.

[[[Arrival of La Fayette in America.--His Biography continued.--His
Burial-place.]]]

{326}ing his way back to Passage, he set sail with a favorable wind,
accompanied by De Kalb, and eleven other French, German, and Polish
officers, who were about seeking service in America. He arrived
safely at Georgetown, in South Carolina, on the 19th of April, after
a boisterous passage of seven weeks, where he and his company were
entertained by Major Huger, who provided horses to convey them to
Charleston. His vessel likewise was taken to Charleston harbor. *

[Illustration: 8336]

Although the French government secretly favored the plans of La Fayette,
as it had not yet publicly expressed even a friendly intention toward
America, policy required that it should act in seeming good faith toward
Great Britain, with which it was then on terms of amity. Vessels were
accordingly dispatched to the West Indies to intercept La Fayette.
The marquis apprehended this movement, and avoided the islands in his
voyage. His proceedings, in opposition to positive orders, were rash;
for the loss of all his property in France, and an indefinite term of
imprisonment, might have been the consequence had he been arrested on
the high seas.

[Illustration: 9336]

In the face of all this immediate and prospective danger, he resolutely
persevered, and the French government winked at his disobedience.

La Fayette and his companions traveled by land from Charleston to
Philadelphia. When arrived at the latter plaee, he put his letters into
the hands of Mr. Lovell, the chair-

* The United Slates vessel of war Brandywine bore him to our shores,
and his journey among us was a continued ovation. He was every where
received with the most affectionate demonstrations of regard, as next
to Washington in the great American heart. Even his grandson, who is now
(1850) traveling in this country, has been received with marked public
attention on account of his relationship to the great and good man. La
Fayette was conspicuous in the Republican Revolution in France in 1830,
and generously refused the proffered crown of constitutional monarch,
and designated the Duke of Orleans (Louis Philippe) as a proper
recipient of the trust. It was unworthily bestowed; for the ungrateful
monarch not only treated La Fayette with coldness and disdain, but, by a
despotic course, betrayed the confidence of the people. La Fayette died
in 1834, at the age of seventy-seven years. His remains rest in the
cemetery of Pippers, a private burial-ground of several families of the
nobility of Paris, back of the gardens of what was once a nunnery, but
now a boarding-school for young ladies. The sketch here given is from a
French picture by Champin, which the artist dedicated "To the Americans,
the friends of La Fayette." The monument is inclosed by an iron railing.
It is about eight feet square, and composed of dark sandstone. The
tablets slope from a ridge upon whieh is a cross. The inscriptions are
in French. On one side of the tablet is an inscription referring to La
Fayette; on the other, to his wife. The cross seen in the picture stands
over the grave of another.

* This vessel was afterward laden with rice for the French market, but
was foundered on going out of the harbor, and vessel and cargo were
lost.

[[[La Fayette's Application to Congress.--His Appointment.--Interview
with Washington.--Attached to the Army.]]]

{337}man of the committee of Congress on foreign affairs. The next day
his papers were handed back to him by Mr. Lovell, with the remark that
so many foreigners had offered themselves for employment that Congress
was embarrassed with their applications, and he was sorry to inform
him that there was very little hope of his success. The marquis was
convinced that his papers had not been read. He immediately sent a note
to the president of Congress, in which he asked permission to serve in
the Continental army upon two conditions; first, that he should receive
no pay; secondly, that he should act as a volunteer. These conditions
were so different from those demanded by other foreigners, that they
were at once accepted by Congress. Although he was not yet twenty years
of age, the peculiar position in which his wealth, fervent zeal, and
social eminence at home, placed him before the American people, gave him
great importance, and on the 31st of July Congress appointed him a major
general in the Continental army. This appointment was considered by
Congress as merely honorary, but such was not the intention of the
recipient, as subsequent events will show. *

Washington arrived in Philadelphia soon after La Fayette's appointment,
and they were first introduced to each other at a dinner party, where
several members of Congress were present. When they were about to
separate, Washington took the marquis aside, complimented him upon the
noble spirit he had manifested toward the cause of the Americans,
and invited him to become a member of his military family. His kind
invitation was joyfully accepted, and while he remained in America the
closest intimacy existed between La Fayette and the commander-in-chief.
The marquis joined the army, and continued in it as a volunteer, without
any command, until the battle on the Brandywine, two months afterward,
where we shall meet him presently fighting with all the zeal of a
[[September 11, 1777]] champion of liberty.

La Fayette was anxious to have a command suitable to the rank which
his commission conferred; but Congress, fearing his appointment to the
command of a division might excite the jealousy of American officers,
had withheld the coveted honor from the marquis. Washington repeatedly
suggested the expediency of a different course; but it was not until the
1st of December that the wishes of La Fayette were gratified. On that
day Congress resolved, "That General Washington be informed it is highly
agreeable to Congress that the Marquis De La Fayette be appointed to the
command of a division in the Continental army." ** Three days afterward
it was proclaimed, in public [[December 4.]] orders, that he was to take
command of the division recently under General Adam

Stephen, who, as we have seen, was dismissed from the army. ***

La Fayette was engaged in various important services during the winter
and spring of 1778, while the American army was at Valley Forge; and
about the middle of May we find him on Barren Hill, our present point of
view. Intelligence had reached Washington in his camp that the British
were making preparations to evacuate Philadelphia. They were frequently
sending out foraging parties between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers;
and on the 7th of May an expedition went up the Delaware to destroy
all the American shipping between Philadelphia and Trenton. Forty-four
American vessels were burned; a considerable quantity of provisions
and stores were destroyed, and a number of the inhabitants killed and
wounded. To restrain these depredations; to cut off all communication in
that direction between the country and Philadelphia; to obtain correct
information concerning the movements of the enemy; and to be ready to
follow with a considerable force immediately in the rear of the British
army, when it should leave Philadelphia, Washington

* The following preamble and resolution were adopted: "Whereas the
Marquis De La Fayette, out of his great zeal to the cause of liberty,
in which the United States are engaged, has left his family and
connections, and, at his own expense, come over to offer his services
to the United States, without pension or particular allowance, and is
anxious to risk his life in our cause:

* Resolved, That his service he accepted, and that, in consideration
of his zeal, illustrious family and connections, he have the rank and
commission of major general in the army of the United States.--Journals
of Congress, iii., 247.

** Journals, iii., 429

*** See page 320.

[[[La Fayette on Barren Hill.--Maneuvers of the two Armies.--The British
deceived]]]

{328} detached La Fayette, with about twenty-one hundred troops and five
pieces of cannon, across the Schuylkill on the 18th of May. He took post
at Barren Hill (nearly twelve miles from Valley Forge), a little west of
the church. It was a position skillfully chosen. On his right were rocky
ledges of considerable extent, and the Schuylkill; on his left were
thick woods, several strong stone houses, and the substantial stone
church seen in the engraving. His cannon were placed in front; and
at about three hundred yards in advance of the left wing were Captain
M'Lane's company and fifty Indians. Picket-guards and videttes were
stationed upon the woods leading to Philadelphia, and six hundred
Pennsylvania militia were posted near Whitemarsh. The church was at the
forks of the road, one branch of which led to Valley Forge, by the way
of the Swedes' Ford, and the other to Matson's Ford. * *

La Fayette at first quartered at the house of a Tory Quaker, who sent a
messenger with the information to Sir Henry Clinton, then in the chief
command of the British army in Philadelphia, Howe having returned to
England. Clinton immediately formed a plan for surprising La Fayette.
On the night of the 19th, he sent out a detachment of[[May, 1778.]] five
thousand of his choicest troops, under General Grant, assisted by Sir
William Erskine. They marched toward Frankford, and at dawn the next
morning turned toward the left, passed Whitemarsh, and proceeded on
the road leading to Swedes' Ford, to a position in the rear of the
Americans. Another strong force, under General Grey, crossed to the
western bank of the Schuylkill, and took post about three miles below
Barren Hill; while Sir Henry Clinton led, in person, a third division
through Germantown, and before daylight halted on Chestnut Hill.

The situation of La Fayette was now critical. Owing to the disobedience
of orders on the part of the militia, on leaving Whitemarsh, General
Grant's approach was undiscovered, and the little band of Americans were
nearly surrounded by a greatly superior force before they were aware of
their danger. Early in the looming, scarlet coats were seen through
the trees in the distant forest; and an officer, sent by La Fayette
to reconnoiter, came back in haste with the information that a large
British force was on the road leading from Whitemarsh to Swedes' Ford,
a little more than a mile from his encampment. The marquis at once
comprehended the full extent of the danger, and a skillful maneuver was
instantly conceived. He changed his front without disorder, stationed a
large party in the church-yard, around which was a strong wall, ** and
drew up the remainder in such a manner as to be protected by the stone
houses and thick woods. Ascertaining that the only road leading to
Swedes' Ford was in possession of the enemy, he resolved to retreat to
Matson's Ford, although the distance from his position was greater than
from that of Grant. The road lay along the southern slope of hills,
and was concealed by woods from the view of the enemy. The marquis
dispatched several small parties through the woods, with orders to show
themselves, at different points, as heads of columns, that the enemy
might be deceived into the belief that he was marching to an attack.
The maneuver was successful; and, while General Grant was halting, and
preparing troops to meet these supposed attacks upon his flank, the
Americans made a quick march to Matson's Ford--General Poor *** leading
the advanced guard, and the marquis bringing up the rear. The heads of

* Matson's Ford was at the present village of Conshohocken, and Swedes'
Ford was at or near Norristown, four miles above. They were about
equally distant from Valley Forge.

** This wall yet surrounds the old church-yard, and is sufficiently
perfect to form a strong breast-work. British writers, following the
narrative of Stedman (ii., 337), assert that Washington, from his camp
upon the high hills of Valley Forge, discovered the peril of La Fayette,
and discharged heavy alarm-guns to apprise him of his danger. None
of the earlier historians of the war, except Stedman, mention this
circumstance; it must have been inferential on the part of that
generally correct and fair writer. Barren Hill may be distinctly seen
from the highest point of Washington's encampment at Valley Forge.
Though twelve miles distant, I saw the church on Barren Hill from the
observatory, hereafter to be noticed, which stands upon the site of
Washington's marquee at Valley Forge.

*** Brigadier-general Enoch Poor was a native of New Hampshire. He was
a colonel in the Continental army in the expedition against Canada in
1776, where he served with distinction. He was afterward at Crown
Point, and was one of the twenty-one inferior officers who signed
a remonstrance against the decision of a council of officers there,
consisting of Generals Gates, Schuyler, Sullivan, Arnold, and Woedtke,*
when it was resolved that, the post was untenable, and that the army
should retire to Mount Independence. He was appointed brigadier in
1777, and served in that capacity in the battles in which Burgoyne
was defeated and captured. He soon afterward joined the army under
Washington in Pennsylvania. He was in the camp at Valley Forge, and with
his brigade was among the first troops that commenced a pursuit of the
British across New Jersey in the summer of 1778. He fought gallantly in
the battle of Monmouth which succeeded. He commanded a brigade of light
infantry in 1780, in which service he died, near Hackensack, in New
Jersey. His funeral was attended by Washington and La Fayette, and
a long line of subordinate officers and soldiers. On account of the
vicinity of the enemy, the usual discharges of cannon were omitted.
Reverend Israel Evans, chaplain to the New Hampshire brigade, delivered
a funeral discourse. General Poor was buried in the church-yard at
Hackensack, where an humble stone, with the following inscription, marks
his grave: "In memory of the Hon. Brigadier-general Enoch Poor, of
the State of New Hampshire, who departed this life on the 8th day of
September, 1780, aged 44 years." General Poor was greatly esteemed by La
Fayette, who, it is said, was much affected on visiting his grave when
in this country in 1825.

[[[Retreat of La Fayette across the Schuylkill to Valley
Forge.--Generals Poor and Woedtke.]]]

{329}columns, who had deceived General Grant, gradually fell back and
joined in the retreat, and the whole army arrived at the ford in safety.

[Illustration: 9339]

===(Note: this image may need rename)===

They crossed the Schuylkill with their artillery, took possession of the
high grounds on the west side of the river, and formed in the order of
battle. General Grant had marched to the church on Barren Hill, where he
joined the division under Clinton, and discovered, with mortified pride,
that he had been outmaneuvered by the "stripling Frenchman." It was too
late to overtake the retreating patriots; the British pursued them as
far as the ford, but, finding it impossible to cross over, they wheeled,
and returned, disappointed and chagrined, to Philadelphia. In a skirmish
with the enemy's advanced parties at the ford, while the artillery was
crossing, the Americans lost nine men killed and taken. The British
lost two light horsemen killed, and several wounded. La Fayette and his
troops marched back to the camp at Valley Forge, where they were greeted
with the most enthusiastic congratulations.

It was almost sunset when we left the old church-yard on Barren Hill and
departed for Conshohocken * (Matson's Ford), on the Schuylkill, where we
intended to pass the night.

[Illustration: 7339]

[Illustration: 8339]

Although four miles distant, we could see the smoke of its furnaces
ascending above the intervening hill-tops, and marring the placid beauty
of the western sky, where a thin purple haze fringed the horizon,
and half hid the crescent moon and its more sprightly neighbor on the
occasion, the belted

* Conshohocken is a thriving manufacturing village on the east bank
of the Schuylkill, in Montgomery county, about twelve miles from
Philadelphia. It has recently grown up in connection with the waterpower
of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. There is also a great deal of lime
burned there for the Philadelphia market.

* The Baron De Woedtke had been for many years an officer in the army of
the King of Prussia, and risen to the rank of major. He brought strong
letters of recommendation from Dr. Franklin, and on the 16th of March,
1776, he was appointed by Congress a brigadier general, and ordered
to Canada. He died at Lake George at the close of July, 1776, and was
buried with the honors due to his rank.

[[[Iron Ore near the Schuylkill.--Conshohocken and its
Industry.--Norristown.--Swedes' Ford.]]]

{330}Jupiter. That whole region abounds in iron; and all the way from
Barren Hill to the Schuylkill, large heaps of ore, dug from near the
surface, were piled. In many places the road was literally paved with
iron ore lying in small fragments upon the surface. It was quite dark
when we arrived at the village, and it was with some difficulty that we
made our way along a steep road to the "hotel," a tavern near the river
bank, kept by a good-natured Dutchman. He was so well patronized by the
coal-heavers and workmen in the furnaces, that not a single bed was in
reserve for strangers; so we were obliged to ride on to Norristown, four
miles further up the stream, for supper and lodgings. As we thridded our
way among the "fiery furnaces," belching huge volumes of ruddy flame,
and observed the rushing rail-way train sweeping along the river brink,
while the din of hammers, and bellows, and voices of busy men was rife
on every side, I contrasted the past and present, and, in a degree,
realized the wonderful strides of progress in our country. Here, where
a numerous population are plying the tireless fingers of industry in the
creation of substantial wealth, and spreading pleasant dwellings along
the banks of the rapid Schuylkill, there was only the solitary hut of
a hunter, deserted more than half the year, when La Fayette made his
admirable retreat across the river toward Valley Forge. And far
more suggestive of true greatness and glory were the noises of these
work-shops than the trumpet-notes and clangor of battle.=

```"The camp has had its day of song;

````The sword, the bayonet, the plume

```Have crowded out of rhyme too long

````The plow, the anvil, and the loom.

```Oh, not upon our tented fields

````Are Freedom's heroes bred alone;

```The training of the work-shop yields

````More heroes true than war has known.=

```"Who drives the bolt, who shapes the steel,

````May, with a heart as valiant, smite,

```As he who sees a foeman reel

````In blood before his blow of might!

```The skill that conquers space and time,

````That graces life, that lightens toil,

```May spring from courage more sublime

````Than that which makes a realm its spoil."

`````Epes Sargent.=

After losing our way in the gloom, and making quite a circuitous
journey, we found the "pike," a fine Macadamized road leading from
Philadelphia to Norristown, and reached the latter place at about eight
o'clock. * I was informed that traces of the breast-works thrown up
here by Duportail, by order of Washington, to prevent the passage of the
British across the Swedes' Ford, were yet quite prominent about half
a mile below the village; and also that the Swedes' Ford tavern, **
directly opposite these intrenchments, was still in existence, though
changed in appearance by additions. Being anxious to visit Valley Forge
and Paoli the next day, we departed from Norristown too early in the
morning to allow a view of these vestiges of the Revolution.

* Norristown is a thriving manufacturing village, and the capital of
Montgomery county. It has entirely grown up since the Revolution. Its
name is derived from Isaac Norris, who, with William Trent, the founder
of Trenton, purchased the land from William Penn. Swedes' Ford was here.
The site of Norristown was owned by a farmer named John Bull. He was a
stanch Whig, and for this crime the John Bulls under General Howe, when
the British marched toward Philadelphia in 1777, burned his barn.
The first house erected at Norristown was framed at Valley Forge, and
floated down the Schuylkill.

** The name of Swedes' Ford was given to this passage of the Schuylkill
from the fact that the first settlers there were Swedes. The principal
characters were Matts Holstein and Mauritz Rambo. The latter was a
famous hunter, and his exploits are yet the theme of many an old man's
story. It is related that at one time Rambo seized a wounded deer, when
the animal made off with the hunter on his back. Rambo finally checked
the buck by cutting his throat.

[[[Approach to Valley Forge.--"King of Prussia Tavern."--Village of
Valley Forge.]]]

{331}




CHAPTER XIII.


```"The men of seventy-six in their good arm--

````Sustain'd by Heaven--reposed a manly trust;

```O'er all the land was sounded war's alarm,

````And vict'ry crown'd the valor of the just.

```The fire of liberty fell down from heaven,

```Till from our shores the enemy, was driven;

````And Freedom, with the land's redemption shod,

```Her benison flung o'er every hill and plain.

```Few of that band of noble men remain;

````Their spirits have obey'd the call of God,

````And where they rest is deem'd a hallow'd sod.

```Their perils fearful--measureless their gain!

````While love of home the freeman's breast shall fill,

```Their fame shall cause the freeman's breast to thrill."

`````Thomas MacKellar.=

[Illustration: 9341]

ALLEY FORGE! How dear to the true worshiper at the shrine of Freedom
is the name of Valley Forge! There, in the midst of frost and snows,
disease and destitution, Liberty erected her altar; and in all the
world's history we have no record of purer devotion, holier sincerity,
or more pious self-sacrifice, than was there exhibited in the camp of
Washington. The courage that nerves the arm on the battle-field, and
dazzles by its brilliant but evanescent flashes, pales before the
steadier and more intense flame of patient endurance, the sum of the
sublime heroism displayed at Valley Forge. And if there is a spot on
the face of our broad land whereon Patriotism should delight to pile its
highest and most venerated monument, it should be in the bosom of that
little vale on the bank of the Schuylkill. Toward its "templed hills,"
consecrated by the presence and sufferings of those who achieved our
independence, we journeyed, filled with the pleasant emotions of a
pilgrim approaching the place he most adores.

We crossed the Schuylkill at Norristown, a little after sunrise, and
took the road leading to Valley Forge by the way of "The King of Prussia
Tavern," a half-way locality, famous for its good cheer long before
the Revolution. There hung its sign, emblazoned with a figure of a
noble-looking warrior on horseback, ancient enough in its appearance to
warrant the belief that it creaked in the breeze when the officers of
Howe refreshed themselves there with flip from the hands of old Harman
de Vriest. * The country through which we rode is broken but fertile,
every where abounding with iron. Here, also, large heaps of quarried ore
flanked the road in various places, and for many furlongs the highway
had a ferruginous pavement. Descending a long and steep hill, sloping
northward, we came suddenly upon the little village of Valley Forge
before we were aware of its proximity. It is

* In the Pennsylvania Journal, 1761, there is a notification that Jacob
Colman intended to run a stage, with an awning, three times a week,
"from the King of Prussia Inn, to the George Inn, southwest corner of
Second and Arch Streets, Philadelphia." Ritter's tavern, in Germantown,
was called "The King of Prussia Inn," according to Watson, the annalist,
from the following circumstance: Toward the close of the last century,
Gilbert Stuart, the eminent portrait painter, resided in Germantown. In
one of his eccentric moods, he executed a fine painting of the King
of Prussia, on horseback, and presented it to Ritter for a sign,
stipulating that the name of the painter should not be divulged. It hung
there for several years, the admiration of all, until the letters "The
King of Prussia Inn" were painted over it. The sign afterward came into
the possession of Mr. Watson, who cherished it as a valuable memento of
the genius and character of the great painter.

[[[Washington's Head-quarters.--The old Flour-mill and its
Associations--Hamilton and Lee.]]]

{332}situated in Chester county, on the west side of the Schuylkill,
between six and seven miles above Norristown, in a deep, short hollow,
scooped out from a low, rugged mountain, and opening upon the great
valley which stretches away toward Phoenixville. A small creek runs
through the little valley, turning, in its course, the water-wheel of
a cotton factory, which stands upon the site of the old forge of Isaac
Potts. *

[Illustration: 9342]

Upon the mountainous flanks of this little valley, Washington
established his winter quarters in 1777--78. His own residence was at
the house of Mr. Isaac Potts, a Quaker preacher. It is a substantial
stone dwelling, situated near the mouth of the creek. It was occupied,
when I visited it, by James Jones, [[November, 1848]]a member of the
Society of Friends, who was then eighty-three years old. He was quite
feeble; but his wife, a cheerful old lady of nearly the same age, was
the reverse, and, with vigorous step, proceeded to show us the interior
of the building. Washington's room was small indeed. In the deep east
window, whence he could look out upon a large portion of his camp
upon the neighboring slopes, are still preserved the cavity and little
trapdoor, arranged by the commander-in-chief as a private depository for
his papers. It answered the purpose admirably; for even now the visitor
would not suspect that the old blue sill upon which he was leaning to
gaze upon the hallowed hills, might be lifted and disclose a capacious
chest. Mr. Jones and his wife were not residents at Valley Forge when
the Americans were encamped there, and hence they had no interesting
traditions of their own experience.

Near the head-quarters of Washington were the ruins of an old
flour-mill, whose clack was heard before the Revolution, nor ceased
until within a few years. Immediately after the battle of Brandywine,
and previous to the encampment here, the Americans had made a
considerable deposit of stores at this mill. Howe sent a detachment of
British troops to seize them; but Washington, anticipating this attempt,
had sent Lieutenant-colonel (afterward General) Hamilton, and Captain
(afterward General) Henry Lee, with a small troop of horse for the
purpose of destroying these stores. Hamilton, with proper precaution,
stationed two videttes upon the southern hill overlooking the valley,
and also secured a flat-bottomed boat on which to cross the Schuylkill,
in the event of the sudden appearance of the enemy. The troops
had crossed the mill-race, and were about to commence the work of
demolition, when the alarm-guns of the videttes were heard, and they
were seen sweeping down the hill, closely pursued by some British
dragoons. Four of the American horsemen, with Hamilton, took to the
boat; while Lee, with the other four, and the videttes, crossed the
bridge and escaped, amid a shower of bullets from the enemy. Hamilton
and his party were also fired upon, but were unharmed. Lee was fearful
that his comrades, with Hamilton, were killed or made prisoners, for he
heard volley after volley fired from the carbines of the enemy, while
there was only an occasional response from his friends. Lee dispatched
a dragoon to the commander-in-chief, describing what had occurred, and
expressing his anx-

* The Potts family, located in this vicinity, were extensive
manufacturers of iron. Isaac Potts established a forge upon the creek
which here enters into the Schuylkill, and from that circumstance the
place obtained the name of Valley Forge.

** This view is from the Reading rail-road, looking east, and includes
a portion of the range of hills in the rear whereon the Americans
were encamped. The main building was erected in 1770; the wing is more
modern, and occupies the place of the log addition mentioned by Mrs.
Washington, in a letter to Mercy Warren, written in March, 1778: "The
general's apartment," she wrote, "is very small; he has had a log cabin
built to dine in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than
they were at first."

[[[View from Rogers's Observatory.--Camp at Valley Forge.--Religious
Services.--Preparation of Huts.]]]

{333}ious fears for the safety of Hamilton and his men. While Washington
was reading Lee's letter, Hamilton rode up, and with quite as much
distress depicted in his _face_ as the former had exhibited in his
_note_, expressed his fears that his friend Lee was cut off. Washington
quieted his apprehensions by handing him Lee's letter.

[Illustration: 8343]

From the village we rode to the summit of the hill on the south, whereon
the main portion of the American army was quartered. Upon the brow of
the hill, on the spot where Washington's marquee was planted on the
day of his arrival there, * Mr. Charles H. Rogers, who owns the cotton
factory, and much of the landed property in the vicinity, has erected an
observatory, about forty feet in height. It is a very neat structure
of wood, of an octagon form, with a spiral stair-case in the center,
by which an ascent is made to the open gallery on the top. From
that elevation is obtained a fine view of a large portion of the
camping-ground. Here let us turn to the historic page and seek its
instructions.

When it was decided that Whitemarsh was not a proper place for the
winter encampment of the American army, Washington, as usual, requested
his general officers to communicate to him in writing their sentiments
respecting the most eligible site for the purpose. A council of war
was held on the 30th of November, at which a wide difference of opinion
prevailed as to the locality and the manner of cantoning the troops.
Some proposed occupying Wilmington for the purpose; others suggested
hutting them in the valley of Tredyffrin, a few miles west of the
Schuylkill; and others advocated the expediency of stationing them in
a line from Reading to Lancaster. So various and contradictory were the
opinions and counsels, that unanimity could not be hoped for, and it was
necessary for Washington to act according to his own judgment and upon
his own responsibility. He decided to form an encampment at Valley
Forge, where he might be near enough to the British army in Philadelphia
to watch its movements, keep its foraging parties in check, and protect
the country from the depredations of the enemy.

The patriot army, which left Whitemarsh on the 11th of December, reached
Valley Forge on the 19th. In general orders, issued two days previously,
Washington directed the preparation of huts for the comfort of the
soldiers, assuring them, at the same time, "that he himself would share
in the hardships and partake of every inconvenience." On the 18th the
whole army engaged in religious services, according to a recommendation
of Congress that it should be observed as a day of public thanksgiving
and praise; and on the morning of the 19th they spread over the hills
at Valley Forge, and began the work of hutting. All was activity among
those who were sufficiently clad to allow them to work in the open
air. Some cut down trees, others fashioned them, and in a few days the
barracks, erected upon the plan of a regular city, was completed. ***
Until his soldiers were thus

* See map on page 334.

** This view is from the field, looking north. On the left is seen the
winding Schuylkill, and the rolling country beyond; and on the right,
the distant hills of Montgomery county.

*** Washington gave explicit directions for constructing the huts. He
ordered the colonels or commanding officers of regiments to cause their
men to be divided into parties of twelve, and to see that each party had
its proportion of tools, and commence a hut for that number; and as an
encouragement to industry and art, the general promised to reward the
party, in each regiment, which finished its hut in the quickest and most
workman-like manner, with a present of twelve dollars. He also offered
a reward of one hundred dollars to the officer or soldier who should
substitute a covering for the huts, cheaper, and more quickly made,
than boards. The following were the dimensions and style of the huts, as
given in Washington's Orderly Book, quoted by Sparks, v., 525: "Fourteen
feet by sixteen each; the sides, ends, and roofs made with logs; the
roofs made tight with split slabs, or some other way; the sides made
tight with clay; a fireplace made of wood, and secured with clay on the
inside, eighteen inches thick; this fire-place to be in the rear of the
hut; the door to be in the end next the street; the doors to be made of
split oak slabs, unless boards can be procured; the side walls to be six
feet and a half high. The officers' huts are to form a line in the rear
of the troops, one hut to be allowed to each general officer; one to the
staff of each brigade; one to the field officer of each regiment; one
to the staff of each regiment; one to the commissioned officers of
two companies; and one to every twelve non-commissioned officers and
soldiers."

[[[Disposition of the American Army at Valley Forge.--The Huts and their
Occupants.]]]

{334}comfortably lodged, Washington occupied his cheerless marquee;
after which he made his quarters at the house of Mr. Potts.

[Illustration: 8344]

Near Washington's quarters, on a gentle elevation by the river, were
stationed his Body, or Life Guard, * under the command of Charles Gibbs,
of Rhode Island.

A little to the right of the guard was the brigade of General M'Intosh;
and further up the hills were the brigades of Huntington, Conway, and
Maxwell. Between these and M'Intosh's brigade were a redoubt, and slight
intrench-ments; and directly in front of them was a line of _abatis_.
Nearer the Schuylkill, and on the top of the hill, was the brigade of
General Varnum, near a star redoubt. At a distance of about a mile, and
forming a line from the Schuylkill to Valley Creek, was the main portion
of the army, under Brigadiers Muhlenberg, Weed-on, Paterson, Learned,
Glover, Poor, Wayne, Scott, and Woodford, with a line of intrenchments
in front. The artificers of the army were on the north side of the
creek, opposite the general's quarters; and near the cotton factory was
the army bake-house.

There was also an irregular line of intrenchments along the brow of
the hill, on the south side of the creek. Not far southward of Rogers's
observatory was a redoubt, and near it was Knox's artillery. The remains
of this redoubt are yet very prominent in

* See page 120.

[[[Condition of the Army.--Great Sufferings.--Number of Soldiers in
Camp.--Toryism displayed]]]

Redoubt A {335}the woods on the right side of the road leading from
Valley Forge to Paoli; also, the redoubt on the left wing of the
encampment (now near the Reading rail-road) is well preserved, the
forest protecting it from demolition.

[Illustration: 8345]

Here, after an arduous campaign of four months, during which neither
party had obtained a decided advantage, other than good winter quarters
at Philadelphia on the part of the enemy, the shattered remains of
the American army * vainly sought repose. They had marched and
countermarched, day and night, in endeavoring to baffle the designs of a
powerful enemy to their country and its liberties; now they were called
upon, in the midst of comparative inaction, to war with enemies more
insidious, implacable, and personal. Hunger and nakedness assailed that
dreary winter camp with all their progeny of disease and woe. Thither,
as we have seen, the soldiers came with naked and bleeding feet, and
there they sat down where destitution held court, and ruled with an
icy scepter. The prevalence of Toryism in the vicinity, the avaricious
peculations of some unprincipled commissioners, the tardy movements of
Congress in supplying provisions, and the close proximity of a powerful
enemy, combined to make the procurement of provisions absolutely
impracticable without a resort to force. *** But few horses were in the
camp; and such was the deficiency, in this respect, for the ordinary,
as well as extraordinary occasions of the army, that the men, in
many instances, cheerfully yoked themselves to vehicles of their own
construction, for carrying wood and provisions when procured; while
others performed the duty of pack-horses, and carried heavy burdens of
fuel upon their backs. **** As the winter advanced, their sufferings
increased On the 16th of February, Washington wrote to Governor Clinton,
"For some days past there has been little less than a famine in the
camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and
the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we can not
enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery,
that they have not been, ere this, excited by their sufferings to a
general mutiny and desertion.

"The situation of the camp is such," wrote General Varnum to General
Greene, on the 12th of February, "that in all human probability the army
must dissolve. Many of the troops are destitute of meat, and are several
days in arrears. The horses are dying for want of forage. The country
in the vicinity of the camp is exhausted. There can not be a moral
certainty of bettering our condition while we remain here. What
consequences have we rationally to expect?"

"It was with great difficulty," says Dr. Thacher

* The whole number of men in the field was eleven thousand and
ninety-eight, when the, encampment commenced. Of this number, two
thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight were unfit for duty. The British
army numbered thirty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, of
which nineteen thousand five hundred and thirty, composed of Britons,
Germans, and provincials, were in Philadelphia.

** This shows the present appearance of the embankments. They are quite
overgrown with chestnut trees of considerable size, and shrubbery. The
redoubt was nearly an oblong square, with a division in the center. Its
location is on the Paoli road, about half a mile from its junction with
the highway leading from Norristown to Valley Forge.

*** Washington reluctantly used the power given him by a resolution of
Congress, adopted a few weeks previously. Necessity compelled him to.
He issued a proclamation, in which he required all the farmers within
seventy miles of Valley Forge to thresh out one half of their grain by
the 1st of February, and the remainder by the 1st of March, under the
penalty of having the whole seized as straw. Many farmers refused to
comply. They defended their grain and cattle with fire-arms, and, in
some instances, burned what they could not defend. It must be remembered
that nearly all the farmers in the vicinity of Valley Forge were
disaffected toward the American cause. From these the resolution of
Congress * empowered Washington to demand supplies. It must also be
remembered that a fair price was to be paid for all supplies brought
in, and therefore the non-compliance of those who resisted was from
opposition to the cause.

**** Mrs. Warren's History of the Revolution, i., 389.

* November 14, 1777. Journals, iii., 395.

[[[Hopefulness of Washington.--Conspiracy to deprive him of the chief
Command.--Persons named as Malcontents.]]]

"that{336} men enough could be found in a condition fit to
discharge the military camp duties from day to day; and for this
purpose, those who were naked borrowed of those who had clothes."
Unprovided with materials to raise their beds from the ground, the
dampness occasioned sickness and death. "The army, indeed, was
not without consolation," says Thacher, "for his excellency the
commander-in-chief, whom every soldier venerates and loves, manifested a
fatherly concern and fellow-feeling for their sufferings, and made
every exertion in his power to remedy the evil, and to administer
the much-desired relief." Yet, amid all this suffering day after day,
surrounded by frost and snow (for it was a winter of great severity),
patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers,
and the love of self was merged into the one holy sentiment, _love of
country_. Although a few feeble notes of discontent were heard, * and
symptoms of intentions to abandon the cause were visible, yet the great
body of that suffering phalanx were content to wait for the budding
spring, and be ready to enter anew upon the fields of strife in the
cause of freedom. It was one of the most trying scenes in the life of
Washington, but a cloud of doubt seldom darkened the serene atmosphere
of his hopes. He knew that the cause was just and holy; and his faith
and confidence in God as a defender and helper of right were as steady
in their ministrations of vigor to his soul, as were the pulsations of
his heart to his active limbs. ** In perfect reliance upon Divine aid,
he moved in the midst of crushed hopes, and planned brilliant schemes
for the future.

While pressed with complicated cares incident to his exalted position
and the condition of the army under his command, Washington was "wounded
in the house of his friends." Jealous and ambitious men were conspiring
to tarnish the fair fame of the commander-inchief, to weaken the
affections of the people for him, and to place the supreme military
command in other hands. Among those designated at the time as the most
conspicuous actors in this scheme were General Conway, a foreign officer
of great pretensions, Generals Gates and Mifflin, Samuel Adams, with two
or three others of the New England delegation in Congress, and one
of the Virginia deputies. Whether the movement originated in personal
ambition, or a sincere conviction of the necessity of making a change on
account of the alleged "Fabian slowness" of Washington in his military
movements, is a question of difficult solution. The measures adopted by
the opponents of the chief were certainly the reverse of open, manly,
generous, pure and disinterested patriotism, and deserve, as they
received at the time, the unqualified reprobation of honest men. ***

* Thacher relates that a foreign officer of distinction said "that, at
one time, he was walking with General Washington among the huts, when
he heard many voices echoing through the open crevices between the logs,
'No pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum!' And when a miserable
wretch was seen flitting from one hut to another, his nakedness was only
covered by a dirty blanket." Then that officer despaired of independence
for America.

** Isaac Potts, at whose house Washington was quartered, relates that
one day, while the Americans were encamped at Valley Forge, he strolled
up the creek, when, not far from his dam, he heard a solemn voice. He
walked quietly in the direction of it, and saw Washington's horse tied
to a sapling. In a thicket near by was the beloved chief upon his knees
in prayer, his cheeks suffused with tears. Like Moses at the Bush, Isaac
felt that he was upon holy ground, and withdrew unobserved. He was much
agitated, and, on entering the room where his wife was, he burst into
tears. On her inquiring the cause, he informed her of what he had seen,
and added, "If there is any one on this earth whom the Lord will listen
to, it is George Washington; and I feel a presentiment that under such
a commander there can be no doubt of our eventually establishing our
independence, and that God in his providence has willed it so."

     "Oh! who shall know the might
     "But wouldst thou know his name,
     Of the words he utter'd there?
     Who wandered there alone?
     The fate of nations there was turn'd
     Go, read enroll'd in Heaven's archives,
     By the fervor of his prayer."

     "The prayer of Washington!"--J. L. Chester.

*** The enemies of Washington and of the country attempted to injure
both, at this time, by publishing a pamphlet in London, entitled
"Letters from General Washington to several of his Friends in the year
1776, &c." These letters, which contained sentiments totally at
variance with the conduct of the chief, it was reported were found in a
portmanteau belonging to the general, in the possession of his servant
Billy, who was left behind sick at Fort Lee when the Americans evacuated
it. They purported to be draughts of letters to Mrs. Washington, Mr.
Lund Washington, and to Mr. Custis. They were reprinted in New York, in
handbills and pamphlet form, and widely circulated. The author of these
spurious letters was never publicly known. They were evidently written
by a person acquainted with the affairs of Washington. Conway, who was
known to have written several anonymous letters in disparagement of
Washington, some of which were signed De Lisle, was suspected of the
authorship when his nefarious conduct became known. These letters were
reproduced, many years afterward, for the vile purposes of political
chicanery. Then, for the first time, Washington publicly pronounced them
a forgery.

[[[Forged Letters.--Thomas Conway.--Character of the Congress of
1778.--Pretensions of Gates and Lee.]]]

{337}It is believed that Conway was the most active man among the
secret enemies of Washington. He was possessed of considerable literary
abilities and military genius, and had the advantage of thirty years'
experience in the art of war.

[Illustration: 8347]

He was an Irishman by birth, but received his military education in the
French service, where he was employed from his youth. He went, with many
others, to the American commissioners in France to offer his services
to Congress, and, encouraged by the injudicious promises of the ardent
Silas Deane, he came to America with the full expectation of receiving
the commission and pay of a major general. He was disappointed at the
outset, for Congress gave him only the commission of a brigadier.
Hoping for promotion, he joined the army under Washington at Morristown.
Boastful, intriguing, presumptuous, and [[May, 1777]] selfish, looking
only to his personal advantage, and unprincipled in regard to the
means by which his desires might be gratified, he greatly disgusted
Washington, not only at the first interview, but throughout the whole
campaign. When it was rumored that Conway was to be promoted by Congress
to major general, Washington wrote a letter to a member of that body,
remonstrating against it. This fact, coming to the ears of Conway,
filled him with indignation and malice, and made him a fit instrument to
be employed against the chief.

In November, Conway, perceiving no chance for promotion, offered his
resignation, and asked permission to leave the army. Congress would not
accept it, although aware of Washington's opinion of him, and the enmity
that existed, but appointed him inspector general of the army, with
the rank of major general. This act is evidence that there was then
an influence at work in the supreme Legislature unfriendly to the
commander-in-chief. It can not be denied that faction was rife in the
Continental Congress, and that the purity of purpose which controlled
the acts of the first great assembly was alloyed, in an alarming degree,
with personal and sectional interests. * Instead of strengthening the
hands of the commander-in-chief when they most needed extraneous
aid, men of influence were found in the army, in Congress, and among
citizens, base enough, or blind enough, to attempt to weaken his power
and accomplish his removal, either by a forced resignation of his
command, or by actual supercedure by competent authority. Already
Gates and Lee, Englishmen born, and officers in other wars, had shown
themselves impatient at holding subordinate stations in the army, each
deeming himself superior to Washington, and each thirsting for supreme
command. The victory of Gates over Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the defeats
of Washington in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, were contrasted.
That contrast tended to strengthen the pretensions of the former.
Inconsiderate and ardent men in Congress lent their influence in favor
of investing him with the supreme command. ** The disappointed,

* General Hamilton, in a letter to Governor Clinton, written on the 13th
of February, 1778, said, "America once had a representation that would
do honor to any age or nation. The present falling off is very alarming
and dangerous. What is the cause? and how is it to be remedied? are
questions that the welfare of these states requires should be well
attended to. The great men who composed our first council--are they
dead, have they deserted the cause, or what has become of them? Very few
are dead, and still fewer have deserted the cause; they are all, except
the few who still remain in Congress, either in the field, or in the
civil offices of their respective states; far the greater part are
engaged in the latter. The only remedy, then, is to take them out of
these employments, and return them to the place where their presence is
infinitely more important."

** Mrs. Mercy Warren, who was the warm personal friend of Samuel Adams,
apologizes for his being found in bad company in this affair by saying
that, "Zealous and ardent in his defense of his injured country, he was
startled at every thing that seemed to retard the operations of the
war, or impede the success of the Revolution; a revolution for which
posterity is as much indebted to the talent and exertions of Mr. Adams
as to those of any one in the United States." History of the Revolution,
i., 39. Mrs. Warren further says that "Adams never harbored a feeling
of disaffection toward the person of Washington; on the contrary, he
esteemed and respected his character, and loved him as a man."

[[[Anonymous Letters.--Conway's Letter to Gates.--Quarrel between Gates
and Wilkinson.]]]

{338}irritated, and talented Conway was ready to foster discontent in
the public mind; and he was doubtless the willing cat's-paw of Gates or
his friends in making covert attacks upon the military character of the
commander-in-chief, calculated to injure his reputation as a general
and patriot. So prominently does Conway appear in the whole transaction,
that it is known in history as _Conway's cabal_.

The first important movement in this conspiracy was the sending of
anonymous letters to the president of Congress, and to Patrick Henry,
then governor of Virginia. These letters were filled with complaints,
insinuations, and exaggerated statements, ascribing the misfortunes
of the army to the incapacity or ill-timed policy of the
commander-in-chief. Similar letters were sent to different members of
Congress, and, it is believed, to the presiding officers of some of
the state Legislatures. Washington was early apprised of these secret
machinations, but a patriotic jealousy of the public good made him
suffer in silence. "My enemies," he said, in a letter to the president
of Congress, when the matter became the subject of correspondence, "take
an ungenerous advantage of me. They know the delicacy of my situation,
and that motives of policy deprive me of the defense I might otherwise
make against their insidious attacks. They know I can not combat their
insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing secrets which it is
of the utmost moment to conceal."

[[1777]] Early in November, the affair was presented to Washington in a
definite shape.

When Colonel Wilkinson was on his way to Congress (then in session
at York, in Pennsylvania) from Saratoga, with Gates's dispatches,
announcing the surrender of Burgoyne, he stopped at the quarters of Lord
Stirling, at Reading, and in the course of conversation while there,
he repeated to Major M'Williams, Stirling's aid-de-camp, a part of the
contents of a letter which Gates had received from Conway, containing
strictures on the management of the army under Washington, accompanied
by reflections disparaging to the chief. * Lord Stirling, prompted by
a sense of duty, communicated to Washington the extracts from Conway's
letter, as repeated by Wilkinson. A correspondence between Washington,
Gates, and Conway followed. Gates affected to be greatly distressed,
and conjured Washington to aid him in discovering the villain who had
betrayed his confidence in repeating the substance of private letters.
Afterward he denied the genuineness of the extract, and called it "a
wicked and malicious forgery;" This assertion compromised the veracity
of Wilkinson, who wrote to General Washington, indignantly repelling the
ungenerous accusation of Gates, and affirming that he had truly given to
Lord Stirling's aid the substance of Conway's letter. ** Notwithstanding
Gates denied the truth of the extract, he never fortified his assertion
by producing the original. This fact, and other things of like tenor,
which proved the duplicity of Gates, were severely commented upon by
Washington, in reply to an explanatory letter from the former. Conway's
offensive letter was afterward seen by Mr. Laurens, president of
Congress, and one or two others. The words were not

* One of Conway's expressions was, "Heaven has been determined to save
your country, or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined
it."

** Gates, in a letter to Washington, charged Wilkinson with deceit
and-prevarication, and of meanly attempting to fix suspicions on
Lieutenant-colonel Troup, one of Gates's aids-de-camp. This charge drew
from Wilkinson a letter to Washington, in which he thanked the general
for exposing to him Gates's letters, "which," he said, "unmask his
artifices and efforts to ruin me." Wilkinson said, in his letter,
"Although General Gates has pledged his word, it is a wicked and
malicious forgery. I will stake my reputation, if the genuine letter is
produced, that words to the same effect will appear." A quarrel between
Gates and Wilkinson grew out of this matter, which resulted in the
latter challenging the former to fight a duel. They met, when, it
is said, Gates burst into tears, declaring he would as soon think of
shooting his own son. Opinions are various concerning the quality of
Gates's heart which controlled his actions on that occasion. No doubt
Wilkinson was acquainted with the secrets of the conspiracy against
Washington, and that his object in making known the contents of Conway's
letter was to sound Lord Stirling, through his aid, respecting his
opinion of the ability of Washington to perform the duties of his
station. Wilkinson's want of prudence was the match that fired the
train of the cabal and produced premature explosion. Gates and Wilkinson
doubtless told the truth of each other.

[[[Board of War.--Expedition against Canada proposed.--Lafayette
appointed to the Command.--Grossly Deceived.]]]

{339}precisely the same as quoted by Wilkinson, yet the tenor and spirit
of the whole document were accurately represented by that officer.

Among other machinery early put in motion by the enemies of Washington,
through the instrumentality of a faction in Congress, was the
appointment of a new Board of [[October 17, 1777]] War, of which Gates
and Mifflin were members, the former being placed at its head. This
board was invested with large powers, and, by delegated authority,
assumed the control of affairs which properly belonged to the
commander-in-chief, * or which, at least, ought to have his sanction.
One of its first acts was to recommend to Congress an invasion of
Canada. This expedition was planned by Gates, approved by Congress,
and La Fayette was appointed to the command, without Washington being
consulted. The first intimation which the commander-in-chief had of
the project was in a letter from the Board of War, inclosing one to
La Fayette, informing him of his appointment. No doubt [[January,
1778]]this was a stroke of policy to win the marquis to the interest of
the faction. They little understood the character of that young devotee
of freedom. He deeply felt the disrespect manifested toward his beloved
general, and immediately carried the letter to Washington. ** He told
the chief that he saw the whole scope of the artifice, and asked his
advice. The commander-in-chief advised him to accept the appointment,
for it was an honorable position, although he could not see how the
expedition was to be accomplished. Thus encouraged, La Fayette hastened
to York, *** where Congress was in session, to receive his instructions.
He was greatly flattered by Gates's friends, and the Board of War
promised him every thing necessary for the success of the expedition.
The marquis soon perceived the artfully-concealed hostility to
Washington; **** and when he found that General Conway was appointed his
second in command, he was convinced that the enterprise had been planned
for the purpose of separating him from the general, to whom he was
ardently attached. He succeeded in having the Baron De Kalb, Conway's
senior in rank, appointed to the expedition, and, of course, the baron
was second, and Conway the third in command.

La Fayette hastened to Albany, where he was promised men and stores for
an immediate march into Canada; but, after waiting three months, and
having his patience completely exhausted by the inefficiency of the
Board of War, he returned to the camp [[April 4, 1778]] at Valley Forge,
(v) under instructions from Congress "to suspend the irruption into

* See Journals of Congress, iii., 351. The new Board of War consisted,
at first, of three persons, namely, General Mifflin, Colonel Timothy
Pickering, and Colonel Robert H. Harrison. On the 17th of November, Mr.
Dana and J. B. Smith were made additional members. On the 27th of the
same month, General Gates, Joseph Trumbull, and Richard Peters were
elected commissioners for the Board of War. General Gates was chosen
president of the Board. On the appointment of Gates to this important
office, Congress instructed its presiding officer to inform him of their
action, and express their high sense, of his abilities and peculiar
fitness to discharge the duties of that important office, upon the
right execution of which the success of the American cause "eminently
depended."--Journals, iii., 423.

** This was not the first time that Congress had allowed Washington
to be treated with disrespect. It will be remembered that, in October
previous, Gates sent his dispatches from Saratoga direct to Congress,
instead of transmitting them to the commander-in-chief, and that
Congress never uttered a word of disapproval of the act. See page 84,
vol. i.

*** York is situated on the Codorus Creek, eleven miles from the
Susquehanna. It is a thriving village, surrounded by a fertile and
well-cultivated lime-stone region. Congress was in session here
from September, 1777, until July, 1778. Its sittings were in the old
court-house, which stood in the center of the public square, and was
demolished in 1841. In the cemetery of the German Reformed Church is
the grave of Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence, who died at York, on the 11th of June, 1778, while
Congress was in session there. A handsome white marble pyramid,
surmounted with an urn, is placed over his grave.

**** Sparks relates that, when La Fayette arrived at York, he found
Gates at table, surrounded by his friends. The marquis was greeted with
great cordiality, and accepted an invitation to join them at table. The
wine passed round, and several toasts were drank. Determined to let his
sentiments be known at the outset, he called to the company as they were
about to rise, and observed that one toast had been omitted, which
he would propose. The glasses were filled, and he gave, "The
Commander-in-chief of the American Armies." The coolness with which it
was received confirmed La Fayette in his suspicions.

* (v) La Fayette was grossly deceived by those connected with the
faction and those controlling public affairs. He was promised 3000 men.
He wrote to Washington from Albany, and said, "I don't believe I can
find, in all, 1200 men fit for duty, and the greatest part of these are
naked, even for a summer campaign. I was to find General Stark, with a
large body; and, indeed, General Gates told me, 'General Stark will have
burned the fleet before your arrival.' Well, the first letter I receive
in Albany is from General Stark, who wishes to know what number of men,
from where, what time, and for what rendezvous I desire him to raise?"
Again he wrote, "I fancy the actual scheme is to have me out of this
part of the continent, and General Conway as chief, under the immediate
direction of Gates."

[[[Disclaimers of Gates and Mifflin.--Opinion of Dr. Gordon.--Conway's
Resignation.--Duel, and Repentant Letter to Washington.]]]

{340}Canada." Thus ended an injudicious and foolish scheme, if honestly
planned; a wicked and treasonable scheme, if concerted by a faction
to achieve its selfish purposes. It was also the termination of the
conspiracy to elevate Gates to the chief command, by seducing the
affections and confidence of the people from Washington. That great
man stood firm in his integrity, and viewed with calmness the storm of
opposition which at one time beat against him with menaces of danger.
How extensive was the disaffection toward him among the officers of the
army, and in Congress, it is difficult to determine, and it is equally
difficult to fix a direct charge upon any individual of actual attempts
to supersede Washington. The injudicious tattling of Wilkinson too
soon unmasked a portion of the proceedings, and, as in the case of
the Newburgh affair, many who were disposed to join in the cabal
were alarmed and kept quiet, while the leaders were disconcerted, and
affected innocence. It appears clear, however, that Gates, Mifflin, and
Conway were, for a long time, engaged in endeavors to effect the removal
of Washington from the chief command, and for this posterity will always
utter its voice of censure. Gates and Mifflin, however, each made
his disclaimer of other than a patriotic design to advance the true
interests of his country, and denied the charge of a desire to displace
Washington. When rumors of the affair went abroad among the people and
the army, the public censure was so unequivocally expressed, that each
man engaged in the matter was anxious to wipe the stain from his own
escutcheon. *

The true character of Conway, so early discovered by Washington, became
at length well understood by Congress. He had perceived the increasing
manifestation of dislike among the officers of the army, and their
open deprecation of his conduct in relation to Washington, and in an
impertinent and complaining letter to the president of Congress, he
intimated a wish to resign. A motion to accept his resignation was
immediately carried. Conway was astonished, and proceeded to York to
ask to be restored. He said it was not his intention to resign, and
attempted explanations, but the current of opinion was turned strongly
against him, and his request was denied. He went to Philadelphia,
and was there when the British evacuated it. His abusive language
and offensive manners, heightened by irritation, involved him in
difficulties with the American officers, and on the 4th of July he
fought a duel with General Cadwallader. He received a wound which it was
believed would prove fatal. After lying in an uncertain state for more
than a fortnight, and believing his end near, Conway wrote an apologetic
letter to Washington, as a reparation for the personal injuries he had
inflicted. ** But he recovered from his wound and lived

* Dr. Gordon says (ii., 308), "When General Gates's letters were
examined by me at his seat in Virginia, the latter end of 1781, there
was not a single paragraph to be met with that contained any intimation
of his being concerned in any such plan" [the removal of Washington]. Of
course, a judicious man would not preserve any such tangible evidence of
his guilt for more than three years after the matter had been exposed.
General Gates, in a letter to a friend, dated at York, April 4th, 1778,
said, "For my part, I solemnly declare I never was engaged in any plan
or plot for the removal of General Washington, nor do I believe any
such plot ever existed." Mifflin also wrote, about that time, "I never
desired to have any person whomsoever take the command of the American
army from him [Washington], nor have I said or done any thing of or
respecting him which the public service did not require," &c. Botta,
after weighing the evidence against the designated leaders of the
intrigue, draws therefrom the inevitable conclusion of their guilt, and
says, "The leaders of this combination, very little concerned for the
public good, were immoderately so for their own, and that the aim of all
their efforts was to advance themselves and their friends at the expense
of others."--Otis's Botta, ii., 64. It may be well to remember that
Gordon and Gates were intimate friends. I find among Gates's papers, in
the New York Historical Society, several letters from Dr. Gordon to
the general, some of which are commenced with the familiar terms, "Dear
Horatio." I do not discredit the assertion of Dr. Gordon, but mention
the fact of his intimacy with Gates as a reason why he was unwilling to
believe his friend guilty of such dishonorable conduct.

*** The following is a copy of Conway's letter:

*** "Philadelphia, 23d July, 1776. "Sir--I find myself just able to hold
the pen during a few minutes, and take this opportunity of expressing my
sincere grief for having done, written, or said any thing disagreeable
to your excellency. My career will soon be over; therefore, justice and
truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are, in my eyes, the
great and good man. May you long enjoy the love, veneration, and esteem
of these States, whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues. I
am, with the greatest respect, &c., "Thomas Conway."

[[[Baron De Steuben.--His Arrival in America, and Appointment as
Inspector General.]]]

{341}many years. Deserted by his former friends, deprived of employment,
and every where despised by the people, he left the country before the
close of the war, and returned to France. *

General Conway was succeeded in the office of inspector general by the
Baron [[May 5, 1778]]

Steuben, a veteran commander and disciplinarian from the army of
Frederic the Great.

[Illustration: 8351]

He had served with distinction in the Prussian armies, and had retired
from public life, when, in the summer of 1777, while on his way to
England to visit some acquaintances, he saw, at Paris, his old friend
the Count De St. Germaine, who persuaded him to go to America and enter
the service of the Continental army The French and Spanish ministers
also urged him to espouse our cause, for they knew how much we needed
the advantages of thorough military discipline. He consented, but, on
ascertaining from Dr. Franklin that the American commissioners had no
authority to enter into explicit stipulations respecting rank and pay,
he abandoned the project and returned to Germany. A few days after his
arrival at Rastadt, the Baron received a letter from Beaumarchais, the
financial agent seilles, in which he could have a passage to America.
The Count De St. Germaine assured him that satisfactory arrangements
could be made. Steuben returned to Paris, and, it being represented to
him that letters from Dr. Franklin to the president of Congress and to
Washington would be sufficient to insure him all he might require,
he consented. Ample funds for his immediate purpose was supplied by
Beaumarchais, and on the 26th of Sept, the baron embarked for America.
He landed at Portsmouth, [[May 5,1778.]]pressing anew the proposal of
the ministers, and informing him that a vessel was about to depart from
Mar-Hampshire, on the 1st of December, whence he journeyed to York,
where Congress was in session. When his papers were read, Congress
adopted a complimentary resolution, accepted his services, and, at the
urgent solicitation of Washington, appointed him inspector general of
the army, with the rank and pay of major general. ** He had already
joined the Americans at Valley Forge as a volunteer, and, under his
rigid system of discipline, a great and salutary change was soon visible
in the army. His appointment was, therefore, not more complimentary to
himself than useful to the Continentals. Before the breaking up of the
encampment at Valley Forge and the pursuit of the enemy across West
Jersey, where the battle of Monmouth occurred, the ill-disciplined army
of patriots had acquired much of the skill in maneuvers and dignity
of carriage and manner of the veteran soldiers of Europe. As a
disciplinarian, a brave soldier, and a generous and warm-hearted friend
to America, none ranked higher than the Baron Steuben; his services

* See Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, Appendix, vol. v.

** Journals of Congress, iv., 187.

[[[Biographical Sketch of Steuben.--His Aids and his
Monuments.--Washington's Efforts in behalf of his Soldiers.]]]

{342}were invaluable. * Our regulars were never beaten in a fair fight
after their discipline at Valley Forge.

It was at Valley Forge, while surrounded by his suffering soldiers,
that Washington, in connection with his officers, devised a plan for
reforming present abuses in the army, and to secure the future welfare
of the soldiers. He made strong appeals to Congress on the subject, and
on the 10th of January that body appointed a committee, consisting of
Messrs. Dana, Reed, Folsom, Carroll, and Gouverneur Morris, to proceed
to Valley Forge.

[Illustration: 8352]

The commander-in-chief laid before the committee a memoir extending to
fifty folio pages, containing the sentiments of himself and officers.
This formed the basis of a report which they made to Congress, after
remaining nearly three months in camp. Their report was, in the main,
adopted. There was one point, however, upon which there was a difference
of opinion. Washington urged the necessity, as well as equity, of
insuring to the officers of the army half-pay for life.

[Illustration: 9352]

He wrote many letters to members of Congress on this point, disclaiming
all personal interest (for he had repeatedly declared that he would
receive no compensation for his own services), but pleading earnestly
for his companions in

* Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben, after leaving the
Prussian army, where he was aid-decamp of Frederic the Great, entered
the serviee of Prince Charles of Baden, under whom he held the rank
of lieutenant general, and was also a canon of the Church. He was made
grand marshal of the court of the Prinee of Hohenzollern-Heekingen, and
by the Prinee Margrave, of Baden, was appointed knight of the order
of Fidelity. The King of Sardinia made him brilliant offers, and the
Emperor of Austria sought to secure his services. His income was nearly
three thousand dollars a year. He left these offices, emoluments,
and honors, and came to Ameriea to fight as a volunteer in the armies
battling for freedom. He joined the Continental army at Valley Forge
as a volunteer, and in that capacity (though holding the office of
inspector general) was in the action on the field of Monmouth. He was
engaged in various important services, wherein we shall hereafter meet
him, and finally commanded in the trenches at Yorktown, where the last
great battle of the Revolution was fought. At the close of the war, the
State of New Jersey gave him a small farm, and the Legislature of New
York presented him with 16,000 acres of wild land in Oneida eounty. The
general government also granted him a pension of $2500. He built himself
a log house at Steubenville, New York, gave a tenth part of his land to
his aids (North, Popham, and Walker) and his servants, and parceled
out the rest to twenty or thirty tenants. He resided in the country
in summer, and in New York city in winter. He died of apoplexy
or paralysis, at Steubenville, on the 28th of November, 1798, aged
sixty-four years. Neither of his aids comforted his last moments. His
neighbors buried him in his garden. Afterward, agreeably to his desire,
he was wrapped in his cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried in a
lonely spot in the woods, about a quarter of a mile above his log hut.
His aid, Colonel Walker, inclosed the spot; and when a road was made
to pass over his resting-plaee, his remains were removed, and buried in
another grave, in the town of Steuben, about seven miles northwest
of Trenton Falls. In 1826, a monument was erected over him by private
subscription, with this brief inscription upon it: Major-general
Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben. General North, ** another
of his aids, who greatly loved the baron, caused a neat mural monument
to be erected to his memory, upon the walls of the Reformed German
Church, then situated in Nassau Street, between John Street and Maiden
Lane, in New York city. When a Baptist society, under the charge of the
Rev. Mr. Somers, subsequently commenced worshiping in that church, they
courteously allowed the monument to be taken down and carried to the new
church of the Germans in Forsyth Street. There I found it in separate
pieces, lying among rubbish, in a small lumber-room of the church,
disfigured and mutilated. I sketched its parts, and in the annexed
figure give a representation of it as it originally appeared. The slab,
of obelisk form, and the square frame, are of bluish, clouded marble;
the square slab with the inscription, and the two urns, are of white
marble. The lower urn has upon it a representation of the order of
Fidelity (seen on the breast of the portrait on page 341), which
Frederic the Great presented to the baron. The following is the
inscription, from the pen of General North: "Sacred to the memory of
Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben, a German; Knight of the
Order of Fidelity; Aid-de-camp of Frederic the Great, King of Prussia;
Major General and Inspector General in the Revolutionary War; esteemed,
respected, and supported by Washington. He gave military skill and
discipline to the citizen soldiers who, fulfilling the decrees
of Heaven, achieved the independence of the United States. The
highly-polished manners of the baron were graced by the most noble
feelings of the heart. His hand, open as day for melting charity, closed
only in the strong grasp of death. This memorial is inscribed by an
American, who had the honor to be his aid-de-camp, the happiness to be
his friend. Ob. 1795."

* Thacher and others have left on record many examples of the excellent
character of the Baron Steuben, among the attributes of which, kindness
and generosity were the most conspicuous. He was always cheerful, and
possessed ready wit. At Yorktown, a shell fell near him. To avoid its
effects, he leaped into a trench, followed by General Wayne, who fell
upon him. The baron, on perceiving that it was his brigadier, said,
"I always knew you was a brave general, but I did not know you were so
perfect in every point of duty; you cover your general's retreat in
the best manner possible." At the house of the mother of Chancellor
Livingston, the baron was introduced to a Miss Sheaf. "I am very happy,"
he said, "in the honor of being presented to you, mademoiselle, though
I see it is at an infinite risk; I have from my youth been cautioned to
guard myself against mischief.\ but I had no idea that her attractions
were so powerful."

* This sketch is from a drawing made by the Rev. John Taylor, a
missionary in the Mohawk and Black River countries in 1802, and
published in the third volume of O'Callaghan's Documentary History
of New York. Of Steuben and his grave Mr. Taylor wrote: "He lies in a
swamp, under a hemlock, with a bier standing over the grave, and a few
rough boards nailed to some trees to keep the cattle off. Alas! what is
man, that the great Baron Steuben should be suffered to lie in such a
place, and without a decent monument!"

** Very little remains on record of the military life of General North
during the Revolution, except the fact that he was Steuben's aid. When,
in 1798, John Sloss Hobart resigned his seat in the Senate of The United
States, Governor Jay appointed General North to succeed him. He was then
a resident of Duanesburgh, New York, was a conspicuous Federalist, and
had been twice speaker of the New York Assembly. General North passed
the latter years of his life in New London, Connecticut, but died in the
city of New York on the 4th of January, 1837.

[[[Hostile Parties sent out from Philadelphia.--The Queen's
Rangers.--Advertisement for Recruits.]]]

{343}arms. His representations were so judicious and forcible, that,
after much discussion and delay, Congress adopted a plan of half-pay for
life, by a small majority. The vote was afterward reconsidered, and a
compromise resolution was proposed.

[Illustration: 8353]

By the final decision, the officers were to receive half-pay for the
term of seven years, and a gratuity of eighty dollars was to be given
to each non-commissioned officer and private who should continue in the
service until the end of the war. It was only by such manifestations of
a desire on the part of Congress to deal justly by the army that it was
prevented from dissolution in the spring of 1778.

During the encampment of the Americans at Valley Forge and of the
British in Philadelphia, the latter sent out parties, at various times,
to plunder the people, and break up the feeble posts of the Republicans.
Among the most active troops in these enterprises were the Queen's
Rangers, * commanded by Major (afterward Lieutenant-colonel) Simcoe.
One of these expeditions, in which Simcoe was engaged, was sent out from
Philadelphia in February. It consisted of a detachment of about five
hundred troops, under the command of Colonel Abercrombie, of the
fifty-second regiment. They went to Salem, in [[1778]] New Jersey, by
water, where they remained a few days reconnoitering, with a view of as-

* The Queen's Rangers were a corps of native American Loyalists, raised
chiefly in Connecticut and in the vicinity of New York, by Colonel
Rogers. At one time they mustered about 400 men, and, as their name
implies, were intended for very active service. They were quite reduced
in numbers when, in the autumn of 1777, they were placed under the
command of Major Simcoe, a young and active officer of the British
army. His zeal and military skill soon made his corps a model of order,
discipline, and bravery. * He received the commission of lieutenant
colonel. We shall meet him several times hereafter.

* The following advertisement appeared in Rivington's Royal Gazette,
printed in New York:

     "ALL ASPIRING HEROES

     have now an opportunity of distinguishing themselves by
     joining THE     QUEEN'S RANGER HUSSARS,

     commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe.

     Any spirited young man will receive every encouragement, be
     immediately mounted on an elegant horse, and furnished with
     clothing, accouterments, &c., to the amount of forty
     guineas, by applying to Cornet Spencer, at his quarters, No.
     133 Water Street, or his rendezvous, Hewett's Tavern, near
     the Coffee-house, and the Defeat of Brandy wine, on Golden
     Hill.

     Whoever brings a recruit shall instantly receive two
     guineas.

     VIVANT REX ET REGINA."


[[[Expedition against Militia Posts in New Jersey.--Skirmish at
Quintan's Bridge, on Alloway's Creek.]]]

{344}certaining the position of Wayne, who was then actively employed
in that state in procuring horses and provisions for the American army.
Wayne was compelled to exercise great vigilance and dexterity to prevent
being surprised by the enemy on these occasions.

On the 17th of March another British force, mustering between twelve and
fifteen hundred men, composed chiefly of Scotchmen, under the command
of Colonel Charles Mawhood and his majors, Simcoe and Sims, marched into
Salem, where they were joined by a large number of Tories. * From these
Colonel Mawhood learned that about three hundred American militia, under
Colonel Benjamin Holmes, were posted on the south side of Alloway's
Creek, at Quintan's Bridge, about three miles from Salem. Mawhood
determined to beat up their quarters, and, as he publicly declared,
"chastise the rebels."

[Illustration: 8354]

He sent out detachments to procure horses, on which he mounted his
best men. Holmes, in the mean while, was on the alert. Anticipating an
attack, he placed videttes at various points to watch the movements
of the enemy, while he prepared to dispute their progress at Quintan's
Bridge. [[March, 1778]] Before daylight on the morning of the 18th,
Major Simcoe and his Rangers were sent out, and hidden in ambush within
half a mile of the bridge. They took possession of a two story brick
house occupied by a Whig, named Wetherby, and drove his family into
the cellar. In that house, and in a deep ravine and tangled swamp near,
Simcoe and his men were secreted. The Americans had thrown up a strong
breast-work on each side of the road near Quintan's Bridge; and when
they discovered a portion of the enemy in the morning, on the opposite
side of the stream, they were anxious to cross over and attack them.
The prudent officers opposed the proposition as rash. Captain Smith, the
senior officer present, was less cautious, and determined to push on.
He led the way, and, in a confused march, they crossed the creek,
neglecting the proper duties of vigilant men in examining destructive
fire from all points.

A portion of the enemy made a feigned retreat on the approach of the
patriots, who were thus decoyed, unsuspicious of danger, far from the
bridge. When they had advanced some yards beyond Wetherby's house,
the concealed enemy arose from their ambush, and, with shouts and the
beating of drums, poured upon the Americans.

They were thrown into great confusion, and fled toward the bridge,
fighting gallantly all the way in small squads. Although furiously
attacked in flank and rear, they made good their retreat across the
bridge, with a loss of between thirty and forty of their companions,
most of whom were drowned in the creek. ****

At the moment when the Americans commenced their flight, Colonel Hand,
of the Cumberland militia, who had been informed of the presence of the
enemy, arrived with two pieces of cannon, and posted his men. In
the trenches which the Americans had left a short time before. By a
well-directed fire, he checked the pursuing British, and prevented the
Americans being cut to pieces. The draw of the bridge was cut away, and
the pursuers

* In order to distinguish the Tories from the British regulars, they
were dressed in a uniform of green; the coats were faced with white,
and they wore cocked hats, with broad white binding around them.--See
Johnson's History of Salem.

** The enemy, who were stationed in Wetherby's house, suspecting the
Americans might be vigilant, were prepared to seize the first man who
should attempt to enter the building, and Lieutenant M'Kay stood behind
the door with a bayonet ready to perform that duty.

*** A A, the American redoubts; B, a small detachment of the enemy
masking the bridge; C, Simcoe's Rangers in Wetherby's house; D, another
detachment under Captain Saunders, in ambuscade; E, a portion of the
Rangers secreted in a wood; F, a detachment of the enemy making a
feigned retreat; G, the Americans after crossing the bridge; H H, sally
of the British light infantry, and pursuit of the Rangers; I, flight of
the Americans; 0 0, Alloway's Creek. The straight double lines passing
perpendicularly across the map indicate the main road to Salem.

**** Captain Smith had his cue shot away during the skirmish, and was
grazed by a bullet in his loins. His horse received two bullets, but
carried his rider safe over the bridge, when he fell dead under him.

[[[Expedition to Hancock's Bridge.--Perils of the March.--Massacre at
Hancock's House.--Death of the Owner.]]]

{345}were foiled. * Colonel Mawhood, chagrined at the failure of Simcoe
to dislodge the Americans at Quintan's Bridge, determined to attack
another post at Hancock's Bridge with his whole force. The Americans, on
the night of their retreat, entered into a solemn compact, agreeing that
"no British soldier should set his foot or eat bread on that side of
Alloway's

Creek while there was a man left to defend the soil."

[Illustration: 8355]

They properly apprehended a great augmentation of the British force, and
made preparations to meet it. Mawhood intrusted the expedition against
the patriots at Hancock's Bridge to the direction of Major Simcoe. That
officer, in secretly reconnoitering, ascended a tree, and from it made
a sketch of a two story brick house near the bridge, owned by Judge
Hancock, a Quaker and Loyalist, and formed therefrom a plan of attack.
On the night [[March, 1778]] of the 20th, the British marched to Salem,
and, in flat-boats, proceeded to the Delaware, and thence to Alloway's
Creek, up which they pushed until within a convenient distance from
Hancock's Bridge, when they debarked. It was a very dark night; not a
star was to be seen, and heavy scuds, freighted with rain, came up from
the sea. Simcoe sent the boats back to prevent the retreat of his
men, and artfully concealed from them a knowledge of the dangers which
awaited them. Every thing depended upon a surprise. Through marshes,
sometimes up to their knees in water, they marched two miles before they
reached the solid earth. In a wood, upon dry land, Simcoe formed his men
for an attack, and then commenced his march in silence. The main body
passed along the public road toward Hancock's house, while Captain
Saunders, with a small detachment, ambuscaded the dike that led to
Quintan's Bridge. Captain Dunlop was detached to the rear of Hancock's
house, in which it was supposed the American officers were quartered,
with directions to force, occupy, and barricade it, as it commanded the
bridge.

[Illustration: 9355]

There were several stone houses and cottages near, and detachments were
arranged to attack and take possession of them. The inmates of Hancock's
house were unsuspicious of danger. Fortunately for the patriots, a large
proportion of them had quitted the place the evening before, leaving
only about twenty men as a garrison. The surprise was complete. While
all were sleeping, the invaders approached, and simultaneously the front
and back doors of the house were forced. All within perished; not even
the Tory owner escaped. *** A patrol of seven men, who had been sent
down the creek, were surprised, and all but one killed. The British,
after committing some depredations in the neighborhood, returned to the
mouth of Alloway's

* A militia-man named Andrew Bacon cut away the draw of the bridge with
an ax while the British were firing volleys at him. He succeeded in his
task, but received a wound which made him a cripple for life.

** This is a view of an old brick dwelling in the little village of
Hancock's Bridge, upon Alloway's Creek. It stands a few yards from the
bridge over the creek, and is known as Baker's tavern. The picture here
given is copied from one in the Historical Collections of New Jersey.

*** Simcoe supposed Judge Hancock was absent. He says (Journal, page
52), "Some very unfortunate circumstances happened here. Among the
killed was a friend to government, then a prisoner with the rebels, old
Hancock, the owner of this house, and his brother. Major Simcoe had made
particular inquiry, and was informed that he did not live at home since
the rebels had occupied the bridge. The information was partly true. He
was not there in the daytime, but unfortunately returned home at night.
Events like these are the real miseries of war."

**** This and the preceding map are reduced copies of those published
in Simcoe's Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers. A, is
Hancock's house; B, the bridge which the Americans had broken down; C
C C, march of the Rangers through the village; D, the enemy's advanced
guard; E, Captain Dunlop detached to the rear of the house; F,
Captain Saunders, to ambuscade the dike and take up its bridge; G,
Lieutenant-colonel Mitchell and the 27th Regiment; H H, Alloway's Creek.

[[[Return of the Marauders to Philadelphia.--Light from
Europe.--Alliance with France.--Rejoicings at Valley Forge.]]]

Creek and sailed for Philadelphia. * The affair at Hancock's Bridge was
unmitigated murder. Some who were massacred were not fighting men;
no resistance was made, and yet those who begged for quarters were
inhumanly slain. The chief perpetrators were unprincipled Tories--the
blood-hounds of the Revolution.

A ray of light from France beamed upon the American army while it was
encamped at Valley Forge. It was preceded by a faint gleam from England,
and a glimmer upon our own shores. That ray was the intelligence that
France had acknowledged the independence of the colonies, and entered
into a treaty of amity with them; ** that gleam was the arrival of
Lord North's conciliatory bills; that glimmer was the advent and first
procedures of commissioners bearing the olive branch of reconciliation.
The first event has been already noticed; *** the two latter have also
been referred to, and have an intimate relation to each other. The
position assumed by France toward the revolted colonies greatly
embarrassed the British ministry, and the sagacious Lord North was
obliged to stoop from his haughty stilts and talk of concessions,
contending, at the same time, that these concessions "ought not to be
considered as the tardy result of defeat or weakness." He produced a
conciliatory plan[[1778]] on the 17th of February, eleven days after
the treaty between France and the United States had been signed. It
was contained in two bills, one "for declaring the intentions of the
Parliament of Great Britain concerning the exercise of the right of
imposing taxes within his majesty's colonies in North America the other,
"to enable his majesty to appoint commissioners, with sufficient powers
to treat, consult, and agree upon the means of quieting the disorders
now subsisting in certain of the colonies, plantations, and provinces of
North America." By the first bill he designed to quiet the minds of the
Americans in regard to taxation; by the second, he intended to grant the
royal commissioners more ample powers than those formerly intrusted to
Lord Howe and his brother. **** He proposed to

* Johnson's History of Salem; Simcoe's Journal.

** Intelligence of this event reached the camp on the 1st of Why, and
on the 7th Washington issued the following general order: "It having
pleased the Almighty Ruler of the universe to defend the cause of the
United American States, and finally to raise us up a powerful
friend among the princes of the earth, to establish our liberty and
independence upon a lasting foundation, it becomes us to set apart a day
for gratefully acknowledging the divine goodness, and celebrating the
important event, which we owe to his divine interposition. The several
brigades are to be assembled for this purpose at nine o'clock to-morrow
morning, when their chaplains will communicate the intelligence
contained in the postscript of the Pennsylvania Gazette of the 2d
instant, and offer up a thanksgiving, and deliver a discourse suitable
to the occasion. At half past ten o'clock a cannon will be fired, which
is to be a signal for the men to be under arms; the brigade inspectors
will then inspect their dress and arms, and form the battalions
according to the instructions given them, and announce to the commanding
officers of the brigade that the battalions are formed. "The commanders
of brigades will then appoint the field officer to the battalions, after
which each battalion will be ordered to load and ground their arms.
At half past eleven a second cannon will be fired as a signal for
the march; upon which the several brigades will begin their march by
wheeling to the right by platoons, and proceed by the nearest way to the
left of their ground by the new position. This will be pointed out by
the brigade inspectors. A third signal will then be given, on which
there will be a discharge of thirteen cannon; after which a running
fire of the infantry will begin on the right of Woodford's, and continue
throughout the front line; it will then be taken up on the left of the
second line, and continue to the right. Upon a signal given, the whole
army will huzza, Long live the King of France! The artillery then begins
again, and fires thirteen rounds; this will be succeeded by a second
general discharge of the musketry in a running fire, and huzza, Long
live the friendly European Powers! The last discharge of thirteen pieces
of artillery will be given, followed by a general running fire, and
huzza, The American States!"

** Washington, with his lady, and suite, Lord Stirling and his lady,
with other general officers and ladies, attended the religious services
of the Jersey brigade, when the Rev. Mr. Hunter delivered a discourse.
Afterward all the officers of the army assembled, and partook of a
collation provided by the commander-in-chief. When he took his leave,
there was universal huzzaing, Long live General Washington! The huzzas
continued until the general had proceeded a quarter of a mile, and a
thousand hats were tossed in the air. Washington, with his retinue,
turned round and huzzaed several times.

*** See p. 86, vol. i.

**** In 1776, Lord Howe and his brother were authorized to treat with
the rebellious colonies for reconciliation, but upon a basis not to be
thought of for a moment with favor by the Americans. It was absolute
submission to the crown, as a condition of royal pardon! This commission
will be noticed hereafter.

[[[Lord North's Conciliatory Bills.--Appointment of
Commissioners.--Chatham's Opposition to American Independence.]]]

{347}allow them to treat with Congress as if it were a legal body, and
competent to bind all the states by its acts and negotiations; to treat
with the conventions or provincial Congresses; with individuals in their
actual civil and military capacities, without any cavil in addressing
them according to the rank held under Congress to suspend hostilities;
intermit the operation of laws; grant pardons, immunities, and rewards;
restore charters and constitutions, and nominate governors, judges,
magistrates, &c., until the king's pleasure should be known. It was also
proposed that a renunciation of the independence of the colonies
should not be insisted upon, nor debated, until a definitive treaty
had received final ratification by the king and Parliament. The
commissioners were to be instructed to negotiate for a reasonable and
moderate contribution toward the common defense of the empire, when
reunited; but this was not to be insisted upon as a _sine qua non_.
Such is an outline of North's conciliatory plan, which, if it had been
presented two years before, would probably have been accepted by the
Americans.

These bills met with great opposition in Parliament, and excited a
long and stormy debate. The question assumed the distinct form of a
proposition to dismember the British empire, by allowing the American
colonies to withdraw as independent states. This proposition was
affirmatively supported as the only sure means of detaching the colonies
from France, the ancient enemy of England. The Earl of Chatham (William
Pitt) vehemently opposed it. Though a warm friend of the Americans, he
could not bear the thought of their separation from the mother
country, and, with all the strength of his eloquence, he denounced the
proposition. On the 7th of April, the debates on the question ran high,
[[1778]] and Chatham became greatly excited. Sickness and age had broken
his physical strength, but the fire of his intellect burned as clear as
ever. He came into the House of Lords, that day, wrapped in flannel, and
leaning upon two friends; and when he arose to speak, at the conclusion
of a speech by Lord Weymouth, he leaned upon crutches. "I thank God,"
he said, with a trembling voice, "that I have been enabled to come here
this day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so
deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirm; I have one foot, more
than one foot, in the grave; I am risen from my bed to stand up in the
cause of my country; perhaps never again to speak in this House." A
deep and solemn silence pervaded the assembly as he uttered these words;
gradually his voice assumed its wonted strength and harmony, and with
all the power and beauty of the oratory of his best days, he addressed
the House. "My lords," he continued, "I rejoice that the grave has not
closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the
dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy. Pressed down as
I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country
in this most perilous juncture; but, my lords, while I have sense and
memory, I will never consent to deprive the royal offspring of the
house of Brunswick, the heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest
inheritance. Where is the man that will dare to advise such a measure?
My lords, his majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its
reputation was unsullied, Shall we tarnish the luster of this nation by
an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall
this great kingdom, that has survived, whole and entire, the Danish
depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest--that has
stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada--now fall prostrate
before the house of Bourbon? Surely, my lords, this nation is no longer
what it was! Shall a people that, fifteen years ago, were the terror of
the world, now stoop so low as to tell their ancient, inveterate enemy,
'Take all we have, only give us peace?' It is impossible! I wage war
with no man or set of men. I wish for none of their employments; nor
would I co-operate with men who still persist in unretracted error; who,
instead of acting on a firm, decisive line of conduct, halt between
two opinions, where there is no middle path. In God's name, if it is
absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the former
can not be preserved with honor,

* The former commissioners addressed the commander-in-chief "Mr.
Washington," and refused to treat with Franklin, Adams, and Rutledge, as
members of Congress, for the legality of that body was denied.

[[[Conclusion of Pitt's Speech.--His sudden Illness and Death.--Copley's
Picture of the Scene.]]]

{348}why is not the latter commenced without hesitation? I am not, I
confess, well informed of the resources of this kingdom; but I trust
it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them
not. But, my lords, any state is better than despair. Let us, at least,
make one effort; and if we must fall, let us fall like men!"

[Illustration: 9358]

As Chatham sat down, his brother-in-law, Lord Temple, said to him, "You
forgot to mention what we talked of; shall I get up?"

"No, no," replied Chatham, "I will do it by-and-by." The Duke of
Richmond then arose, and replied to Chatham. When he sat down, the great
orator attempted to rise, but the violence of his indignation overcame
him, and he swooned. He was caught in friendly arms, and the whole
House, in great agitation, crowded around him with anxious solicitude.
* He was conveyed to the house of a friend in Downing Street, and the
following day he was carried home to his country seat at Hayes. That
speech was, indeed, his last, for, in a little more than a month
afterward, he expired. [[May 11, 1778]] Parliament voted him a public
funeral and a monument; and, after settling upon his family an annuity
of twenty thousand dollars a year, a grant was made of one hundred
thousand dollars to pay off his lordship's debts. The last words of the
great orator were agreeable to the royal ears,

* John Singleton Copley, the eminent American artist, painted a
representation of this scene for the House of Lords. In a note on page
496 of the first volume of this work, I have placed Copley among the
early refugee Loyalists. History and fair inference have assigned him
that position, partly on account of his marriage relation with a
family of Loyalists, and partly because he was one of the addressers
of Hutchinson, left the country with him, and was intimate with him
in London. Sabine places him among the Loyalists, and his biographers
generally have given him that character. Since the publication of that
volume, I have been Informed that the late John Quincy Adams, who knew
Copley and his sentiments intimately, denied that he was a Loyalist;
on the contrary, he averred that he was a Whig in sentiment during the
whole controversy, and adduced, among other evidence, the fact, that
when commissioned to make two paintings, one for the House of Lords
and the other for the House of Commons, he chose as a subject for the
former, The Death of Chatham, and for the latter, Charles the First
in Parliament. The scene of the last picture is at the moment when the
speaker uttered to the king the republican sentiment, "I have no eyes
to see, no ears to hear, no mouth to speak, but as Parliament directs
implying entire subserviency to the popular will. Mr. Adams said Copley
went to England, not as a fugitive, but entirely on account of his
profession, which disturbances in Boston had almost destroyed.

** William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham, was born on the 5th of
November, 1708. He was educated at Eton, and entered Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1726. He left that institution for a military profession,
which he entered with the rank of cornet. He was elected a member of
Parliament for Old Sarum in 1735, and soon became distinguished for
his eloquence and extensive information. He was in the ranks of the
opposition against Walpole, and, for his good service against that
minister, Walpole's inveterate enemy, the Duchess of Marlborough, left
Pitt, in her will, fifty thousand dollars. From 1746 until 1755, he was
treasurer of Ireland, paymaster of the army, and privy counselor. He was
made secretary of state in 1756, and had the direction of the war
bureau during a late portion of the progress of the Seven Years' war.
He retired from office on the accession of George III., but continued in
Parliament. In 1766 he was created Earl Chatham, and occupied the privy
seal in the administration. This office he resigned in 1768; and from
that period until his death, an hereditary gout kept him much at home
and undermined his constitution. He was struck down with apoplexy upon
the floor of the House of Lords on the 7th of April, 1778, and died on
the 11th of May following, at the age of 70. * "His disposition," says
Brougham, "was exceedingly affectionate. The pride, bordering upon
insolence, in which he showed himself incased to the world, fell
naturally from him, and without any effort to put it off, as he crossed
the threshold of his own door. To all his family he was civil, kindly,
and gentle. His pursuits were of a nature that showed how much he loved
to unbend himself. He delighted in poetry and other light reading; was
fond of music; loved the country; took peculiar pleasure in gardening;
and had even an extremely happy taste in laying out grounds."

[[[Pitt's Funeral and Monument.--North's conciliatory Propositions
rejected.---Arrival of Commissioners.--Governor Tryon.]]]

{349}and the king was pleased to bestow his bounty when "the trumpet of
sedition" * was silenced.

The conciliatory bills arrived in America about the middle of April.
Governor Tryon, of New York, caused them to be printed and extensively
circulated. As they did not positively propose the independence of the
colonies as a basis of negotiation, they were regarded by the patriots
with suspicion, and were denominated the "deceptionary bills."

"Nothing short of independence, it appears to me, will do," Washington
wrote. "A peace on other terms would, if I may be allowed the
expression, be a peace of war." Congress entertained the same
sentiments. As soon as draughts of the bills were received by that body,
they were referred to a committee. When they reported, some discussion
arose, but it [[April 22, 1778]] was unanimously resolved that the terms
offered were totally inadequate, and that no advances on the part of the
British government for a peace would be met, unless, as a preliminary
step, they either withdrew their armies and fleets, or acknowledged,
unequivocally, the independence of the United States. ** This report,
and other resolutions adopted on the following day, were printed with
the "deceptionary bills," and circulated throughout the country. ***

[Illustration: 9359]

The king's ship of war Trident arrived in the Delaware on the 4th
of June, having on board three commissioners, appointed under the
provisions of North's conciliatory bills. These commissioners were the
Earl of Carlisle, George Johnstone, formerly governor of West Florida,
**** and William Eden, a brother of Sir Robert Eden, the governor of
Maryland from 1769 until the Revolution. They were accompanied by
the celebrated Adam Ferguson, professor of Moral Philosophy in the
University of Edinburgh, as secretary. General Howe was directed to join
commissioners, but, as he had returned home, Sir Henry Clinton took his
place.

That officer wrote to Washington, requesting a passport for Dr. Ferguson
to proceed to Congress at York, with dispatches. The request was

* The King was applied to by Lord North, before Chatham's death, to make
some provision for his family. In a sharp letter his majesty said, "When
decrepitude or death puts an end to him as a trumpet of sedition, I
shall make no difficulty in placing the second son's name instead of the
father's, and making up the pension L. 3000.--Brougham's Statesmen of
the Tunes of George III.

** Journals of Congress, iv., 164.

*** Governor Tryon inclosed copies of these hills to General Washington,
with a request that he would aid in circulating them! Washington sent
them to Congress, and after that body had passed its resolves on the
subject, the chief forwarded printed copies to Tryon, and politely
requested him to have them circulated among those persons for whom they
were intended. One of the resolutions recommended the Legislatures of
the several states, or any executive authority possessing the power,
to issue proclamations offering pardon to those who had taken up arms
against the continental government, and who should surrender themselves,
and return to the state to which they belonged, before the 10th of June.
This resolution was adopted on the 23d of April.--Journals, iv., 168.
This was an excellent retort upon Governor Tryon. It is difficult, as
Washington remarked in a letter to Governor Livingston, in viewing
the conduct of Tryon on this occasion, "which to admire most, his
impertinence or his folly."

**** According to M'Gregor, James M'Pherson, the translator of Ossian's
Poems, went to Florida with Governor Johnston in 1770, as surveyor
general, and took the original Gaelic manuscripts with him. Many of them
were lost there, and were never recovered.

* Parliament voted him a funeral and a monument. The pall-bearers on
the occasion of his burial were Edmund Burke, Sir George Saville, John
Dunning, Esq., and Right Hon. Thomas Townshend. He was buried about
twenty yards from the north entrance of Westminster Abbey. His monument
is composed of six figures, representing Lord Chatham, Prudence,
Fortitude, Britannia, Earth, and Ocean. The statue of Chatham is
represented in the engraving. The inscription upon the monument is as
follows: "Erected by the King and Parliament, as a Testimony to the
Virtues and Ability of William Pitt. Earl of Chatham, during whose
administration Divine Providence exalted Great Britain to a Height of
Prosperity and Glory unknown to any former Age."

[[[Letter of Commissioners to Congress.--Action of Congress concerning
them, and their Mission.--Mrs. Græme.]]]

{350}declined on the ground that the matter was wholly of a civil
nature, and the letter was forwarded to Congress. The commissioners then
sent their papers, by a flag, directly to the president. Among these
was an address to that body. The president was desired to read it
immediately. When he came to a part containing strong expressions of
disrespect for the King of France, he was interrupted. The House, after
some debate, directed him to read no further, but to seal the papers.
The subject was resumed in debate two days afterward, when a reply was
ordered to be returned to the commissioners, signed by the president,
the substance of which was in accordance with the former proceedings
in relation to North's bills. They were informed that no reconciliation
could possibly be effected on the proffered terms, but, when the
king should manifest a sincere desire for peace, "by an explicit
acknowledgment of the independence of the states, or the withdrawing of
his fleets and armies, Congress would be ready to enter into a treaty
therefor."

[Illustration: 8360]

It was not in the power of the commissioners to accede to either of
these propositions, nor was it the intention of Parliament to grant
them. *

The proceedings of Congress previous to the arrival of the commissioners
** had effectually barred the door to negotiations. The commissioners
remained in the country until October, and made various attempts by art,
and by official intercourse, to gain their object. They failed, however,
and finally returned to England. Just previous to their departure,
they issued a long manifesto and proclamation to Congress, to the state
Legislatures, and to all the inhabitants of the States, in which
they briefly recapitulated the steps they had taken to accomplish a
reconciliation; denounced the rebels, and warned the people of the total
and material change which was to take place in the future conduct of
hostilities. Should they still persist in refusing obedience, they were
menaced with all the extremes of war. Packages of these manifestoes,
with one printed on vellum, and signed by Clinton, Carlisle, and Eden,
were made up to be sent to Congress and the several states by a flag.
Congress declared that the agents employed to distribute them were not
entitled to the protection of a flag, and recommended the states to
seize and imprison them, Congress also published a manifesto, which,
after charging commissioners with mean attempts to bribe members of its
body and other persons, with deceit and servility of adulation, they
concluded by solemnly declaring, "If our enemies presume to execute
their threats, or persist in their present career vengeance as shall
deter others from like conduct.

* Sparks's Washington, v., 397.

** It is worthy of note, that these proceedings of Congress took
plaee ten days before the arrival of the intelligence that France
had acknowledged the independence of the United States; that event,
therefore, had no influence on the mind of Congress.

*** These I copied from an original manifesto of the commissioners,
dated October 3d, 1778, and preserved in the office of the secretary
of state of Connecticut. The name of Johnstone is not attached to the
manifesto. His openly corrupt proceedings caused Congress to declare
that no intercourse should be had with him. Johnstone endeavored to gain
by flattery what the nature of his commission denied him. Finding no
door open for negotiation with Congress, he determined to attempt to
win over influential members to a favorable consideration of the
propositions of the ministers. For this purpose he employed an American
lady, the daughter of Doctor Thomas Græme of Pennsylvania, then the wife
of Hugh Ferguson, a relative of the secretary of the commissioners. Her
husband being in the British service, she was much in the company of
Loyalists. She was a woman of superior attainments, and, although the
wife of an enemy to the country, she maintained the confidence and
respect of leading patriots. Johnstone made his residence at the house
of Charles Stedman (one of Cornwallis's officers, and an historian of
the war), where Mrs. Ferguson often visited. Johnstone spoke to her
warmly in favor of American interests, and she believed him to be a
true friend of their country. He expressed a strong desire to stop the
effusion of blood, and a belief that, if a proper representation eould
be made to leading men in Congress, a reconciliation might yet be
effected. As he was not permitted to pass the lines himself, Johnstone
desired Mrs. Ferguson to say to General Joseph Reed, that, provided
he could, conformably to his conscience and views of things, exert his
influence to settle the dispute, he might command ten thousand guineas
and the best post in government. Mrs. Ferguson suggested that such a
proposition would be considered as a bribe by Mr. Reed, but Johnstone
disclaimed the idea. Convinced of his sincerity and good-will, as she
alleged, she sought and obtained an interview with General Reed in
Philadelphia, three days after the British had evacuated that city. She
repeated to him her conversation with Johnstone, when Reed, filled with
indignation, replied, "I am not worth purchasing, but, such as I am,
the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it!" General Reed
had received a communication from Johnstone just before leaving Valley
Forge. The written and verbal communications of the commissioner he now
laid before Congress, and that body declared all further correspondence
with Johnstone to be terminated. The fact soon went abroad. The reply
of Reed went from mouth to mouth, and the people, looked with ineffable
contempt upon the commissioners. * Poor Mrs. Ferguson, whose motives
seem to have been pure, was violently assailed. Unfortunately, she had
been the bearer, a few months before, of an offensive letter from the
Reverend Mr. Duché (see page 268) to General Washington, and she was
denounced as a British emissary. She lived, however, to see all these
suspicions dissipated.!--See Gordon's American Revolution, ii., 378;
Life and Correspondence of President Reed, i., 381; Mrs. Ellett's Women
of the Revolution, i., 196.

[[[Attempt to Bribe General Reed.--Mrs. Graeme's part in the
Affair.--Memoir of General Reed.]]]

{351}We appeal to that God who searcheth the hearts of men for the
rectitude of our intentions; and in his holy presence declare, that, as
we are not moved by any light and hasty suggestions of anger or revenge,
so, through every possible change of fortune, we will adhere to this our
determination."

[Illustration: 8361]

The American army remained encamped at Valley Forge until the 18th
of June, [[1778]] when intelligence reached them that the enemy had
evacuated Philadelphia and

* Joseph Reed was born in New Jersey, August 27, 1741, and graduated
at Princeton in 1757. He studied law with Richard Stockton; also at
the Temple, in London. He was one of the committee of correspondence in
Philadelphia in 1774, where he took up his residence after his return
from England. He was president of the first popular convention in
Pennsylvania. He accompanied Washington as his aid and secretary when he
went to Cambridge in 1775, and remained with him during the campaign. In
1776 he was appointed adjutant general of the American army, and proved
an active and brave officer. In the spring of 1777 he was appointed a
general officer in the cavalry, but declined the station. He remained
attached to the army, and was in the battle at Germantown in the autumn
of that year. He was chosen a member of Congress toward the close of
1777. He was a member of that body in 1778, when the commissioners
arrived from England, and, as we have noticed in the text, was
approached with honeyed words, and promises of wealth and rank if he
would favor the views of the government agents. His noble reply was
given, and, abashed, the commissioners sought other and more pliable
instruments for their use. General Reed was chosen president of
Pennsylvania in 1778, and continued in that office until October, 1781,
when he resumed his practice of the law. He ever retained the
confidence and highest esteem of Washington and the best patriots of
the Revolution; and when the cloud of party rancor passed away, all men
beheld in Joseph Reed a patriot and an honest man. In 1784, he visited
England for his health, but without beneficial results. He died on
the 4th of March 1785, at the age of forty-two. His wife was Esther de
Berdt, the leader in the patriotic efforts of the ladies of Philadelphia
to extend comfort to the suffering army, mentioned in a preceding
chapter. George W. Reed, the youngest son of General R, commanded the
Vixen in 1812, and died while a prisoner in England. A few days after
the death of General Reed, Philip Freneau wrote a brief monody, in which
the following lines occur:

     "No single art engaged his manly mind,
     In every scene his active genius shined.
     Nature in him, in honor to our age,

* At once composed the soldier and the sage.

** Trumbull, in his M'Fingall, thus alludes to the:

     Behold, at Briton's utmost shifts
     Comes Johnstone, loaded with like gifts,
     To venture through the Whiggish tribe,
     To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe;
     And call, to aid his desp'rate mission,
     His petticoated politician:
     "Firm to his purpose, vigilant and bold,
     Detesting traitors, and despising gold,
     He scorn'd all bribes from Britain's hostile throne,
     For all his country's wrongs were thrice his own."

* of Mrs. Ferguson in Johnstone's efforts at bribery:

    "While Venus, join'd to act the farce,
     Strolls forth embassadress of Mars.
     In vain he strives; for while he lingers,
     These mastiffs bite his off ring fingers;
     Nor buys for George and realms infernal
     One spaniel but the mongrel Arnold."

[[[Sir Henry Clinton Commander-m-Chief.--Condition of the American
Army.--Exchange of General Lee.--Oaths of Allegiance.]]]

{352}crossed the Delaware into New Jersey. Sir Henry Clinton had
succeeded Sir William Howe as generalissimo, and took command of the
British army on the 11th of May. In the instructions to Clinton as
Howe's successor, the ministry ordered him to evacuate Philadelphia.
He had resolved to do so as early as the 23d of May, and to proceed by
water to New York. Fearing he might be delayed by head winds, and that
Washington would push forward to and capture New York city, he
changed his plan and determined to proceed by land. In the mean while,
Washington, informed of the evident intention of the enemy to evacuate
Philadelphia, placed his army in a condition to march immediately at the
beating of the drum. His condition was very much changed for the better.
Major-general Charles Lee had been exchanged for Prescott, and was now
in camp, and reinstated in his old command as second general officer of
the army. * The troops fit for service numbered about fifteen thousand;
and the warmth and comforts of pleasant summer time, co-operating with
the good news from France, made the soldiers cheerful and hopeful. **

[Illustration: 0362]

* Washington was directed, by a resolution of Congress, to administer
the oath of allegiance to the officers of the army before leaving Valley
Forge. The oath was administered to several at one time, each officer
placing his hand upon the Bible. Just as the commander-in-ehief began
to repeat the oath, General Lee withdrew his hand. This movement was
repeated, to the astonishment of all. Washington inquired the cause of
his strange conduct, when Lee replied, "As to King George, I am ready
enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to him; but I have some
scruples about the Prinee of Wales." Even the grave Washington was
obliged to join in the laughter which followed this odd reply. Lee
eventually took the oath with the rest, and subscribed his name. In the
archives of the State Department at Washington City, the original oaths
of allegiance, signed by all the officers of the army at Valley Forge,
are well preserved, and present an interesting collection of autographs.
The oath was printed on a slip of paper, with blanks, in which the name
and rank of the officer was written, with his signature at bottom. I
observed that Generals Lord Stirling, Knox, and Greene administered the
principal portion of the oaths. The following is a fac simile of Lord
Stirling's oath, administered by Washington:

* do acknowledge the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, to be Free, Independent
and Sovereign States, and declare that the people thereof owe no
allegiance or obedience to George the Third, King of Great-Britain; and
I renounce, refute and abjure any allegiance or obedience to him; I will
to the utmost of my power, support, maintain and defend the said United
States, against the said King George the Third, his heirs and successors
and his or their abettors, affiliants and adherents.

** Of these, 11,800 were at Valley Forge, which comprehended the sick
and those who might be called into action on an emergency. There was
a detachment at Wilmington of 1400; and on the Hudson River there
were 1800. At=a council of war held on the 18th of May, it was thought
reasonable to anticipate that, when all the re-enforcements were brought
in, the whole army, fit for duty, would amount to about 20,000 men.

[[[Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British.--Pursuit by the
Americans.--The British harassed in New Jersey]]]

{353}Sir Henry Clinton made his preparations for evacuation with so much
adroitness, that Washington was not certified of his destination until
he had actually crossed the Delaware. Suspecting, however, that he would
take a land route for New York, the commander-inchief had dispatched
Maxwell's brigade to co-operate with General Dickinson and the New
Jersey militia in retarding the march of the enemy. It was a little
before dawn on the morning of the 18th of June, when the British
army left the city, and commenced [[1778]] crossing the Delaware at
Gloucester Point. * At ten o'clock the rear-guard landed; and toward
evening that motley host of British regulars and Loyalists, Hessians,
and a crowd of camp-followers, were encamped around Haddonfield, on the
south side of Cooper's Creek, five miles southeast of Camden.

When intelligence of the evacuation reached Washington, he broke up
his encampment at Valley Forge, and, with almost his whole army, pushed
forward in pursuit. General Arnold, whose wound would not allow him to
engage in active service, took possession of Philadelphia with a small
detachment, while the main army marched rapidly toward the Delaware. The
admirable arrangements of the quarter-master general's department, under
the able management of General Greene, enabled the army to move with
facility. The divisions of Greene and Wayne first crossed the Delaware
at Coryell's Ferry, a short [[June 20, 1778]] distance above the
place where Washington passed to the attack of the Hessians at Trenton
eighteen months previously; and these were followed by the chief and
the remainder of the "army on the two following days. Colonel Morgan
was sent with six hundred men to re-enforce Maxwell. The army halted
at Hopewell, within five miles of Trenton, and there Washington
called another council of war. ** The tardy movements of Clinton induced
the belief that he was maneuvering to entice the Americans into a
general action. "Will it be advisable to hazard a general engagement?"
was the question which the chief proposed to the council. The decision
was a negative; but it was recommended to send detachments to harass
the enemy on their march. General Lee was opposed to this measure, and
objected to any interference whatever with the enemy. Pursuant to the
recommendation of the council, Washington ordered Morgan's corps to gain
the rear of the enemy's right flank, Maxwell's brigade to hang on their
left, and Brigadier-general Scott, *** with about fifteen hundred chosen
men, to annoy them on the rear and flanks. To these were added the New
Jersey militia under General Dickinson, and a party of volunteers from
Pennsylvania under Cadwallader.

Sir Henry Clinton intended to march from Haddonfield directly to
Brunswick, and embark his troops on the Raritan Hiver. He moved on
slowly, by the way of Mount Holly, ****

[Illustration: 8363]

* Gloucester Point is on the Jersey side of the Delaware, three miles
below Camden and Philadelphia.

** A council of war was held on the 17th, the day before the Americans
left Valley Forge, and among other questions proposed was, "If the enemy
march through Jersey, will it be prudent to attack them on the way,
or more eligible to proceed to the North River in the most direct and
convenient manner, to secure the important communication between the
Eastern and Southern States?" Nearly all the officers were opposed to
an attack, on account of the inequality of force, but some thought it
should defend on circumstances. Washington was desirous of attacking the
enemy, but was obliged to yield to the force of circumstances.

*** Charles Scott was a native of Cumberland county, in Virginia. He
raised the first company of volunteers in that state, south of the
James River, that actually entered into the Continental service. So much
was he appreciated, that, in 1777. the shire-town of Powhatan county
was named in honor of him. Congress appointed him a brigadier in the
Continental army on the 1st of April, 1777. He served with distinction
during the war, and at its termination he went to Kentucky. He settled
in Woodford county, in that state, in 1785. He was with St. Clair at his
defeat in 1791; and in 1794 he commanded a portion of Wayne's army at
the battle of the Fallen Timber. He was governor of Kentucky from 1808
to 1812. He died on the 22d of October, 1820, aged seventy-four years.

**** Mount Holly is the scat of justice for Burlington county. It is
situated on the north branch of the Raneoeus Creek, about nineteen
miles from Trenton. During the war, a Whig, named William Denning, who
afterward resided in Mount Holly, constructed a wrought-iron cannon. It
was made of iron staves, hooped like a barrel with the same material.
There were four layers of staves, firmly bound together, and then
bored and breeched like other cannons. He finished one in Middlesex,
Pennsylvania, and began another in Mount Holly. The former was captured
at the battle of Brandywine, and is now in the Tower of London; the
latter was placed in the Philadelphia arsenal. Denning died a few years
since, at the age of ninety-four.

[[[Extent of the British Line.--Washington's Determination to
Fight.--Preparations of both Armies for Battle.]]]

{354}to Crosswicks and Allentown. There being but a single road, his
long train of baggage-wagons and bat-horses, together with his troops,
made a line nearly twelve miles In extent. He was obliged to build
bridges and causeways over the streams and marshes, and his progress,
consequently, was very tardy. When at Allentown, perceiving Washington
almost on his front, Clinton changed his course, rather than risk a
general action with all his encumbrances. Turning to the right, he
took the road leading to Monmouth court-house and Sandy Hook, with the
determination of embarking his troops at the latter place. The American
[[June 25]] army had now reached Kingston, on the Millstone River.
General Lee was still strongly opposed to any interference with the
movements of the enemy, and, being next in command to Washington,
his opinions had considerable weight with the other officers. Yet six
general officers were in favor of continued annoyances by detachments,
and three of them (Greene, La Fayette, and Wayne) declared in favor of
a general action. Washington was at first embarrassed by these divided
opinions; but, relying upon his own judgment, which was strongly in
favor of an engagement, he asked no further advice, but proceeded to
make arrangements for a battle. He immediately ordered a detachment of
one thousand men, under General Wayne, to join the troops nearest the
enemy; gave General La Fayette the command of all the advanced parties,
amounting to almost four thousand [[June 26, 1778]] men, including the
militia, * and moved forward with the main body to Cranberry.

The weather was intensely hot, which circumstance, in connection with a
heavy storm that commenced about nine in the morning, made it impossible
to resume the march without injury to the troops.

Early on the morning of the 27th, La Fayette, with the advanced forces,
proceeded to Englishtown, a hamlet about five miles westward of Monmouth
court-house. Sir Henry Clinton was advised of the movements of the
Americans, and, properly apprehending an attack upon his flanks and
rear, changed the disposition of his line. He placed the baggage train
in front, and his best troops, consisting of the grenadiers, light
infantry, and chasseurs of the line, in the rear. The baggage of
the whole army (in which term were included the bat-horses and
wheel-carriages of every department) was placed under the charge of
General Knyphausen. With his army thus arranged, Clinton encamped in a
strong position near Monmouth court-house, secured on nearly all sides
by woods and marshy grounds. His line extended, on the right, about
a mile and a half beyond the court-house to the parting of the roads
leading to Shrewsbury and Middletown, and on the left, along the road
from Monmouth to Allentown, about three miles.

The alteration in the disposition of his line of march made by Sir
Henry Clinton, obliged Washington to increase the number of his advanced
corps, and accordingly he sent Major-general Lee with two brigades to
join La Fayette at Englishtown, and, as senior officer, to take command
of the whole division designed for making the first attack. The
main army marched the same day, and encamped within three miles of
Englishtown; Morgan's [[June 27.]] corps was left hovering on
the British right; and about seven hundred militia, under

* This force properly fell under the command of General Lee. As he
was totally opposed to the movement, it placed him in an unpleasant
situation. This embarrassment was mentioned to Washington by La Fayette,
who offered to take command of that division. Washington agreed to give
it to La Fayette, if General Lee would consent to the arrangement. That
officer readily consented, and La Fayette was placed in command. Lee
afterward changed his mind, and applied to Washington to be reinstated.
He could not, with justice or propriety, recall the orders given to La
Fayette; and the commander-in-chief endeavored to preserve harmony by
giving Lee the command of two brigades, with orders to join the advanced
detachments, when, of course, his rank would entitle him to the command
of the whole. He ordered Lee to give La Fayette notice of his approach,
and to offer him all the assistance in his power for prosecuting any
enterprise he might have already undertaken. Washington wrote, also,
to La Fayette, explaining the dilemma, and counting upon his cheerful
acquiescence.

[[[British Camp near Monmouth Court house.--Their Movement--Ward Sandy
Hook.--Lee ordered to attack the British.]]]

{355}Dickinson, menaced their left. Washington foresaw the increased
strength the enemy would gain by reaching the heights of Middletown,
which were about three miles in advance. To prevent them obtaining that
advantage, he determined to attack their rear the moment they should
attempt to move. For this purpose he ordered General Lee to make the
necessary disposition, and to keep his troops in readiness to move at
the shortest notice. Sir Henry Clinton, perceiving that an immediate
action was inevitable, made preparations accordingly. The night of the
27th was one of great anxiety to both parties.

The 28th of June, 1778, a day memorable in the annals of the Revolution,
was the Christian Sabbath. The sky was cloudless over the plains of
Monmouth when the morning dawned, and the sun came up with all the
fervor of the summer solstice. It was the sultriest day of the year; not
a zephyr moved the leaves; nature smiled in her beautiful garments
of flowers and foliage, and the birds carolled with delight, in the
fullness of love and harmony. Man alone was the discordant note in the
universal melody. He alone, the proud "lord of creation," claiming for
his race the sole mundane possession of the Divine image, disturbed the
chaste worship of the hour, which ascended audibly from the groves, the
streams, the meadows, and the woodlands. On that calm Sabbath morning,
in the midst of paradisal beauty, twenty thousand men girded on the
implements of hellish war to maim and destroy each other--to sully the
green grass and fragrant flowers with human blood!

At about one o'clock in the morning, Lee sent an order to General
Dickinson to [[June 28]] detach several hundred men as near the British
lines as possible, as a corps of observation. Colonel Morgan was also
directed to approach near enough to attack them on their first movement.
Orders were likewise given to the other divisions of the advanced forces
to make immediate preparations to march; and, before daylight, Colonel
Grayson, with his regiment, leading the brigades of Scott and Varnum,
was in the saddle, and moving slowly in the direction of Monmouth
court-house.

General Knyphausen, with the first division of the British troops,
among which was the chief body of the Hessians, and the Pennsylvania and
Maryland Loyalists, moved forward at daybreak. Sir Henry Clinton, with
the other division, consisting of the flower of his army, ** did not
follow until eight o'clock. Dickinson observed the earliest movement,
and sent an express to Lee, and to the commander-in-chief, the moment
Knyphausen began his march. Washington immediately put the army in
motion, and sent orders to General Lee to press forward and attack the
enemy, unless there should be very powerful reasons to the contrary.
This discretionary clause in the orders eventuated in trouble. Lee
advanced immediately with the brigades of Wayne and Maxwell and sent an
order to Grayson to press forward and attack the pickets of the enemy
as speedily as possible, while he himself pushed forward to overtake
and support him. Grayson, with the two brigades, had passed the Freehold
meeting-house, two miles and a half from Monmouth, when he received the
order. Lee's aid, who bore it, gave it as his opinion that he had better
halt, for he had learned on the way that the main body of the British
were moving to attack the Americans. This information was erroneous,
but it caused Grayson to tarry. General Dickinson, who was posted on a
height on the eastern side of a morass, near s in the plan, received the
same intelligence, and communicated it to Lee, through the aid, on his
return. Lee conformed to the reports, and, after posting two regiments
of militia upon a hill southeast

* William Grayson was a native of Prince William county, in Virginia.
He was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with Sir William Howe
respecting prisoners, while the army was at Valley Forge. In the battle
of Monmouth he commanded a regiment in the advanced corps, and behaved
with valor. At the close of the war he returned to his native state,
and was elected a representative in Congress in 1784. In 1788 he was a
member of the Virginia Convention, called for the purpose of considering
the Constitution of the United States. With Patrick Henry he opposed
the ratification of that instrument. He was appointed one of the first
senators from Virginia in 1789, with Richard Henry Lee. He died at
Dumfries, while on his way to Congress, on the 12th of March, 1790.

** It was composed of the thirty-fourth and fifth brigades of British,
two battalions of British grenadiers, the Hessian grenadiers, a
battalion of light infantry, the Guards, and the sixteenth regiment of
light dragoons.

[[[Approach of the American advanced Corps.--Conflicting
Intelligence.--Preparation for Battle.--Plan of the Action.]]]

{356}of the meeting-house, to secure a particular road, he pushed
forward, with his staff, across the morass, at a narrow causeway near
the parsonage indicated by an oblong upon the stream toward the left of
the plan, and joined Dickinson upon the height.

[Illustration: 0366]

There conflicting intelligence was brought to him. At one moment it was
asserted that the enemy had moved off with precipitation, leaving only a
covering party behind; at another, that the whole army was filing off to
the right and left to attack the Americans. While he was endeavoring
to obtain reliable information on which to predicate orders, La Fayette
arrived at the head of the main body of the advanced corps.

Having satisfied himself that no important force of the enemy was upon
either flank, Lee determined to march on. His whole command now amounted
to about four thousand troops, exclusive of Morgan's corps and the
Jersey militia. The broken country was heavily wooded to the verge of
the plain of Monmouth. Under cover of the forest, Lee pressed forward
until near the open fields, when he formed a portion of his line for
action, and, with Wayne and others, rode forward to reconnoiter. From
observations and intelligence, he concluded that the column of the
British army which he saw deploying on the left were only a covering
party of about two thousand men; and entertaining hopes that he
might succeed in cutting them off from the main army, he maneuvered
accordingly. Wayne was detached, with seven hundred men and two pieces
of artillery, to attack the covering party in the rear; not, however,
with sufficient vigor to cause them to retreat to the main body.
Meanwhile Lee, with a stronger force, endeavored, by a short road
leading to the left, to gain the front of the party. Small detachments
were concealed in the woods, at different points on the enemy's flanks,
to annoy them.

At about nine o'clock in the morning, just as Wayne was prepared to make
a descent upon the enemy, a party of American light horse, advancing on
the right, observed the Queen's Dragoons upon an eminence in the edge of
a wood, parading as if they intended to

* Explanation of tiie Plan.--a a, position occupied by the British
army the night before the battle. 6, British detachment moving toward
Monmouth, c c, British batteries, d d, Colonel Oswald's American
batteries, e, American troops formed near the court-house, f, first
position taken by General Lee in his retreat, g, attack of a party of
the British in the woods, h h, positions taken by General Lee. i, a
British detachment. k, last position of the retreating troops on the
west side of the marsh, m, army formed by General Washington after he
met Lee retreating, n, British detachment, o, American battery, p, plaee
of the principal action near the parsonage, r, first position of the
British after the action, s, second position, f, place where the British
passed the night after the battle. 1, the spot where Washington met Lee
retreating. 2, a hedgerow. 3, the Freehold meeting-house, yet standing.
A, Maxwell's brigade; B, Wayne's; C, Varnum's; D, Scott's. E and F,
Jackson's and Grayson's regiments. G, Carr's house. H, I, and J,
the brigades of Maxwell and Scott, with the regiments of Grayson and
Jackson, marching to the attack. K and L, Greene and Varnum. M, Lord
Stirling. N, La Fayette; and 0, Greene, with Washington. Lee's march
toward Monmouth court-house, the present village of Freehold, was north
of the old road to Englishtown. The present road from Freehold to the
meeting-house varies from the old one in some places, and is very nearly
on a line with Lee's retreat.

[[[The British attacked by Wayne.--Oswald's Artillery.--Wayne checked by
Lee.--Strange Conduct of Lee.]]]

make an attack. Lee ordered his light horse to allow the dragoons to
approach as near as could be done with safety, and then to retreat
to where Wayne was posted, and let him receive them. The maneuver was
partially successful; the dragoons followed the retreating light horse,
until fired upon by a party under Colonel Butler, ambushed in the edge
of a wood, when they wheeled, and galloped off toward the main column.
Wayne ordered Colonel Oswald to bring his two pieces of artillery to
bear upon them, and then pushed forward himself, with his whole force,
to charge the enemy with bayonets. * Colonel Oswald ** crossed a morass,
planted his guns on a small eminence (cl), and opened a cannonade at the
same time. Wayne was prosecuting his attack with vigor, and with every
prospect of full success, when he received an order from Lee to make
only a feigned attack, and not push on too precipitately, as that
would subvert his plan of cutting off the covering party. Wayne was
disappointed, chagrined, irritated; he felt that his commander had
plucked the palm of sure victory from his hand; but, like a true
soldier, he instantly obeyed, and withheld his troops, hoping that Lee
would himself recover what his untimely order had lost. In this, too,
the brave Wayne was disappointed; for only a portion of the troops on
the right, under Lee, issued out of the wood in small detachments, about
a mile below the courthouse, and within cannon-shot of the royal forces.
At that instant Sir Henry Clinton was informed that the Americans
were marching in force on both his flanks, with the evident design
of capturing his baggage, then making a line of several miles in the
direction of Middletown. To avert the blow, he changed the front of his
army by facing about, and prepared to attack Wayne with so much vigor,
that the Americans on his flanks would be obliged to fly to the succor
of that officer. This movement was speedily made by Clinton, and a large
body of cavalry soon approached cautiously toward the right of Lee's
troops. La Fayette perceiving this, and believing it to be a good
opportunity to gain the rear of the division of the enemy marching
against them, rode quickly up to Lee, and asked permission to make the
attempt. "Sir," replied Lee, "you do not know British soldiers; we can
not stand against them; we shall certainly be driven back at first, and
we must be cautious." La Fayette replied, "It may be so, general; but
British soldiers have been beaten, and they may be again; at any rate, I
am disposed to make the trial." *** Lee so far complied

* This first attack occurred in the vicinity of Brier Hill, about three
fourths of a mile east of the courthouse.

** Eleazer Oswald was a native of Massachusetts, and was among the
earliest of the active patriots of the Revolution. He exhibited great
bravery at the siege of Quebec, at the close of 1775, where he commanded
the forlorn hope after Arnold was wounded. In 1777 he was commissioned
a lieutenant colonel in Lamb's regiment of artillery, and soon afterward
distinguished himself, with Arnold, at Compo, at the head of recruits
raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was with Putnam when Forts
Clinton and Montgomery were taken in 1777, and anxiously entreated his
general to allow him to go to the relief of the forts, where his friend
Lamb commanded the artillery. For his bravery at the battle of Monmouth,
he was highly commended by Generals Knox and Lee. Being outranked soon
after this engagement, he resigned his commission and left the service.

[Illustration: 8367]

** He entered into the printing and publishing business at Philadelphia,
was appointed public printer, and was a resident there at the time of
Arnold's defection. Upon constitutional questions he was an opponent of
General Hamilton, and in 1789 challenged that gentleman to fight a duel.
Their friends adjusted the matter, and the meeting was prevented. In
1793, being in England on business, he went to the Continent, joined the
French army, commanded a regiment of artillery, and was at the battle of
Mons, or Jemappe. He fell a victim to the yellow fever which desolated
New York in 1795, and was buried in St. Paul's church-yard on the 2d of
October of that year.--See Leake's Life and Times of General Lamb.

*** The conduct of Lee throughout the day was very strange, and gives
a coloring of truth to the conjecture that the thorn of envy was still
rankling in his bosom, and that he preferred seeing the Americans
disgraced by a defeat, rather than Washington honored by a victory. La
Fayette, who had watched with the eye of ardent affection the progress
and termination of the conspiracy against Washington a few months
previously, in which the name of Lee was prominent as his proposed
successor, was properly suspicious. Soon after his application to Lee
for permission to attempt to gain the enemy's rear, one of Washington's
aids arrived for information; and La Fayette took the occasion to inform
his excellency, through the aid, that his presence upon the ground was
of the utmost importance. He felt convinced that Lee's movements were
governed either by cowardice or treachery, and he was anxious to have
Washington controlling he movements of the day.

[[[Lee's Orders misunderstood.--Retreat of two Brigades.--A general
Retreat ordered by Lee.--General Maxwell.]]]

{358}as to order the marquis to wheel his column by his right, and
gain and attack the enemy's left. At the same time, he weakened Wayne's
detachment on the left, by ordering the regiments of Wesson, Stewart,
and Livingston to the support of the right.

[Illustration: 8368]

He then rode toward Oswald's battery to reconnoiter.

At that moment, to his great astonishment, as he said, Lee saw a large
portion of the British army marching back on the Middletown road toward
the court-house. Apparently disconcerted, he immediately ordered his
right to fall back. The brigades of Scott and Maxwell, * on the left,
were already moving forward and approaching the right of the royal
forces, who were pressing steadily on in solid phalanx toward the
position occupied by Lee, with the apparent design of gaining Wayne's
rear and attacking the American right at the same moment. General Scott
had left the wood, crossed a morass, and was forming for action on the
plain, and Maxwell was preparing to do the same, when Lee ordered the
former to re-enter the wood, arrange his column there, and wait for
further directions. Perceiving the retrograde movement on the right, and
perhaps mistaking the spirit of Lee's order, Scott recrossed the morass,
and retreated through the woods toward the Freehold meeting-house,
followed by Maxwell. As soon as intelligence of this movement reached
Lee, he sent an order to La Fayette to fall back to the court-house. The
marquis obeyed, but with reluctance. As he approached the courthouse,
he learned, with surprise and deep mortification, that a general retreat
had begun on the right, under the immediate command of Lee, and he was
obliged to follow. The British pursued them as far as the court-house,
where they halted, while the Americans pressed onward across the morass
above Carr's house (G) to the broken eminences called the heights of
Freehold, where they also halted. The heat was intense, and both parties
suffered terribly from thirst and fatigue. In many places they sunk
ankle-deep in the loose, sandy soil. Their rest was of short duration.
The royal troops pressed forward; and Lee, instead of making a bold
stand in his advantageous position, resumed his retreat toward the
Freehold meeting-house. A panic seized the Republican troops, and over
the broken country they fled precipitately and in great confusion, a
large portion of them pressing toward the causeway over a broad morass,
** where many perished; while others, overpowered by the heat, fell upon
the earth, and were trampled to death in the sand by those pressing on
behind them. In the first retreat, a desultory cannonade had been kept
up by both parties; but now nothing was heard but a few musket-shots and
the loud shouts of the pursuing enemy.

While these maneuvers in the vicinity of Monmouth court-house were
occurring, Washington, with the reserve, was pressing forward to the
support of Lee. When the latter

* William Maxwell was a native of New Jersey. He joined the army at the
commencement of the war. In 1776 he was appointed colonel, and raised
a battalion of infantry in New Jersey. He was with General Schuyler on
Lake Champlain, and in Oetober, 1776, was appointed a brigadier in the
Continental army.

[Illustration: 9368]

* After the battle at Trenton, he was engaged in harassing the enemy;
and during the winter and spring of 1777 was stationed near the enemy's
lines at Elizabethtown. In the autumn of that year he was engaged in
the battles at the Brandywine and Germantown, and during the succeeding
winter he was with the suffering army at Valley Forge. He was aetive in
pursuit of Clinton aeross New Jersey the following summer, and sustained
an important part in the battle at Monmouth. After that engagement, He
was left, with Morgan, to annoy the enemy's rear in their retreat toward
Sandy Hook. He was again near Elizabethtown during the winter and spring
of 1780, and in June was engaged in the action at Springfield. In
August he resigned his commission and quitted the service. He was
highly esteemed by Washington, who, on transmitting his resignation to
Congress, said, after speaking of his merits as an officer, "I believe
him to be an honest man, a warm friend to his country, and firmly
attached to its interests."

** This causeway, alluded to before, was near the parsonage, which is
still standing, though greatly decayed, and known as "Tennent's House."
The morass, which was then a deep quagmire, and thickly covered with
bushes, is now mostly fine meadow land, coursed by a clear streamlet,
spanned by a small bridge where the highway between Freehold and
Englishtown, by way of the meeting-house, crosses.

[[[Forward Movement of the Division under Washington.--Meeting of
Washington and Lee.--Harsh Words between them.]]]

{359}made the discovery that a large covering party was in the rear of
the royal army, and formed his plan to cut them off, he sent a messenger
to the commander-in-chief, assuring him that success must follow.

[Illustration: 8369]

On the reception of this intelligence, Washington ordered the right
wing, under General Greene, to march to the right, "by the new church,"
or Freehold meeting-house, to prevent the turning of that flank by the
enemy, and to "fall into the Monmouth road a small distance in the rear
of the court-house," while he prepared to follow, with the left wing,
directly in Lee's rear, to support him. To facilitate the march of the
men, and to contribute to their comfort on that sultry morning, they
were ordered to disencumber themselves of their packs and blankets.

Many laid aside their coats, and, thus relieved, prepared for battle.

While the chief was making this disposition near the Freehold
meeting-house, a countryman, mounted on a fleet horse, came in hot haste
from the direction of the contending forces. He brought the astounding
intelligence that the Continental troops were retreating, with the enemy
in close pursuit. The commander-in-chief could not credit the report,
for he had heard only a few cannon-peals in the direction of the
court-house, and he did not conceive it possible that Lee would retreat
without first giving battle. He spurred forward, and, when about half
way between the meeting-house and the morass, he met the head of the
first retreating column. He was greatly alarmed on finding the
advanced corps falling back upon the main army without notice, thereby
endangering the order of the whole. Giving a hasty order to the
commander of the first retreating division to halt upon an eminence,
Washington, with his staff, pushed across the causeway to the rear of
the flying column, where he met Lee * at the head of the second division
of the retreating forces. The commander-in-chief was fearfully aroused
by the conduct of that officer, and, as he rode up to Lee, he exclaimed,
in words of bitter anger and tone of withering rebuke, "Sir, I desire to
know what is the reason, and whence arises this disorder and confusion!"
Stung, not so much by these _words_ as by the _manner_ of Washington,
Lee retorted harshly, and a few angry words passed between them. It was
no time to dispute, for the enemy was within fifteen minutes' march of
them. Wheeling his horse, Washington hastened to Lamsay and Stewart,
in the rear, rallied a large portion of their regiments, and ordered
Oswald, with his two pieces of cannon, to take post upon an

* This view is from the green, outside of the church-yard, near the
school-house. The church is situated a short distance from the road
leading from Freehold to Englishtown, and about midway between those
places. It was erected in 1752, on the site of a former one, which
was much smaller; hence it was called the new church.* It is of wood,
shingled, and painted white; at present a very dingy color. For
a century and a half, God has been worshiped on that spot. There
Whitefield, Brainerd, the Tennents, and Woodhull preached and prayed. It
has been asserted that bullet-marks, made during the battle in 1778, are
visible upon the church. Such is not the fact, for it is a mile and
a half distant from the parsonage, where the hottest of the battle
occurred. At the church, and upon its roof and steeple, many were
gathered in anxious suspense to witness the battle. A spent cannon-ball
came bounding toward the church during the action, struck a man who
sat upon a small grave-stone, and so wounded him that he died within an
hour. He was carried into the church, and placed in the first pew on
the right of the middle door, where he expired. Traces of his blood
were upon the floor for nearly fifty years. The stone on which he sat
is still there, not far from the grave of Colonel Monkton. Its top was
broken by the hall, and tor more than seventy years the fracture was
left untouched. Lately some vandal hand has broken a "relic" from
it, and quite destroyed the moss-covered wound it first received.
The obelisk seen on the right of the picture is over the grave of the
Reverend Robert Roy. The other ornamental monument is over that of the
Reverend Mr. Woodhull.

* See Washington's letter to the president of Congress, July 1,1778.

[[[The pursuing Britons checked.--Courage and Skill of
Washington.--Lee's Conduct, Trial, and Sentence.]]]

{360}eminence. By a well-directed fire from his battery, Oswald checked
the pursuing enemy. The presence of the chief inspired the fugitives
with courage, and within ten minutes after he appeared, the retreat was
suspended, the troops rallied, and soon order appeared in the midst of
the utmost confusion. Stewart and Ramsay formed under cover of a wood,
and co-operated with Oswald in keeping the enemy at bay. While the
British grenadiers were pouring their destructive volleys upon the
broken ranks of the Americans, the voice of Washington seemed omnipotent
with the inspiration of courage; it was a voice of faith to the
despairing soldiers. Fearlessly he rode in the face of the iron storm,
and gave his orders. The whole patriot army, which, half an hour before,
seemed on the verge of destruction, panic-stricken and without order,
was now drawn up in battle array, and prepared to meet the enemy with
a bold and well-arranged front. This effected, Washington rode back to
Lee, and, pointing to the rallied troops, said, "Will you, sir, command
in that place?"

"I will," eagerly exclaimed Lee. "Then," said Washington, "I expect you
to check the enemy immediately."

"Your command shall be obeyed," replied Lee; "and I will not be the
first to leave the field." *

Back to the main army Washington now hurried, and with wondrous
expedition formed their confused ranks into battle order on the
eminences on the western side of the morass. Lord Stirling was placed
in command of the left wing; while General Greene, on receiving
intelligence of Lee's retreat, had marched back, and now took an
advantageous position on the right of Stirling.

General Lee displayed all his skill and courage in obedience to the
chief's order to "check the enemy." A warm cannonade had commenced
between the American and British artillery on the right of Stewart and
Ramsay when Washington recrossed the morass to form the main army,
while the royal light horse charged furiously upon the right of Lee's
division. At that moment Hamilton rode up to Lee, and exclaimed, "I will
stay with you, my dear general, and die with you. Let us all die rather
than retreat." But the enemy pressed so closely upon them with an
overwhelming force, that the Americans were obliged

* It was evident that after the first vent of his indignation on seeing
Lee making a shameful retreat before the enemy, Washington was willing
to overlook the act, and forget and forgive Lee's harsh words spoken
in anger. Had the latter been actuated by the same noble and
generous spirit, all would have been well. But the rebuke of the
commander-in-ehief struck deep into his pride, and he could not rest
satisfied with the retort he had given to his general. On the day after
the battle he wrote a letter to Washington, in which he demanded
an apology, or its equivalent, for his remarks on the battle-field.
Washington replied that he conceived his letter to be expressed in terms
highly improper, and asserted his conviction that the words which he
used when he met him retreating were warranted by the circumstances. He
charged Lee with a breach of orders, and misbehavior before the enemy,
in not attacking them, and in making an "unnecessary, disorderly, and
shameful retreat." Lee wrote an insulting reply. "You can not afford
me," he said, "greater pleasure than in giving me the opportunity of
showing to America the sufficiency of her respective servants. I trust
that temporary power of office, and the tinsel dignity attending it,
will not be able, by all the mists they can raise, to obfuscate the
bright rays of truth." In a seeond letter, dated the 30th of June (two
days after the battle), Lee demanded a court of inquiry immediately,
accompanying that demand with offensive remarks. Washington immediately
sent Colonel Scammel, the adjutant general, to put Lee under arrest, on
the following charges:

     "First: Disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy on
     the 28th of June, agreeably to repeated instructions.

     Secondly: Misbehavior before the enemy on the same day, by
     making an unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat.

     "Thirdly: Disrespect to the commander-in-ehief, in two
     letters, dated the 1st of July and the 28th of June." *

* The court martial was convened on the 4th of July, at Brunswick,
consisting of one major general (Lord Stirling, who was president), four
brigadiers, and eight colonels. The court sat from time to time, until
the 12th of August, when they declared their opinion that General Lee
was guilty of all the charges, and sentenced him to be suspended from
any command in the armies of the United States for the term of twelve
months. The testimony on the trial exhibits a minute detail of the
operations in the battle of Monmouth. Congress approved the sentence of
the court martial on the 5th of December, by a vote of thirteen in the
affirmative and seven in the negative, and ordered the proceedings to be
published.--See Sparks's Washington, v., 552; Journals of Congress, iv.,
501.

* These were both erroneously dated. Lee's letters were written on the
29th and 30th of June.

[[[The fiercest of the Battle.--Picture by Mr. Custis.--Captain
Molly.]]]

{361}to give way. As they emerged from the woods, the belligerents
seemed completely intermingled.

[Illustration: 0371]

The enemy next attacked Livingston's regiment and Varnum's brigade,
which lined a hedgerow [2] that stretched across the open field in front
of the causeway over the morass Here the conflict raged severely for
some time. Some American artillery took post on an eminence in rear
of the fence, and played with power; ** but the British cavalry, and a
large

* This outline sketch is from a copy of the picture at Arlington House
(the seat of Mr. Custis), which I made, by permission, in November,
1850. As it exhibits none of the horrid scenes of slaughter which
generally characterize battle-pieces, I have not hesitated to introduce
it, for the purpose of giving a specimen of pictorial composition upon
an interesting historical subject from the pencil of the adopted son,
and the only surviving executor of the will of the great Washington.
The engraving was executed by Dr. Alexander Anderson, the pioneer
wood-engraver in America, at the age of seventy-seven years. Both
painter and engraver have passed several years beyond the age allotted
to man. Since I made this copy, Mr. Custis has completed two other
historical pictures--Germantown and Trenton; and it is his intention, if
his life shall be spared, to thus perpetuate on canvas the memory of all
of the battles in which his illustrious foster-father was engaged. In
the picture here given, the chief is seen most prominently on his white
charger, with his general officers. Washington and Greene are in front;
Knox on the right, upon the most prominent horse; and behind them are
Hamilton, Cadwallader, &c. On the left is seen the group of artillery,
with "Captain Molly" at the gun. In the distance is seen a portion of
the British army, and Colonel Monckton falling from his horse. On the
right, in the foreground, lying by a cannon, is Dickinson, of Virginia;
and on the left, by a drum, Bonner, of Pennsylvania. In the center is a
wounded rifleman.

** It was during this part of the action that Molly, the wife of a
cannonier, is said to have displayed great courage and presence of
mind. We have already noticed her bravery in firing the last gun at
Fort Clinton. (See page 164.) She was a sturdy young camp-follower, only
twenty-two years old, and, in devotion to her husband, she illustrated
the character of her countrywomen of the Emerald Isle. In the action in
question, while her husband was managing one of the field-pieces, she
constantly brought him water from a spring near by. A shot from the
enemy killed him at his post; and the officer in command, having no one
competent to fill his place, ordered the piece to be withdrawn. Molly
saw her husband fall as she came from the spring, and also heard the
order. She dropped her bucket, seized the rammer, and vowed that she
would fill the place of her husband at the gun, and avenge his death.
She performed the duty with a skill and courage which attracted the
attention of all who saw her. On the following morning, covered with
dirt and blood, General Greene presented her to Washington, who,
admiring her bravery, conferred upon her the commission of sergeant.
By his recommendation, her name was placed upon the list of half-pay
officers for life. She left the army soon after the battle of Monmouth,
and, as we have before observed, died near Fort Montgomery, among the
Hudson Highlands. She usually went by the name of Captain Molly. The
venerable widow of General Hamilton, yet living (1852), told me she
had often seen Captain Molly. She described her as a stout, red-haired,
freckled-face young Irish woman, with a handsome, piercing eye. The
French officers, charmed by the story of her bravery, made her many
presents. She would sometimes pass along the French lines with her
cocked hat, and get it almost filled with crowns.

[[[Gallant Conduct of Lee.--Forming of the second Line.--View of the
Battle-ground.]]]

{362}body of infantry, skillful in the use of the bayonet, charging
simultaneously upon the Americans, broke their ranks. Lee immediately
ordered Varnum and Livingston, together with the artillery, to retreat
across the morass, while Colonel Ogden, with his men drawn up in a wood
near the causeway, gallantly covered the whole as they crossed. Lee was
the last to leave the field, and brought off Ogden's corps, the rear
of the retreating troops, in admirable order. Instantly forming them
in line upon the slope on the western side of the morass, he rode to
Washington, and said, "Sir, here are my troops; how is it your pleasure
that I should dispose of them?" The poor fellows had thus far borne
the whole brunt of the battles and retreats of the day; Washington,
therefore, ordered him to arrange them in the rear of Englishtown, while
he prepared to engage the enemy himself with the fresh troops of the
second and main division of the army.

[Illustration: 0372]

The action now became general. The second line of the main army was
speedily formed in the wood which covered the eminence on the western
side of the morass; the left commanded by Lord Stirling, the right by
General Greene, and the center by Washington himself. Wayne, with an
advanced corps, was stationed upon an eminence, in an orchard, a few
rods south of the parsonage, while a park of artillery was placed in
battery on Comb's Hill, beyond a marsh, on his right. This battery
commanded the height on which the enemy was stationed, and did great
service. The British, finding themselves warmly opposed in front,
attempted to turn the American left flank, but were repulsed. They
also moved toward the American right, but, being enfiladed by a severe
cannonade from a battery under Knox, upon a commanding piece of ground
occupied by General Greene, they fell back. Wayne, in the mean time,
kept up a

* This view is from the orchard, upon the site of Wayne's position
when Monckton fell. The old house on the left is the ancient parsonage,
occupied, at the time of the hattle, by a man named Freeman. Beyond the
house, extending right and left, is the place of the morass, now fine
meadow land, with a clear stream running through it; and in the extreme
distance are seen the slopes and elevations whereon the second division
of the American army, under Washington, was drawn up. Upon the rising
ground on the extreme right, the British grenadiers were stationed; and
the two figures in the open field, about fifty yards distant from our
point of view, denote the spot where Monckton was killed.

[[[Advance of Grenadiers under Monckton.--Death of Monckton.--Close of
the Day and the Battle]]]

{363}brisk fire upon the British center from his position in the
orchard, and repeatedly repulsed the royal grenadiers, who several times
crossed the hedgerow (2) and advanced upon him. Colonel Monckton, their
commander, perceiving that success depended upon driving Wayne from
his position, harangued his men, * and, forming them in solid column,
advanced to the charge with all the regularity of a corps on parade. **
Wayne's troops were partially sheltered by a barn, situated very near
the one now standing a few rods from the parsonage. He ordered them to
reserve their fire until the enemy should approach very near, and then,
with sure aim, pick out the officers. Silently the British advanced
until within a few rods of the Americans, when Monckton, waving his
sword, with a shout, ordered his grenadiers to the charge. At the same
moment Wayne gave a signal; a terrible volley poured destruction upon
the assailants, and almost every British officer fell. Among them was
their brave leader, Colonel Monckton. *

[Illustration: 8373]

Over his body the warriors fought desperately, hand to hand, until the
Americans secured it, and carried it to their rear. Hotly the conflict
raged, not only at the center of the enemy's line, but at various other
points. Wayne finally repulsed the grenadiers; and the whole British
army soon gave way, and fell back to the heights (t) above Carr's house
(3), occupied by General Lee in the morning. It was a strong position,
flanked by thick woods and morasses, with only a narrow way of approach
on their front.

It was now almost sunset, yet Washington resolved to follow up his
advantage, and attack them in their new and strong position. For that
purpose, he ordered General Poor, with his own and the Carolina brigade,
to move round to their right; General Woodford **** to gain their left,
and the artillery to gall them in front. There were so many impediments,
owing to the broken character of the ground, that twilight came on
before a proper disposition for battle could be made, and the attack was
postponed until morning.

[Illustration: 9373]

The army reposed that night upon their arms upon the battle-field, ready
to spring upon their prey at the first gleam of light. Wrapped in his
cloak, the chief, overpowered with fatigue, slumbered, with his suite,
beneath a broad oak, around which many of the slain slept their last
sleep. He felt certain of victory when his troops, refreshed, should
rise to battle; but the

* The belligerents were separated by only a few rods in distance, and
that an open field. The patriots near the parsonage, and those with
Wayne, at the barn, and in the orchard, distinctly heard the voice of
Monckton when haranguing his men.

** It is said that the grenadiers marched with so much precision, that a
ball from Comb's Hill, enfilading a platoon, disarmed every man.

*** Colonel Monckton was a gallant officer. He was a lieutenant colonel
in the battle of Long Island, when he was shot through the body, but
recovered. He was interred, on the day after the battle of Monmouth, in
the burial-ground of the Freehold meeting-house, about six feet from the
west end of the building, upon a stone of which his name is rudely cut.
The only monument that marks the grave of that gallant officer is a
plain board, painted red, on which is drawn, in black letters, the
inscription seen in the picture. This board was prepared and set up a
few years ago by a worthy Scotch schoolmaster, named Wilson, who taught
the young people in the school-house upon the green, near the old
meeting-house.

**** William Woodford was a native of Caroline county, in Virginia.

He early distinguished himself in the French and Indian wars. When the
Virginia troops assembled at Williamsburg in 1775, in consequence of the
hostile attitude assumed by Lord Dunmore, Woodford was appointed eolonel
of the second regiment. Patrick Henry was colonel of the first regiment.

the Elizabeth River, in December, 1775, he was distinguished for his
bravery. Congress promoted him to brigadier, and placed him in command
of the first Virginia brigade. He was in the battles of Brandywine
(in which he was wounded) and Monmouth, and was made a prisoner at
Charleston, in South Carolina, during the siege in 1780. He was taken to
New York by the British, where he died on the 13th of November of that
year, in the forty-sixth year of his age.

In the battle at Great Bridge, on

[[[Retreat of Sir Henry Clinton.--Character of the Monmouth
Battle.--Clinton's Official Dispatch criticised.--The Loss.]]]

{364}morning light brought disappointment. At midnight, under cover of
darkness, * Sir Henry Clinton put his weary host in motion. With silent
steps, column after column left the camp and hurried toward Sandy Hook.
So secret was the movement, and so deep the sleep of the patriots, that
the troops of Poor, lying close by the enemy, were ignorant of their
departure, until, at dawn, they saw the deserted camp of the enemy.
They had been gone more than three hours. Washington, considering the
distance they had gained, the fatigue of his men, the extreme heat of
the weather, and the deep, sandy country, with but little water, deemed
pursuit fruitless, and Sir Henry Clinton escaped. Washington marched
with his army to Brunswick, and thence to the Hudson River, which he
crossed at King's Ferry, and encamped near White Plains, in West Chester
county. The Jersey brigade and Morgan's corps were left to hover on the
enemy's rear, but they performed no essential service. The British army
reached Sandy Hook on the 30th, where Lord Howe's [[June 1778]] fleet,
having come round from the Delaware, was in readiness to convey them to
New York. **

The battle of Monmouth was one of the most severely contested during the
war. Remarkable skill and bravery were displayed on both sides, after
the shameful retreat of Lee; and the events of the day were highly
creditable to the military genius of both commanders. Victory for the
Americans was twice denied them during the day, first by the retreat
of Lee in the morning, and, secondly, by the unaccountable detention of
Morgan and his brave riflemen at a distance from the field. For
hours the latter was at Richmond Mills, three miles below Monmouth
court-house, awaiting orders, in an agony of desire to engage in the
battle, for he was within sound of its fearful tumult. To and fro he
strode, uncertain what course to pursue, and, like a hound in the leash,
panting to be away to action. Why he was not allowed to participate in
the conflict, we have no means of determining.

It appears probable that, had he fallen upon the British rear, with his
fresh troops, at the close of the day, Sir Henry Clinton and his army
might have shared the fate of the British at Saratoga.

The hottest of the conflict occurred near the spot where Monckton fell.
Very few of the Americans were killed on the west side of the morass,
but many were slain in the field with Monckton, and lay among the
slaughtered grenadiers of the enemy. The Americans lost, in killed,
six officers, and sixty-one non-commissioned officers and privates.
The wounded were twenty-four officers, and one hundred and thirty-six
non-commissioned officers and privates, in all two hundred and
twenty-eight. The missing amounted to one hundred and thirty; but many
of them, having dropped down through fatigue, soon joined the army. ***
Among

* Sir Henry Clinton, in his official dispatch to Lord George Germaine,
wrote, "Having reposed the troops until ten at night to avoid the
excessive heat of the day, I took advantage of the moonlight to rejoin
General Knyphausen, who had advanced to Nut Swamp, near Middletown."
This assertion was the cause of much merriment in America, for it was
known that the event took place about the time of new moon. Poor Will's
Almanac, printed at Philadelphia by Joseph Cruikshank, indicates the
occurrence of the new moon on the 24th of June, and that on the night of
the battle being only four days old, it set at fifty-five minutes past
ten. Trumbull, in his M'Fingal, alluding to this, says,

     "He formed his camp with great parade,
     While evening spreads the world in shade,
     Then still, like some endanger'd spark,
     Steals off on tiptoe in the dark;
     Yet writes his king in boasting tone,
     How grand he march'd by light of moon!
     Go on, great general, nor regard
     The scoffs of every scribbling bard,
     Who sings how gods, that fearful night,
     Aided by miracle your night;
     As once they used in Homer's day,
     To help weak heroes run away;
     Tells how the hours, at this sad trial,
     Went back, as erst on Ahaz' dial,
     While British Joshua stay'd the moon
     On Monmouth's plain for Abalon.
     Heed not their sneers or gibes so arch,
     Because she set before you march."

* Ramsay; Gordon; Marshall; Sparks; D'Auberteuil; Stedman, &c.

*** The enemy suffered more from the heat than the Americans, on account
of their woolen uniform, and being encumbered with their knapsacks,
while the Americans were half disrobed. The Americans buried the
slain which were found on the battle-field in shallow graves. In their
retreat, the British left many of their wounded, with surgeons and
nurses, in the houses at Freehold, and every room in the court-house was
filled with the maimed and dying on the morning after the battle. A pit
was dug on the site of the present residence of Dr. Throckmorton, of
Freehold, wherein the wounded were thrown and buried as fast as they
expired. It is said that nearly six hundred young men of Clinton's
army, who had formed tender attachments during the winter cantonment in
Philadelphia, deserted during the march through New Jersey, and returned
to that city.

[[[Sufferings of the Soldiers.--Visit to the Battle-ground.--Woodhull's
Monument--William and Gilbert Tennent.]]]

{365}the slain were Lieutenant-colonel Bonner, of Pennsylvania, and
Major Dickinson, of Virginia. The British left four officers, and two
hundred and forty-five non-commissioned officers and privates on the
field. They buried some, and took many of their wounded with them.
Fifty-nine of their soldiers perished by the heat, without receiving a
wound; they laid under trees, and by rivulets, whither they had crawled
for shade and water. But why dwell upon the sad and sickening scene of
the battle-field with the dead and dying upon it?

[Illustration: 9375]

We have considered the dreadful events of the day; let us for a moment,
before returning to Valley Forge from our long digression, glance at the
ground now covered with the results of the peaceful tiller's conquests.

I visited the battle-ground of Monmouth toward the close of September,
1850, and had the good fortune to be favored with the company of Doctor
John Woodhull, of Freehold, in my ramble over that interesting locality.
Doctor Woodhull is the son of the beloved minister of that name who
succeeded William Tennent in the pastoral care of the congregation
that worshiped in the Freehold meeting-house, and who, for forty-six
consecutive years, preached and prayed in that venerated chapel. Doctor
Woodhull was born in the parsonage yet upon the battle-ground, and is so
familiar with every locality and event connected with the conflict, that
I felt as if traversing the battle-field with an actor in the scene.
Dark clouds rolled up menacingly from the southwest when we left
Freehold and rode out to the meeting-house; and while sketching the old
fane, pictured on page 359, heavy peals of thunder from a cloud that
rapidly approached broke over the country. I had scarcely finished my
outline when the heavy drops came down, and we were obliged to take
shelter in the church. Resting my port-folio upon the high back of
a pew, I sketched, from the open door, the annexed picture of a neat
monument erected to the memory of the reverend pastor just mentioned.
Almost beneath the spot where I stood, under the middle aisle of the
church, rest the remains of the Reverend William Tennent, who was pastor
of that flock for forty-three years. * On the right of the pulpit is a
commemorative tablet, with a brief inscription. ** Mr. Tennent was one
of the most faithful ministers of his day; and his name is widely known
in connection with curious physiological and psychological phenomena,
of which he was the subject. For three days he remained in a cataleptic
state, commonly called a _trance_, or apparent death of the body
while the interior life is active. He had applied himself closely to
theological studies, until his health suddenly gave way. He became
emaciated, his life was despaired of, and,

* Mr. Tennent's brother, Gilbert, was also an eminent preacher. Garden,
in his Revolutionary Anecdotes, relates the following circumstance:
"When the American army entered Philadelphia in June, 1778, after the
evacuation by the British troops, we were hard pressed for ammunition.
We caused the whole city to be ransacked in search of cartridge-paper.
At length I thought of the garrets, &c., of old printing-offices. In
that once occupied as a lumber-room by Dr. Franklin, when a printer, a
vast collection was discovered. Among the mass was more than a cart-body
load of sermons on defensive war, preached by a famous Gilbert Tennent,
during the old British and French war, to rouse the colonies to
indispensable exertion. These appropriate manifestoes were instantly
employed as cases for musket-cartridges, rapidly sent to the army, came
most opportunely, and were fired away at the battle of Monmouth against
our retiring foe."

** The following is a copy of the inscription: "Sacred to the memory of
the Reverend William Tennent, pastor of the first Presbyterian church in
Freehold, who departed this life the 8th of March, 1777, aged 71 years
and 9 months. He was pastor of said church 43 years and 6 months.
Faithful and Beloved."

*** This monument stands on the south side of the church. It is of white
marble, about eight feet in height. The following is the inscription
upon it: "Sacred to the memory of the Reverend John Woodhull, R.D.,
who died Nov. 22d, 1824, aged 80 years. An able, faithful, and beloved
minister of Jesus Christ. He preached the Gospel 56 years. He was
settled first in Leacock, in Pennsylvania, and in 1779 removed to
this congregation, which he served as pastor, with great diligence and
success, for 45 years. Eminent as an instructor of youth, zealous for
the glory of God, fervent and active in the discharge of all publie and
private duties, the labors of a long life have ended in a large reward."
Reverend Dr. Woodhull was one of the most active patriots of his day,
and his zeal in the cause of his country was largely infused into his
congregation. On one occasion, while a pastor in Pennsylvania, every
man in his parish went out to oppose the enemy, except one feeble old
invalid, who bade them God speed. The zealous pastor went with them as
chaplain.

[Illustration: 9376]

* Dr. Woodhull preached the funeral sermon on the occasion of the burial
of Captain Huddy, at Freehold, in the spring of 1782, from the piazza
of the hotel now kept by Mr. Higgins. Captain Huddy lived in the central
part of Colt's Neck, about five miles from Freehold. He was an ardent
Whig, and by his activity and courage became a terror to the Tories. In
the summer of 1780, a mu latto, named Titus, and about sixty refugees,
attacked Huddy's house, in the evening. The only inmates were Huddy and
Lueretia Emmons (afterward Mrs. Chambers), a servant girl about twenty
years of age. There were several guns in the house; these Lueretia
loaded, while Huddy fired them from different windows. Titus and some
others were wounded. They set fire to the house, when Huddy surrendered,
and the flames were extinguished. The prisoners were taken on board of
a boat near Black Point. Just as it was pushed off from the shore, Huddy
leaped into the water, and escaped under fire of some militia who were
in pursuit of the Tories. In the spring of 1782, Huddy commanded a
block-house, situated a short distance north of the bridge at the"
village of Tom's River. It was attacked by some refugees from New York,
and his ammunition giving out, Huddy was obliged to surrender. Himself
and companions were taken to New York, and afterward back to Sandy Hook,
and placed, heavily ironed, on board a guard-ship. On the 12th of April,
sixteen refugees, under Captain Lippincott, took Huddy to Gravelly
Point, on the shore at the foot of the Navesink Hills, near the
light-houses, and hung him upon a gallows made of three rails. He
met his fate with composure. Upon the barrel on which he stood for
execution, he wrote his will with an unfaltering hand. His murderers
falsely charged him with being concerned in the death of a desperate
Tory, named Philip White, which occurred while Huddy was a prisoner in
New York. To the breast of Huddy, the infamous Lippincott affixed the
following label: "We, the refugees, having long with grief beheld the
cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but such measures
daily carrying into execution; we therefore determine not to suffer,
without taking vengeance for the numerous cruelties; and thus begin,
having made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to
your view; and further determine to hang man for man, while there is a
refugee existing. Up goes Huddy for Philip White!"

* Huddy's body was carried to Freehold, and hurried with the honors of
war. His death excited the greatest indignation throughout the country.
Dr. Woodhull earnestly entreated Washington to retaliate, in order
that such inhuman murders might be prevented. The commander-in-chief
acquiesced, but, instead of executing a British officer at once, he
wrote to Sir Henry Clinton, assuring him that, unless the murderers of
Huddy were given up, he should proceed to retaliate. Clinton refused
compliance, and Captain Asgill, a young British officer (son of Sir
Charles Asgill), who was a prisoner, was designated, by lot, for
execution. In the mean while, Lippincott was tried by a court martial;
and it appeared, in testimony, that Governor Franklin, president of the
Board of Associated Loyalists, had given that officer verbal orders
to hang Huddy. Lippincott was acquitted. Sir Guy Carleton, who had
succeeded Sir Henry Clinton, in a letter to Washington, reprobated the
death of Huddy, and acquainted him that he had broken up the Board of
Associated Loyalists. Washington had mercifully postponed the execution
of young Asgill, and, in the mean time, had received a pathetic letter
from Lady Asgill, his mother, and an intercessory one from Count De
Vergennes, the French minister. He sent these letters to Congress,
and, on the 5th of November, 1782, that body resolved, "That the
commander-in-chief be, and hereby is, directed to set Captain Asgill at
liberty." The tenderest sympathies of Washington had been awakened in
the young man's behalf, and he had resolved to do all in his power,
consistent with duty, to save him; and yet the unfair compiler of
the Pictorial History of England (v., 489) accuses Washington of foul
dishonor, and expresses his belief that, "as at the crisis when he put
Major André to death, and refused him the last sad consolation he
asked for, he was now rendered gloomy and irascible by the constant and
degrading troubles and mortifications in which he was involved." Nothing
can be more unjust than this sentence. In a humorous poem, entitled
Rivington's Reflections, Philip Freneau thus alludes to the ease of
Asgill. He makes Rivington (the Tory printer in New York) say,

     "I'll petition the rebels (if York is forsaken)
     For a place in their Zion which ne'er shall be shaken.
     I am sure they'll be clever; it seems their whole study;
     They hung not young Asgill for old Captain Huddy.
     And it must be a truth that admits no denying--
     If they spare us for murder they'll spare us for lying."


[[[Inscription upon Woodhull's Monument--Capture and Execution of
Captain Huddy.--Case of Captain Asgill.]]]

{366}one morning, while conversing with his brother, in Latin, on the
state of his soul, he fainted, and seemed to expire. He was laid out,
and preparations were made for his funeral. His

[[[Remarkable Case of William Tennent.--His own Description of his
Feelings.--Loss of his Papers.]]]

{367}physician, who was absent, was much grieved on his return. His
skill detected symptoms of life, and he desired a postponement of
burial. The body was cold and stiff; there were no signs of life to the
common apprehension, and his brother insisted that he should be
buried. But the entreaties of the physician prevailed; the funeral was
postponed. On the third day after his apparent death, the people were
assembled to bury him. The doctor, who had been at his side from the
beginning, still insisted upon applying restoratives. The hour appointed
for the burial arrived, and the brother of Tennent impatiently demanded
that the funeral ceremonies should be performed. At that moment, to
the alarm of all present, Mr. Tennent opened his eyes, gave a dreadful
groan, and relapsed again into apparent lifelessness. This movement
was twice repeated after an interval of an hour, when life permanently
remained, and the patient slowly recovered. * Absolute forgetfulness
of all knowledge marked his return to consciousness. He was totally
ignorant of every transaction of his life previous to his sickness.
He had to be taught reading, writing, and all things, as if he was a
new-born child. At length he felt a sudden shock in his head, and
from that moment his recollection was by degrees restored. These
circumstances made a profound impression on the public mind, and became
the theme of philosophical speculation and inquiry.

When the storm abated we left the church and proceeded to the
battle-ground. The old parsonage is in the present possession of Mr.
William T. Sutphen, who has allowed the parlor and study of Tennent
and Woodhull to be used as a depository of grain and of agricultural
implements! The careless neglect which permits a mansion so hallowed
by religion and patriotic events to fall into utter ruin, is actual
desecration, and much to be reprehended and deplored. The windows are
destroyed; the roof is falling into the chambers; and in a few years
not a vestige will be left of that venerable memento of the _field of
Monmouth._

We visited the spot where Monckton fell; the place of the causeway
across the morass (now a small bridge upon the main road); and, after
taking a general view of the whole ground of conflict, and sketching the
picture on page 362, returned to Freehold in time to dine, and take the
stage for the station at Jamesburg, on my way home. It had been to me
a day of rarest interest and pleasure, notwithstanding the inclement
weather; for no battle-field in our country has stronger claims to the
reverence of the American heart than that of the plains of Monmouth.

* Mr. Tennent has left on record the following graphic account of
his feelings while his body was in a state of catalepsy: "While I was
conversing with my brother on the state of my soul, and the fears I had
entertained for my future welfare, I found myself, in an instant, in
another state of existence, under the direction of a Superior Being,
who ordered me to follow him. I was accordingly wafted along, I know not
how, till I beheld at a distance an ineffable glory, the impression
of which on my mind it is impossible to communicate to mortal man. I
immediately reflected on my happy change, and thought, Well, blessed
be God! I am safe at last, notwithstanding all my fears. I saw an
innumerable host of happy beings surrounding the inexpressible glory, in
acts of adoration and joyous worship; but I did not see any bodily
shape or representation in the glorious appearance. I heard things
unutterable. I heard their songs and hallelujahs of thanksgiving and
praise, with unspeakable rapture. I felt joy unutterable and full of
glory. I then applied to my conductor, and requested leave to join the
happy throng; on which he tapped me on the shoulder, and said, 'You must
return to the earth.' This seemed like a sword through my heart. In an
instant I recollect to have seen my brother standing before me disputing
with the doctor. The three days during which I had appeared lifeless
seemed to me not more than ten or twenty minutes. The idea of returning
to this world of sorrow and trouble gave me such a shock, that I fainted
repeatedly."--Life of William Tennent, by Elias Boudinot, LL.D.

* Mr. Tennent said that, for three years, the ravishing sounds he had
heard and the words that were uttered were not out of his ears. He was
often importuned to tell what words were uttered, but declined, saying,
"You will know them, with many other particulars, hereafter, as you will
find the whole among my papers." Boudinot was with the army when Tennent
died, and, before he could reach his house, the family, with all his
effects, had gone with a son to South Carolina. He was taken sick about
fifty miles from Charleston, and amoung strangers. Although Boudinot was
the executor of both father and son he never discovered any of Tennent's
papers.

[[[The Pine Robbers.]]]

{368}The men and women of the Revolution, but a few years since numerous
in the neighborhood of Freehold, have passed away, but the narrative of
their trials during the war have left abiding records of patriotism upon
the hearts of their descendants. I listened to many tales concerning the
"Pine Robbers" * and other Tory desperadoes of the time, who kept the
people of Monmouth county in a state of continual alarm. Many noble
deeds of daring were achieved by the tillers of the soil, and their
mothers, wives, and sisters; and while the field of Monmouth attested
the bravery and endurance of American soldiers, the inhabitants, whose
households were disturbed on that Sabbath morning by the bugle and the
cannon-peal, exhibited, in their daily course, the loftiest patriotism
and manly courage. We will leave the task of recording the acts of their
heroism to the pen of the local historian, and, hastening back to Valley
Forge, resume the reins and depart for Paoli, for the short November day
is fast waning.

* The Pine Robbers were a band of marauding Tories, who infested the
large districts of pine woods in the lower part of Monmouth county,
whence they made predatory excursions among the Whigs of the neighboring
country. They burrowed caves in the sand-hills for places of shelter
and retreat, on the borders of swamps, and, covering them with brush,
effectually concealed them. From these dens they sallied forth at
midnight to burn, plunder, and murder. Nor were the people safe in the
daytime, for the scoundrels would often issue from their hiding-places,
and fall upon the farmer in his field. The people were obliged to carry
muskets while at their work, and their families were kept in a state of
continual terror. Of these depredators, the most prominent were Fenton,
Fagan, Williams, Debow, West, and Carter. Fenton was the arch-fiend of
the pandemonium of the Pines. He was a blacksmith of Freehold, large
and muscular. He early took to the business of the Tories, and began his
career of villainy by robbery. He plundered a tailor's shop in Freehold
township. Already a committee of vigilance was organized. They sent
Fenton word that, if he did not return the plunder, he should be hunted
and shot. Intimidated, he sent back the clothing, with the following
savage note appended: "I have returned your damned rags. In a short time
I am coming to burn your barns and houses, and roast you all like a pack
of kittens!" Fenton soon proceeded to put his threat into execution.
One summer night, at the head of a gang of desperadoes, he attacked the
dwelling of an aged man near Imlaytown, named Farr. Himself, wife, and
daughter composed the family. They barricaded the door, and kept the
scoundrels at bay for a while. Fenton finally broke in a portion of the
door, and, firing through the opening, broke the leg of the old man with
a musket-ball. They forced an entrance at last, murdered the wife,
and then dispatched the helpless old man. The daughter, badly wounded,
escaped, and the miscreants, becoming alarmed, fled without taking any
plunder with them. Fenton was afterward shot by a young soldier of Lee's
legion, then lying at Monmouth court-house. The robber had plundered and
beaten a young man while on his way from a mill. He gave information to
Lee, who detailed a sergeant and two soldiers to capture or destroy the
villain. The young man, and the sergeant disguised as a countryman, took
a seat in a wagon, while the two soldiers, armed, were concealed under
some straw in the bottom of the vehicle, and proceeded toward the mill,
expecting to meet Fenton on the road. From a low groggery among the
Pines the robber came out, with a pistol, and commanded them to halt. He
then inquired if they had brandy, to which an affirmative was given, and
a bottle handed to him. While drinking, one of the soldiers, at a signal
from the sergeant, arose, and shot the villain through the head. His
body was thrown into the wagon, and conveyed in triumph to Freehold.

* Fagan and West were also shot by the exasperated people. The body of
the latter was suspended in chains, with hoop-iron bands around it, upon
a chestnut by the road-side, about a mile from Freehold, on the way to
Colt's Neck, where it was left to be destroyed by carrion birds.
The sufferings of the people from these marauders made such a deep
impression, that the lapse of years could not efface it from the hearts
of those who felt their scourge, and even the third generation of
the families of Tories were objects of hate to some of the surviving
sufferers. An old lady, ninety years of age, with whom I conversed at
Roundbrook, became greatly excited while talking of what her family
endured from the Pine Robbers and other Tories, and spoke indignantly
of one or two families in Monmouth eounty who were descendants of
Loyalists.

[[[Departure from Valley Forge.--The Paoli Tavern.--Place where
Americans were Massacred.]]]

{369}




CHAPTER XIV.


```"My country's standard waved on yonder height;

````Her red-eross banner England there display'd;

```And there the German, who, for foreign fight,

````Had left his own domestic hearth, and made

```War, with its horrors and its blood, a trade,

````Amid the battle stood; and, all the day,

```The bursting bomb, the furious cannonade,

````The bugle's martial notes, the musket's play,

````In mingled uproar wild resounded far away.=


```A pebble stone that on the war-field lay,

````And a wild rose that blossom'd brightly there,

```Were all the relies that I bore away

````To tell that I had trod the seene of war,

```When I had turn'd my footsteps homeward far.

````These may seem childish things to some; to me

```They shall be treasured ones, and, like the star

````That guides the sailor o'er the pathless sea,

````They shall lead back my thoughts, loved Brandywine, to thee!"

`````Elizabeth M. Chandler.=


[Illustration: 9379]

E descended from the observatory at Valley Forge at one o'clock, and
departed for the banks of the Brandywine by way of the Paoli * and West
Chester. A veil of moisture, deepening every hour, [[November 30, 1848]]
obscured the sun and omened an approaching storm. I alighted on the
borders of a wood a short distance from the Norristown road, and
sketched the remains of one of the American redoubts pictured on page
335, which lies, almost unknown, within the embrace of the forest.
Thence to the place memorable as the scene of the Paoli massacre, a
distance of nearly nine miles, our road passed through a broken but
well-cultivated country, spreading out into more gentle undulations
on the left, toward the Delaware. The place of the massacre is about a
quarter of a mile from the highway, east of the West Chester rail-way
(which connects with the Columbia rail-way near "the Paoli"), a mile
south of the Warren tavern, on the Lancaster turnpike, and a little more
than two miles southwest from the Paoli tavern. We left our horse to
dine upon corn at a farmyard near, and, following a pathway northeast
from the road, through the open fields, we came to the monument which
stands over the remains of those who fell there on the night of the 20th
of September, 1777. It is upon a small elevated plain, overlooking a
fine rolling country toward the Brandywine, and covered with a forest
when the event occurred, but now smiling with cultivation. ** The
sad story which makes the place memorable in our history is brief but
touching.

I have mentioned in another chapter (page 386) the movements of the
American army after the battle on the Brandywine, and the prevention of
an engagement between the belligerent forces near the Warren tavern by
a violent storm of rain, which damaged their ammunition. When Washington
withdrew and crossed the Schuylkill, with the main body

* The Paoli was one of the famous taverns on the old Lancaster turnpike.
The Spread Eagle, the Back, the White Horse, the Black Horse, the
Red Lion, &e., were all famous among travelers upon the Lancaster and
Harrisburg roads. Governor Pownall (member of Parliament during the
period of the Revolution), who traveled the roads in 1754, mentions
several of these small hamlets that had grown up near some of the old
taverns.

** The land is owned chiefly by Mr. Joseph Rodgers, whose residence is
not far distant.

[[[Wayne's Encampment near the Paoli.--British Attack upon his
Detachment.--The Massacre.]]]

{370}of the army, at Parker's Ford, he left General Wayne, with about
fifteen hundred men and four pieces of cannon (to be joined by General
Smallwood and Colonel Gist the next day * ), with directions to annoy
the enemy's rear, then posted near Tredyffrin church, and to attempt to
cut off his baggage train. Wayne encamped two or three miles southwest
of the British lines, in a secluded spot, away from the public roads,
near the place where the monument now stands. The vigilance of British
sentinels did not discover him, but the treachery of Tories revealed
his numbers and place of encampment to the commander of the enemy. Howe
determined to surprise Wayne, and for that purpose dispatched General
Grey (the subsequent murderer at Tappan and plunderer on the New England
coasts) to steal upon the patriot camp at night and destroy them. Wayne
had intimations of this intended movement, and, though doubting its
truth, he neglected no precaution. It was a dark and stormy night. Wayne
ordered his men to sleep on their arms, with their ammunition under
their coats. With two regiments and a body of light infantry, Grey
marched stealthily, in two divisions, toward midnights through the woods
and up a narrow defile [[a September 20, 1777]] below the Paoli,
and gained Wayne's left at about one o'clock in the morning. (b) The
divisions conjoined in the Lancaster road, near Wayne's encamp[[ b
September 21]]ment. The "no-flint general" (see note on page 196) had
given his usual order to rush upon the patriots with fixed bayonets,
without firing a shot, and to _give no quarters!_ Several of the
American pickets near the highway were silently massacred in the gloom.
These being missed by the patroling officer, his suspicions that an
enemy was near were awakened, and he hastened to the tent of Wayne. The
general immediately paraded his men. Unfortunately, he made the movement
in the light of his own camp-fires, instead of forming them in the dark,
back of the encampment. By the light of these fires Grey was directed
where to attack with the best chance of success. ** In silence, but with
the fierceness of tigers, the enemy leaped from the thick gloom upon
the Americans, who knew not from what point to expect an attack. The
patriots discharged several volleys, but so sudden and violent was the
attack that their column was at once broken into fragments. They fled in
confusion in the direction of Chester. One hundred and fifty Americans
were killed and wounded in this onslaught, some of whom, it is said,
were cruelly butchered after ceasing to resist, and while begging for
quarter; and but for the coolness and skill of Wayne, his whole command
must have been killed or taken prisoners. He promptly rallied a few
companies, ordered Colonel Hampton to wheel the line, and with the
cavalry and a portion of the infantry, he gallantly covered a successful
retreat. Grey swept the American camp, captured between seventy and
eighty men, including several subordinate officers, a great number of
small-arms, two pieces of cannon, and eight wagons loaded with baggage
and stores. The loss of the British was inconsiderable; only one captain
of light infantry and three privates were killed, and four men wounded.
General Smallwood was only a mile distant at the time of the engagement,
and made an unsuccessful attempt to march to the relief of Wayne. His
raw militia were too deficient in discipline to make a sudden movement,
and, before he could reach the scene of conflict, Grey had completed
his achievement, and was on his way towar'd the British camp. Falling
in with a party of the enemy retiring from the pursuit of Wayne,
Smallwood's militia instantly fled in great confusion, and were not
rallied until a late hour the next day.

The dead bodies of fifty-three Americans were found on the field the
next morning, and were interred upon the spot, in one grave, by the
neighboring farmers. For forty years their resting-place was marked by
a simple heap of stones, around which the plow of the agriculturist made
its furrows nearer and nearer every season. At length the "Republican
Artillerists" of Chester county patriotically resolved to erect a
monument to their memory,

* General Smallwood was advancing with 1150 Maryland militia, and
Colonel Gist, with 700.

** A Hessian sergeant, boasting of the exploits of that night,
exultingly exclaimed, "What a running about, barefoot, and half clothed,
and in the light of their own fires! These showed us where to chase
them, while they could not see us. We killed three hundred of the rebels
with the bayonet. I stuck them myself like so many pigs, one after
another, until the blood ran out of the touch-hole of my musket."

[[[Chaplain David Jones.--' His Address to the Troops at Tieonderoga.]]]

{371}and on the 20th of September, 1817, the fortieth anniversary of the
event, through the aid of their fellow-citizens, they reared the memento
delineated in the engraving. *

[Illustration: 8381]

It is com-

* On that occasion the Reverend David Jones, an eminent Baptist
clergyman, who was Wayne's chaplain, and with him at the time of the
massacre, was present and made an address. He was then past eighty years
of age.

* David Jones was born in White Clay Creek Hundred, Newcastle county,
Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736. His ancestors came from Wales in
the early part of the last century, and settled at The Welsh Tract.
Mr. Jones was educated for the ministry by the Reverend Isaac Eaton,
of Hopewell, New Jersey. He was for many years pastor of the upper
(Baptist) Freehold church in New Jersey, from which place he proceeded
to the Northwestern Territory in 1772 and 1773, on a Gospel mission
to the Shawnee and Delaware Indians. He was unsuccessful, and, after
enduring many hardships, he returned to his charge at Freehold. He
afterward published an account of his mission. One of his companions,
while navigating the Ohio in a canoe from Fort Pitt, was the celebrated
George Rogers Clarke. He early espoused the patriot cause, and became
so obnoxious to the Tories, that, believing his life to be in danger,
he left New Jersey, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the
spring of 1775, in charge of the Great Valley Baptist church. On the
occasion of the Continental Fast, soon afterward observed, he preached
a sermon before Colonel Dewee's regiment, entitled "Defensive War in a
Just Cause Sinless." It was published, and, being extensively circulated
throughout the colonies, produced a salutary effect. In 1776, Mr. Jones
received the appointment of chaplain to a Pennsylvania regiment under
Colonel St. Clair, which was ordered to the Northern Department. He was
on duty with St. Clair at Ticonderoga, where, when the enemy was
hourly expected (October 20th, 1776) from Crown Point, he delivered a
characteristic discourse to the regiment, which had a powerful effect
upon them.* Chaplain Jones served through two campaigns under General
Gates, and was chaplain to a brigade under Wayne in the autumn of 1777.
He was with that officer at the "Paoli massacre," and narrowly escaped
death. He had been in the battle at the Brandywine a few days before,
and was in the engagement at Germantown. He accompanied the army to
White-marsh and Valley Forge; was with Wayne in the battle at Monmouth,
and in all his subsequent campaigns, until the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown in the autumn of 1781. He was so active in the cause of
freedom, that a reward was offered for him by General Howe, and a
detachment was sent to the Great Valley, on one occasion, to arrest him.
* At the close of the war he retired to his farm and church.

* When General Wayne took command of the army in the Northwestern
Territory, against the Indians, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his
chaplain, and accompanied him. When the war of 1812 broke out, he again
entered the army, being then seventy-six years old, and served under
Generals Brown and Wilkinson until the close of that contest. His last
public act was to address the people assembled to dedicate the Paoli
Monument. He died on the 5th of February, 1820, in the eighty-fourth
year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church-yard,
in sight of Valley Forge. The portrait here given I copied from an
excellent cabinet picture of the chaplain in the possession of his
grandson, Horatio Gates Jones, Jr., of Philadelphia, who kindly
furnished me with the materials for this brief sketeh of the public
services of that eminent patriot and divine.

* I have before me a printed copy of that address, which was published
soon afterward. I print it here as a favorable specimen of the manner in
which the American soldiers were addressed by their Chaplains.

"ADDRESS: "To General St. Clair's Brigade at Tieonderoga, when the Enemy
were hourly expected, October 20,1776. "My Countrymen, Fellow-soldiers,
and Friends, "I am sorry that during this campaign I have been favored
with so few opportunities of addressing you on subjects of the greatest
importance both with respect to this life and that whieh is to come;
but what is past can not be recalled, and now time will not admit an
enlargement, as we have the greatest reason to expect the advancement
of our enemies as speedily as Heaven will permit. [The wind blew to the
north, strongly.] Therefore, at present, let it suffice to bring to your
remembrance some necessary truths. "It is our common faith, and a very
just one too, that all events on earth are under the notice of that God
in whom we live, move, and have our being; therefore we must believe
that, in this important struggle with the worst of enemies, he has
assigned us our post here at Tieonderoga. Our situation is such that, if
properly defended, we shall give our enemies a fatal blow, and in great
measure prove the means of the salvation of North America. "Such is our
present ease, that we are fighting for all that is near and dear to us,
while our enemies are engaged in the worst of causes, their design being
to subjugate, plunder, and enslave a free people that have done them
no harm. Their tyrannical views are so glaring, their cause so horribly
bad, that there still remain too much goodness and humanity in Great
Britain to engage unanimously against us, therefore they have been
obliged (and at a most amazing expense, too) to hire the assistance of
a barbarous, mercenary people, that would cut your throats for the small
reward of sixpence. No doubt these have hopes of being our task-masters,
and would rejoice at our calamities. "Look, oh! look, therefore, at your
respective states, and anticipate the consequences if these vassals
are suffered to enter! It would fail the most fruitful imagination to
represent, in a proper light, what anguish, what horror, what distress
would spread over the whole! See, oh! see the dear wives of your bosoms
forced from their peaceful habitations, and perhaps used with such
indecency that modesty would forbid the description. Behold the fair
virgins of your land, whose benevolent souls are now filled with a
thousand good wishes and hopes of seeing their admirers return home
crowned with victory, would not only meet with a doleful disappointment,
but also with such insults and abuses that would induce their tender
hearts to pray for the shades of death. See your children exposed as
vagabonds to all the calamities of this life! Then, oh! then adieu to
all felicity this side the grave!... "Now all these calamities may be
prevented if our God be for us--and who can doubt of this who observes
the point in which the wind now blows--if you will only acquit
yourselves like men, and with firmness of mind go forth against your
enemies, resolving either to return with victory or to die gloriously.
Every one that may fall in this dispute will be justly esteemed a martyr
to liberty, and his name will be had in precious memory while the love
of freedom remains in the breasts of men. All whom God will favor to see
a glorious victory, will return to their respective states with every
mark of honor, and be received with joy and gladness of heart by all
friends to liberty and lovers of mankind. "As our present ease is
singular, I hope, therefore, that the candid will excuse me, if I now
conclude with an uncommon address, in substance principally extracted
from the writings of the servants of God in the Old Testament; though,
at the same time, it is freely acknowledged that I am not possessed of
any similar power either of blessing or cursing.

     "1. Blessed be that man who is possessed of true love of
     liberty; and let all the people say, Amen.

     "2. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the common rights
     of mankind; and let all the people say, Amen.

     "3. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the United States
     of America; and let all the people say, Amen.

     "4. Blessed be that man who will use his utmost endeavor to
     oppose the tyranny of Great Britain, and to vanquish all her
     forces invading North America; and let all the people say.
     Amen.

     "5. Blessed be that man who is resolved never to submit to
     Great Britain; and let all the people say, Amen.

     "6. Blessed be that man who in the present dispute esteems
     not his life too good to fall a sacrifice in defense of his
     country; let his posterity, if any he has, be blessed with
     riches, honor, virtue, and true religion; and let all the
     people say, Amen.

     * "Now, on the other hand, as far as is consistent with the
     Holy Scriptures, let all these blessings be turned into
     curses to him who deserts the noble cause in which we are
     engaged, and turns his back to the enemy before he receives
     proper orders to retreat; and let all the people say, Amen.

     "Let him be abhorred by all the United States of America.

     "Let faintness of heart and fear never forsake him on earth.

     "Let him be a magor missabile, a terror to himself and all
     around him.

     "Let him be accursed in his outgoing, and cursed in his
     incoming; cursed in lying down, and cursed in uprising;
     cursed in basket, and cursed in store.

     "Let him be cursed in all his connections, till his wretched
     head with dishonor is laid low in the dust; and let all the
     soldiers say, Amen.

     "And may the God of all grace, in whom we live, enable us,
     in defense of our country, to acquit ourselves like men, to
     his honor and praise. Amen and Amen."

* On one occasion, while reconnoitering alone, he saw a dragoon dismount
and enter a house for refreshments. Mr. Jones boldly abstracted the
horseman's pistols, and, going into the house, claimed him as his
prisoner. The dragoon was unarmed, and was obliged to obey the orders of
his captor, to mount and ride into the American camp. The event caused
great merriment., and Wayne laughed immoderately at the idea of his
chaplain's capturing a British dragoon.

[[[The Paoli Monument.--The Inscriptions upon it.]]]

{372}posed of a blue clouded marble pedestal, surmounted by a white
marble pyramid.

[Illustration: 8382]

The whole monument is about nine feet high, and stands over the center
of the broad grave where the remains of the patriots repose. A peachtree
shades its eastern side. Around it, in oblong form, is a massive stone
wall five feet in height, covered with stucco. Upon the four sides of
the pedestal are appropriate inscriptions, * somewhat defaced by the
villain-hand of wanton destructiveness, or the marauding relic-seeker.

Here, far away from the hum of towns and cities, rest

* The following are the inscriptions: North side.--"The atrocious
massacre which this stone commemorates was perpetrated by British troops
under the immediate command of Major-general Grey." West side.--"Sacred
to the memory of the Patriots who on this spot fell a sacrifice to
British barbarity, during the struggle for American Independence, on
the night of the 20th September, 1777." South side.--"Here repose
the remains of fifty-three American soldiers, who were the victims of
coldblooded cruelty in the well-known 'Massacre at Paoli,' while under
the command of General Anthony Wayne, an officer whose military
conduct, bravery, and humanity were equally conspicuous throughout
the Revolutionary War." East side.--"This memorial, in honor of
Revolutionary Patriotism, was erected September 20th, 1817, by the
Republican Artillerists of Chester county, aided by the contributions of
their fellow-citizens."

[[[The Dead of Paoli.--Journey to West Chester.--Departure for the
Brandywine Battle-ground.]]]

{373}


`````"A sacred band;

```They take their sleep together, while the year

```Comes with its early flowers to deck their grave,

```And gathers them again as winter frowns.

```Here let us meet, and, while our motionless lips

```Give not a sound, and all around is mute--

```In the deep Sabbath of a heart too full

```For words or tears--here let us strew the sod

```With the first flowers of spring, and make to them

```An offering of the plenty nature gives,

```And they have rendered ours--perpetually."

`````Percival.=


After making a sketch of the monument, and dining upon crackers, cheese,
and apples, using the plinth of the pedestal for a table--we resumed
the reins, and retraced the Lancaster road as far as the Paoli tavern,
where a branch road leads to West Chester.

Here I parted company with Mr. Agnew, who returned to Philadelphia in
the cars, and I journeyed alone toward the Brandywine. Although the
fields were shorn, and the orchards were bare of fruit and foliage, yet,
on every side, were evidences of fertility and abundance attested by
fine farm-houses, spacious stone barns, and numerous plethoric barracks.
The country is beautifully diversified and well watered; clear streams,
without bridges, intersect the highway in many plaees. I reached West
Chester at dark, distant eight miles from the Paoli tavern, having
passed, on the way, near the residence of General Wayne.

West Chester is the seat of justice of Chester county. It is in Goshen
township, twenty-three miles from Philadelphia, and five south of the
Great Valley. It is a pleasant village, containing a population of
about three thousand, who are noted for their intelligence and general
refinement. It was a mere hamlet when the armies passed by after the
battle on the Brandywine, * a few miles distant; and there are now not
many mementoes of the event in existence. Eye-witnesses have gone down
into the grave, and the old dwellings have given place to more modern
structures, except the Turk's Head tavern, and one or two other
buildings. At Guss's Inn, where I tarried for the night, I met Mr.
Joseph Townsend, a nephew of the late Joseph Townsend, of Baltimore,
who wrote an account of the battle of Brandywine from his own personal
recollections, and which was published in 1846, with an accurate survey
of the scene of action, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Townsend, who is familiar with every locality connected with the battle,
kindly offered to go over the ground with me the next morning.

I breakfasted by candle-light, and, at seven o'clock, we were on our way
to [[December 1, 1848]] Jefferis's Ford, on the Brandywine, two and a
half miles from West Chester. Thick clouds covered the heavens, and a
biting northeast wind, bearing a few tiny snowflakes and pellets of soft
hail, evinced the presence of winter. The old ford, where the division
of the British army under Howe and Cornwallis crossed the Brandywine,
was eight

* The Brandywine Creek rises near the boundary of Lancaster and Chester
counties, Pennsylvania, and flows through Delaware. After uniting with
Christiana Creek, it enters the Delaware River, forming the harbor of
Wilmington. It is navigable as high as Brandywine village.

** This is copied from Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. The
house is of stone, and ranked among the first country mansions of the
period. It is about a mile and a half south of the Paoli tavern.

[[[Jefferis's Ford.--Sconnel Town, Osborne's Hill, and Birmingham
Meeting-house.]]]

{374}or ten rods above the bridge which now spans the stream. On the
high ground upon the opposite shore, the old stone house of Emmon
Jefferis is yet standing.

[Illustration: 8384]

In it the merchants of Wilmington, alarmed for the safety of their
goods, stored a large quantity of wine and other liquors, believing that
the line of march of the British army would be through their own town,
and not as high up the stream as at this place. For reasons which
we shall presently consider, Cornwallis and his division crossed
the Brandywine at this ford, and, discovering the Madeira wine in
Jefferson's house, made themselves merry at the expense of the rebel
merchants."

[Illustration: 9384]

Howe took Jefferis with him as a guide to conduct him toward Birmingham
meeting-house.

From Jefferis's Ford we proceeded toward the Birmingham meeting-house,
famous in the annals of the Brandywine battle as the spot near which the
most sanguinary conflict took place. We traversed the road along which
Cornwallis marched over the high ground eastward of the Brandywine,
passing the site of Sconnel Town, ** Strodes's Mill, and the field where
the British army formed for action on the southern slopes of
Osborn's Hill. We were thoroughly chilled when we reached Birmingham
meeting-house, delineated on the next page, situated about four miles
below Jefferis's Ford. There we found a comfortable shelter from the
piercing wind under its spacious shed, where we sat down with Bowen's
and Futhey's _Plan of the Battleground_ before us, and contemplated the
memorable events which occurred in this vicinity.

The British fleet under Lord Howe, bearing a land force eighteen
thousand strong, under the command of his brother, General Sir William
Howe, sailed up the Chesapeake, and landed at Turkey Point, on the west
side of the River Elk, about eleven miles from Elkton, at its head, on
the 25th of August, 1777. Howe's destination was Philadelphia. He had [[
a July 23, 1777]] left Sandy Hook (a) with the intention of passing up
the Delaware, but, when at the capes of that river, he was informed of
the obstructions which the Americans had placed in its channel, and he
proceeded to the Chesapeake. **** The two days and nights after

* This view is from the easterly bank of the Brandywine. The ford was at
the mouth of the little creek seen issuing from the small bridge on
the left. The Brandywine here is broad and shallow, with quite a rapid
current.

** Sconnel Town was a hamlet of two or three dwellings, one or two
shops, and a school-house, situated a short distance from Jefferis's
Ford, on the road to the Birmingham meeting-house. That building having
been taken possession of by the Americans for an hospital, the Quakers
who worshiped there held their meetings in a wheel-wright's shop at
Sconnel Town. They were holding a week-day meeting there on the day of
the battle. Not a vestige of Sconnel Town may now be seen, except the
remains of a cellar on the easterly side of the road.

*** This plan is from an actual survey made during the summer of 1846,
under the direction of John S. Bowen and J. Smith Futhey, of Chester.
The position of the forces in action, many of the houses, and other
localities as they existed, was ascertained from a map drawn by officers
of the British army, and published a few months after the battle (in
April, 1778). De Chastellux, who visited the battle-ground with La
Fayette in 1781, mentions the fact that he had one of these English maps
as a guide. The roads of the present day, and the relative position to
them of the houses, woods, &c., of the Revolution, are carefully laid
down upon the map of Bowen and Futhey, which forms the basis of the
one printed on page 377 of this work. On the day when Sir William Howe
entered the Chesapeake, he received a letter from Lord George Germaine,
dated May 18th, giving him the first intimation that aid would be
expected from him in favor of Burgoyne, then pressing forward toward the
Hudson from Canada. He immediately sent a message to Sir Henry Clinton,
who was left in command at New York, to act in conjunction with
Burgoyne, if circumstances should permit. The result we have considered.

[[[Landing of the British at the Head of Elk.--Washington's Preparations
to meet them.--March of Americans from Philadelphia.]]]

{375}his landing were stormy, and prevented any considerable movement
being made before the 28th, when the British commander-in-chief, with
the first and second brigades of light troops and reserve, marched to
the Head of Elk.

[Illustration: 8385]

Major-general Grey, with the third brigade and a battalion of
Highlanders, crossed the Elk on the 30th. The fourth brigade, under
General Agnew, with a Hessian brigade, under Knyp-hausen, crossed, on
the 31st, * to Cecil [[August.]] court-house whence they proceeded on
the east side of the river, and joined the forces under Howe on Gray's
Hill, about [[September 3.]] two miles eastward of Elkton.

[Illustration: 9385]

This force had remained at the landing to cover the debarkation of the
stores and artillery. General Grant, with a suitable force, remained at
the Head of Elk to maintain the communication with the shipping.

Washington, as we have seen, was perplexed by the movements of Howe,
being uncertain of his destination. As soon, however, as he was informed
that the British fleet was off the capes of the Chesapeake, he turned
his attention in that direction. The detachments in New Jersey, whom
General Sullivan had employed in unsuccessful enterprises against
Staten Island, were recalled, and the whole army left Philadelphia for
Wilmington. General Stephen, with his division, with that of General
Lincoln, who had been ordered to join Schuyler at the north,
first proceeded to Chester, in which vicinity the militia of Lower
Pennsylvania and Delaware were gathering in large numbers, for the
country was thoroughly aroused.

The divisions of Stirling, Sullivan, and Greene (the latter composed of
the brigades of Muhlenberg and Weeden), with Morgan's corps, and
Bland's regiment of horse, accompanied by Washington in person, left
Philadelphia on the morning of the 24th of August, and encamped at Red
Clay Creek, a few miles below Wilmington, the next day. The [[August
25, 1777]] principal portion of the American cavalry were under the
immediate command of Count Pulaski. General Nash, with Proctor's
artillery, embarked in flat-boats upon the Delaware, and proceeded to
Chester, from whence he pressed forward to Wilmington.

The whole effective force then present and fit for duty consisted of
about eleven thousand men, including about eighteen hundred of the
Pennsylvania militia.

Washington established his head-quarters at Wilmington, and made
immediate preparations to oppose the march of the enemy, he having
been informed, by scouts, of their arrival at the head of Elk. The
Pennsylvania and Delaware militia--the former under General Armstrong,
the latter under General Rodney--were ordered to press forward to the
head

* Manuscript letter from General Agnew to his wife, dated "Camp on the
River Elk, August 30th, 1777." In this epistle he wrote, "I have not had
the happiness to receive any letter since the one which brought me the
plan of a house, in which I trust in God yet to pass many, many happy
years in the society of my worthy Betty and the two dear children, as
the best and true real reward for all we have undergone." Alas! five
weeks afterward he was slain in the battle at Germantown, and wife and
children saw him no more.

** This is a view of the southerly front of the meeting-house. The
building is very substantially built ol stone. Much of it is serpentine,
whieh abounds in that region, and of which several houses are
constructed. I was informed that the stains made by the blood of the
wounded carried in there at the time of the battle are yet visible upon
the floor. The Hicksite party hold present possession of the house; the
Orthodox have built a place of worship near.

[[[Encampment on Red Clay Neck.--Howe's Proclamation.--Retreat of the
Americans across the Brandywine.]]]

{376}of Elk, and to secure the stores deposited there. In this, however,
they failed, for, before their arrival, the British army had debarked,
and all the stores, among which was a large quantity of salt, * fell
into their hands. Generals Greene and Weeden thoroughly reconnoitered
the country between Wilmington and the Elk; and Washington himself rode
through [[August 26, 1777]] heavy rains to the head of that river, to
make personal observations. An eligible place was selected by Greene
for the American army to encamp, within six miles of Howe's position
on Gray's Hill; but, before information of the selection reached
Washington, it had been determined in a council of war to take a
position on Red Clay Neck, about half way between Wilmington and
Christiana, with the left of the army on Christiana Creek, and the right
extending toward Chad's Ford, upon the Brandywine. Greene's sagacity
foresaw the hazard of the chosen position, and he expressed his opinion
that the Americans must abandon it on the approach of the enemy. The
sequel proved the correctness of his opinion.

Distressed for want of horses, hemmed in by strong parties of the
American militia, and almost daily annoyed by the attacks of Captain
Henry Lee's and other smaller detachments of cavalry upon his pickets,
Howe did not move forward until the 3d of September. On the 27th of
August he issued a proclamation to the people, assuring them that he did
not come to make war upon the peaceable, but to put down the rebellious;
that private property should be respected; that their persons should be
secure, and that pardon should be extended to all who should return
to their allegiance, and surrender themselves to any detachment of
the royal forces within a specified time. But the people of Lower
Pennsylvania had heard of the falsity of professions put forth in his
proclamation to the inhabitants of New Jersey the year previous, and
his "Declaration," as he termed it, produced very little effect in his
favor. The people had learned to suspect the flattering words of
British officials, whether in Parliament or in the camp, and, instead of
"remaining quietly in their houses," they flocked to the standard of the
patriots, and annoyed the common enemy on every side. The advance of the
royal forces toward the Brandywine was marked by a series of skirmishes,
in which the Americans made a number of prisoners. **

Cornwallis, with Knyphausen, at the head of one division of the royal
army, moved forward and encamped above Peneander, where a brief but
severe skirmish ensued between the enemy and Maxwell's regiment of foot,
formed in ambuscade, in which the patriots lost forty in killed and
wounded. The loss of the enemy was somewhat less. On the 3rd, General
Grant, having rejoined the army with the tents, baggage, and stores, the
British moved forward by way of Newark, and took post within four miles
of the right of the American encampment, extending their left far up
into the country. A strong column made a feint of attacking the American
front, and, after some menacing maneuvering, halted at Milltown, within
two miles of the center of the Americans. Washington, believing it to be
the design of Howe to turn the American right, cross the Brandywine, cut
off their communication with Philadelphia, and thus hem them in, upon
a tongue of land, between the British fleet and army, saw at once the
peril of his position, and, pursuant to Greene's prediction, broke up
his encampment, and crossed the Brandywine at [[September, 1777]]
Chad's Ford, at about two o'clock on the morning of the 9th. On the same
evening, the British marched forward in two columns. Knyphausen, with
the left, encamped at New Garden and Ivennet Square; Cornwallis, with
the right, was posted below, at Hockhesson meeting-house. *** On the
following morning the two divisions met at[[September 3.]]

* Salt was a scarce, yet indispensable article during the war. In his
official dispatch, dated August 25th, 1777, Washington, alluding to
the efforts to save the stores, wrote, "Among others, there is a
considerable parcel of salt. Every attempt will be made to save that."
During the winter encampment at Morristown in 1780, salt was eight
dollars a bushel, and it was difficult to procure it even at that price.

** On the 28th of August the Americans took between thirty and forty
prisoners; and, on that evening, twelve deserters from the British navy
and eight from the army came into camp. On the 29th, Captain Lee took
twenty-nine prisoners.

*** The column of Cornwallis was composed of two battalions of
grenadiers, two of light infantry, the Hessian grenadiers, part of the
seventy-first regiment, and two British brigades; in all about 13,000
men. Knyphausen's division consisted of two British brigades, the
residue of the Hessians, and Wemys's corps of Rangers; in all about
5000.

[[[Approach of the British to the Brandywine.--The Fords of that
Stream.--Plan of the Battle.]]]

{377}Kennet Square, and at evening advanced to within a mile of Welsh's
tavern, then a public house of considerable note, three miles east of
Kennet. *

[Illustration: 0387]

* This tavern, and also the Kennet (Quaker) meeting-house, still exist.
The reader will better understand the position of places, as well as the
movement of the armies, by reference to the above map. Kennet Square,
a small village, is about seven miles west of the Brandywine, upon the
high road from Chad's Ford. Welsh's tavern is about three miles east
of the Square, and half a mile beyond is the Kennet meeting-house and
grave-yard, noted on the map. The several fords on the Brandywine,
mentioned in the narrative, were located as follows: First above
Brandywine village was Pyles's Ford; the next was Chad's Ford; one mile
above was Brinton's; two miles above this was Jones's, on the Street
road, and Wistar's (now Shunk's), about a mile above Jones's. These were
below the forks of the creek. On the north branch was Buffington's (now
Brinton's), Jefferis's, six miles above Chad's Ford, and Taylor's Ford,
about half a mile higher, where the old Lancaster road crossed. On the
west branch was Trimble's Ford, about a mile above the forks, and five
miles from the British encampment near Welsh's tavern.--See Bowen and
Futhey's Sketch of the Battle of Brandywine, explained below.

* Explanation of the Map.--This plan, alluded to on page 374, note 3,
was carefully drawn, from those surveys, by Edward Armstrong, Esq.,
the recording secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and
published by that association. A A, denote the column under the command
of Lord Cornwallis, after having crossed the forks of the Brandywine. C,
two squadrons of dragoons, which were not employed in the action. E
E, the first general attack of the enemy's guards and grenadiers. F,
Deborre's brigade, on the right, forced by the enemy. G, G, the British
and Hessian grenadiers entangled in a wood. H H, march of the enemy
toward and beyond Dilworth. The position of the Americans when the
battle commenced is named on the plan. I, indicates the ravine or defile
where Greene checked the enemy until night No. 28 denotes the site of a
blacksmith's shop which stood near the defile, but now destroyed.

[[[Position of the American Army on the Brandywine.--Movement of the
British.--Localities of the Battle-ground.]]]

{378}On the morning of the 11th of September, the day of the battle on
the Brandywine, the main strength of the American army was posted on the
heights east of Chad's Ford, and commanding that passage of the creek.
The brigades of Muhlenberg and Weeden, which composed Greene's division,
occupied a position directly east of the ford; Wayne's division and
Proctor's artillery (o o o on the map) were posted upon the brow of an
eminence near Chad's house (printed on page 386), immediately above the
ford; and the brigades of Sullivan, Stirling, and Stephen, which formed
the right wing, extended some distance up the river, on the left of
the main body. At Pyles's Ford, two miles below, General Armstrong
was posted with one thousand Pennsylvania militia, to guard that pass.
General Maxwell, with about one thousand light troops, took post on the
heights upon the west side of the river, about a mile from Chad's Ford,
to dispute that passage.

[[September 11, 1777]] At daybreak, the column under Cornwallis moved
along the Lancaster road, which, for several miles, ran nearly parallel
with the Brandywine. General Howe was with this division. Knyphausen and
his command moved forward at nine o'clock. A dense fog enshrouded the
country, and the scouting parties of both armies often came in close
contact before they were aware of their proximity. From behind the
walls of the grave-yard of the Kennet meeting-house, and also of houses,
trees, and clumps of bushes, par-

* a a, indicates the column under Knyphausen, in march from Kennet
meeting-house toward Chad's Ford, b b, the heights and woods occupied by
Maxwell and his troops, d, British riflemen behind a house, supported
by one hundred men from Stern's brigade, e. the Queen's Rangers pursuing
Maxwell, when he was driven from the woods, f. Near h, which denotes a
valley, were four pieces of cannon, with the forty-ninth regiment, to
support the attack of the advanced troops, who crossed the ford in the
afternoon, under the fire of Wayne's batteries at m m. n, position of
Knyphausen's column from half after ten in the morning until he crossed
the river, o o o, the position of Wayne's troops near Chad's house, q,
march of the enemy to the ford, in the face of a cannonade from
Wayne's batteries. Chad's Ford is named on the map. The position of the
Americans is seen on the Chester road, a little to the left of Rocky
Hill. Knyphausen took position at u, where he remained during the night
after the battle.

[Illustration: 9388]

* The following references, taken from Bowen and Futhey's map, show
the names of the occupants of houses in the vicinity when the battle
occurred, and also the names of the occupants in 1846, two years before
I visited the ground: 1. George Strode's, now Jonathan Paxson's. 2, now
Dr. A. L. Elwyn's. 4. Widow Susannah Davis's, the site now occupied by
the house of Aaron Sharpless. 5. Widow of John Davis, not standing. 6.
Widow of James Davis, now occupied by Hibbert Davis. 7. William
Jones, now Bunton Jones, his grandson. 8. Isaac Davis's, now Abraham
Darlington's. 9. John Woodward's, not standing. 10. Richard Evanson's,
now Lewis Brinton's. 11. Supposed to have pin. It was owned by Israel
Gilpin when Howe had possession of it. 19. John Henderson, near
Harlan Webb's house. 21. Gideon Gilpin's, now William Painter's;
the head-quarters of LaFayette, f 22. Benjamin Ring's, now Joseph
P. Harvey's; Washington's head-quarters. 23. William Harvey's, not
standing. 24. Davis's tavern, now in ruins. 25. John Chad's, still
standing. 26. Amos's, not standing. * been J. Bolton's, not standing.
12. Isaac Garrett's, not standing. 13. Abraham Darlington's, now Clement
Biddle's. 14. John Bennett's, not standing. 15. Edward Brinton, now
Edward B. Darlington. 16. George Brinton's, now Ziba Darlington's; built
in 1704. Howe's head-quarters, given above, are denoted on the map by a
parallelogram upon the left of the New Road, near the right-hand corner
of the map.

* This house is situated upon a new road, one mile south-southwest of
Dilworth. This view is from the field in front.

** There is some doubt about La Fayette having occupied this house. De
Chastellux, who, in 1780, visited the battle-ground in company with La
Fayette, says, "M. De La Fayette, attended by the other travelers, went
further on to ask for quarters at a Quaker's called Benjamin Ring,
at whose house he lodged with General Washington the night before the
battle."--Travels in America, i., 237. This building is about a mile and
a half east of Chad's Ford.

[[[Skirmishing on the March toward the Brandywine.--Engagement near
Chad's Ford.--Skirmishing on the Brandywine.]]]

{379}ties of militia kept up an annoying fire upon the advancing enemy.
Knyphausen, however, pushed forward toward Chad's Ford. He sent a strong
advance party to dislodge Maxwell. They met at about ten o'clock, and
a severe engagement ensued. Maxwell was driven back to the verge of the
stream at the ford, where he was re-enforced. Turning upon his pursuers,
he made a furious charge. The ranks of the enemy were thrown into
confusion, and fell back upon Knyphausen's main column. Unable to cope
with Maxwell in open battle without bringing a larger force into action,
Knyphausen sent a detachment through the woods to make an attack upon
his flank. Perceiving this movement, Maxwell retreated across the
stream, leaving the whole west bank of the Brandywine in possession of
the enemy.

[Illustration: 0389]

Knyphausen now brought forward his ordnance, and from the brow of the
hill upon the west side of the stream he kept up a strong cannonade upon
the Americans, without attempting to cross. The fire was returned with
spirit by Proctor's artillery. Knyphausen did not cross the Brandywine,
because he was instructed by Howe to amuse the Americans with feigned
efforts to make the passage of the ford, until Cornwallis should cross
above, and gain the right and rear of the patriots. This accomplished,
Knyphausen was directed to push across Chad's Ford, when the two
divisions of the royal army would make a simultaneous attack. During
these maneuvers of Knyphausen, several detachments of the Americans
crossed the river, and boldly attacked his flanking parties and those
who were laboring to throw up intrenchments. Captains Porterfield and
Waggoner having secured a footing on the western side, General Maxwell
recrossed the stream with a considerable force, drove the enemy from the
ground, killed about thirty men, and seized a quantity of intrenching
tools, with which they were constructing a battery. Knyphausen sent an
overwhelming force against them, which soon drove the Americans back to
their lines on the east side of the river.

General Sullivan, who commanded the right wing of the Americans, was
ordered to guard the fords as high up as Buffington's, just above the
forks of the Brandywine. He sent

* The loss of the enemy in this engagement was estimated at about three
hundred; that of the Americans was trifling.

** This view is from the east bank of the Brandywine, looking southwest.
The ford was about ten rods above the present bridge. Its place is
indicated in the picture by the hollow in front of the tree on the
extreme left. The wooded height seen on the opposite side of the river
is the place where Knyphausen's artillery was planted.

[[[Sullivan deceived by conflicting Intelligence.--Washington's
Suspense.--Passage of the Brandywine by the British Army.]]]

{380}scouting parties in various directions to observe the movements of
the enemy. Colonel Moses Hazen * was stationed with a considerable force
at Jones's Ford.

[Illustration: 9390]

Between nine and ten in the morning, Colonel Theodoric Bland, ** with
some light horse, crossed the [[September 11.]] Brandywine at Jones's
Ford, and discovered a portion of Cornwallis's division marching toward
the west branch, at Trimble's Ford. Bland dispatched a messenger to
Sullivan with the information, which was confirmed by another dispatch
from Colonel Ross (dated at "Great Valley road at eleven o'clock"), who
was in the rear of Cornwallis's division, informing Sullivan that "five
thousand men, with sixteen or eighteen field-pieces, were on the march
for Taylor's and Jefferis's Fords."

[Illustration: 8390]

Similar intelligence was sent by Colonel Hazen. These accounts reached
Washington, from Sullivan, between eleven and twelve o'clock. The
commander-in-chief immediately ordered Sullivan to pass the Brandywine
and attack Cornwallis, while he, with the main division, crossed, and
engaged Knyphausen at Chad's Ford. General Greene, of Washington's
division, was ordered to cross the river above the ford and gain
Knyphausen's rear. Before these several movements could be executed,
counter intelligence was received by Sullivan from Major Spear of the
militia, posted upon the forks of the Brandywine, who informed him that
there was no appearance of an enemy in that quarter. Spear's information
was confirmed by Sergeant Tucker, who had been sent out in that
direction expressly to gain information. Relying upon this intelligence,
Sullivan halted. He dispatched a messenger to Washington with the
information, and the meditated attack upon the enemy at Chad's Ford
was abandoned. Greene, who had crossed with his advanced guard, was
recalled.

While Washington was thus kept in suspense by conflicting intelligence,
Cornwallis gained his coveted advantage. He made a circuitous march of
seventeen miles, keeping beyond the American patrols, crossed the west
branch of the Brandywine at Trimble's Ford, and the east branch at
Jefferis's, and gained the heights near the Birmingham meeting-house,
within two miles of Sullivan's right flank, before that general was
certain that Howe and Cornwallis had left Kennet Square! This apparent
want of vigilance on the part of his patrols drew upon Sullivan the
severest censure of the public. Already the failure of an expedition
against British posts on Staten Island, *** under his general command,
had biased public opinion against him; and Congress, wherein Sullivan
had several active enemies, had directed General Washington to appoint a
court to investigate the matter. The dis-

* Moses Hazen was appointed colonel of a second Canadian regiment
in 1775. He commanded at Montreal for a short time. Afterward he was
appointed colonel of a regiment called Congess's Own. He was in the
battles of Germantown and Brandywine. Having charge of prisoners in
Pennsylvania, he was ordered to designate, by lot, a British officer
for retaliation in the ease of Huddy, mentioned on page 366. He died at
Troy, New York, January 30, 1802, aged 69 years.

** Theodoric Bland was a native of Virginia. He was prepared by study
for the medical profession, but abandoned it for the field when the
Revolution commenced. He was among the earliest active opposers of
Dunmore in Virginia. After distinguishing himself as a leader among the
volunteers, he joined the regular army, and soon rose to the rank of
colonel of dragoons. He was a vigilant and energetic officer. In 1779,
he was appointed to the command of the "convention troops" (as those of
Burgoyne's captured army were called), at Charlottesville, in Virginia,
where he continued till the autumn of 1780, when he was elected a
delegate in Congress. He held a seat in that body until the close of the
war. He was then chosen a member of the Legislature of Virginia, and
in that body he opposed the ratification of the Federal Constitution
and was chosen to represent his district in the first Congress
under that instrument. While attending the session in New York, he was
seized with illness, and expired on the 1st of June, 1790, at the age
of forty-eight. Colonel Bland was a soldier, legislator, and poet.
His papers were collected and published a few years since, and are
interesting mementoes of the war.

*** This expedition will be noticed in detail hereafter. I have briefly
referred to it on page 262, in connection with a notice of the political
influence of the Quakers during "the war.

[[[Forming of the Lines for Battle.--Conduct of Deborre.--Commencement
of the Battle.--Skill and Courage of the Belligerents.]]]

{381}asters which occurred on the Brandywine were charged to Sullivan's
want of vigilance, energy, and skill, and he was held responsible for
the defeat of our troops. * Even his honorable acquittal, by a court
martial, subsequently, did not altogether remove from the public mind a
distrust of his ability as a general officer.

When Sullivan was assured, by a note from Colonel Bland, dated at
"quarter past one o'clock," that the enemy were in great force on
Osborne's Hill, a little to the right of the Birmingham meeting-house,
he dispatched a messenger to Washington with the intelligence, ** and
marched immediately to oppose the enemy. His division consisted of his
own, Stirling's, and Stephen's brigades. Upon the gentle slopes near the
Birmingham meeting-house he began to form his line for battle, his left
extending toward the Brandywine. It was an advantageous position, for
both flanks were covered by thick woods; but, in consequence of the
delay in waiting the return of the messenger with orders from the
commander-in-chief, the rough and broken character of the ground, and
the time occupied by Sullivan in making a wide circuit in bringing his
brigade to its assigned place in the line, *** he was not fully prepared
for action when the refreshed and well-formed battalions of the enemy,
under Cornwallis, came sweeping on from Osborne's Hill, **** and
commenced a furious attack. The advanced guard were German troops.
On arriving at the Street road, they were fired upon by a company
of Americans stationed in an orchard north of Samuel Jones's brick
dwelling-house. The Hessians returned the fire, and the action soon
became general. The artillery of both armies opened with terrible
effect; and while the Americans maintained their position, the carnage
was great. The most indomitable courage was displayed, and, for a while,
the result was doubtful. The Americans, many of them unskillful
militia, repelled charge after charge of the well-disciplined infantry,
chasseurs, grenadiers, and guards of the enemy, until overwhelming
numbers obliged them to yield. The right wing of the Americans, under
General Deborre, first gave way, and the left, under Sullivan, soon
followed. The latter officer used every exertion to rally the flying
troops, but in vain. In broken fragments they fled over the fields
toward the main division of the army at Chad's Ford. The center division
(Stirling's brigade), in which was General Conway, with eight hundred
men, yet remained firm as a rock in the midst of the wild ocean of
carnage. To this divi-

* Three days after the battle on the Brandywine (September 14th), Mr.
Burke, a delegate in Congress, made specific charges against Sullivan.
On the strength of these charges, Congress voted that Sullivan should be
recalled from the army till an inquiry should be made into his conduct.
The recall was suspended at the earnest solicitation of Washington,
who knew the falsity of the charges, the worth of Sullivan, and the
immediate wants of the army; there being a lack of general officers,
in consequence of Lincoln, Arnold, and others, having been sent to the
northern army.

** Tradition says that Thomas Cheyney, a resident Whig, gave Washington
the first intelligence of the approach of the enemy. He was alone, on a
spirited mare, reconnoitering, and came suddenly upon the British. They
fired upon him, but he escaped to the quarters of Washington. The
chief doubted the truth of his intelligence at first; but the solemn
assurances of Cheyney that it was correct--an assurance backed by an
oath--made Washington believe him. Sullivan's note soon removed all
doubt. Cheyney was an active spy while the American army was in the
vicinity of the Delaware, and often suffered much from the Tories.

*** A dissension at this time existed respecting the post of honor, on
the extreme right of the line. General Deborre, a French officer who had
lately joined the army, claimed this post, an honor which Sullivan would
not yield. Perceiving his orders disobeyed, and Deborre pertinaciously
insisting upon taking the right, Sullivan made a circuitous march for
the purpose of outreaching him, and was, consequently, late upon
the field. His brigade was not formed for action when the conflict
commenced. Sullivan did not accomplish his purpose, and Deborre obtained
his coveted position on the right. His brigade was the first to give
way in the action. For his conduct on this occasion, and also in the
expedition against Staten Island, Congress voted an inquiry. Deborre
was offended, and resigned his commission. Having made himself very
unpopular in the army, Congress readily accepted his resignation. He
was an officer of thirty-five years' service in Europe, but was totally
unfit to command American troops.

**** Osborne's Hill is an eminence extending eastward from the
Brandywine, and crossing the road from Jefferis's Ford, about a mile
and a quarter above the Birmingham meeting-house. The British, under
Cornwallis, halted and divided on the north side of Osborne's Hill,
between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. It was at this time that
the two armies first discovered each other, and prepared for action.
The British army advanced over and down the south side of the hill
(according to the narrative of Joseph Townsend, an eye-witness), across
the lands of James Carver, now (1848) occupied by his nephew, James
Forsyth.

[[[Effects of the British Artillery.---Retreat of the Americans.--March
of Greene to their Support.--La Fayette wounded.]]]

{382}sion Sullivan now attached himself, and, with Stirling and La
Fayette, engaged personally in the hottest of the battle. To this point
Cornwallis directed his energies. His artillery made dreadful breaches
in their ranks, and strewed the earth with the slain. * Resistance was
vain, and, when hope no longer encouraged the contending patriots of the
center, they, too, wheeled, and joined their comrades in their flight.
Two of Sullivan s aids were killed; and La Fayette, who had leaped from
his horse, and, sword in hand, was endeavoring to rally the yielding
patriots, was wounded in the leg by a musket-ball, and fell. Gimat,
his aid, helped him on a horse, and he escaped. ** Despair seized the
troops, and every effort to rally them was, for a time, vain. They fled
to the woods in the rear, pursued by the victorious enemy. Some of them
were rallied half a mile northward of Dilworth, and a brief encounter
ensued between the fugitives and the pursuing party of the left wing
of the enemy. The conflict was short, and the Americans again fled. The
British right wing got entangled in the woods, and did not participate
in the subsequent engagement, when Greene checked the pursuers.

On receiving intelligence of the approach of the British, Washington,
with Greenes division of Virginians and Pennsylvanians, pushed forward
to the support of Sullivan, leaving General Wayne at Chad's Ford to
oppose the passage of Knyphausen. When the first cannon-peals from the
Birmingham meeting-house broke over the country, Greene pressed forward
to the support of the right wing. His first brigade, under General
Weedon, *** took the lead, and so rapid was their march that they
traveled four miles in forty minutes. *** Between Dilworth and the
meeting-house they met the flying Americans, closely pursued by the
British. Greene, by a skillful movement, opened his ranks and received
the fugitives, then, closing them again, he covered their retreat and
checked the pursuers by a continual

* The place where the hottest of the conflict occurred was between the
Birmingham meeting-house and the present dwellings of Messrs. Hibbert
Davis and Brinton Jones. Many were killed near the meetinghouse; and,
on the^day after the battle, several bodies were found south of the
meeting-house, doubtless slain in the retreat. The meeting-house was
taken possession of by General Howe, and used as an hospital. Several
officers who died there were buried in the grave-yard, on the north
side of the building. A popular tradition asserts that Earl Percy, the
officer who commanded the retreat from Lexington, was killed in
this engagement, and that he had a presentiment of his death on this
occasion. Even the place where he was said to be buried, near the
entrance gate to the grave-yard of the Birmingham meetinghouse, was
pointed out to me. This is not correct. The earl (who was afterward
Duke of Northumberland) left America previous to this battle. He died in
England at the age of ninety-four, on the 10th of July, 1817.

** The bullet passed quite through his leg. He met a surgeon in the
rear, who put a slight bandage around his leg, and he rode to Chester.
The soldiers were retreating, in a straggling manner, in that direction;
and La Fayette placed a guard near the bridge, at the entrance of the
village, with orders to stop all the retreating soldiers at that place.
His wound was then dressed, and the next morning he was conveyed to
Philadelphia, from whence, after a few days, he proceeded to Bristol.
When Henry Laurens was on his way to York, he took the route through
Bristol, and conveyed La Fayette in his carriage to Bethlehem, where he
received the kind attentions of the Moravians. There he remained about
two months, till his wound was sufficiently healed to enable him to join
the army. Laurens's kindness was long remembered. When, subsequently, he
became a prisoner in the Tower of London, the Marchioness De La Fayette
wrote a touching letter in his behalf to the Count De Vergennes,
soliciting the aid of the French court in procuring the release of
Laurens.--Sparks's Washington, v., 456.

*** George Weedon was a native of Virginia, and was an inn-keeper at
Fredericksburg before the war. * We find his name first connected with
military affairs, in a letter to Colonel Washington, in April, 1775,
informing him that the Independent Company of Fredericksburg were
determined, with his approbation, to march to Williamsburg, on account
of the removal of powder from the magazine by order of Governor
Dunmore. This letter was signed by himself, Hugh Mercer, Alexander
Spottswood, and John Willis. He joined the Continental army in the
course of the "summer, and in February, 1777, he received from Congress
a commission as brigadier. He was in the battles at Brandywine and
Germantown. In consequence of some dissatisfaction about rank, he left
the service while the army was at Valley Forge. He resumed the command
of a brigade in 1780, and commanded the Virginia militia at Gloucester,
during the siege of Yorktown, in October, 1781. From that time he was
not engaged in active service in the field. I have met with no account
of his subsequent career and death.

**** Gordon, ii, 225.

*Dr. J. F. D. Smyth, an English traveler in America, in giving an
account of Fredericksburg, says, "I put up at the inn kept by one
Weedon, who was afterward a general officer in the American army, and
was then very active and zealous in blowing the flames of sedition."

[[[The British checked by Greene.--Knyphausen preparing to cross the
Brandywine.--General Muhlenberg.]]]

{383}fire of artillery. At a narrow defile about a mile from the
meeting-house, in the direction of Chester, flanked on each side by
woods, he changed his front, faced the enemy, and kept them at bay while
the retreating party rested and formed in his rear.

[Illustration: 9393]

Greene defended this pass with great skill and bravery until twilight,
when the pursuers encamped for the night. In this defense the brigades
of Weed-on and Muhlenberg were greatly distinguished, particularly
the tenth Virginia regiment, under Colonel Stevens, and a Pennsylvania
regiment, under Colonel Stewart.

We have observed that the plan of the enemy was to attack the Americans
front and rear at the same time, by Cornwallis gaining the right flank
of the patriots, and Knyphausen crossing the Brandywine at Chad's Ford.
The firing of heavy guns on the American right was to be the signal for
the German general to ford the stream. When the firing commenced at the
Birmingham meeting-house, Knyphausen observed the departure of Greene's
division, and the consequent weakening of the defense of the passage of
the river. He immediately made a proper disposition of his troops for
crossing. Wayne was on the alert, and, the moment Knyphausen's forces
moved forward, he

* John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born in the village of Trappe,
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of October, 1746. He was
the son of Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, D.D., the founder of the Lutheran
Church in America; and his mother was the daughter of Conrad Weiser, a
celebrated officer and Indian agent in Pennsylvania. Peter, his eldest
born, was dedicated in infancy to the Church, and he was educated
for the ministry, partly in this country and partly in Europe. He was
ordained a minister in 1768, and commenced his labors in Western New
Jersey the following year. He was married to Anna Barbara Meyer in 1770.
In order to take charge of a congregation in Virginia, to which he had
been called, he went to London in 1772, to receive ordination from an
English bishop. Mr. White (afterward Bishop White, of Pennsylvania)
was ordained at the same time (the 23d of April, 1772) by the Bishop of
London. In his journal Mr. Muhlenberg states that, before their return
to America, he and Mr. White attended the theater to see the performance
of Garrick, then in the height of his career as an actor. Returning to
America, he assumed ministerial duties at Woodstock, in Virginia,
where he soon became a leading spirit among those who opposed British
oppression. In 1774, he was chairman of the committee of safety in his
county, and was also elected a member of the House of Burgesses. At the
close of 1775, he was elected colonel of a Virginia regiment, and laid
aside his pastoral character. In concluding his farewell sermon, he
said, that, in the language of Holy Writ, "there was a time for all
things; a time to preach, and a time to pray, but those times had passed
away;" and then, in a voice that echoed like a trumpet-blast through the
church, he said, "that there was a time to fight, and that time had now
come!" Then, laying aside his sacerdotal gown, he stood before his flock
in the full regimental dress of a Virginia colonel. He ordered the drums
to be beaten at the church door for recruits; and almost his entire
male audience capable of bearing arms joined his standard. Nearly three
hundred men enlisted under his banner on that day. He was in the battle
at Charleston in 1776, and served with fidelity in the Southern campaign
that year. Congress promoted him to the rank of brigadier general in
February, 1777, and he was ordered to take charge of all the Continental
troops of the Virginia line in that state. He joined the army under
Washington, at Middlebrook, in May following, and was with the chief in
all his movements until 1779, including the battles of Brandywine and
Germantown, the sufferings at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge, the conflict
on the plains of Monmouth, and the capture of Stony Point. At the close
of that year he was directed to take command of the troops in Virginia,
where he was very active until the attack of Cornwallis at Yorktown. In
that battle and victory General Muhlenberg participated. At the close
of the war, he was elevated to the rank of major general. He removed to
Pennsylvania, and in various civil capacities served that state. He was
a member of the third Federal Congress, and in 1801 was elected a
United States senator. The same year he was appointed supervisor of the
internal revenue of Pennsylvania, and in 1802 was made collector of the
port of Philadelphia. He remained in that office until his death, which
occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, on the 1st of October
(his birth-day), 1807, at the age of sixty-one years. His grave is near
the village church where he was baptized, and a simple monument bears
this inscription: "Sacred to the memory of General Peter Muhlenberg,
born October 1st, 1746; died October 1st, 1807. He was brave in the
field, faithful in the cabinet, honorable in all his transactions, a
sincere friend, and an honest man." The portrait here given is copied,
by permission of the author, from an engraving in the Life of Peter
Muhlenberg, by his grandson, Henry A. Muhlenberg, Esq., from which I
compiled this brief memoir.

[[[Passage of the Brandywine by Knyphausen.--Bravery of Wayne.--General
Retreat of the Americans.--Result of the Battle.]]]

{384}opened upon him a heavy fire of artillery from his intrenchments
and the battery near Chad's house. Although in no condition to oppose
nearly one half of the British army, he stood firm at first, and
gallantly confronted the heavy and steadily progressing columns. But,
on receiving intelligence of the defeat of Sullivan at Birmingham
meeting-house, and discovering that a considerable force of the enemy,
who had penetrated the woods, were coming out upon his flank, Wayne
ordered a retreat. This was accomplished in great disorder, leaving
his artillery and munitions of war in the hands of Knyphausen. They
retreated, in broken columns and confused fragments, behind the division
of General Greene, then gallantly defending the pass near Dilworth, and
joined the other defeated troops. The approach of night ended the whole
conflict. The Americans retreated to Chester that night, where they
rendezvoused, and the next day marched toward Philadelphia, and encamped
near Germantown. General Armstrong, who was stationed at Pyles's Ford,
had no opportunity to engage in the action. The British remained upon
the field, near Dilworth, Howe taking up his quarters at Gilpin's, a few
miles from Chad's Ford. *

Military men, when considering the battle of Brandywine, have questioned
the judgment of Washington in incurring the great risk incident to a
disparity in numbers and discipline. The numbers engaged in the action
have never been accurately ascertained. The British effective force,
on the day of the battle, was probably not less than seventeen thousand
men, while that of the Americans did not exceed eleven thousand, and
many of these were raw militia. Washington was aware of the expectations
of Congress and the whole country, and wisely considered that a defeat
in battle would be less depressing upon the minds of the soldiers and
the people, than permitting the enemy to march, without opposition, to
the capture of Philadelphia, then the political metropolis of America.
Influenced by these considerations, he resolved to fight the enemy;
and had not conflicting intelligence perplexed and thwarted him in his
plans, it is probable that victory would have crowned the American army.
The result was disastrous, and many noble patriots slept their last
sleep upon the battle-field that night. **

* In M. Hilliard d'Auberteuil's work, in French, published in 1782,
entitled "Essais Historiques et Politique sur la Revolution de
l'Amérique Septentrionale," there is a touching story of a seene which
occurred near the Brandywine, after the battle. It is in substance as
follows: A beautiful girl, named Molly Harvey, loved a young patriot
soldier by the name of Seymour. Her father was wealthy; the young man
was poor. They were not allowed to marry; and young Seymour, determined
to distinguish himself, went to South Carolina, and was in the severe
battle at Sullivan's Island. He afterward joined the army under
Washington, and commanded a company in the battle on the Brandywine.
After the battle he obtained leave of absence for three days, and
repaired to the house of Harvey, near by. The parents consented to the
marriage, and the nuptials were celebrated. The friends of the parties
were assembled under the trees, enjoying the festivity, when two
soldiers from the British army approached, and attempted to make Seymour
their prisoner. A contest ensued, in which the bride was killed by
a bayonet-thrust. The day of her marriage was the day of her death.
Accompanying the story is a beautiful engraving, representing the
sad spectacle. The number of the killed and wounded in the several
engagements on the 11th is not known. Washington was unable to make a
return of the American loss on account of the confusion which followed
the defeat, many of the militia companies being thinned by desertion;
and Howe's estimates were only conjectural. General Greene estimated the
loss of the Americans in killed, wounded, and prisoners, at about 1200;
that of the royal army nearly 800. Howe reported his loss at 90 killed,
488 wounded, and six missing. He also stated the loss of the Americans
at 300 killed, 600 wounded, and 400 taken prisoners; about the number
estimated by Greene. The Americans also lost ten small field-pieces, and
a howitzer. Many French officers were engaged in the action. The Baron
De St. Quary, serving as a volunteer, was taken prisoner. Captain Louis
de Fleury, the hero of Stony Point, had a horse killed under him. His
bravery commanded the admiration of Washington. Two days after the
battle, Congress ordered another horse to be presented to De Fleury. The
day after the battle, Howe wrote to Washington, informing him that the
wounded Americans were so numerous that his surgeons could not attend
to them, and offering to receive any surgeons the American chief might
send. Doctors Rush, Leiper, Latimer, and Willet, with their attendants,
were sent back to take care of them.

[[[Washington again made Dictator.--Attempt to attack the British
Army.--Du Coudray.--Patriotism of the Israels.]]]

{385}Congress was not dismayed by the disaster on the Brandywine, but
were nerved to new exertions. They resolved to exert their whole
power in strengthening the army in the vicinity, and for that purpose
Washington was directed to order fifteen hundred troops of Putnam's
division, on the Hudson, to march immediately to the Delaware, while the
militia of Pennsylvania and the adjoining states were summoned to join
the army. Anticipating the necessity of leaving Philadelphia, and,
perhaps, of a temporary speedy dissolution, Congress voted to enlarge
the powers of Washington, and he was partially reinvested with the
dictatorial character, first conferred upon him before the attack on
the enemy at Trenton in 1776. * Nor was Washington himself dispirited.
Allowing his troops one day for rest and refreshments at Germantown, he
recrossed the Schuylkill, ** for the purpose of [[September 15, 1777]]
giving the enemy battle even upon the field of his late defeat, if his
camp yet remained there. He took the Lancaster road, and the next day
met the enemy not far from the Warren tavern, about twenty miles from
Philadelphia. Howe had left his encampment near the Brandywine, and was
on his way to Goshen (West Chester)[[September 16]] when he heard of the
approach of the Americans. *** By a quick maneuver, he gained

* The following is a copy of the resolution: "Resolved, That General
Washington be authorized and directed to suspend all officers who
misbehave, and to fill up all vacancies in the American army under
the rank of brigadiers, until the pleasure of Congress shall be
communicated; to take, wherever he may be, all such provisions and other
articles as may be necessary for the comfortable subsistence of the army
under his command, paying or giving certificates for the same; to remove
and secure, for the benefit of the owners, all goods and effects which
may be serviceable to the enemy; provided that the powers hereby vested
shall be exercised only in such parts of these States as may be within
the circumference of seventy miles of the head-quarters of the American
army, and shall continue in force for the space of sixty days, unless
sooner revoked by Congress."--Journals, iii., 318. The last clause was
important, for there were a great number of disaffected persons who
preferred to have their property fall into the hands ot the enemy, to
contribute to their support.

[Illustration: 9395]

** Monsieur Du Coudray, a French officer, who had just obtained
permission to join the army as a volunteer, set off with a party of
French gentlemen to overtake Washington. Du Coudray rode a young and
spirited mare. As he entered upon a flat-bottomed boat to cross the
Schuylkill, she went out to the extreme end, and into the river,
with her rider on her back. Du Coudray was drowned. Congress ordered
(September 17) his corpse to be interred at the expense of the United
States, and with the honors of war.

*** The evening after the battle, a party of British were sent to
Wilmington to seize Governor M'Kinley, and secure such plunder as might
fall in their way. They took the governor from his bed, and, seizing a
shallop, which was lying in the stream, laden with the valuable effects
of the people, together with the public records of the county, a large
quantity of public and private money, all the papers and certificates
belonging to the loan and treasury offices there, with plate and jewels,
returned to the camp. The whole country was in a state of terror; and
while the victorious Britons were on their march toward Philadelphia,
all lower Pennsylvania and Delaware were eminent for the loyalty of
their inhabitants. There were, however, noble exceptions. The patriotism
of the Israels, and the bold heroism of Hannah Irwin Israel, will never
be forgotten. Israil Israel, her husband, was a member of the committee
of safety, and of course a marked man. Betrayed by his Tory neighbors,
he and his wife's brother were made prisoners, and taken on board the
Roebuck frigate, lying in the Delaware, in sight of his house, for
trial. He was treated harshly; his bed was a coil of ropes on deck; his
food of the meanest kind. It was reported that he had declared that he
would sooner drive his cattle as a present to General Washington, than
to receive thousands of dollars in British gold for them. On being
informed of this, the British commander ordered a detachment of soldiers
to go to his meadows, in full view, and seize and slaughter his cattle
then feeding there. His young wife (only nineteen years of age) saw her
husband and brother taken to the frigate, and she also saw the movement
of the plunderers. She guessed their purpose when she saw the soldiers
land. With a boy eight years old, she hastened to the meadow, cast down
the bars, and began driving out the cattle. The soldiers told her to
desist, and threatened to shoot her. "Fire away!" cried the heroic
woman. They fired, and the balls flew thickly but harmlessly around her.
The shield of God's providence was over her, and, though the cowardly
soldiers fired several shots, not one grazed her. The cattle were all
saved, and the discomfited marauders returned to the frigate. The
trial of Israel took place. A kind-hearted sailor asked him if he was
a Free-mason. He answered in the affirmative, and was informed that a
Lodge was to be held on board the vessel that night, the officers being
Masons. The trial ended, and the life of Israel was in jeopardy. He made
a manly defense before the court, and, when opportunity offered, he gave
a sign of the brotherhood. It was recognized; the haughty bearing of the
officers was changed to kindness; the Tory witnesses were reprimanded
for seeking the harm of an honorable man; presents were prepared for his
heroic wife; and himself and brother were sent on shore In a
splendid barge, and set at liberty. The records of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania bear testimony that Mr. Israel (who was many years Grand
Master) was saved from an ignominious death by the use of masonic
signs.--See Mrs. Ellett's Women of the Revolution, i., 155.

[[[Battle prevented.--March of the Americans toward
Germantown.--Localities near the Brandywine.]]]

{386}the high ground near the White Horse tavern with a part of his
army, and turned the right flank of the Americans, while the main body
advanced toward the left. Skirmishing commenced between the advanced
guards of the two armies, and a general battle appeared about to ensue,
when a terrible storm of rain (already noticed on page 315), accompanied
by heavy thunder, broke upon the belligerents, and so injured their
ammunition that they were obliged to defer the battle. Washington found
his loss of ammunition to be so great, that prudence forbade a present
engagement with the enemy. He accordingly withdrew his army, and filed
off toward Reading. Wayne, in the mean while, was hanging upon the rear
of the enemy, and suffered the defeat at Paoli. Washington retired to
Yellow Springs and Warwick, among the range of mountains which extend to
Valley Forge, and passed the Schuylkill at Parker's Ford. The subsequent
movements of the two armies--the battles of Germantown, Red Bank,
and Fort Mifflin; the encampment at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge; the
evacuation of Philadelphia by the enemy the following spring, and the
battle of Monmouth which ensued, have been noticed in the preceding
chapter.

We will now close the chronicle, finish the sketch of the Birmingham
meeting-house, printed on page 375, and, leaving the venerated fane with
its interesting associations, ride to Dilworth to dine.

About half-way between the meeting-house and Dilworth, and one hundred
rods westward of the road, in a field belonging to Mr. Bennet, is the
place where La Fayette was wounded.

[Illustration: 9396]

The ground is very undulating; in fact, the whole scene of the battle of
Brandywine is a broken but very fertile country, highly cultivated, and
remarkable for the good character of its inhabitants. They were chiefly
Quakers during the Revolution; and their descendants, professing the same
faith and discipline, own a large portion of the land at present.

From Dilworth we proceeded toward Chad's Ford, by the way of Brinton's
Mills. Upon the brow of an eminence near the mills, and overlooking the
Brandywine, the old Brinton mansion (16 on the map) was yet standing, a
gray and moss-grown relic of the war. In the gable toward the river is
a hole made by the passage of a cannon-ball, fired from Knyphausen's
batteries on the west side of the Brandywine. About a mile below it,
upon a road running parallel with the river, is Chad's house, a small
stone building, and another relic of the Revolution. It is upon a slope
on the east side of the road. The sketch here given was made from the
highway, looking northeast. Upon a loftier knoll, a few rods south of
Chad's, is the place where Wayne stationed Proctor with his artillery.
It was an eligible point for commanding the passage of the ford.

Turning eastward from the road leading to the bridge over the Brandywine
at the ford, I visited the head-quarters of Washington (22 on the map),
delineated on the opposite page, then the residence of Benjamin Ring,
now the dwelling of Joseph P. Harvey. It is somewhat modernized, but its
general aspect is the same as when the patriot chief occupied it. Mr.
Harvey gave me a grape-shot which was plowed up on his farm a few weeks
before. Hundreds of pounds of cannon-balls have been


[[[The Quarters of Washington and Howe.--Kennet Square.--A Storm.--New
London and Elkton.]]]

{387}found in the vicinity of Chad's Ford, and are now preserved by
relie-seekers. From Washington's temporary residence I rode to the
reputed quarters of La Fayette (21), situated a little more than a mile
east of Chad's Ford; and thence, up the New Road, to George Gilpin's,
the quarters of Howe after the battle.

[Illustration: 9397]

From the field where Mr. Gilpin and his sons were at work, I made the
sketch printed on page 378, and there parting company with Mr. Townsend,
my cicerone over the battleground of the Brandywine, I turned my face
toward Kennet Square, with my back to the keen northeast wind. It
was nearly four o'clock when I reached Chad's Ford. The clouds were
deepening, and every aspect of nature was dreary. I alighted, tied my
horse to a bar-post, and, shivering with cold, stood upon the bank of
the congealing stream, and sketched the picture on page 379--giving it
the effects of sunlight and foliage as in pleasant summer time, after a
warm supper at Kennet Square. The shadows of evening were coming on when
I crossed the Brandywine, and it was too dark to see objects clearly
when I passed the old Kennet meeting-house and Welsh's tavern, places
of historic interest upon the highway. I arrived at Kennet Square,
seven miles west of the Brandywine, at about half-past five o'clock, and
passed the night at Wiley's tavern, a venerable edifice, in which Howe
had his quarters while his army was encamped in the vicinity.

I arose at daybreak, in anticipation of beholding a furious snow-storm,
for the wind roared in the spacious chimneys, and the neighboring
shutters and sign-boards were beating a tattoo. But the wind had changed
to the southeast, and, though blowing with the fury of a December
tempest, it was as warm as the breath of early spring. I breakfasted
early, and departed for Elkton, twenty-four miles distant, with a
prospect of receiving a drenching, for scuds, dark and billowy, came up
from the ocean upon the wings of the gale like a flock of monster birds.
I had just passed the "Hammer and Trowel" inn, a few miles from Kennet,
when a thick mist came sweeping over the hills in the van of a tempest
of wind and rain. For more than an hour, it seemed as if the "windows of
heaven were opened," and that Æolus and Jupiter Pluvius were joined
in merry-making upon the earth. The huge leafless oaks in the forests
swayed to and fro like the masts and spars of tempest-tossed navies; and
a thousand turbid streamlets poured from the hill-sides, and made rivers
of the gentle water-courses in the vales. Twice, while passing over
a lofty hill, I felt my wagon lifted from the ground by the wind, its
spacious cover acting like a parachute. The storm ceased as suddenly
as it arose, and, when I reached New London (a village of some twenty
houses), about ten miles from Kennet Square, the clouds broke, and the
winds were hushed. A brilliant, mild afternoon made the ride from
New London to Elkton a delightful one, and fully compensated for the
suffering of the morning. The country is hilly, until within a few miles
of the head of the Elk, when it becomes flat, and marshy, and penetrated
by deep estuaries of the bay and river.

Elkton (the "Head of Elk" of the Revolution) is an old town, the capital
of Cecil county, in Maryland. It is situated at the junction of the two
branches of the Elk River, the upper portion of Chesapeake Bay, and
at the head of tide-water. The rail-way from Philadelphia to Baltimore
passes within half a mile of the town. Here the British made their first
halt, after leaving the place of debarkation at Turkey Point, twelve
miles below; and Elkton may be considered the dividing point, in the
military operations of the Revolution, between the North and South. The
accompanying map, divided by the Delaware River, with New

[[[Scene of Military Operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.--An
Evening on the Chesapeake.--Baltimore.]]]

{388}Jersey on the right and Pennsylvania on the left, is introduced
to exhibit the relative position of the principal places in those two
states, from Amboy to Elkton, mentioned in preceding pages, and made
memorable by military events.

[Illustration: 0398]

My tarry at Elkton was brief. While Charley (my horse) was "taking a
bite" at an inn stable, I made inquiry of the post-master and other
citizens, concerning vestiges of the Revolution, and ascertained that
nothing was visible in the neighborhood of Elkton except the water, and
the fields, and the hills on which Howe encamped, some two miles from
the town. The place of the debarkation of the British was Turkey Point,
a cape formed by the junction of the Elk River and the broad mouth of
the Susquehanna, twelve miles below the village. Informed that the enemy
cast up no intrenchments, and, consequently, left no tangible marks of
their presence there, and assured that a fine view of the Point might be
obtained from the steam-boat, when going down the Chesapeake, I resolved
to be satisfied with a distant observation. I accordingly rode to
Frenchtown, three miles below Elkton, whence the boats connecting with
the Delaware and Chesapeake rail-way depart for Baltimore; "took tea"
with a widow lady, residing in a fine brick dwelling on the bank of
the river, and, just before sunset, embarked. Charley was restive when
walking the plank, but, using all the philosophy he possessed, he soon
decided that the hubbub in the steam-pipe was harmless, and his footing
on deck secure. These problems settled, he seemed to enjoy the evening
voyage quite as much as the bipeds around him. It was, indeed, a
glorious evening. When the _George Washington_ cast off her moorings,
the last gleams of the evening sun gilded the hills of Delaware, and,
while passing Turkey Point, the scene was truly gorgeous. The tall trees
of the cape were sharply penciled upon a back-ground of blended ruby,
orange, gold, purple, and azure, glowing like opal, and spreading over
many degrees of the western horizon; while above, far up in the dark
blue, was the crescent moon, with Jupiter in her lap, beaming so
brightly that he cast a line of silver light upon the calm waters of the
bay. Both had gone down behind the hills when we passed North Point *
light-house, and entered the Patapsco. We arrived

* North Point, at the entrance of the Patapsco, was the scene of a
sanguinary battle between the Americans, under General Striker, and
the British, under General Ross, in September, 1814. The Americans were
defeated, and the British lost their commander-in-chief. In 1815, the
citizens of Baltimore erected a monument on the corner of Calvert
and Fayette Streets, in memory of those Americans who fell in that
engagement, and also during the bombardment of Fort M'Henry, the next
day. This monument was planned by Maximilian Godefroy, and erected under
his supervision. It is entirely of pure white marble, and rests upon a
square plinth, or terrace, of the same material, forty feet square,
and four feet in height. From this platform rises a square Egyptian
basement, entirely rusticated, to indicate strength. It is composed of
eighteen layers of stone, to signify the number of states which formed
the confederacy at the time of the battle thus commemorated. This
basement is surmounted by a cornice, each of the four angles of which
bears an elegantly executed griffin. A winged globe adorns each center
of the Egyptian cornice, symbolical of eternity and the flight of time.
On each of the four fronts of the basement is a false door, like those
of ancient cenotaphs. Three steps ascend to these doors, and indicate
the three years' duration of the war. The shaft represents an enormous
fasces, symbolical of union, the rods of which are bound with fillets.
Upon these fillets, inscribed in letters of bronze, are the names of
those who fell in defense of the city of Baltimore. Around the top
of the fasces are two wreaths; one of laurel, the other of cypress,
indieating glory and grief. Between these wreaths are the names of the
officers who were killed, inscribed in bronze letters. The fasces is
ornamented with two epic sculptures, in low relief; one representing the
battle at North Point, the other a battery of Fort M'Henry. On the east
and west fronts are lachrymal urns, emblematic of regret and sorrow.
Beneath the epic sculptures are inscriptions, as follows: North
side.--"Battle of North Point, 12th September, A.D. 1814; and of
the independence of the United States, the thirty-ninth." South
side.--"Bombardment of Fort M'Henry, 13th September, A.D. 1814; and of
the independence of the United States, the thirty-ninth."

* The basement and fasces form, together, thirty-nine feet. Upon the
top is a beautifully-wrought colossal statue. It is a female figure,
intended to personify the city of Baltimore. Upon her head is a mural
crown, emblematic of cities; in one hand she holds an antique rudder,
symbolic of navigation, and in the other she raises a crown of laurel,
as with a graceful inclination of the head she looks toward the fort and
battle-ground. At her feet, on one side, is the American eagle; on the
other, a bomb-shell. The height of the monument, including the statue,
is fifty-two feet, two inches.

* The following are the names of the slain, inscribed upon the monument:

Officers.--James Lowry Donaldson, adjutant 21th reg.; Gregorius Andree,
lieut. 1st rifle battalion; Levi Claggett, 3d lieut., Nicholson's
artillery. Non-commissioned Officers and Privates.--John Clemm, T. V.
Beaston, S. Haubert, John Jephson, T. Wallace, J. H. Marriot of John, E.
Marriot, Wm. Ways, J. Armstrong, J. Richardson, Benjamin Pond, Clement
Cox, Cecelius Belt, John Garrett, H. G. M'Comes, Wm. M'Clellan, John C.
Bird, M. Desk, Danl. Wells, Jr., John R. Cop, Benjn. Neal, C. Reynolds,
D. Howard, Uriah 'Prosser, A. Randall, R. R. Cooksey, J. Gregg, J.
Evans, A. Maas, G. Jenkins, W. Alexander, C. Fallier, T. Burniston, J.
Dunn, P. Byard, J. Craig

[[[Battle Monument at Baltimore.]]]

{389}at Baltimore, sixty-eight miles from Elkton, at ten o'clock. The
city was in a tumult. A destructive fire was raging; and the grand
diapason of the trumpet shouts of the firemen and the clangor of bells
met us upon the waters, almost as far distant as the lurid glare of the
flames.

````"Oh the bells, bells, bells,

````What a tale their terror tells

`````Of despair!

````How they clang, and clash, and roar!

````What a horror they outpour

`````On the bosom of the palpitating air!

````In the startled ear of night

````How they scream out their affright!

````Too much horrified to speak,

````They can only shriek, shriek,

`````Out of tune,

````In a clamorous appeal to the mercy of the fire."

`````Edgar A. Poe.=

I had traveled since dawn, by land and water, in rain and sunshine, full
ninety miles; and it was a pleasant thought that to-morrow would be the
Sabbath--a day of rest.

[[[Baltimore and its Associations.--Washington's Monument.]]]

{390}




CHAPTER XV.


````"Hear the holy Sabbath bells,

`````Sacred bells!

````Oh what a world of peaceful rest

`````Their melody protests!

````How sweetly at the dawning

````Of a pleasant Sabbath morning,

`````Sounds the rhyming,

`````And the chiming

`````Of the bells!"--H. S. Nolen.=

[Illustration: 9400]

UNDAY was as mild and bright in Baltimore as a Sabbath in May, although
it was the 3d of December. That city has no old churches hallowed by the
presence of the patriots of the Revolution.

Annapolis was the only city in Maryland, except little St. Mary's, on
its western border, when the battles for independence were fought; and
"Baltimore towne," though laid out as early as 1729, contained, in 1776,
less than one hundred houses.

[Illustration: 8400]

It is a city of the present; and yet, in extent, commerce, and
population, it is the third city of the republic, numbering now about
one hundred and sixty-five thousand inhabitants. *

I passed half an hour in the Roman Catholic cathedral during the matin
services. Toward noon I listened to a persuasive sermon from the lips
of Doctor Johns, of Christ Church (brother of the Virginia bishop),
predicated upon the words of Moses to Hobah; ** employed the remainder
of the day in reading; and, early on Monday morning, started out, with
port-folio and pencil, to visit the celebrities of the city.

The noble monument erected by the State of Maryland in honor of
Washington is the object of first and greatest attraction to visitors.
It stands in the center of a small square, at the intersection of
Monument and Charles Streets, in the fashionable quarter of the city,
one hundred and fifty feet above tide-water. It is composed of a base of
white marble, fifty feet square, and twenty feet in height, with a
Doric column, one hundred and sixty feet in height, and twenty feet in
diameter at the base, gradually tapering upward to a handsomely-formed
capital.

* The census for 1850, which shows this result, also exhibits a case of
remarkable longevity in Baltimore. Sukey Wright, a colored woman,
whose age is well certified, was then 120 years old. She had a child
twenty-five years of age when the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775.

** "We are journeying toward the land of which the Lord said, I will
give it you, and we will do thee good."--Numbers, x., 29.

*** The following are the inscriptions on the monument: East front.--"To
George Washington, by the State of Maryland. Born 22d February, 1732.
Died 14th December, 1799." South front.--u To George Washington,
President of the United States, 4th March, 1789. Returned to Mount
Vernon, 4th March, 1797." West front.--"To George Washington. Trenton,
25th December, 1776. Yorktown, 19th October, 1781." North front.--"To
George Washington. Commander-in-chief of the American armies, 15th June,
1775. Commission resigned at Annapolis, 23d December, 1783."

[[[Maryland Historical Society.--Pulaski's Banner.--Moravian Nuns at
Bethlehem.]]]

{391}Upon the top is a statue of Washington, by Causici, sixteen feet
in height, which is reached by a winding stair-way on the interior. It
represents the chief in the act of resigning his commission. The statue
cost nine thousand dollars. The ground on which the monument stands was
given for the purpose by John Eager Howard, the "hero of the Cowpens."
The corner stone of the monument was laid on the 4th of July, 1815,
with imposing ceremonies. This view is from Monument Street, looking
northeast. The Battle Monument, near Barnum's Hotel, erected to the
memory of those who fell in defense of Baltimore in 1814, is beautiful
and chaste in design and execution, and is an ornament to the city. It
cost about sixty thousand dollars. A description of this structure, and
copies of the inscriptions upon it, are given in a note on page 388.

After sketching these mementoes, I visited the rooms of the Maryland
Historical Society, bearing a letter of introduction to its president,
General Smith, a son of Colonel Samuel Smith, the hero of Fort Mifflin,
portrayed on page 296. To that gentleman, and to President N. C. Brooks,
of the Baltimore Female College, I am indebted for kind attentions and
local information. The Historical Society is young, but vigorous and
flourishing Its collection contains but few relics of the Revolution
worthy of special notice. There is an old painting representing
Yorktown, in Virginia, in 1781, and also a portrait of Governor John
Eager Howard, a copy of which will be found in another part of this
work. One of the most interesting relics which I saw during my tour is
carefully preserved in. the library of the society--the crimson banner
of the Count Pulaski, beautifully wrought by the Moravian sisters, at
Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. Count Pulaski (whose portrait and biography
will be hereafter given) was appointed a brigadier in the Continental
army on the 15th of September, 1777, just after the battle on the
Brandywine, in which he participated, and was honored with the command
of the cavalry. He resigned this honor within a few months, and
asked and obtained permission from Congress to raise and command an
independent corps, to consist of sixty-eight horse and two hundred foot.
The mode [[March 28, 1778]] of raising these was left to the direction
of General Washington. * This corps was chiefly raised, and fully
organized in Baltimore in 1778. Pulaski visited La Fayette while that
wounded officer was a recipient of the pious care and hospitality of the
Moravians at Bethlehem. His presence, and eventful history, made a deep
impression upon the minds of that community. When it was known that the
brave Pole was organizing a corps of cavalry in Baltimore, the _nuns,_*
* or _single women_ of Bethlehem, prepared a banner of crimson

* Journals of Congress, iv., 127.

** The word nun, as applied to the single sisters of the Moravian sect,
has a different meaning than when applied to the recluses of the Roman
Catholic Church. De Chastellux, who visited Bethlehem in 1782, says of
the community: "Their police, or discipline, is of the monastic kind,
since they recommend celibacy, but without enjoining it, and keep the
women separate from the men. There is a particular house, also, for
the widows, which I did not visit. The two sexes being thus habitually
separated, none of those familiar connections exist between them which
lead to marriage; nay, it is even contrary to the spirit of the sect
to marry from inclination. If a young man finds himself sufficiently
at ease to keep house for himself, and maintain a wife and children,
he presents himself to the commissary, and asks for a girl, who, after
consulting with the superintendent of the women, proposes one to him,
which he may, in fact, refuse to accept; but it is contrary to custom to
choose a wife for himself. Accordingly, the Moravian colonies have not
multiplied in any proportion to the other American colonies. That at
Bethlehem is composed of about six hundred persons, more than half of
whom live in a state of celibacy." De Chastellux visited the "house for
single women," a spacious stone edifice, provided with well-heated rooms
for working in, and a large vaulted chamber, well ventilated, where all
the girls slept in single beds. He refers to their skill in embroidery.
His whole account of his visit is an interesting picture of the simple
habits of the Moravians. He says they "have no bishops, being governed
by synods." They have had bishops from the beginning, but their office
allows them no elevation of rank or pre-eminent authority; and the
communities are, indeed, governed by councils, or synods, composed of
deputies from the different congregations, who meet in conference once
in seven years. There are two bishops in the United States at present.
The principal Moravian establishments are at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania,
and Salem, in North Carolina. Their marriage and other customs have
materially changed within the last thirty years. Anburey and the
Baroness Riedesel were also in Bethlehem, and speak in the highest terms
of the Moravians.

[[[Hymn of the Moravian Nuns.--Patriotism in Baltimore.--Committees of
Correspondence and Observation.]]]

{392}silk, with designs beautifully wrought with the needle by their own
hands, and sent it to Pulaski, with their blessing. The memory of this
event is embalmed in verse by Longfellow, in the following beautiful
"Hymn of the Moravian Nuns at the Consecration of Pulaski's Banner."=


```"When the dying flame of day

```Through the chancel shot its ray,

```Far the glimmering tapers shed

```Faint light on the cowled head,

```And the censer burning swung,

```When before the altar hung

```That proud banner, which, with pray'r,

```Had been consecrated there;

```And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,

```Sung low in the dim mysterious aisle.=


```"' Take thy banner. May it wave

```Proudly o'er the good and brave,

```When the battle's distant wail

```Breaks the Sabbath of our vale;

```When the clarion's music thrills

```To the hearts of these lone hills;

```When the spear in conflict, shakes,

```And the strong lanee, shivering, breaks.=


```"' Take thy banner; and, beneath

```The war-cloud's encircling wreath,

```Guard it--till our homes are free--

```Guard it--God will prosper thee!

```In the dark and trying hour,

```In the breaking forth of pow'r,

```In the rush of steeds and men,

```His right hand will shield thee then.=


```"' Take thy banner. But, when night

```Closes round the ghastly fight,

```If the vanquish'd warrior bow,

```Spare him--by our holy vow;

```By our prayers and many tears;

```By the merey that endears;

```Spare him--he our love hath shared;

```Spare him--as thou wouldst be spared.=


```"'Take thy banner; and, if e'er

```Thou should'st press the soldier's bier,

```And the muffled drum should beat

```To the tread of mournful feet,

```Then this crimson flag shall be

```Martial cloak and shroud for thee.'

```And the warrior took that banner proud,

```And it was his martial cloak and shroud."=

Pulaski received the banner with grateful acknowledgments, and bore it
gallantly through many a martial scene, until he fell in conflict
at Savannah in the autumn of 1779. His banner was saved by his first
lieutenant (who received fourteen wounds), and delivered to Captain
Bentalon, who, on retiring from the army, took the banner home with him
to Baltimore. *

When oppression began to awaken a spirit of general resistance
throughout the colonies, "Baltimore towne" was not behind its sister
communities in zeal and action. A meeting [[ a May 27.]] was held there
in 1774, ** ( a ) when the people generally agreed to support non-[[
November 12]]intercourse measures. Afterward they elected a
_Committee of Observation_ *** (b) and also appointed a committee of
correspondence. **** These committees were exceedingly vigilant and
active in watching the disaffected, giving information of importance to
their brethren abroad, and in passing intelligence between the patriots
of the North and the South. They were no respecter of persons, and
Loyalists of every grade came under their surveil-

* It was used in the procession that welcomed La Fayette to that city in
1824, and was then deposited in Peale's Museum. On that occasion, it
was ceremoniously received by several young ladies. Mr. Edmund Peale
presented it to the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, where it is
now carefully preserved in a glass ease. But little of its former beauty
remains. It is composed of double crimson silk, now faded to a dull
brownish red. The designs on each side, as represented on the following
page, are embroidered with yellow silk, the letters shaded with green. A
deep green bullion fringe ornaments the edges. The size of the banner
is twenty inches square. It was attached to a lance when borne to the
field.

** Andrew Buchanan was chosen chairman, and Robert Alexander clerk or
secretary.

*** This committee, consisting of twenty-nine of the leading men of
Baltimore, was elected by the qualified voters, at a town meeting,
regularly assembled at the court-house. They not only took cognizance
of political matters, but assumed a general supervision of the public
morals, not by coercive measures, but by advice. Among other things,
they recommended the discontinuance of fairs in Baltimore, and denounced
them as nuisances, conducive to "mischiefs and disorders," "serving
no other purpose than debauching the morals of their children and
servants," and "encouraging riots, drunkenness, gaming, and the vilest
immoralities." Horse-racing, cock-fighting, general extravagance, and
dissipation were inveighed against, not only as wrong, but as derogatory
to the character of patriots at that solemn hour (1775).

**** The following are the names of this committee: Robert Alexander,
Samuel Purviance, Jr., Andrew Buchanan, Doctor" John Boyd, John Moale,
Jeremiah Townly Chase, William Buchanan, and William Lux. Four members
constituted a quorum for the transaction of business.[[1776.]]

[[[Treatment of Loyalists.--Meeting of Congress in Baltimore.--La
Fayette in Baltimore.]]]

{393}lance. The Reverend Mr. Edmiston, pastor of St. Thomas's parish,
was arraigned before the Committee of Observation, on a charge of being
favorable to the Quebec Act. He pleaded guilty, apologized, and was
forgiven.

[Illustration: 8403]

Other suspected Loyalists, of equal standing, were arraigned, and
middlemen soon became scarce. *

I have mentioned the fact (page 225) that, on the approach of the
royal troops toward the Delaware, in 1776, Congress, then in session in
Philadelphia, adjourned to Baltimore. Their first meeting in that city,
pursuant to adjournment, was on the 20th of December. They met, and
continued their session in the spacious brick building yet standing on
Baltimore, Sharpe, and Liberty Streets.

[Illustration: 9403]

The Reverend Patrick Allison, first minister of the Presbyterian church
of Baltimore, and Reverend W. White, were appointed chaplains on the
23d. It was there, on the 27th of December, two days after the battle at
Trenton, that Congress, by resolution, delegated so much of their powers
to Washington, for six months, as made him a military dictator, a fact
already noticed on page 232. Through a local committee of Congress, left
in Philadelphia, efficient cooperation with the army was secured, and
the whole military establishment, as we have seen (page 241), was placed
in a higher and more effective condition than it had been since the
organization of the army.

Congress continued in session in Baltimore until Friday, the 27th of
February, when it adjourned to Philadelphia, where the delegates met on
the following Wednesday, the 4th of March.

When La Fayette passed through Baltimore on his way to the field of his
conflicts at the South, he was greeted with the greatest respect by the
people. A ball was given in his honor, at which the marquis appeared
sad. "Why so gloomy at a ball?" asked one of the gay belles. "I can not
enjoy the gayety of the scene," replied La Fayette, "while so many of
the poor soldiers are without shirts and other necessaries."

"We will supply them," was the noble reply of the ladies; and the gayety
of the ball-room was exchanged for the sober but earnest services of the
needle. They assembled the next day in great numbers to make up clothing
for the soldiers, of materials furnished by fathers and husbands. ****
One gentleman, out of his limited means, gave La Fayette five hundred
dollars to aid him

* Purviancers Narrative, pages 12-13.

** On one side of the banner are the letters U. S., and in a circle
around them the words "United valor is stronger." The letter c in the
last word is incorrect; it should be t. On the other side, in the
center, is the All-seeing Eye, with the words Non alius régit; "No other
governs."

*** This view is from Baltimore Street, looking southeast. The front
on the left is on Baltimore Street; the other is on Liberty Street. Its
first story is now used for commercial purposes; otherwise it exhibits
the same external appearance as when Congress assembled there.

**** M'Sherry's History of Maryland, p. 229.

[[[Journey to Annapolis.--Departure from the Right
Road.--Hospitality.--City of Annapolis.]]]

{394}in clothing his soldiers. His wife, with her own hands, cut out
five hundred pairs of pantaloons, and superintended the making of them. *

In the passage of troops between the Northern and Southern States,
Baltimore was often the scene of activity and excitement; beyond this,
it has but little military history connected with our subject. Its
statesmen and soldiers did good service in the forum and in the field,
and their names and deeds are conspicuously recorded in various portions
of these volumes. We will make Annapolis, the old capital of Maryland,
our point of view, in taking a survey of the general history of the
state, for that city was the soul and center of action during the
Revolution.

[[December 4, 1848]] I left Baltimore for Annapolis, thirty miles
southward, at a little after three o'clock, crossing the Patapsco River
at sunset, upon a long, rickety draw-bridge, having a toll-gatherer at
the southern end. The sky was clear, and the moon being sufficiently
advanced in illumination to promise a fair degree of light, I resolved
to push forward as far as the "half-way house," fifteen miles from
Baltimore, before halting. Soon after leaving the bridge, the road
penetrated a forest of oaks and chestnuts, filled with those beautiful
evergreens, the laurel and the holly. Passing several cultivated
openings where the country was rolling, I reached a level, sandy
region, and at dark entered a forest of pines, its deep shadows relieved
occasionally by small openings recently made by the woodman's ax. I
had passed only two small houses in a journey of six miles, and without
seeing the face of a living creature, when I met a negro man and woman,
and inquired for the "halfway house." The woman assured me that it was
two miles ahead; and, in the plenitude of her kind feelings, promised
that I should find "plenty o' liquor dar." After driving at least four
miles, I perceived that I had "run off the track," mistaking one of
the numerous branches of the main road for the highway itself. After
traversing the deep, sandy way, in the gloom, until almost eight
o'clock, when traveler and horse were thoroughly wearied, I was cheered
by the barking of a dog, and in a few moments crossed a stream, and
came in sight of a spacious mansion, surrounded by many broad acres of
cultivation. The merry voices of children, who were playing in the lane,
were hushed as I halted at the gate and hailed. A servant swung it wide
open for my entrance, and when I asked for entertainment for the night,
the kindest hospitality was extended. The proprietor of the plantation
was the widow of a Methodist clergyman, who was drowned in the Severn a
few years ago. Her mother, residing with her, had been, in former years,
a parishioner of my own pastor, the Reverend Stephen H. Tyng, D.D.
This fact was a sympathetic link; and a home feeling, with its
gentle influence, came over me as the evening passed away in pleasant
conversation. I left the mansion of Mrs. Robinson, the next morning,
with real regret. I had there a foretaste of that open hospitality which
I experienced every where at the South, and must ever remember with
gratitude.

Under the guidance of a servant, I traversed a private road, to the
public one leading to Annapolis. The highway passes through a barren
region until within two miles of the town, relieved, occasionally, by a
few cultivated spots; and so sinuous was its course, that I crossed the
Baltimore and Annapolis rail-way seven times in a distance of thirteen
miles. The deep sand made the journey toilsome, and extended its
duration until almost an hour past meridian.

Annapolis is apparently and really an old town. Many of its houses are
of the hip-roofed style of an earlier generation, with the distinctive
features of Southern houses, so odd in appearance to the eyes of a
Northern man--the chimneys projecting from the gable, from the ground to
their tops. The city is beautifully located on the south branch of the
River Severn, upon a peninsula formed by Acton's and Covey's Creeks,
which rise within half a mile of each other. It commands an extensive
view of the Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding

* This gentleman was Mr. Poe. His widow, the lady who cut out the
garments, was living when La Fayette visited Baltimore in 1824. The two
patriots met, and the scene was one of peculiar interest.--See Niles's
Register, 24th October, 1824.

[[[Founding of Annapolis.--First Lord Baltimore.--Exploration of the
Chesapeake.--Maryland Charter]]]

{395}country, where almost every diversity of picturesque scenery is
exhibited, except the grandeur of lofty mountains.

Annapolis was erected into a town, port, and place of trade in 1683,
under the name of the "Town land at Proctor's," or "The Town land at
Severn." Eleven years afterward it received the name of "Anne Arundle
Town," and was made the naval station of the infant colony, and the seat
of government. It received the name of Annapolis (Anne's city) in
1703, which was given in honor of Queen Anne, the reigning sovereign of
England. Before noticing the associations which give peculiar interest
to the history of Annapolis, let us consult the chronicles of the state.

Maryland was settled at a little later period than New England. The
London Company, of which Sir George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), the first
proprietor of Maryland, was a member, claimed, under its charter, the
whole of the vast region from the head of the Delaware and Chesapeake
Bays--the boundary line of the Dutch settlements in [[1609]] New
Netherlands--to an undefined boundary south and west. Calvert was a
young man of good birth and fine talents. He attracted the attention and
won the friendship of Sir Robert Cecil (afterward Earl of Salisbury),
first lord of the Treasury under James the First. Calvert was appointed
by Cecil his private secretary,a which office he held for several years.
Cecil died in 1612. Calvert appears to have won the esteem of his
king, for, in 1617, James conferred the honor of knighthood upon him,
appointed him clerk of the Privy Council, and, two years later, made him
principal secretary of state, as successor to Sir Thomas Lake. In 1624,
Calvert resigned his office, not, as Fuller says, because "he freely
confessed himself to the king that he was become a Roman Catholic,
so that he must be wanting to his trust, or violate his conscience in
discharging his office," * for he was doubtless a Roman Catholic
from his earliest youth, if not born in the bosom of that Church, but
probably for the purpose of giving his personal attention to schemes of
foreign colonization, in which he was interested. On retiring from the
secretary's office, the king continued him a privy counselor, granted
him a tract of land in Longford, Ireland, (b) with a pension of
one thousand pounds, and created him "Lord Baltimore, of Baltimore,
Ireland." [[ b 1621]] He already had a patent as absolute lord and
proprietor of the province of Avalon, in Newfoundland. After the death
of James, in 1625, Lord Baltimore went to Avalon, where, with his
family, he resided for some time, and then returned to England. He
visited Virginia in 1628; and, although a member of the London Company,
and high in the confidence of Charles, the successor of James, he was
required by the local authorities of that colony to take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy. ** Baltimore was offended, for he considered
the requisition as an intended insult, he being a Roman Catholic. He
refused to take the oaths himself, or allow his attendants to do so; and
soon afterward departed from the James River, and made a voyage up the
Chesapeake. He entered the Potomac, was pleased with the appearance
of the country, projected a settlement upon the upper portions of the
Chesapeake Bay, and then returned to England.

The London Company dissolved in the mean while. Baltimore successfully
applied to Charles for a grant of the unoccupied land on the Chesapeake,
and in 1632 the king gave him permission to frame a charter for a
province, to suit himself. The grant included the present area of
Maryland, notwithstanding the territory was clearly within the limits of
the Virginia charter, and Kent Island, opposite the site of Annapolis,
was already occupied. It is believed that the Maryland charter was
penned by Lord Baltimore himself. Before it passed the seals, Calvert
died, (c) leaving his son Cecil heir to his title and fortune, [[ c
April 25,]] The charter was executed about two months afterward, (d) and
signed by Cecil, with no alteration from the original except in the
name of the province. It was called [[ d June 20]] Maryland, in honor
of Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles the First, instead of
_Crescentia,_

* Fuller's Worthies of England.

** The Oath of Supremacy was one denying the supremacy of the pope in
ecclesiastical or temporal affairs in England, which was required to
be taken, along with the Oath of Allegiance, by persons, in order to
qualify them for office.

[[[Character of the first Maryland Charter.--Toleration its chief
Glory.--Baltimore's Policy.]]]

{396}as the first Lord Baltimore named it. This charter was full of
the ideas of absolutism and royal prerogatives which distinguished the
character and career of James and his son Charles.

It made the proprietor absolute lord of the province--"_Absolutus
Domimus et Propritarius_"--with the royalties of a count palatine.

[Illustration: 9406]

Theoretically, he was not inferior in rights and privileges to the king
himself. He could make laws with the advice of the freemen, and withhold
his assent from such as he did not approve. He claimed, and sometimes
practiced, the right to dispense with the laws, in accordance with the
principles and occasional practice of King James. He was authorized to
create manorial lordships; to bestow titles upon the meritorious of his
_subjects_; to summon, by writs, any freemen he chose, to take a seat
in a legislative Assembly without election; to make ordinances of equal
force with the laws without the confirmation of the Assembly; to declare
martial law at his pleasure--for he had absolute control of the military
and naval force of the colony--and to present ministers to the parishes.
Such were the extensive powers which the charter of Maryland conferred
upon the proprietor; yet the absolute authority of the "Baron of
Baltimore" was conceded rather with reference to the crown than the
colonists, for the charter contained concessions and grants to the
people sufficient to guarantee them against oppression. The privileges,
liberties, and franchises of liege subjects of England, born within the
realm, were secured to them; they were protected against the operation
of all laws repugnant to the statutes and customs of England; and they
were forever exempted, by an express covenant in the charter, from all
"impositions, customs, or other taxations, quotas, or contributions
whatever," to be levied by the king or his successors. The sovereign did
not reserve to himself even the right of superintendence of the affairs
of the colony, or the power to interfere, in any way, with its laws.
In fact, the province of Maryland was, by its royal charter, made
independent of the crown from the beginning; it was what the proprietor
termed it, "a separate monarchy." The dependence was acknowledged
only by the provision of the charter which obliged the proprietor to
acknowledge fealty by paying a tribute to the king of two Indian arrows
yearly, and a fifth of all gold or silver ore which might be found.

The true glory of the first Maryland charter consists in the religious
freedom which it recognizes; a freedom reasserted and enforced by an act
of the Assembly in 1649, seventeen years after the charter passed the
seals, when the whole realm of England was in commotion on account of
the execution of the king and establishment of the commonwealth under
Cromwell. To Lord Baltimore belongs the honor of being the first
lawgiver in Christendom who made freedom of conscience the basis of a
state constitution. There seems to be something paradoxical in the fact
that an absolutist in political affairs should have been so democratic
in matters of religion. But Baltimore was a latitudinarian; sagacious,
farsighted, and awake to the best temporal interests of himself and his
successors. He clearly perceived that the growth of his colony depended
greatly upon the extent of religious freedom which might be guaranteed
to emigrants. Persecution was overturning many peaceful

[[[Baltimore's Toleration.--First Settlers.--Leonard
Calvert.--Settlement at St. Mary's.]]]

{397}homes in Great Britain; and, to wherever the light of toleration
was seen, thousands of the oppressed made their way. He was exceedingly
tolerant himself, or he never would have retained the friendship of
James; and therefore his feelings and interests were coincident. His
Catholic brethren were more or less persecuted in England; while the
Puritans, who were peopling the coasts of Massachusetts Bay, had also
been "harried out of the land" by the hierarchy. Maryland was made the
asylum for the persecuted; not for Roman Catholics alone, but for the
English Puritans, and the equally harassed reformers of Virginia, under
the administration of the bigoted Berkeley.

The first two hundred settlers, who came with Leonard Calvert (a)
brother of Cecil, and first governor of the province, were principally
Roman Catholics, but in a few [[ a 1633]] years Protestants became
almost as numerous as they. These settled upon the unoccupied territory
north of the Patuxent, and formed a new county which they called Severn,
or Anne Arundel, extending nearly to the present site of Baltimore. "All
the world outside of these portals [St. Michael's and St. Joseph's, as
the first emigrants denominated the two headlands at the mouth of
the Potomac, now Point Lookout, and Smith's Point] was intolerant,
proscriptive, vengeful against the children of a dissenting faith. Only
in Maryland, throughout this wide world of Christendom, was there an
altar erected, and truly dedicated to the freedom of Christian worship."
* Yet it must not be forgotten that, fifteen months before the charter
of Maryland was executed, Roger Williams had sounded the trumpet of
intellectual freedom in New England, and "it became his glory to found
a state upon that principle, and to stamp himself upon its rising
institutions, in characters so deep that the impress has remained to
this day. **

It is not within the scope of my design to notice in detail the progress
of the Maryland colony. The first settlement was made by Leonard
Calvert, who, in February, 1634, arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia,
with about two hundred Roman Catholics. The Virginians had remonstrated
against the grant to Baltimore, but, by express commands of the king,
Harvey, then governor, received Calvert with courtesy. Early in March
he sailed up the Potomac, and, casting anchor under an island which he
called St. Clement, he fired his first cannon, erected a cross, and took
possession "in the name of the Savior of the world and the King of
Great Britain." *** He then proceeded up the Potomac to the mouth of
the Piscataqua Creek, opposite Mount Vernon, and near the site of the
present Fort Washington, fifteen miles south of Washington City. The
chief of the Indian village at that place was friendly; but Calvert,
deeming it unsafe to settle so high up the river, returned, and entered
the stream now called St. Mary's. He purchased a village of the Indians,
and commenced a settlement. (b) Founded upon religious toleration and
the practice of [[ b April. 1634]] justice, **** the colony rapidly
increased in population and resources; and peace, except

* Kennedy's Discourse on the Life and Character of George Calvert,
before the Maryland Historical Society, 1845, page 43.

** Bancroft, i., 375.

*** Belknap.

**** As an instance of the determination to preserve peace within his
borders, Leonard Calvert issued a proclamation in 1638, to prohibit
"all unreasonable disputations in point of religion tending to the
disturbance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to
the opening of faction in religion." A Catholic gentleman (Captain
Cornwaleys) had two Protestant servants. They were one day reading
aloud, together. Smith's Sermons, and were overheard by Cornwaleys's
overseer, a Roman Catholic, while reading a passage in which the pope
was called anti-Christ, and the Jesuits anti-Christian ministers. The
overseer abused them, and ordered them to read no more. The servants
preferred a formal complaint against the overseer, and submitted it to
the governor and council. Of the latter, Cornwaleys was one. The parties
were heard, and the overseer was fined five hundred pounds of tobacco,
and ordered to remain in prison until he should find sureties for
his good behavior in future. This case shows the tolerant spirit of a
Catholic administration.--Kennedy's Discourse, page 45.

**** The act for religious liberty, passed in 1649, contained a clause
authorizing the imposition of a fine of ten shillings for abusive
expressions between the parties; such as idolater, popish priest,
Jesuit, and Jesuited papist, on the one side, and, on the other,
heretic, schismatic, round-head, and similar epithets.--Langford, page
29. The clause for religious freedom in the act of 1649 extended only
to Christians. It was introduced by the proviso that, "whatsoever person
shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or reproach the Holy Trinity, or any
of the three persons thereof, shall be punished with death."

[[[First Legislative Assembly.--Religious Animosity.--Toleration of the
Roman Catholics.--Civil Commotions.]]]

{398}during the troubles arising from the refusal of Clayborne, an
original settler, to acknowledge the authority of the governor, reigned
within its borders until 1642, when petty hostilities were carried on
against the Indians. Leonard Calvert was appointed governor * of
the province, as the proprietor's lieutenant; and in 1635 the first
Legislative Assembly convened at St. Mary's. A representative government
was established in 1639, the people being allowed to send as many
delegates to the General Assembly as they pleased. At the same time,
a declaration of rights was adopted, the powers of the proprietor
were defined, and all the privileges enjoyed by English subjects were
confirmed to the colonists. The Indian hostilities closed in 1644, and
the next year a rebellion under Clayborne involved the province in a
civil war. The revolt was suppressed in August the following year.

Religious animosity between the Protestants and Roman Catholics finally
became a source of great trouble, and in 1649 the Assembly adopted the
Toleration Act. This allayed party strife for a while. At this time
Charles the First was beheaded, and Cromwell became the chief magistrate
of Great Britain. Lord Baltimore, who was warm in his professions of
attachment to the king while his affairs were prosperous, when he saw
the downfall of royalty inevitable, was equally loud in proclaiming
his attachment to the Republicans. Thomas Green, his governor, who had
hastily proclaimed Charles the Second, on hearing of the execution of
his father, was removed, and his place was filled by William Stone, a
Protestant, who "was always zealously affected to the Parliament."

In 1650, the legislative body was first divided into two branches, an
Upper and a Lower House; the former consisting of the governor and
his council, appointed by the proprietor, and the latter of the
representatives chosen by the people. At that session, all taxes were
prohibited except by the consent of the freemen.

In 1651, the Long Parliament, which had established its supremacy
in England, appointed commissioners to govern Maryland. Stone, Lord
Baltimore's lieutenant, was removed; but, on the dissolution of that
Parliament by Cromwell in 1654, he was restored to his full powers. The
commissioners, however (who had retired, to Virginia), entered Maryland,
and compelled Stone to surrender his warrant into their hands. The
Protestants, who acknowledged the authority of Cromwell, and had the
power, by majority, in their own hands, questioned the rights and
privileges of an hereditary proprietor. They stoutly contended for
religious liberty, yet they actually disfranchised those who differed
from them in religious opinions. Roman Catholics were excluded from the
Assembly; and an act was passed toward the close of 1654, declaring that
they were not entitled to the protection of the laws of Maryland!

Early in 1655, Stone, with greater loyalty to his master, the
proprietor, than to his religious profession, organized an armed body of
Catholics, and seized the provincial records. Civil war raged with fury,
and was intensified by the heat of religious acrimony. The Catholics
were finally defeated, Stone was made prisoner, and four of the
principal men of the province, attached to Baltimore's party, were
executed.

Josiah Fendall, who had actively supported Stone, and headed an
insurrection, was appointed governor, by Lord Baltimore, in 1656, but he
was soon arrested by the Protestant party. He was a man of good address,
and finally succeeded in having himself acknowledged as governor. (a)
The proprietor was restored to all his rights, but he did not long [[
a 1658]] enjoy them, for, on the restoration of Charles the Second,
the Assembly, knowing the animosity of the king against Lord Baltimore,
dissolved the Upper House, and assumed to

* Clayborne having obtained a royal license in 1631 to traffic with the
Indians, had established two settlements, one on the island of Kent, and
one other near the mouth of the Susquehanna. Clayborne not only refused
to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, but sought to maintain his
own claims by force of arms. He was defeated, and fled to Virginia,
whence he was sent to England for trial as a traitor. He applied to the
king for a redress of grievances, but, after a full hearing, the charter
of Lord Baltimore was declared valid, against the earlier license of
Clayborne. The latter returned to Maryland, got up a rebellion in 1645,
and drove Governor Calvert into Virginia. For a year and a half the
insurgents held the reins of government, and the horrors of civil war
brooded over the infant colony. Clayborne afterward became one of the
commissioners appointed by Parliament, under the Protectorate, to govern
Maryland.

[[[Baltimore's Courtier.--Civil War.--Maryland a Royal
Province.--Republican Constitution.--Annapolis.]]]

[[a March, 1660.]] {399}itself the whole legislative power of the state,
(a) They declared that no power should be recognized in Maryland except
their own and the king's. Fendall then surrendered his trust to Lord
Baltimore, and accepted from the Assembly a new commission as governor.
Charles, however, forgave Baltimore for his homage to the Republicans,
for he was assured by that courtier that his partialities had always
been really in favor of the royal cause. The same year the rights of the
proprietor were restored, and Philip Calvert appointed governor. Fendall
was arrested upon a charge of treason, was tried, and found guilty, but,
under a general pardon to political offenders, wisely proclaimed by
Lord Baltimore, he escaped death. He was only fined a trifling sum, and
declared ineligible for office forever. *

Cecil, Lord Baltimore, died in 1675, and was succeeded in title and
fortune by his son Charles, who had been his lieutenant in Maryland
from 1662 to 1668. The new proprietor caused the government to be
administered by Thomas Notley, who governed with equity, and he became
very popular with all parties. Tranquillity prevailed in the province
until the Revolution in England in 1688, which drove James the Second
from the throne, and shook every colony in America. False rumors,
alleging that the Catholics and Indians had coalesced for the purpose of
massacreing the Protestants, aroused all the fire of religious animosity
which had been slumbering for years, and caused the formation of an
armed association for the alleged defense of the Protestant faith, and
of the rights of William and Mary, the successors of James. A compromise
was finally effected, and the Catholic party surrendered the powers
of government to the association, by capitulation. A convention of the
associates assumed the government, and exercised its functions until
1691, when the king, by an arbitrary act, deprived Charles, Lord
Baltimore, of his political rights as proprietor, and constituted
Maryland, for the first time, a royal government. Sir Lionel Copley
was appointed governor, and, on his arrival, (b) the principles of
the proprietary [[ b 1692]] government were overturned; religious
toleration, so freely conceded and so firmly maintained when the
Catholic proprietors held sway, was abolished, and the Church of England
was established as the religion of the state, and demanding support from
general taxation.

Maryland continued a royal province under the successive administrations
of Copley, Nicholson, Blackstone, Seymore, Lloyd, and Hart, until 1720,
and tranquillity prevailed. The inheritance of the proprietorship having
fallen to Charles, infant heir of Lord Baltimore, (c) who, on attaining
his majority, (d) professed the Protestant faith, George the First
restored the patent to the family. It remained a proprietary government
until our Revolution, ** when, as an independent state, it adopted a
constitution, (e) and [[e August 14, 1776]] took its place (the fourth
in the point of time) in the confederation of states. A large number of
Presbyterians from the north of Ireland had settled in the province,
and the principles of their ecclesiastical polity being favorable to
republicanism, they exerted a powerful influence in casting off the
royal yoke.

Annapolis being the capital of the province, it was the heart of
political action. In common with the people of the other colonies,
Maryland took a bold stand against the oppressive measures of the mother
government, commencing with the Stamp Act. On the 27th of August,
1765, a meeting of "Assertors of British American privileges" met at
Annapolis, "to show their detestation of and abhorrence to some late
tremendous attacks on liberty, and their dislike to a certain late
arrived officer, a _native of this province_. *** The [[c 1716]] [[d
1720]].

* Fendall afterward became concerned in a rebellious movement, with an
accomplice named Coode. He was arrested, fined four thousand pounds of
tobacco, imprisoned for non-payment, and banished from the province.

** The successive governors were Charles and Benedict Leonard Calvert;
Samuel Ogle; Lord Baltimore; Ogle again; Thomas Eladen; Ogle again;
Benjamin Tasker, acting governor; Horatio Sharpe, and Robert Eden.
Thomas Johnson was the first republican governor.

*** This was a Mr. Hood, who had been appointed stamp-master, while in
England, on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin. Such was the indignation
of the people against him, that no one would purchase goods of him,
though offered at a very low price. Just before the burning of his
effigy he escaped to New York, in time to save himself from being
presented with a coat of tar and feathers.

[[[Stamp-master's Effigy hanged and burned.--The Sons of
Liberty.--Statue of the King and Portrait of Camden.]]]

{400}landing of that officer was at first opposed and prevented, but
he was finally permitted to enter the town. They made an effigy of him,
dressed it curiously, placed it in a cart, like a malefactor, with some
sheets of paper before it, and, while the bell was tolling, paraded it
through the town. They proceeded to a hill, where, after punishing it at
the whipping-post and pillory, they hung it upon a gibbet, set fire to
a tar-barrel underneath, and burned it. * Governor Sharpe informed the
colonial secretary of the proceedings, and plainly told him that, such
was the temper of the people, that any stamped paper which might arrive
would doubtless be burned.

[Illustration: 9410]

Some of the proscribed paper, which arrived in December [[ a 1765]] (a)
was sent back by Governor Sharpe. The people refused to use the odious
stamps, and all legal business was suspended for a while. The Maryland
Gazette, like the Pennsylvania Journal (see page 259), appeared in
mourning on the 31st of October, declaring, like its cotemporary, that
"The times are Dreadful, Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, and Dollarless." The
editor issued "an apparition of the _late_ Maryland Gazette" on the 10th
of December, and expressed his "belief that the odious Stamp Act would
never be carried into operation."

On the 1st of March, 1766, the Sons of Liberty of Baltimore, Kent, and
Anne Arundel counties held their first formal meeting at the court-house
in Annapolis. The Reverend Andrew Lendrum was appointed moderator, and
William Paca (afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence)
was chosen secretary. Joseph Nicholson, from Kent county, presented an
address from that district, signed by twenty-three of the leading men.
** It was an application to the chief justice of the provincial court,
the secretary and commissary general, and judges of the land-offices,
asking them to resume the business of their respective offices
regardless of the law. The Anne Arundel and Baltimore committees also
signed the request, *** which, being forwarded to those officers, was
complied with. The Stamp Act thus virtually became a nullity a month
before the intelligence of its repeal arrived. That intelligence reached
Annapolis at noon on the 5th of April, and diffused unusual joy through
the city. Ihe remainder of the day was spent by the people in mirth and
festivity, and at an assemblage in the evening, "all loyal and patriotic
toasts were drank." The Assembly of Maryland voted a statue to the king,
and ordered a portrait of Lord Camden, a parliamentary friend of the
Americans, to be painted for the State House. On the 11th of June, great
rejoicings were again held at Annapolis, that day having been appointed
for the purpose by the

* Ridgeley's Annals of Annapolis, page 136.

** The following are the names of the Sons of Liberty of Kent county,
appended to the address: "Joseph Nicholson, William Ringgold, William
Stephenson, Thomas Ringgold, Jr., Joseph M'Hard, Gideon M'Cauley,
Daniel Fox, Benjamin Binning, William Bordley, Jarvis James, William
Stukely, Joseph Nicholson, Jr.. James Porter, Thomas Ringgold, James
Anderson, Thomas Smyth, William Murray, George Garnet, S. Boardley, Jr.,
Peroy Frisby, Henry Yandike, and John Bolton."

*** The Anne Arundel committee consisted of William Paca, Samuel Chase
(also a signer of the Declaration of Independence), and Thomas B. Hands.
The Baltimore county committee were John Hall, Robert Alexander, Corbin
Lee, James Heath, John Moale, and William Lux. The Baltimore town
committee consisted of Thomas Chase, D. Charnier, Robert Adair, Reverend
Patrick Allison, and W. Smith.

**** Charles Pratt, earl of Camden, was the third son of Chief-justice
Pratt, of the King's Bench. He was horn in 1713, and educated at Eton
and Cambridge. His fine talents as a legal scholar having been made
known in a case wherein he defended Mr. Pitt, that gentleman, when
chancellor in 1757, procured for Pratt the office of attorney general.
He was raised to the dignity of chief justice of the Common Pleas in
1762, and had the manly courage, while in office, to pronounce in
favor of John Wilkes, against the wishes of government. For this he was
applauded throughout the kingdom. He was made a peer of the realm, with
the title of Earl of Camden, in 1765, and in 1766 was advanced to the
Seals. Throughout the struggle of the Americans for right and liberty,
he was a consistent friend of the colonists. In 1782, he was appointed
president of the Privy Council, which place he held, except for a short
interim, until his death. He died on the 18th of April, 1794, aged
eighty-one years.

[[[Governor Eden.--Arrival of a Tea Ship.--Burning of the Vessel and
Cargo]]]

{401}mayor. A large concourse of people from the neighboring counties
were assembled, and in the evening the city was brilliantly illuminated.

Robert Eden was the last royal governor of Maryland. He arrived at
Annapolis on the 5th of June, 1769, and continued in office during the
stormy period preceding the actual hostilities of the Revolution, and
until the colonies had declared themselves independent, when he returned
to England. Governor Eden was respected by all for his urbanity and
kindness of heart, but his duty to his king brought him into collision
with the leading minds in the colony as the Revolution advanced, and
at length, in consequence of several intercepted letters, Congress
recommended the Council of Safety of Maryland to put him under arrest,
and to take possession of his papers. * (a) The Baltimore committee [[
a April 16, 1776]] volunteered to carry out the recommendation of
Congress, and, in consequence, became involved in difficulty with the
Maryland convention. ** A committee of the convention, before whom
Eden's letters were laid, reported that, in such correspondence as the
governor had carried on with the ministry, he did not evince hostility
to the colonists; and the matter ended by signifying to Eden that the
public safety and quiet required him to leave the province.

Annapolis was a scene of great excitement in the autumn of 1774. Already
public sentiment had been expressed against the Boston Port Bill at a
general meeting, (b) and |[[ b May 12, 1774]] the people were ripe for
rebellion. On Saturday, the 15th of October, the ship _Peggy_, Captain
Stewart, arrived from London, bringing, among other things, seventeen
packages of tea, consigned to T. C. Williams & Co., of Annapolis. This
was the first arrival of the proscribed article at that port. As soon as
the fact was known, the citizens were summoned to a general meeting.
It was ascertained that the consignees had imported the tea, and that
Anthony Stewart, proprietor of the vessel, had paid the duty upon it.
This was deemed an acquiescence in the justice of the claim of Great
Britain to tax the colonies, and it was resolved that the tea should
not be landed. The people of the surrounding country were summoned to a
public meeting in Annapolis the following Wednesday. Mr. Stewart issued
a handbill explaining the transaction, and disclaiming all intention to
violate the non-importation pledge; and expressed his regret that the
article had been placed on board his ship. But the people, too often
cajoled by the whining of men when their bad conduct had brought them
into trouble, were more disposed to punish than to forgive, and they
resolved, at the Wednesday meeting, to destroy the vessel, with its
packages of tea. To prevent raising a tempest that might not be allayed
by the simple destruction of the vessel, and to soften the asperity
of public feeling toward him, Mr. Stewart, under the advice of Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, and others, consented to burn the vessel himself.
Accompanied by some friends, he ran her aground near Windmill Point,
and set her on fire. The people were satisfied, and the crowd dispersed.
"The tea burning at Boston," says M'Mahon, "has acquired renown, as
an act of unexampled daring at that day in the defense of American
liberties; but the tea burning of Annapolis, which occurred in the
ensuing fall, far surpasses it, in the apparent deliberation, and utter
carelessness of concealment, attending the bold measures which led to
its accomplishment." ***

* These letters, which fell into the hands of the Baltimore committee,
and were by them transmitted to Congress, were addressed to the colonial
secretary and other members of the British cabinet, and were considered
"highly dangerous to the liberties of America."--Journals of Congress,
ii., 130.

** General Charles Lee, who was then at Williamsburg, in Virginia,
wrote to Samuel Purviance, chairman of the Baltimore committee, advising
particular military action in respect to the seizure of Eden and his
papers. For this the Council of Safety blamed him, and he was charged
with unwarrantable interference. In an explanatory letter to Mr.
Jenifer, chairman of the council, Lee fully justified himself, and
uttered the noblest sentiments of patriotism.

*** History of Maryland

[[[Treatment of John Parks.--Maryland and Independence.--The State House
and its Associations.]]]

{402}At Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown, in Washington county) the
committee of vigilance of the district caused one John Parks to go with
his hat off, with a lighted torch, and set fire to a chest of tea in his
possession. The committee recommended entire non-intercourse with
Parks; but the populace, thinking the committee too lenient, satisfied
themselves by breaking the doors and windows of his dwelling. Tar and
feathers were freely used in various places, and the town committees
exercised supreme authority in all local matters having a relation to
the great subject which engrossed the public mind.

[[ a May 10, 1776]] When Congress recommended (a) the several colonies
to establish provisional governments, where it had not already been
done, the Maryland convention, as we have noticed (page 282), did not
at first concur with the resolution. On the contrary, they voted that it
was not necessary to suppress every exercise of authority under the [[
b May 20.]] crown (b) Through the efforts of Samuel Chase and others in
calling county conventions, a change of public sentiment was speedily
brought in Maryland, and on the 28th of June the convention empowered
its delegates in Congress to vote for a resolution declaring the
colonies "free and independent." Her representatives, Samuel Chase,
William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll, were among the most
active of those who signed the great Declaration.

[Illustration: 8412]

A state Constitution was adopted on the 14th of August following, and
from that period Maryland labored assiduously, shoulder to shoulder,
with her sister colonies, in maintaining the independence which Congress
had declared.

Annapolis, like Baltimore, was frequently the scene of military
displays, but not of sanguinary conflicts. When Washington, covered with
all the glory which victory in battle can bestow, came fresh from the
fields of Yorktown, on his way to Philadelphia, he passed [[ c November
21, 1781]] through Annapolis. (c) On his arrival, all business was
suspended, and crowds of eager gazers thronged the window's and the
streets. A public address was presented by the citizens, and every
manifestation of esteem for the great chief was exhibited. Again, late
in 1783, when the war was ended, the Continental army was disbanded, and
Great Britain had acknowledged the independence of the United States,
the State House at Annapolis, now venerated, because of the glorious
associations which cluster around it, was filled with the brave, the
fair, and the patriotic of Maryland, to witness the sublime spectacle
of that beloved chief resigning his military power, wielded with such
mighty energy and glorious results for eight long years, into the hands
of the civil authority [[ d December 23, 1783]] which gave it. (d)

The Continental Congress having adjourned at Princeton, (e) to meet at
Annapolis [[ e November 4.]] on the 26th of No-

* This fine building is situated upon an elevation in the center of
the city, and is admired by every visitor, not only for its style of
architecture, but for the beauty of its location. The building is of
brick. The superstructure consists of a spacious dome, surmounted by
two smaller ones, with a cupola of wood. From the dome, a magnificent
prospect opens to the eye. Around the spectator is spread out the city
and harbor like a map, while far away to the southeast stretches the
Chesapeake, with Kent Island and the eastern shore looming up in the
distance. The edifice fronts Francis Street, and the hill on which it
stands is surrounded by a substantial granite wail, surmounted by an
iron railing, having three gateways. It was erected in 1772, upon the
site of the old Court-house, built in 1706. The corner stone was laid by
Governor Robert Eden. The dome was not built until after the Revolution.
The architect was Joseph Clarke. Tradition relates that when Governor
Eden struck the corner stone with a mallet, at the time of laying it, a
severe clap of thunder burst over the city, though there was not a cloud
in the sky. Thomas Dance, who executed the stucco work of the dome,
fell from the scaffold, and was killed, just as he finished the center
piece.--See Ridgeley's Annals of Annapolis.

[[[The Senate Chamber where Washington resigned his
Commission.--Portraits.--Departure of Rochambeau.]]]

{403}vember, was then in session there. In the Senate Chamber of the
Capitol the interesting scene took place, so well delineated by the pens
of Marshall and others, and the pencil of Trumbull. I shall here omit
the details of that closing event of the war, for it is too closely
connected with the departure of the last hostile foot from our shores, a
month [[ a November 25, 1783]] previously, (a) to be separated from
that narrative, without marring the sublime beauty of the picture. Never
shall I forget the peculiar emotions which I felt while sitting in that
room, copying the portraits of those patriots of Maryland who signed
our Declaration of Independence. * The little gallery wherein stood Mrs.
Washington and other distinguished ladies when the chief resigned his
commission, is still there, and unchanged; and the doors, windows,
cornices, and other architectural belongings are the same which echoed
the voice of the Father of his Country on that occasion. The very spot
where Mifflin, the president, and Thomson, the secretary of Congress
sat, when the treaty of peace with Great Britain was ratified, was
pointed out to me. Reflecting upon the events which consecrate it, that
hall, to me, seemed the shrine wherein the purest spirit of patriotism
should dwell, for there the victorious warrior for freedom laid his
sword upon the altar of Peace--there the sages of a people just made
free ratified a solemn covenant of peace, friendship, and political
equality with the most powerful nation upon earth, wrung from its rulers
by the virtues and prowess of men who scorned to be unrequited vassals.
From that hall, like the dove from the ark, the spirit of peace and
reconciliation went out, never to return disappointed; for the deluge of
misery which war had brought upon the land was assuaged, the floods had
returned, to their proper boundaries, and the hills and valleys of the
new republic were smiling with the blessings of returning prosperity and
quiet. The gentle spirit found a resting-place every where throughout
the broad land.

I have little else to note concerning Annapolis, as connected with my
subject. The French army was encamped upon the College green for a short
time, while on its march northward in 1782, and it was from this port
that Rochambeau and his suite embarked for France. Great rejoicings were
held in April, 1783, on the receipt of the intelligence of a general
cessation of hostilities. Three years after the treaty of peace was
ratified, commissioners from the several states met at Annapolis, "to
consider on the best means of remedying the defects of the Federal
government." (b) This convention was the [[ b September, 1786]]incipient
step toward framing our Federal Constitution, a subject to be noticed in
detail hereafter. From that period the city rather declined in commerce
and general importance; for Baltimore, having been established as a port
of entry, with a custom-house, and supported by a thriving agricultural
population, soon outstripped it in trade. But Annapolis remains the
political metropolis of Maryland.

* Full-length portraits of Carroll, Chase, Paca, and Stone, grace the
walls of the Senate Chamber. Copies of the heads of these will be found
among those of the signers in the frontispiece of the second volume of
this work. Carroll and Stone were painted by Sully, the other two by
Bordley--both native artists. It is worthy of remark that the four
signers were then residents of Annapolis. The portrait of Paca is a fine
picture of a fashionable gentleman of that day. His coat is a claret
color, vest white silk, black silk breeches, and white silk stockings.
Stone, who is sitting, has a graver appearance. His coat is brown, vest
and breeches black silk, and white silk stockings. Carroll and Chase
are both sitting. The former has an overcoat on, the skirt of which
is thrown over his knee; the latter is dressed in his judicial robe, a
simple black gown. In the same room is a portrait of John Eager Howard,
and William Pitt, earl of Chatham. The latter a full-length, and in
Roman costume, was painted by Charles Wilson Peale (who was also a
native of Maryland), while in England, and presented by the artist to
his native state in 1794. In the hall of the House of Delegates is a
full-length likeness of Washington, attended by La Fayette and Colonel
Tilghman--the Continental army passing in review. This picture,
commemorative of the surrender at York-town, was also painted by Peale,
pursuant to a resolution of the Assembly of Maryland. In Trumbull's
picture of this room, in which is represented the commander-in-chief
resigning his commission, the artist for the purpose of having proper
lights and shadows, has omitted the three large windows.

[[[Journey from Annapolis to Washington.--Profusion of Gates.--Queen
Anne and its Decline.]]]

{404}




CHAPTER XVI.


`````"How lovely all,

```How calmly beautiful! Long shadows fall

```More darkly o'er the wave as day declines,

```Yet from the west a deeper glory shines,

```While every crested hill and rocky height

```Each moment varies in the kindling light

```To some new form of beauty--changing through

```All shades and colors of the rainbow's hue,

```'The last still loveliest,' till the gorgeous day

```Melts in a flood of golden light away,

```And all is o'er."

`````--Sarah Helen Whitman.=

[Illustration: 9414]

OWARD the decline of a brilliant afternoon, I left Annapolis for
Washington City. The air was as balmy as spring; "December as pleasant
as May." The west was glowing with radiant beauty at sun-setting when I
crossed the long bridge over the South River, and quaffed a cup of cold
water from a bubbling spring at the toll-house on the southern side.
The low, sandy country was exchanged for a region more rolling and
diversified; and my ride during the early evening, with a half moon
and brilliant stars casting down their mild effulgence, would have been
delightful, but for the provoking obstructions which a lack of public
spirit and private enterprise had left in the way. The highway was the
"county road," yet it passed, almost the whole distance from Annapolis
to Washington, through plantations, like a private wagon-path, without
inclosure. Wherever the division fences of fields crossed the road,
private interest had erected a barred gate to keep out intrusive cattle,
and these the traveler was obliged to open. Being my own footman, I was
exercised in limbs and patience to my heart's content, for, during a
drive of thirteen miles that evening, I _opened_ fifteen gates; who
_closed_ them I have never ascertained. The miles seemed excessively
long; the gates were provokingly frequent. I never paid tribute with
greater reluctance, for it was the exaction of laziness and neglect.

I crossed the Patuxent at seven o'clock, and halted at Queen Anne, a
small, antiquated-looking village, some of the houses of which, I doubt
not, were erected during the reign of its godmother. It is close to the
Patuxent, and for many years was the principal depot in the state for
the inspection and sale of tobacco. Flat-bottomed boats bore away from
it, in former years, heavy cargoes of the nauseous stuff; now sand-bars
fill the river channel, and the freight-boats stop eight miles
below. The tobacco business has ceased; the railway from Annapolis to
Washington has withdrawn the business incident to a post-route, and
every thing indicates decay. There was no tavern in the plaee, but
I procured a supper and comfortable lodgings at the post-office. We
breakfasted by candle-light, and, before "sun up," as the Southerners
say, I was on my way toward the Federal city, twenty-three miles
distant.

I had hardly left the precincts of Queen Anne before a huge red gate
confronted me! I thought it might be the ghost of one I had encountered
the night before, but its substantiality as a veritable gate was made
manifest by the sudden halt of Charley before its bars. I was preparing
to alight, when a colored boy came from behind a shock of corn, and
kindly opened the way. "How far is it to the next gate?" I inquired.
"Don't know, massa," said the lad; "but I reckons dey is pretty tick,
dey is, twixt here and Uncle Josh's." Where "Uncle Josh" lived I do not
know, but I found the gates more than "pretty tick" all the way until
within a short distance of Bladensburg.

First View of the Capitol. Rainbow at Noon. The Federal City, Capitol,
and Congress Library from Annapolis to Washington, I passed through
fifty-three gates! Unlike the doors and windows of the people of the
South, I found them all shut.

From the brow of a hill, eight miles from Washington, I had the first
glimpse of the Capitol dome, and there I opened the last gate; each
a pleasing reminiscence now. I passed to the left of Bladensburg, *
crossed the east branch of the Potomac, and entered Washington City,
eastward of the Capitol, at one o'clock. For thirty minutes I had
witnessed a rare phenomenon at that hour in the day. Dark clouds, like
the gatherings of a summer shower, were floating in the northeastern
sky, and upon them refraction painted the segment of quite a brilliant
rainbow. I once saw a lunar bow at midnight, in June, but never before
observed a solar one at mid-day in December.

Our national metropolis is a city of the present century; for before
the year 1800, when the seat of the Federal government was permanently
located there, it was a small hamlet, composed of a few houses. The
selection of a site for the Federal city was intrusted to the judgment
of the first president, who chose the point of land on the eastern bank
of the Potomac, at its confluence with the Anacostia, or east branch of
that river. A territory around it, ten miles square, was ceded to the
United States by Virginia and Maryland in 1788. The owners of the land
gave one half of it, after deducting streets and public squares, to
the Federal government, to defray the expenses to be incurred in the
erection of public buildings. The city was surveyed under the chief
direction of Andrew Ellicott, and was laid out in 1791. The Capitol was
commenced In 1793, but was not yet completed on the original plan, when,
in 1814, (a) the British troops, under General Ross, burned it, [[
a August 24]] together with the library of Congress, the president's
house, and all the public buildings except the Patent Office. The city
then contained about nine hundred houses, scattered in groups over an
area of three miles. The walls of the Capitol remained firm, though
scarred and blackened. The present noble edifice was completed in 1827,
** more than a quarter of a century after the seat of government was
located at Washington.

* Bladensburg is in Prince George county, Maryland, six miles northeast
of Washington. It is made memorable in the history of the war of 1812
from the circumstance of a severe battle having taken place there on the
24th of August, 1814, between a small body of Americans and a portion
of the British army, then on its way to destroy the Federal city.
Bladensburg had, for a long time, the unenviable notoriety of being the
cock-pit for duelists who congregated at Washington City. There, on the
22d of March, 1820, Commodores Decatur and Barron fought with pistols.
The latter was mortally wounded, and died in the arms of his distracted
wife that night, at the early age of forty years.

** The Capitol is of the Corinthian order, built of white freestone. It
is upon an eminence almost eighty feet above tide-water, in the center
of a large square. It is composed of a central edifice, with two wings
The north wing was commenced in 1793, and finished in 1800, at a cost of
$480,202. The corner stone was laid by President Washington. The apron
and trowel which he used on that occasion, as Grand Master of the
Masonic Order, are preserved, and were used by Grand Master B. B.
French, at the recent (1851) ceremonies of laying the corner stone of
another enlargement of the Capitol. The south wing was commenced in
1803, and finished in 1808, at an expense of $308,808. The central
building was commenced in 1818, and completed in 1827, at a cost of
$957,647. The whole edifice covers an area of one and a half acres,
exclusive of the circular inclosure for fuel, which forms an elegant
area and glacis on the west front. The length of the front, including
the two wings, is 352 feet; the depth of the wings is 121 feet. A
projection on the east, or main front, including the steps, is 65 feet
wide, and another, on the west front, 83 feet wide. There is a portico
of 22 columns, 38 feet high, on the east front, and on the west front is
another portico of 10 columns. The whole height of the building to the
top of the dome is 120 feet. Notwithstanding the spaciousness of the
Capitol, it is found to be insufficient for the use of our growing
republic, and another addition is now (1852) in process of erection.

* The British set fire to both wings of the Capitol, and the president's
house, a mile distant, at the same time. The government officers and
the people fled on the approach of the strong force of the enemy. The
library of Congress, the furniture of the president's house, with other
articles of taste and value, were destroyed. The bridge across the
Potomac, the public stores, and vessels and buildings at the navy-yard,
were consumed; and, not content with this destruction, they mutilated
the beautiful monument erected in front of the Capitol in honor of the
naval heroes who fought at Tripoli. The library of Congress was replaced
by the purchase of that of Mr. Jefferson, in 1815, for the sum of
$23,000. It contained 7000 volumes, many of them exceedingly rare and
valuable. A large portion of this library, which had been increased
to 55,000 volumes, was destroyed by fire on the morning of the 24th of
December, 1851. It was the result of accident. About 20,000 volumes were
saved. The original portrait of Peyton Randolph, from which the copy
printed on page 267 of this work was made, and also that of the Baron
Steuben, by Pine, on page 341, were burned, together with a large
collection of ancient and modern medals, presented by Alexander
Vattemare, and other precious things, which can not be replaced. The
original Declaration of Independence was again saved from the flames.

[[[The National Institute.--The Widow of General Alexander
Hamilton.--Washington's Camp Chest]]]

{406}Washington City has no Revolutionary history of its own; but in the
library of Congress; the archives of the State and War Departments; in
the rooms of the National Institute, * and the private collection of
Peter Force, Esq., I found much of value and interest. The city was full
of the life and activity incident to the assembling of Congress, and I
passed four days there with pleasure and profit. My first evening
was spent in the company of the venerable widow of General Alexander
Hamilton, a surviving daughter of General Philip Schuyler.

[Illustration: 8416]

Mrs. Hamilton was then ninety-two years of age, and yet her mind a
December, seemed to have all the elasticity of a woman of sixty. A sunny
cheerfulness, which has shed its blessed [[ a December 1848.]] influence
around her during a long life, still makes her society genial and
attractive. Her memory, faithful to the impressions of a long and
eventful experience, is ever ready, with its varied reminiscences,
to give a charm to her conversation upon subjects connected with our
history. With an affectionate daughter (Mrs. Holly), she lives in
elegant retirement in the metropolis, beloved by her gers, venerated by
all. She is, I believe, the last of the belles of the Revolution--the
last of those who graced the social gatherings honored by the presence
of Washington and his lady during the struggle for independence--the
last of those who gave brilliancy to the levees of the first president,
and, with Lucy Knox and others, shared the honors and attentions of the
noble and refined of all friends, honored by strangers[[ a December,
1850.]][[ b January, 1852.]]who crowded to the public audiences of the
venerated Pater Patria, when chief magistrate of the nation. Two years
later, I was privileged to enjoy her hospitality, and again to draw
instruction from the clear well of her experience. She still lives, at
the age of ninety-four, with the promises of centenary honors impressed
upon her whole being. May Time, who has dealt so gently with her, bear
her kindly to the goal of a hundred years!

In the rooms of the National Institute (a portion of the Patent Office
building) are a few of the most interesting relics of the Revolution now
in existence, carefully preserved in a glass case. Upon the floor stands
Washington's _camp chest_, an old fashioned hair trunk, twenty-one
inches in length, fifteen in width, and ten in depth, filled with the
table furniture used by the chief during the war. The compartments are
so ingeniously arranged, that they contain a gridiron; a coffee and tea
pot; three tin sauce-pans (one movable handle being used for all); five
glass flasks, used for honey, salt, coffee, port wine, and vinegar;
three large tin meat dishes; sixteen plates; ** two knives and five
forks; a candlestick and

* The National Institution for the Promotion of Science was organized at
Washington City in 1840. The President of the United States is patron;
the heads of the Departments constitute the directors on the part of the
government, and an equal number of literary and scientific citizens are
directors on the part of the institution. Its collections (to which
have been added those of the United States Exploring Expedition, and the
Historical Society and Columbia Institute of the District) are in the
great hall of the Patent Office building, a room 275 feet long and 65
feet wide.

** These are the dishes alluded to in the following letter, written by
Washington, at West Point, to Dr. John Cochran, surgeon general of the
northern department of the Continental army. It is dated "August
16, 1779." The original is in the present possession of the New York
Historical Society, where it was deposited by Dr. Cochran's son, the
late Major Cochran, of Oswego. See page 221, vol. i.

[[[Washington's Letter to Dr. Cochran.--Pomp of Ancient Generals.--"The
Sword and the Staff."]]]

{407}tinder-box; tin boxes for tea and sugar cane, bequeathed to the
hero by the sage. ** ode called and five small bottles for pepper and
other materials for making soup. Such composed the appointments for the
table of the commander-in-chief of the American armies, while battling
for independence, and laying the corner stone of our republic.

[Illustration: 9417]

What a contrast with the camp equipage of the heroes of other times and
other lands, whom history has apotheosized, and whom the people of the
earth call great! * With all the glitter and the pomp of wealth and
power, which dazzle the superficial eye, the splendor which surrounds
them is but dimness compared to the true glory that haloes the name and
deeds of Washington, appreciated by the consequences of his career.

* Standing near the camp chest is Washington's war sword, and with it
Franklin's. Of these relics Morris has sweetly sung, in his

     'The Sword and the Staff.
     "The sword of the Hero!
     The staff of the Sage!
     Whose valor and wisdom
     Are stamp'd on the age!
     Time-hallowed mementoes
     Of those who have riven
     The scepter from tyrants,
     'The lightning from heaven.'

* "Dear Doctor,--I have asked Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to dine
with me to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprise them of their
fare? As I hate deception, even where the imagination only is concerned,
I will. It is needless to premise that my table is large enough to hold
the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is
usually covered is rather more essential; and this shall be the purport
of my letter. "Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham,
sometimes a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table; a piece
of roast beef adorns the foot; and a dish of beans, or greens, almost
imperceptible, decorates the center. When the cook has a mind to cut
a figure, which I presume will be the case to-morrow, we have two
beef-steak pies, or dishes of crabs, in addition, one on each side of
the center dish, dividing the space and reducing the distance between
dish and dish to about six feet, which without them would be nearly
twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surprising sagacity to
discover that apples will make pies; and it is a question if, in the
violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples, instead of having
both of beef-steaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertainment,
and will submit to partake of it on plates, once tin but now iron (not
become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them; and
am, dear doctor, yours," &c.

* Montfaucon, in his Antiquity Explained, gives an account of the
splendid processions of the conquerors of Persia, and the gold and
silver vessels used in the tents of the generals. After mentioning the
vast number of gold and silver vessels, chairs, tables, couches, &c.,
in the magnificent tent of Ptolemy Philadelphus, he thus describes the
triumphal procession of Antiochus Epiphanes: "First came twenty thousand
Macedonians, the greatest Part of which had brass Shields, and others
silver Shields. Then three thousand Horsemen of Antioch, most of whom
had gold Collars and gold Crowns. Two thousand Horsemen more, all with
gold Collars. Eight hundred young Men, each wearing a gold Crown. A
thousand young Men, each carrying a silver Vase, the least of which
weighed a thousand Drachms. Six hundred young Men more, each carrying
a Vase of Gold; and two hundred Women, each with a Gold Vase to scatter
Perfumes. Eighty Women carried on Chairs, the feet of which were Gold;
and five hundred other Women, carried on Chairs with silver feet. This
pompous Procession would appear very magnificent, were it not put after
the former [Ptolemy Philadelphus], which surpasses every thing that can
be imagined."--Supplement, tome iii., book v., p. 323. I refer to this
parade as an example of the contrast alluded to.

** Doctor Franklin, in the codicil to his Will, wrote as follows: "My
fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in
the form of the cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of
mankind, General Washington. If it were a scepter, he has merited it,
and would become it. It was a present to me from that excellent woman,
Madame De Forbach, the dowager duchess of Deux-Ponts, connected with
some verses which should go with it."

     "This weapon, O Freedom!
     Was drawn by thy son,
     And it never was sheath'd
     Till the battle was won!
     No stain of dishonor
     Upon it we see!
     'Twas never surrender'd--
     Except to the free!
     "While Fame claims the hero
     And patriot sage,
     Their names to emblazon
     On History's page,
     No holier relics
     Will Liberty hoard,
     Than Franklin's staff, guarded
     By Washington's sword."

[[[Revolutionary Relics.--Franklin's Press.--History of its Importation
to America]]]

{408}The war sword of the chief is incased in a black leather sheath,
with silver mountings. The handle is ivory, colored a pale green, and
wound spirally with silver wire at wide intervals. *

[Illustration: 8418]

It was manufactured by J. Bailey, Fishkill, New York, ** and has the
maker's name engraved upon the hilt. The belt is white leather, with
silver mountings, and was evidently made at an earlier period, for upon
a silver plate is engraved "1757."

[Illustration: 9418]

Washington's commission, signed by John Hancock, and the suit of clothes
which he wore when he resigned that instrument into the custody of
Congress, at Annapolis, are also there, together with a piece of his
tent, and the portable writing-ease represented in the en graving, which
he used during all of his campaigns. The case is of board, covered with
black leather, ornamented with figured borders. But the most precious
relic of all was the original Declaration of Independence, written upon
parchment, and bearing the autographs of the signers. In the year 1818,
this priceless document was allowed to go into the hands of Benjamin
Owen Tyler, a teacher of penmanship, for the purpose of making a
fac simile of it for publication. By some process which he used for
transferring it, it narrowly escaped utter destruction. Many of the
names are almost illegible, while others are quite dim. This document
(which was since removed to the Congress Library), with other precious
things, was saved when the public buildings were burned by the British
in 1814. In another part of the rooms of the Institute, which is devoted
chiefly to the scientific collections made by the exploring expedition
a few years ago, is the printing-press with which Franklin labored
in London, when a journeyman printer, in 1725--6. *** It is carefully
preserved in a glass case. It is an exceedingly rude apparatus, and
presents a wonderful contrast to the printing machines of Hoe, of the
present day, from which twenty thousand impressions may be thrown each
hour. The _platen_ is of wood, the _bed_ of stone. Its construction is
in the primitive style universally

* Upon the thigh of the chief, in Leutze's picture of Washington
Crossing the Delaware, is a perfect representation of this sword.

** Sec note on page 122.

*** In 1841, John B. Murray, Esq., of New York, being in Liverpool, was
informed that this press was in the possession of Messrs. Harrild and
Sons, of London. Mr. Murray visited their establishment, and proposed to
purchase the press for the purpose of sending it to America. The owners
informed him that they had thought of presenting it to the government of
the United States, and assured him that they would not part with it for
any other purpose. After some negotiation, the Messrs. Harrild agreed to
let Mr. Murray have it, on condition that he should procure a donation
to the Printers' Pension Society of London. The press was forwarded
to Liverpool, and there exhibited. It attracted great attention; and
finally the Reverend Hugh M'Neile, of Liverpool, was induced to deliver
a public lecture on the Life of Franklin, the proceeds from admission
tickets to be given to the society above named. In November, Mr. Murray
had the pleasure of remitting to the treasurer of the Printers' Pension
Society $752, to be appropriated to the relief of one pensioner, a
disabled printer of any country, to be called the Franklin pension. Mr.
Murray brought the press to the United States, and it now occupies an
appropriate place among the historical relics of our country at the
Federal metropolis. The lecture of Mr. M'Neil was published, with a fac
simile of a letter written by Franklin in 1756, to the Reverend George
Whitefield, and also a page containing an engraving of the press, which
was printed upon the identical machine thus honored.

[[[Character of the Press.--Franklin's Remarks in 1768.--Peale's Picture
of Washington.--Its History.]]]

{409}used before the improvements made by the Earl of Stanhope; the
power being obtained by a single screw, like a common standing-press,
instead of a combination of lever and screw, as applied by that
nobleman, or the combination of levers alone, as seen in the _Columbian_
press invented by our countryman, George Clymer.

[Illustration: 9419]

Upon I brass plate affixed to the front of the press is the following
inscription:

"Dr. Franklin's remarks in relation to this press, made when he came to
England as agent of Massachusetts, in the year 1768. The doctor, at
this time, visited the printing-office of Mr. Watts, of Wild Street,
Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and, going up to this particular press (afterward
in the possession of Messrs. Cox and Son, of Great Queen Street, of whom
it was purchased), thus addressed the men who were working at it:*
Come, my friends, we will drink together. It is now forty years since
I worked, like you, at this press, as a journeyman printer.' The doctor
then sent out for a gallon of porter, and he drank with them,

_SUCCESS TO PRINTING._

"From the above it will appear that it is one hundred and eight years
since Doctor Franklin worked at this identical press.--June, 1833."

Upon the wall of the room is a full-length portrait of Washington,
painted by Charles Wilson Peale, * under peculiar circumstances. Peale
was a remarkable man. Possessed of great versatility of talent, he
brought all his genius into play as circumstances demanded. He was a
sturdy patriot, and entered the army at an early period of the contest.
He commanded a company at the battle of Trenton, and also at Germantown;
and he was with the army at Valley Forge. He employed the leisure hours
incident to camp duty in painting, and it was at Valley Forge that he
commenced the picture in question. When the army crossed the Delaware
into New Jersey in pursuit of Sir Henry Clinton, and fought the battle
of Monmouth, Peale went with it, taking his unfinished picture and his
materials with him; and at Brunswick, a day or two after the Monmouth
conflict, he obtained the last sitting from the commander-in-chief. The
picture was finished at Princeton. A distant view of Nassau Hall, at
that place, with a body of British prisoners marching, compose a portion
of the back-ground. The picture of the sword hanging upon the thigh of
Washing-

* Charles Wilson Peale was born at Charlestown, in Maryland, in 1741,
and was apprenticed to a sad-ller in Annapolis. He beeame also a
silver-smith, watch-maker, and carver. Carrying a handsome saddle to
Hesselius, a portrait-painter in his neighborhood, he begged him to
explain the mystery of putting colors upon canvas. From that day his
artist life began.

[Illustration: 8419]

*He went to England, where he studied under Benjamin West in 1770
and 1771. He returned to America, and for fifteen years was the only
portrait painter of excellence in this country. By close application he
became a good naturalist and preserver of animals. Mr. Peale opened a
picture gallery in Philadelphia, and also commenced a museum, whieh,
in time, became extensive. He delivered a course of lectures on natural
history, and was very efficient in the establishment and support of the
Academy of Fine Arts. He lived temperately, worked assiduously, and was
Greatly esteemed by all who knew him. He died in February, 1827, aged
eighty-five years. I once saw a full-length portrait of himself which he
painted at the age of eighty--a fine specimen of art.

[[[The Senate and House of Representatives.--Greenough's Statue of
Washington.--The Rotunda and its Contents.]]]

{410}ington is an evidence of the truthfulness of the costume, for it is
an exact representation of the real weapon just described and depicted,
which stands in a case on the opposite side of the room.

Leaving the room of the National Institute, I went up to the Capitol,
and peeped in upon the sages of the Senate and House of Representatives,
who seemed busily engaged in preparing to do something in the way of
legislation.

[Illustration: 9420]

It is a practice quite too common for our writers to speak disparagingly
of members of Congress, with the apparent feeling that they being the
_servants_ of the people, every scribbler has a right to exercise his
freedom of utterance, censuring them to the fullest extent. Doubtless
some of our representatives are entitled to much censure, and _some_ to
ridicule; but, as a body, they generally appear to the candid visitor
as a collection of wise and honorable men. An English gentleman who
accompanied me to both chambers, assured me that he had often sat in the
gallery of the House of Commons of England, of the Chamber of Deputies
of France, and of the Diet of Frankfort and other Germanic Legislatures,
and not one of them could rival in apparent talent, wisdom, decorum, and
faithfulness to their constituents, the members of the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States, in listening to whose delegates
he had spent many weeks during three consecutive sessions. Being more
interested in the historical pictures in the Rotunda of the Capitol,
and in the books in the library of Congress, than in the preliminary
business of the Legislature, I repaired thither, and occupied the
remainder of the day in making sketches of portraits contained in
Trumbull's celebrated pictures, which adorn four of the panels of that
spacious room. *

Early on the following morning I again went up to the Capitol, and
sketched the statue of Washington, by Greenough; the group of Columbus
and the Indian Girl, by Persico; and the elegant monument erected to
the memory of the naval heroes who fought at Tripoli. The first is
a colossal statue of the Father of his Country, sculptured in Parian
marble by Greenough, draped In classic style, and seated upon an
elaborately-wrought chair, the whole supported by a granite pedestal.
In his left hand the chief holds a Roman short sword, in the act of
presenting the right hand, with the index finger extended, is lifted
toward heaven. The chair has a filagree scroll-work back On the left is
a small

* The Rotunda is under the dome, in the middle of the center building.
It is 9 feet in diameter, and of the same height. Just below the
cornice, at the base of the dome, are four basso relievos, representing
Smith delivered from Death by Pocahontas; The Landing of the Pilgrims;
Conflict of Daniel Boone with the Indians; and Penn's Treaty. The
Rotunda has eight panels, in four of which are pictures by Colonel
John Trumbull, representing The Presentation of the Declaration of
Independence to Congress * The Surrender of Burgoyne; the Surrender
of Cornwallis; and Washington resigning his Commission to Congress
at Annapolis. Besides these is a representation of the Baptism of
Pocahontas, by John G. Chapman; The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, by
Robert W. Weir; and The Landing of Columbus, by John Vanderlyn. One
panel remains to be filled.

* According to Colonel Trumbull's circular, now before me, the picture
of The Presentation of The Declaration of Independence. so familiar
to every American, was begun in Europe in 1787. It contains faithful
portraits of thirty-six members, who were then living, and of all others
of whom any correct representation could, at that early period, be
obtained. These, with others which have since been obtained, to the
number of forty-nine, are faithfully given in the frontispiece to this
volume. There are two heads among them who were not signers of the
Declaration: John Dickenson and Thomas Willing, of Pennsylvania.
Trumbull's picture was engraved by A. B. Durand, the now eminent
painter, in 1820-1. The paper on which it was printed was made by
Messrs. Gilpin, at Brandywine, and the printing was executed in New
York. It was first published in 1822, and is the original of the
millions of copies of all sizes which are in circulation. The portraits
of the officers of the French army in America, delineated in the picture
of the Surrender of Cornwallis, were painted from life, by Colonel
Trumbull, at the house of Mr. Jefferson, at Paris. Copies of these
portraits, fourteen in number may be found in another portion of this
work.

[[[Description of Greenough's Statue.--Tuckerman's Poem.--A Chippewa's
Speech.--Persico's Group.]]]

{411}figure of an aged man, with flowing beard, covered by a mantle;
on the right stands an Indian of similar size, and both are in a
contemplative attitude. On the left side of the seat, in low relief, is
an infant Hercules, holding a serpent in one hand. Near him is another
infant, prostrate, with its hand over its face. On the other side is
Phoebus, with "his coursers of the sun." On the back of the seat, below
the filagree work, is a Latin inscription, in raised letters.' This
statue was originally intended for the center of the Rotunda. Too large
for that room, it was placed upon the open grounds facing the east front
of the Capitol, where, exposed to the sun and storm, its beauty, except
in form, must soon pass away. It is a noble work of art, and, as I gazed
upon the features of the great chief in the solemn grandeur of the inert
marble, the beautiful lines of the poet came like a gushing stream from
the deep well of memory, and the heart chanted,=

```"O, it was well, in marble firm and white,

````To carve our hero's form,

```Whose angel guidance was our strength in fight,

````Our star amid the storm!

```Whose matchless truth has made his name divine,

````And human freedom sure,

```His country great, his tomb earth's dearest shrine,

````While man and time endure!

```And it is well to place his image there,

````Upon the soil he bless'd;

```Let meaner spirits, who our councils share

````Revere that silent guest!

```Let us go up with high and sacred love

````To look on his pure brow,

```And as, with solemn grace, he points above,

````Renew the patriot's vow!"

`````Henry T. Tuckerman.=

Eloquently did one of the chiefs of the Chippewa delegation address this
statue, while standing before it a few years ago. "My Great Father," he
said, "we all shake hands with you; we have traveled a long way through
the great country that you acquired for your people by the aid of the
Great Spirit. Your people have become very great; our people have become
very small. May the Great Spirit, who gave you success, now protect us,
and grant us the favor we ask of our Great Father, who now fills the
place first occupied by you." What orator or sage ever expressed more in
so few words?

The group of _Columbus and the Indian Girl,_ by Persico, is a good
specimen of that sculptor's skill. It is in white marble, and is
intended as a representation of the idea of the discovery of America.
This group is on the south side of the steps of the eastern portico
of the Capitol. In the Discoverer's hand is a globe, appearing to the
spectator, at first, like a simple ball. The relative position of
this figure to the statue of Washington, whose right hand is elevated,
impresses the beholder, at first sight, with the ludicrous idea of the
Navigator and the Patriot engaged in tossing a ball at each other. The
naval monument is upon the highest terrace on the western front of the
Capitol. It is of white marble, with

* The following is a copy of the inscription: "Horatio Greenough made
this effigy, for a great exemplar of freedom, and one destined only to
endure with freedom itself." Upon the granite pedestal are the following
words, in large eameo letters: South side.--"First in Peace." North
side.--"First in War." West side.--"First in the hearts of his
countrymen."

[[[Tripoli Monument.--President Polk.--Arlington House.--Mr. Custis and
the "Washington Treasures."]]]

{412}a brown stone pedestal, and is about forty feet high. It stands
within a large basin of water, eight or ten feet deep, and supplied by a
fountain in which gold fishes in abundance are seen sporting. The basin
is surrounded by a strong iron fence. Upon one side of the pedestal, in
low relief sculpture, is a view of Tripoli and the American fleet, and
upon the other the following inscription:

"To the Memory of Somers, Caldwell, Decatur, Wadsworth, Dorsey, Israel."
*

This monument, although too small to appear grand, is a fine
embellishment, and commands the attention of every visitor to the
Federal Capitol. [[ a December, 1848]]I passed the morning of the
library of Mr. Force, preparing from old maps a plan of my
Southern route. Toward noon I went up to the presidential mansion, and
enjoyed the pleasure of an hour's interview with the chief magistrate,
the late Mr. Polk. It was not a visit prompted by the foolish desire to
see the exalted, but for the purpose of seeking information respecting
an important movement in North Carolina at the commencement of the
war of the Revolution, in which some of the family of Mr. Polk
were conspicuous actors. I allude to the celebrated _Mecklenburgh
Convention_, in May, 1775. The president readily communicated all
the information in his possession, and kindly gave me a letter of
introduction to the grandson of the secretary of that convention, then
residing in Charlotte, where the meeting was held. This matter will be
considered in detail hereafter.

[Illustration: 8422]

At meridian I crossed the Potomac upon the mile-long bridge, and rode to
_Arlington House_, the seat of George Washington Parke Custis, Esq. His
mansion, wherein true Virginian hospitality prevails, is beautifully
situated upon high ground overlooking the Potomac, Washington City, and
Georgetown, half surrounded by a fine oak forest, and fronting broad
lawns. Mr. Custis received me, though a stranger, with cordiality, and
when the object of my visit was made known, the "Washington treasures of
Arlington House" were opened for my inspection. As executor of the will,
and the adopted son and member of the immediate family of Washington,
Mr. Custis possesses many interesting mementoes of that great man. He
has several fine paintings. Among them is the original three-quarter
length portrait of his grandmother (Lady Washington), by Woolaston, from
which the engraving in Sparks's Life of Washington was made; also the
original portrait of the chief by Trumbull; of the two children of Mrs.
Washington (the father and aunt of Mr. Custis); of Parke, an ancestor,
who was aid to the great Marlborough in the battle of Blenheim, painted
by Sir Godfrey Kneller; crayon profile sketches of Washington and his
lady, made in 1796; a beautiful painting on copper, in imitation of a
medallion, of the heads of Washington and La Fayette, executed by the
Marchioness De Brienne, and presented to Washington in 1789; and a
number of other fine family portraits, choice engravings, and sculpture.
Mr. Custis is himself an amateur artist, and has painted several
historical subjects, among which is a cabinet picture of Washington
wherein the figure of the chief is truth-

* This monument was wrought in Italy, by Capelano, in 1804, by order of
the surviving officers of the siege of Tripoli, and paid for by them.
It was erected in the navy-yard at Washington City in 1806, where it
was damaged by the British in 1814. This fact was kept in
perpetual remembrance by the inscription put upon it, "Mutilated by
Britons, August, 1814." When the monument was placed in its present
position, that record was generously erased.

** The head of Washington is from a bust by Houdon, in possession of Mr.
Custis.

[[[Alexandria.--Its Museum.--The Hessian Flag captured at
Trenton.--Anecdote of Washington.]]]

{413}fully delineated. A copy of his battle of Monmouth is printed oil
page 361. With books and pencil, in the bosom of an affectionate family,
Mr. Custis, the last survivor of Washington's immediate household, is
enjoying the blessings of a green old age. He has been present at the
inauguration of every president of the United States (now numbering
thirteen); and he has grasped the hand in friendly greeting of almost
every distinguished personage who has visited our national metropolis
during the last half century. For many years he communicated to the
National Intelligencer his _Recollections of Washington_. These are
graphic pictures of some of the most eventful scenes in the life of the
patriot chief, described by eye-witnesses, and it is hoped that they
will yet be arranged and published in a volume by the author.

It was almost sunset when I left Arlington House and returned to
the Federal city. Before breakfast the next morning I rode down to
Alexandria, an old town on the Virginia side of the Potomac, seven miles
below Washington. It is quite a large place, and was once a commercial
mart of considerable importance.

[Illustration: 9423]

The town is handsomely laid out in rectangles, and is said to be
remarkably healthy. It has but little Revolutionary history, except such
as appertains to the personal affairs of Washington, whose residence, at
Mount Vernon, was near. * In its museum, which is closed to the public,
are many relics of the war for independence, of exceeding rarity and
value, most of which belongs to Mr. Custis. I procured permission to
visit the museum from Mr. Vietch, the mayor of Alexandria, under
whose official charge the corporation has placed the collection; and,
accompanied by an officer, I passed an hour among its curiosities. Among
them is the flag which Washington took from the Hessians at Trenton,
mentioned on page 229. It is composed of two pieces of very heavy white
damask silk, on which the devices are embroidered with silk and gold
thread. The lettering is all done with gold thread. On one side is an
eagle, bearing in its talons a scroll and olive branch. Over it, upon a
ribbon, are the words Pro principe et patria;

"For principle and country a curious motto for the flag of mercenaries.
Upon the other side is a monogram, composed of the letters E. C. T. S.
A., and supposed to be that of the general commandant of the Anspachers.
Under it are the initials M. Z. B., and the date 1775. The whole is
surmounted by the British crown. This flag was probably wrought in
England, while the German troops were awaiting embarkation for America,
toward the close of 1775. It is four feet square.

The tassels, made of silver bullion, are suspended to a plait of silver
tinsel.

Near the Hessian flag was the royal union stand-

* The following anecdote is illustrative of the generous and noble
character of Washington in his early manhood: When colonel of the
Virginia troops in 1754, he was stationed at Alexandria. At an election
for members of Assembly Colonel Washington, in the heat of party
excitement, used offensive language toward a Mr. Payne. That gentleman
struck the colonel a blow which prostrated him. Intelligence went to
the barracks that Colonel Washington had been murdered by a mob. His
soldiers rushed to the city to avenge his death. Joyfully they met
him, and, being quieted by an address, they returned peaceably to
their barracks. Next day, Mr. Payne received a note from Washington,
requesting his attendance at the tavern in Alexandria. Mr. Payne
anticipated a duel, but, instead of pistols in the hands of an irritated
man, he saw wine and glasses, and was met with a friendly smile by his
antagonist. Colonel Washington felt that himself was the aggressor, and
determined to make reparation. He offered Mr. Payne his hand, and said,
"To err is nature; to rectify error is glory. I believe I was wrong
yesterday; you have already had some satisfaction, and, if you deem that
sufficient, here is my hand--let us be friends." And they were so.

[[[Washington's Bier, and other Relics.--Departure for Mount
Vernon.--The Mansion.]]]

{414}ard which Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. A
picture of this flag will be given when considering that last great
triumph of the Americans.

[Illustration: 9424]

The Hessian and the British flags are labeled, respectively, _Alpha_ and
_Omega_, for they were the "first and the last" captured by Washington.

A flag which belonged to the _Commander-in-chief's Guard_, printed
on page 120, and one that belonged to Morgan's rifle corps, were also
there; and in the midst of common curiosities, covered with dust and
cobwebs, stood the _bier_ on which Washington was carried to the tomb
at Mount Vernon. It is of oak, painted a lead color, and is six feet in
length. The handles, which are hinged to the bier, had leather pads on
the under side, fastened with brass nails. Hanging over the bier was the
letter of Washington, printed in a note on page 115; and near by laid a
napkin said to have been used on the occasion when he was christened.

[Illustration: 0424]

The museum contains many other things of general and special interest;
but, being closed to the public, they are quite useless, while neglect
is allowing the invisible fingers of decay to destroy them. I was glad
to learn that the precious relics above named, which belong to Mr.

* This view is from the lawn in front, looking down the Potomac. The
mansion is built of wood, but so as to resemble stone, like Johnson
Hall, at Johnstown, in New York, and is two stories in height. The
central part was built by Lawrence Washington, a brother of the chief.
The wings were added by the general. Through the center of the building
is a spacious passage, level with the portico, and paved with tesselated
Italian marble. This hall communicates with three large rooms, and
with the main stair-way leading to the second story. The piazza on the
eastern or river front is of square paneled pilasters, extending the
whole length of the edifice. There is an observatory and cupola in the
center of the roof, from whence may be obtained an extensive view of the
surrounding country. The Mount Vernon estate was inherited by Lawrence
Washington, who named it in honor of Admiral Vernon. He bequeathed it
to George, and it passed into his possession on the death of Lawrence,
which occurred in the mansion we are now noticing, on the 26th of July,
1752.

[[[Approach to Mount Vernon.--The Library and its Associations.--Key of
the Bastile.--Destruction of that Prison.]]]

{415}Custis, are about to be transferred to the rooms of the National
Institute, where they may be seen by the thousands who visit the
metropolis.

Toward noon I rode to Mount Vernon, nine miles below Alexandria. It
was a mild, clear day, almost as balmy as the Indian summer time. After
crossing an estuary of the Potomac the road was devious, passing through
a rough, half-cultivated region, and almost impassable in places on
account of gulleys scooped by recent rains. Leaving the main road
when within about three miles of Mount Vernon, I traversed a winding
carriage-way through partially-cultivated fields, over which young pines
and cedars were growing in profusion; the unerring certifiers of that
bad husbandry which many regions of the Southern States exhibit.

[Illustration: 9425]

When within about two miles of the venerated mansion, I passed a large
stone upon the left of the road, which denotes a boundary line of the
ancient estate. It is in the midst of stately forest trees; and from
this land-mark to the residence, the road, unfenced and devious, passed
through a greatly diversified region, some of it tilled, some returning
to a wilderness state, and some appearing as if never touched by the
hand of industry. Suddenly, on ascending a small steep hill from the
edge of a wild ravine, the mansion and its surroundings were before me,
and through the leafless branches of the trees came the sheen of the
meridian sun from a distant bay of the Potomac. I was met at the gate
by an intelligent colored lad, who ordered another to take charge of
my horse, while he conducted me to the mansion. I bore a letter of
introduction to the present proprietor of Mount Vernon, Augustine
Washington, a grand-nephew of the patriot chief; but himself and family
were absent, and not a white person was upon the premises. I felt a
disappointment, for I desired to pass the time there in the company of a
relative of the beloved one whose name and deeds hallow the spot.

Silence pervaded the life-dwelling of Washington, and the echoes of
every footfall, as I moved at the beck of the servant from room to
room, seemed almost like the voices of intruders. I entered the library
(which, with the breakfast-room, is in the south wing of the building),
and in the deep shadows of that quiet apartment sat down in the very
chair often occupied by the patriot, and gazed and mused with feelings
not to be uttered. Upon brackets were marble busts of Washington and La
Fayette, and a small one of Necker, the French Minister of Finance
when the Revolution broke out in France. The first is over the door
of entrance into the library. It was executed by Houdon, from life, he
having obtained a mask, in plaster, and is doubtless the best likeness
extant.

Upon the walls hung the portraits of Laurence Washington, brother of the
general, and of several female members of the family. In the great hall,
or passage, in a glass case of prismatic form, hung the _Key of the
Bastile,_ and near it was an engraved view of the demolition of that
renowned prison. The large north room wherein Washington entertained his
political friends, with the furniture, is kept in the same condition as
when he left it. Upon the walls were pictures of hunting and battle

* This key of the old Paris prison known as the Bastile, was sent hy
La Fayette to Washington after the destruction of that edifice by the
infuriated populace on the 14th of July. 1789. This was the beginning of
the French Revolution. The Bastile was originally a royal palace, built
by Charles the Fifth of France in 1369. It was afterward used as a
state prison, like the Tower of London, and became the scene of dreadful
sufferings and frightful crimes. When the mob gained possession of it in
1789, they took the governor and other officers to the Place de Grève,
where they first cut off their hands and then their heads. With the key,
La Fayette sent a plaster model of the old building. The model, somewhat
defaced from long exposure in the Alexandria museum, is among the
collections of the National Institute, while the key retains its ancient
position at Mount Vernon. It is of wrought iron seven inches long.
La Fayette, in his letter to Washington which accompanied the key and
picture, dated "Paris, March 17th, 1789,' said, "Give me leave, my
dear general, to present you with a picture of the Bastile, just as it
appeared a few days after I had ordered its demolition, with the main
key of this fortress of despotism. It is a tribute which I owe as a son
to my adopted father; as an aid-de-camp to my general; as a missionary
of liberty to its patriarch."

* Thomas Paine, then in London, employed in constructing an iron bridge
which he had invented, was chosen by La Fayette as the medium through
which to forward the key to Washington. Paine, in his letter to the
general accompanying the key, dated "London. May 1, 1789," wrote, "Our
very good friend, the Marquis De La Fayette, has intrusted to my care
the key of the Bastile, and a drawing, handsomely framed, representing
the demolition of that detestable prison, as a present to your
excellency, of whieh his letter will more particularly inform you.
I feel myself happy in being the person through whom the marquis has
conveyed this early trophy of the spoils of despotism, and the first
ripe fruits of American principles transplanted into Europe, to his
great master and patron. When he mentioned to me the present he intended
you, my heart, leaped with joy. It is something so truly in character,
that no remarks can illustrate it, and is more happily expressive of his
remembrance of his American friends than any letters ean convey. That
the principles of Ameriea opened the Bastile is not to be doubted, and
therefore the key comes to the right place. I have permitted no drawing
to be taken here, though it has been often requested, as I think there
is a propriety that it should first be presented. But Mr. West wished
Mr. Trumbull to make a painting of the presentation of the key to you."

[[[Pictures at Mount Vernon.--Chimney-piece.--Monumental Eulogy.--The
Old Vault of the Washington Family.]]]

{416}scenes. Among them were prints of the death of Montgomery, and the
battle of Bunker Hill, but not one of any engagement in which Washington
himself participated. There hung the small portrait of the chief, on the
back of which an unknown hand wrote an admirable monumental eulogy.
* There, too, was a large painting--a family group--representing the
mother and children of the present proprietor. The fire-place of the
drawing-room is decorated with a superb Italian chimney-piece, made of
variegated Sienna marble, in which is sculptured, in bold relief, on the
tablets of the frieze, prominent objects of agriculture and husbandry.
It was presented to Washington in 1785, by Samuel Vaughn, Esq., of
London. One room is closed to the public gaze, and I honor the holy
motives which prompt the veiling of that apartment from the eyes of
prying curiosity; it is the chamber whence the spirit of the illustrious
Washington, departed for its home in=


````"The bosom of his Father and his God."=


[Illustration: 9426]

I passed out upon the eastern piazza (seen in the engraving), which
overlooks the Potomac. By the side of the door hung the spyglass often
used by Washington; and, prompted by curiosity, I drew its tubes, and
through them surveyed the hills of Maryland stretching away eastward on
the opposite side of the river.

From the mansion of the living I went to the dwelling of the dead, the
old family vault, situated upon the declivity of a dell in full view of
the river. It is about three hundred yards south of the mansion. Therein
the body of Washington was first laid, and remained undisturbed for
thirty years, when it was removed to a new tomb, erected in a more
secluded spot, in accordance with direc-

* It is supposed to have been written by an English gentleman. The
following is a copy:

* "Washington--The Defender of his Country--the Founder of Liberty--The
Friend of Man. History and Tradition are explored in vain For a Parallel
to his Character. In the Annals of Modern Greatness He stands alone; And
the noblest, names of antiquity Lose their Luster in his Presence. Born
the Benefactor of Mankind, He united all the qualities necessary to an
illustrious career. Nature made him great; He made himself virtuous.
Called by his country to the defense of her Liberties, He triumphantly
vindicated the rights of humanity, And on the Pillars of National
Independence Laid the foundations of a great Republic. Twice invested
with supreme magistracy, By the unanimous voice of a free people, He
surpassed in the Cabinet The Glories of the Field. And voluntarily
resigning the Scepter and the Sword, Retired to the shades of Private
Life. A spectacle so new and so sublime Was contemplated with the
profoundest admiration. And The name of Washington, Adding new luster to
humanity, Resounded to the remotest regions of the earth, Magnanimous in
youth, Glorious through life, Great in Death; His highest ambition,
the Happiness of Mankind; His noblest Victory, the conquest of himself.
Bequeathing to posterity the inheritance of his fame And building his
monument in the hearts of his countrymen, He Lived The Ornament of the
18th Century He Died regretted by a Mourning World."

{417}tions in his will. * The construction of this tomb was delayed
until many years ago, when an attempt was made to carry off the remains
of the illustrious dead. The old vault was entered, and a skull and some
bones were taken away. They formed no part of the remains of Washington.
The robber was detected, and the bones were recovered.

[Illustration: 8427]

The new vault is on the side of a steep hill, on the edge of a deep
wooded dell leading toward the river. The interior walls are built of
brick, arched over at the height of eight feet from the ground. The
front of the tomb is rough, and has a plain iron door inserted in a
freestone casement. Upon a stone panel over the door are inscribed the
words, "I am

THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE; HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE
DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE."

Inclosing this tomb is a structure of brick twelve feet high. In front
is an iron gateway, opening several feet in advance of the vault door,
and forming a kind of ante-chamber. This gateway is flanked with
pilasters, surmounted by a stone coping, covering a pointed Gothic arch.
** Over this arch is a tablet, on which is inscribed,

"Within this inclosure rest the

REMAINS OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON."

I was much disappointed in the exterior appearance of the tomb, for it
seems to me that in material and design it is quite too common-place.

It justifies the description of it given recently by Lord Morpeth, who
visited it in 1811. "The tomb of that most illustrious of mortals,"
he said, "is placed under a glaring red building, somewhat between a
coach-house and a cage." ***

[Illustration: 9427]

Art should be allowed to contribute the best offerings of genius in
enshrining the mortal remains of George Washington.

In the ante-chamber of the tomb are two marble sarcophagi, containing
the remains of Washington and his lady. That of the patriot has a
sculptured lid, on which is represented the American shield suspended
over the flag of the Union; the latter hung in festoons, and the whole
surmounted, as a crest, by an eagle with open wings, perched upon the
superior bar of the shield. Below the design, and deeply eut in the
marble, is the name of Washington. This sarcophagus was constructed
by John Struthers, of Philadelphia, from a design by Washington's new
Family Vault.

* The following is the clause referred to: "The family vault at Mount
Vernon requiring repairs, and being improperly situated besides. I
desire that a new one of brick, and upon a larger scale may be built at
the foot of what is called the Vineyard Inclosure, on the ground which
is marked out, in which mv remains, and those of my deceased relatives
(now in the old vault), and such others of my family as may choose to be
entombed there, may be deposited."

** This exterior structure was made for the special accommodation and
preservation of the sarcaphagi inclosed within it, the vault being too
small and damp for the purpose.

*** Lecture on America, before the Mechanic's Institute at Leeds,
November, 1850.

**** This was placed in the family vault in the autumn of 1837. Mr.
Striekland wrote an interesting account of the transaction. While the
sarcophagus was on its way by water, he and Mr. Struthers repaired to
Mount Vernon to make arrangements for the reception. On entering,
they found every thing in confusion. Decayed fragments of coffins were
scattered about, and bones of various parts of the human body were
seen promiscuously thrown together. The decayed wood was dripping with
moisture. "The slimy snail glistened in the light of the door-opening.
The brown centipede was disturbed by the admission of fresh air, and the
moldy eases of the dead gave out a pungent and unwholesome odor." The
coffins of Washington and his lady were in the deepest recess of the
vault. They were of lead, inclosed in wooden cases. When the sarcophagus
arrived, the coffin of the chief was brought forth. The vault was first
entered by Mr. Strickland, accompanied by Major Lewis (the last survivor
of the first executors of the will of Washington) and his son. When
the decayed wooden case was removed, the leaden lid was perceived to
be sunken and fractured. In the bottom of the wooden case was found the
silver coffin-plate, in the form of a shield, which was placed upon the
leaden coffin when Washington was first entombed.

[Illustration: 7428]

* "At the request of Major Lewis," says Mr. S., "the fractured part of
the lid was turned over on the lower part, exposing to view a head and
breast of large dimensions, which appeared, by the dim light of the
candles, to have suffered but little from the effects of time. The
eye-sockets were large and deep, and the breadth across the temples,
together with the forehead, appeared of unusual size. There was no
appearance of grave-clothes; the chest was broad; the color was dark,
and had the appearance of dried flesh and skin adhering closely to the
bones. We saw no hair, nor was there any offensive odor from the body;
but we observed, when the coffin had been removed to the outside of the
vault, the dripping down of a yellow liquid, which stained the marble
of the sarcophagus. A hand was laid upon the head and instantly removed;
the leaden lid was restored to its place; the body, raised by six men,
was carried and laid in the marble coffin, and the ponderous cover being
put on and set in cement, it was sealed from our sight on Saturday, the
7th day of October, 1837.... The relatives who were present, consisting
of Major Lewis, Lorenzo Lewis, John Augustine Washington, George
Washington, the Rev. Mr. Johnson and lady, and Miss Jane Washington,
then retired to the mansion."

[[[Tomb of Lady Washington.--Narrative of the Re-entombing of
Washington's Remains.--Their Appearance.]]]

{418}William Strickland, and was presented by him to the relatives
of Washington. It consists of an excavation from a solid block of
Pennsylvania marble, eight feet in length and two in height.

[Illustration: 9428]

The marble coffin of Lady Washington, which stands upon the left of the
other, is from the same chisel, and plainly wrought. Both may be seen by
the visitor, through the iron gate.

[Illustration: 8428]

Who can stand at the portals of this tomb, where sleeps all that is
left of the mortality of the Father of his Country, and not feel the
outgoings of a devotional spirit--an involuntary desire to kneel down
with reverence, not with the false adulations of mere hero-worship,
but with the sincere sympathies of a soul bending before the shrine of
superior goodness and greatness?=

```"There is an awful stillness in the sky,

```When, after wondrous deeds and light supreme,

```A star goes out in golden prophecy.

```There is an awful stillness in the world,

```When, after wondrous deeds and light supreme,

```A hero dies with all the future clear

```Before him, and his voice made jubilant

```By coming glories, and his nation hush'd

```As though they heard the farewell of a God.

```A great man is to earth as God to heaven."

`````William Ross Wallace.=

I lingered long at the tomb of Washington, even until the lengthening
evening shadows were cast upon the Potomac; and I departed with
reluctance from the precincts of Mount Vernon, where the great and good
of many lands enjoyed the hospitality of the illustrious owner when
living, or have poured forth the si-

* This view is from the lawn, looking east; the buildings seen upon
each side, and connected with the mansion by arcades, are the servants'
houses.

[[[Departure from Mount Vernon.--Pohick Church.--Occoquan and its
Reminiscences.--Dunmore's Repulse at Occoquan.]]]

{419}lent eulogium of the heart at his grave. The sun was disappearing
behind the forest when I passed the gate, at the verge of a spacious
lawn on the western front of the mansion, and departed for Occoquan,
about twelve miles distant, where I purposed to spend the Sabbath. The
road was in a wretched condition. It passes through a series of small
swamps and pine barrens, where once fertile plantations smiled under the
fostering care of industry.

[Illustration: 8429]

At sunset I crossed a large stream at the Oceatunk saw-mills, where the
aspect of nature is grand and romantic, and at early twilight reached
the venerated _Pohick or Powheek_ Church, where Washington worshiped,
and Weems, his first biographer, preached. It is about seven miles
southwest of Mount Vernon, upon an elevation on the borders of a forest,
and surrounded by ancient oaks, chestnuts, and pines. The twilight
lingered long enough with sufficient intensity to allow me to make the
annexed sketch from my wagon in the road, when I gave my horse a loose
rein, and hastened toward Occoquan as fast as the deep mud in the
highway would permit. A thick vapor came up from the southwest and
obscured the stars, and when I heard the distant murmurs of the falls
of the Occoquan, the heavens were overcast, and the night was intensely
dark. As I approached the village, I perceived that I was upon the
margin of the waters lying deep below, for there came up the reflected
lights from a few dwellings upon the opposite shore. I had more
confidence in my horse's sight than in my own, and allowed him to make
his way as he pleased along the invisible road to the bridge; how near
to the precipice I knew not, until the next morning, when I traced my
wagon tracks, in one place, within a few feet of the brow of a cliff
scores of feet above the deep waters.

Occoquan is a small manufacturing village in Prince William county, near
the mouth of a creek of that name, and at the head of navigation up from
the Potomac. * The creek falls seventy-two feet within the distance of
a mile and a half. All around the scenery is remarkably picturesque, and
to the dweller and traveler, under favorable circumstances, it may be a
delightful place. To me, the remembrance of a night at Occoquan is the
most unpleasant reminiscence of my journey. There was but one tavern in
the place. It was kept by a kind-hearted woman, who seemed desirous of
contributing to my comfort, but her _bar-room_, where strong liquors
appeared to be dealt out with unsparing hand, was the source of all my
discomfort. There I could hear the ribald voices of loungers growing
more vociferous as the evening wore away; and in my chamber I was not
relieved. It was midnight before the revelry ceased, and then two or
three negroes, with wretched voices, accompanied by a more wretched
fiddle, commenced a serenade in the street. It was two hours
past midnight before I slept, and when I awoke in the morning the
dram-drinkers were again there, guzzling, and talking profanely. Greatly
annoyed, I determined to leave the plaee, and, contrary to my custom,
travel on toward Fredericksburg, rather than

* After Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, with his
motley force of whites and negroes, was driven from Gwyn's Island in
July, 1776, he sailed up the Potomac, and, with petty spite, laid waste
several fine plantations upon its banks. He proceeded as far as the
mills at Occoquan falls (where the village now is), and destroyed them.
He was repulsed and driven on board his ships by a few of the Prince
William militia, and then descended the river. This circumstance will be
noticed more in detail hereafter. It is supposed that Dunmore intended
to capture Lady Washington, and destroy the estate at Mount Vernon. A
heavy storm and the Prince William militia frustrated his design.

[[[Visit to Pollick Church.--Its dilapidated Condition.--Worship
there.--Rev. Mason L. Weems.--Washington's Pew.]]]

{420}spend the Sabbath there. Informed that the roads between Occoquan
and Fredericksburg were worse than those I had traversed the day before,
I concluded to return to Alexandria, and go down the Potomac to Aquia
Creek on Monday.

[Illustration: 9430]

I left Occoquan after a late breakfast, and rode as far as _Pohick
Church_, on the road to Alexandria, where I understood a Methodist
meeting was to be held that day. No person had yet arrived, but the
broad doors of the church stood wide open, inviting ingress. Within that
venerated fane I awaited the slow-gathering auditory for more than an
hour. When they were all assembled, men and women, white and black, the
whole congregation, including the writer, amounted to only twenty-one
persons. What a contrast with former days, when some of the noblest of
the Virginia aristocracy filled those now deserted and dilapidated pews,
while Massey or Weems performed the solemn and impressive ritual of the
Church of England! No choir, with the majestic organ, chanted the _Te
Deum_ or the _Gloria in Excelsis_; the Decalogue was not read, nor did
solemn, audible responses, as in other days, go up from the lips of the
people.

[Illustration: 8430]

Yet the glorious hymn, beginning "Come, holy Spirit, heavenly Dove!" was
sung with fervor; and, standing behind the ancient communion-table,
a young preacher in homely garb, with the eloquence of true piety,
proclaimed the pure Gospel of love, and warmed the hearts of all present
with emotions of Christian charity, the burden of his discourse.

I sat in the pew, near the pulpit, wherein Washington and his family
were seated, Sabbath after Sabbath, for many years, ** and I looked with
peculiar interest upon the Law, the Prayer, and the Creed, inscribed
upon the walls back of the chancel, on which, a thousand limes, the
eyes of the Washingtons, the Masons, the Fairfaxes, the Coffers, and
the Hendersons had rested. It was a melancholy sight to behold the
dilapidation of that edifice, around which cluster so many associations
of interest. *** A large portion of the panes of glass were

* Reverend Mason L. Weems was rector of Pohick Church for a while, when
Washington was a parishioner. He was possessed of considerable talent,
but was better adapted for "a man of the world" than a clergyman. Wit
and humor he used freely, and no man could easier be "all things to all
men" than Mr. Weems. His eccentricities and singular conduct finally
lowered his dignity as a clergyman, and gave rise to many false rumors
respecting his character. He was a man of great benevolence, a trait
which he exercised to the extent of his means. A large and increasing
family compelled him to abandon preaching for a livelihood, and he
became a book agent for Matthew Carey. In that business he was very
successful, selling in one year over three thousand copies of a
high-priced Bible. He always preached when invited, during his travels;
and in his location he was instrumental in doing much good, for he
circulated hooks of the highest moral character. Mr. Weems wrote an
attractive Life of Washington, which became so popular that it passed
through some forty editions. He also wrote a Life of Marion, which the
cotemporaries and fellow-soldiers of that leader disliked. They charged
the author with filling his narrative with fiction, when facts were
wanting to give it interest. He died at an advanced age, leaving a large
and well-educated family.

** A grand-daughter of Mrs. Washington, and sister of Mr. Custis
of Arlington House, writing to Mr. Sparks, in 1833, respecting the
religious character of Washington, said, "His pew was near the pulpit.
I have a perfect recollection of being there before his election to the
presidency, with him and my grandmother. It was a beautiful church, and
had a large, respectable, and wealthy congregation, who were regular
attendants."

*** Pohiek Church derived its name from a small river near it, called
by the Indians Powheek or Pohick. It is within old Truro parish, and its
particular location is ascribed to Washington. Mount Vernon was within
Truro parish, and in the affairs of the church Washington took a lively
interest. About 1764, the old church, whieh stood in a different part
of the parish, had fallen into decay, and it was resolved to build a
new one. Its location became a matter of considerable excitement in the
parish, some contending for the site on which the old edifice stood,
and others for one near the center of the parish, and more conveniently
situated. Among the latter was Washington. A meeting for settling the
question was finally held. George Mason, who led the party favorable
to the old site, made an eloquent harangue, conjuring the people not to
desert the sacred spot, consecrated by the bones of their ancestors.
It had a powerful effect, and it was thought that there would not be
a dissenting voice. Washington then arose, and drew from his pocket
an accurate survey which he had made of the whole parish, in which was
marked the site of the old church, and the proposed location of the new
one, together with the place of residence of each parishioner. He spread
this map before the audience, briefly explained it, expressed his
hope that they would not allow their judgments to be guided by their
feelings, and sat down. The silent argument of the map was potent; a
large majority voted in favor of the new site, and in 1765 Pohiek Church
was built.

[[[A Swallow's Nest.--Location of the Church.--Vestrymen. A curious
Document.--Last of Braddock's Men]]]

{421}broken out, admitting freely the wind and rain, the bats and the
birds.

[Illustration: 8431]

The elaborately-wrought pulpit, placed by itself on one side of the
church, away from the chancel, was marred by desecrating hands. Under
its sounding-board a swallow had built its nest, and upon the book-ledge
of the sacred desk the fowls of the air had evidently perched.

[Illustration: 9431]

I thought of the words of the "sweet singer of Israel,"

"Yea, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, _even thine altar_, O Lord of hosts!"' The
chancel, too, is disfigured; but the Law, the Prayer, and the Creed,
painted on a blue ground above it, are quite perfect. The pews are
square, with seats upon three sides, and painted lead color. Upon
the doors of several of them yet remain the initials of the former
occupants, among which I noticed those of George Mason and George
William Fairfax, who, with Washington, were the leading men in the
parish. ** The whole country around Pohiek seems to be degenerating
in soil and population, and the old church edifice is left without a
guardian, to molder into oblivion.

* Psalm lxxxiv., 3.

** Washington was a vestryman, in 1765, of both Truro and Fairfax
parishes. The place of worship of the former was at Pohiek, and of the
latter at Alexandria. Among the manuscripts in the library of the New
York Historical Society, is a leaf from the church record of Pohiek.
It contains the names of the first vestry, and a few others. By whose
desecrating hand it was torn from the records, or how it found its way
to its present resting-place. I know not. The following is a copy from
the original, from which I also obtained the signatures of Mason and
Fairfax, given above. The names were signed at different times, during
the summer and autumn of 1765.

     "I. A B, do declare that I will be conformable to the
     Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, as by law
     established.

     "1765. May 20th.--Thomas Withers Coffer, Thomas Ford, John
     Ford.

     "19th August.--Geo. Washington, Daniel M'Carty, Edward
     Payne, Thomas Withers Coffer, Thomas Ford, Edw. Dulin, John
     Dalton, Dan]. French, Richard Sanford, Thos. Shaw, Thos.
     Wren, Townsend Dade, Charles Broadwater,* J. W. Payne,
     William Adams.

     "20th August.--G. W. Fairfax, John West, William Lynton, Wm.
     Gardner.

     "16th September.--Edward Blackburn.

     "17th September.--George Mason, Charles Henderson.

     "October 21st.--John Possey.

     "21st April, 1766--T. Ellzy."

* Captain Broadwater was the owner of a slave who drove a team with a
provision-wagon, belonging to his master, over the Alleghany Mountains
in the memorable campaign in which Braddock was killed. The slave's
name was Samuel Jenkins. He was in the battle at the Great Meadows,
but escaped unhurt. On the death of his master, when he was about forty
years of age, he was purchased by a gentleman, who took him to Ohio and
manumitted him. He settled in Lancaster, Ohio, where he resided until
his death, which occurred in 1819, when he was 115 years old. He was
probably the last survivor of Braddock's men.

[[[Return to Washington.--Thunder-shower in December.--Aquia
Creek.--Almost a Serious Accident.--Potomac Church.]]]

{422}The preacher told me that I might travel ten miles in any direction
from Pohick (except to Alexandria) and not find a school-house! A few
northern farmers are now redeeming some of the upper portions of Fairfax
county; and it is to be hoped that the circles of their influence
may enlarge until Pohick Church is included, and its walls saved from
destruction.

When I left the church, a slight drizzle omened an approaching storm,
and I hastened to Alexandria, where I ascertained that I could not get.
upon the Potomac steamer with my horse without going to Washington City.

[Illustration: 8432]

Damp, weary, and vexed, I gave Charley a loose rein, for the day was
fast waning. When within half a mile of the Long Bridge, a vivid flash
of lightning, followed by a loud thunder-peal, burst from the clouds,
and seemed to open "the windows of heaven," and set free all the
"treasures of the cherubim." Another flash and thunder-peal, with the
accompanying deluge, came while I was crossing the drawbridge, and I
reined up at the "Indian Queen," on Pennsylvania Avenue, at twilight,
with all the concomitants of a disappointed disciple of Isaack Walton. A
thunder-shower in December is a phenomenon so rare that I almost enjoyed
the misery.

The steam-boat for Aquia Creek left Washington the following morning at
two o'clock. I was upon her deck in time, but a careless servant having
left a part of my baggage behind, I was obliged to return and remain in
Washington another day. It proved a fine one for traveling, and the very
reverse of the next day, when I was upon the road. The dawn opened with
sleet and rain, and a raw east wind. This was sufficiently unpleasant
for a traveler; yet a more vexatious circumstance awaited my debarkation
at Aquia Creek. From the landing to a plantation road leading to the
Fredericksburg _pike_, almost two miles, there was no wagon-track, the
rail-road being the only highway. I mounted my wagon upon a hand-car,
employed two stout negroes as locomotives, and, leading my horse along
the rough-ribbed iron way, finally reached a plantation lane on the edge
of a swamp. Where the rail-way traverses a broad marsh, deep ditches
cross it transversely. My horse, in attempting to leap one of these,
fell between the iron bars, with a hinder leg over one of them, which
prevented the use of his limbs in efforts to leap from the ditch. I
momentarily expected to hear the thigh-bone snap, for almost the entire
weight of his body rested upon it. The salvation of the animal depended
upon getting that leg free. I had no aid, for the negroes had neither
will nor judgment to assist. At the risk of being made a foot-ball,
I placed my shoulder in the hollow of the hoof, and with strength
increased by solicitude, I succeeded in pushing the limb over the
rail, and the docile animal, who seemed to feel the necessity of being
passive, stood erect in his prison of iron and soft earth. Within
a rectangle of a few feet, and a bank, shoulder high, he was still
confined. He made several efforts to spring out, but his knees would
strike the margin. At length, summoning all his energies, and appearing
to shrink into smaller compass, he raised his fore-feet upon the bank,
gave a spring, and, to my great joy, he stood safe and unhurt (though
trembling in every limb) upon the road. With a light and thankful heart
I traveled the sinuous pathway, through gates and bars, for five or six
miles, to the high road, the storm increasing.

The distance from Aquia Creek to Fredericksburg is fifteen miles. When
about halfway, I passed the ruins of old _Potomac Church_, once one of
the finest sacred edifices in Virginia. The plan of the interior was
similar to that of _Pohick_. The roof is supported by square columns,
stuccoed and painted in imitation of variegated marble The windows are
in Gothic style. The Law, the Prayer, and the Creed were quite well
preserved upon the walls, notwithstanding the roof is partly fallen
in, and the storms have free passage through the ruined arches. It is
surrounded by a thick hedge of thorn, dwarf cedars, and other shrubs,
festooned and garlanded with ivy and the wild grape, which almost
effectually guard the venerable relic from the intrusion of strangers.
With proper care, this church might have been a place of worship a
century longer, but like many other old churches, consecrated in the
appreciating mind of the patriotic American, this edifice is moldering
through neglect.

[[[The Rappahannock.--Fredericksburg.--Washington's Birth-place.--First
Monumental Stone.--Notables of Westmoreland]]]

{423}

```"They are all passing from the land;

````Those churches old and gray,

```In which our fathers used to stand,

````In years gone by, to pray.=

```Ay, pull them down, as well you may,

````Those altars stern and old;

```They speak of those long pass'd away,

````Whose ashes now are cold.

```Few, few, are now the strong-arm'd men

```Who worshiped at our altars then.=

```Then pull them down, and rear on high

````New-fangled, painted things,

```For these but mock the modern eye,

````The past around them brings.

```Then pull them down, and upward rear

```A pile which suits who worships here."

`````Elizabeth Oakes Smith.=

I crossed the Rappahannock* upon a long toll-bridge, and entered
Fredericksburg at noon. The city is old in fact, and antique in
appearance. A century and a quarter ago the settlers who had begun to
cultivate extensively the rich lands upon the Rappahannock, applied for
a town charter. It was granted; (a) and in honor of Prince Frederick,
the father of George III., and then heir-apparent to the British throne,
it was called Fredericksburg. At that time there was only a tobacco
warehouse on the site of the present, city with its four thousand five
hundred inhabitants. The town is regularly laid out. Many of the houses
are of brick, but few are in modern style, or of apparently recent
construction.

Fredericksburg is interesting, as connected with our subject, chiefly
from the fact that Washington passed his youthful days in its vicinity,
and that near the city, beneath an unfinished monument, repose the
remains of his beloved mother. The place of Washington's _birth_ was
about half a mile from the junction of Pope's Creek with the Potomac,
in Westmoreland county, the "Athens of Virginia." ** It is upon the
"Wakefield estate," now owned by John E. Wilson, Esq. The house in which
he was born was destroyed before the Revolution.

Upon its site, George W. P. Custis, Esq., placed a slab of free-stone,
(b) [[ b June, 1815.]]represented in the engraving on the following
page, on which is the simple inscription, "Here, the 11th of February
[O. S.], 1732, George Washington was born." ***

* The Rappahannock is one of the largest streams in Virginia. It
rises in the Blue Ridge, 130 miles northwest of its entrance into the
Chesapeake Bay, 25 miles south of the Potomac. It is navigable for
vessels requiring ten feet of water, to the Falls of the Rappahannock, a
little above Fredericksburg.

** This name has been given to Westmoreland on account of the great
number of men, distinguished in our annals, who were born there.
Washington; the two Lees, who signed the Declaration of Independence;
the brothers of Richard Henry Lee (Thomas, Francis, and Arthur); General
Henry Lee; Judge Bushrod Washington, and President Monroe, were all
born in that county. Richard Henry Lee's residence was Chantilly, on the
Potomac. Monroe was born at the head of Monroe's Creek. In Stratford,
upon the Potomac, a few miles above the residence of Richard Henry Lee,
is still standing one of the most remarkable buildings in this country.
I greatly desired to visit it, and portray it for this work, but
circumstances prevented. It was built by Mr. Thomas Lee, father of
Richard Henry Lee, who was president of the King's Council, and acting
governor of Virginia. While governor, his dwelling was burned, and
this edifice was erected for him, either by the government or by the
voluntary contributions of London merchants, by whom he was greatly
esteemed. There is no structure in our country to compare with it.
The walls of the first story are two and a half feet thick, and of the
second story, two feet, composed of brick imported from England. It
originally contained about one hundred rooms. Besides the main building,
there are four offices, one at each corner, containing fifteen rooms.
The stables are capable of accommodating one hundred horses. Its cost
was about $80,000.

*** The public career of Washington is illustrated in every part of
these volumes, for he was identified with all the important events of
the Revolution. His life is too well known to need an extended memoir.
I will here briefly chronicle a notice of his family, and the events
of his early life. He was descended from an old family of the English
aristocracy. The name of Washington, as a family, was first known about
the middle of the thirteenth century. Previously there was a manor of
that name, in the county of Durham, owned by William de Hertburne, who,
as was the custom in those days, took the name of his estate

[[[Washington's Birth-place.--His Ancestors.--Arms and Monuments.--First
Monumental Stone to the Memory of Washington.]]]

{424}The house in which his nativity took place was precisely the same
in appearanee as the family residence on the Rappahannock, delineated
opposite, being of the better class of plain gentleman have descended
the branches of the Washington family in England and America. The name
is frequently mentioned in the local histories of England as belonging
to persons of wealth and distinction. Sir Henry Washington was renowned
for his bravely at the siege of Worcester against the parliamentary
troops, and at the taking of Bristol. Monuments erected in churches
with the name of Washington upon them, are proofs of their opulence. The
ancient seat of the Washington family is said to be yet well preserved.
It is built of stone of great solidity. The timber is chiefly of
oak; and in several of the rooms, particularly in the large hall or
banqueting-room, are remains of rich carving and gilding in the cornices
and wainscoting. Over the mantel-pieces, elaborately carved, are the
family arms, richly emblazoned upon escutcheons.

[Illustration: 9434]

* The walls of the house are five feet thick. The entire residence is
surrounded by a beautiful garden and orchards. The old family monument,
erected to the memory of "Sir Laurence Washington, Nite," grandson
of the first proprietor of the name, of Sulgrave, and the ancestor of
General Washington, is in the cemetery of Gardson Church, two miles
from Malmsbury. It is of the mural style, and bears the family arms.
Sir Laurence Washington died in May, 1643. Two of his sons, John and
Laurence Washington, emigrated to Virginia about the year 1657, and
settled at Bridge's Creek, on the Potomac, in Westmoreland county. The
eldest brother of the emigrants, Sir William Washington, married a half
sister of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. John Washington, soon
after settling in Virginia, engaged in military expeditions against the
Indians, and rose to the rank of colonel. He married Ann Pope, by whom
he had two sons, Laurence and John, and a daughter. Laurence married
Mildred Warner, of Gloucester county, and had three children, John,
Augustine, and Mildred. Augustine first married Jane Butler, by whom he
had three sons and a daughter. His second wife was Mary Bail, to whom he
was married on the 6th of March, 1730. By her he had six children;
the first-born was George, the subject of our memoir. He was the
great-grandson of the first emigrant to America, and sixth in descent
from the first Laurence of Sulgrave. He was born on the 22d (11th O. S.)
of February, 1732. His parents soon afterward removed to an estate in
Stafford county, near Fredericksburg, where his father died on the 12th
of April, 1743, and was buried at Bridge's Creek. To each of his sons
he left a plantation. To his oldest survivor he bequeathed an estate on
Hunting Creek (afterward Mount Vernon), and to George he left the lands
and mansion (pictured above) where his father lived. His mother had five
young children to nurture and prepare for active life. It was a great
responsibility, yet she performed her duty with entire success. To her
guidance the world probably owes much of the good which has emanated
from the career of her illustrious son. Washington received few
advantages from early school education. There were then few good schools
in the colonies. The wealthy planters sent their children to England
to be educated. The mother of George did not feel able to incur the
expense, and he was obliged to rely upon her, a neighboring school,
and occasionally a private tutor in mathematics, for his elementary
knowledge. His practical mind developed nobly under even this deficient
culture. He left school when almost sixteen years of age, pretty
thoroughly versed in mathematics, and fully competent for the
profession of a practical surveyor. When he was fourteen years old, his
half-brother, Laurence Washington, having observed in him a fondness for
military matters, obtained for him a midshipman's warrant, in 1746. That
gentleman had served under Admiral Vernon at the siege of Carthagena,
and in the West Indies, and kept up a friendly correspondence with his
commander. He regarded the British navy as an attractive field, where
his young brother might become distinguished. The mother of young
Washington partly consented; but when the time approached, and the boy
with buoyant spirits prepared for departure, her maternal feelings
were too strong to allow a separation, and the project was abandoned.
Laurence Washington married a daughter of the wealthy William Fairfax,
who was for some time president of his majesty's council in the colony.
When young Washington left school, he went to live with his brother
Laurence at Mount Vernon, and his intimacy with the Fairfax family led
to those initial steps in his public life which resulted so gloriously.
He was employed to survey the immense tracts of land in the rich valleys
of the Alleghany Mountains, belonging to Lord Fairfax, a relative of
William. When onlv sixteen years and one month old, he set out with
George W. Fairfax (whose signature, with that of George Mason, is
on page 421) to survey these immense tracts. They suffered great
privations, and encountered many dangers; but this expedition proved
a sehool of immense advantage to the future hero. He executed his task
very satisfactorily, and soon afterward received an appointment as
public surveyor. He devoted three years to this lucrative pursuit. His
talents, probity, and general intelligence attracted the attention of
the authorities of Virginia. The encroachments of the French on the
western frontiers of the state, caused the governor to divide the
province into militia districts, over which was placed an officer with
the rank of major, whose duty it was to drill the people in military
tactics. Over one of these districts young Washington was plaeed at the
age of nineteen, with the pay of $750 a year. He had just entered upon
this duty, when his brother Laurence, on account of failing health,
was advised by his physicians to make a voyage to the West Indies.
He desired the company of George, and they sailed for Barbadoes in
September, 1751. They remained there a few weeks; but hope for the
invalid faded away, and he resolved to go to Bermuda, and send George
home for his wife. While in Barbadoes, young Washington was sick three
weeks with the small-pox. As soon as he recovered, he sailed for home.
At first, an encouraging letter came from Laurence; the seeond was
desponding, and, giving up all hope of life, he returned home. He
lingered a short time, and died at the age of thirty-four years. His
estate of Mount Vernon, as I have elsewhere noticed, he bequeathed to
George, in the event of his surviving daughter dying without issue,
George was one of his brother's executors, and the duties incumbent
thereon occupied the principal part of his time. When Governor Dinwiddie
came to Virginia, he apportioned the colony into four grand military
divisions, over one of which he placed Major Washington. He exercised
the functions of his offiee with great skill and fidelity, and when the
continued encroachments of the Freneh and Indians called for a military
expedition, Major Washington was sent to reconnoiter, and collect all
possible information. In this perilous business he was successful,
and so pleased was the governor and council, that they appointed him a
commissioner to visit the French posts on the Ohio, and, in the name of
the King of England, to demand an explicit answer to the inquiry, "By
what right do you invade British territory?" The particulars of
this expedition will be noticed hereafter. Washington was then only
twenty-one years old. He not only faithfully executed the instructions
of the governor, expressed on the face of his commission, but obtained a
great amount of information respecting the numbers and resources of
the enemy. For eleven weeks he suffered great hardships with his few
companions, when he appeared at Williamsburg, and laid his report before
the governor and his couneil. War was deemed necessary, and arrangements
were made accordingly. The other colonies were called upon for aid.
Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Virginia forces
destined for Ohio, and in April he marched toward the Alleghanies. Some
severe conflicts ensued, and finally, the expedition was defeated. The
conduct of Washington was highly approved. When Braddock undertook an
expedition against the enemy in the spring of 1755, Washington, at his
request, accompanied him as one of his military family. In the battle at
the Great Meadows which ensued. Braddock was killed. Colonel Washington
behaved with the greatest bravery, and by his skill the army was saved
from entire destruction. He returned to Mount Vernon, and continued in
the military service until 1759, when he was elected a member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses for Frederick county. He was married the
same year to Mrs. Martha Custis, widow of John Parke Custis. This event
is noticed elsewhere. The estate of Mount Vernon having come into
his possession, he established himself there three months after his
marriage. From that period until his election as a delegate to the first
Congress in 1774, his time was devoted to agriculture, and to the duties
of a state legislator. He early espoused the cause of the colonists in
their disputes with Great Britain, and when the crisis arrived, he was
appointed, as we have noticed on page 563, volume i., commander-in-chief
of the Continental army. From that time his life forms an important
portion of the history of our Republic. His final retirement to Mount
Vernon after the war, and his death, will be noticed hereafter.

* This, and the picture of the residence of the Washington family on the
Rappahannock, are from drawings by John G. Chapman, Esq. Under date
of August 21, 1851, Mr. Custis kindly furnished me with an interesting
account of the dedication of this first monumental stone to the memory
of Washington. In June, 1815 (a few days before the cornerstone of the
Washington monument at Baltimore was laid), accompanied by two gentlemen
(Messrs. Lewis and Grymes), he sailed from Alexandria in his own vessel,
the Lady of the Lake, for Pope's Creek. Arrived at the hallowed spot
with the inscribed tablet, they proceeded to deposit it in a proper
place. "Desirous of making the ceremonial of depositing the stone as
imposing as circumstances would permit," says Mr. Custis, "we enveloped
it in the 1 Star-spangled Banner' of our eountry, and it was borne to
its resting-place in the arms of the descendants of four Revolutionary
patriots and soldiers--Samuel Lewis, son of George Lewis, a captain in
Baylor's regiment of horse, and nephew of Washington; William Grymes,
the son of Benjamin Grymes, a gallant and distinguished officer of
the Life Guards; the Captain of the vessel, the son of a brave soldier
wounded in the battle of Guilford; and George W. P. Custis, the son
of John Parke Custis, aid-de-eamp to the commander-in-chief before
Cambridge and Yorktown. We gathered together the bricks of the ancient
chimney that once formed the hearth around which Washington in his
infancy had played, and constructed a rude kind of pedestal, on which
we reverently placed the first stone, commending it to the respect
and protection of the American people in general, and the citizens of
Westmoreland in particular." *

* The shield with the stars and stripes, on the right, forms the seal
of General Washington. A copy of it, taken from a death warrant, may be
found in the Appendix.

[[[Virginia Residence of the Washington Family.--Early Life of General
Washington.--Death of his Brother Laurence.]]]

{425}Virginian farm-houses. It had four rooms, with an enormous chimney
at each end, on the outside. The estate on the Rappahanuock was owned by
his father, Augustine Washington.

[Illustration: 0435]

[[[The Washington Farm.--Residence of the Mother of Washington.--His
early Military Career.]]]

{426}several years before his marriage with Mary Ball (daughter of
Colonel Ball, of Lancaster), the mother of the illustrious patriot.
It is nearly opposite Fredericksburg, in Stafford county, and when I
visited that city, (a) it was the property of the Reverend Thomas [[
a 1848]] Teasdale. The mansion-house, which stood near the present
residence of Mr. King, a short distance below the rail-road bridge, has
long since gone to decay and disappeared, and to the skillful pencil of
J. G. Chapman, Esq., I am indebted for the accompanying picture.

The storm continuing, and nothing of interest being left upon the soil
known as "The Washington Farm," I did not visit it, but contented myself
with a distant view of its rolling acres as I rode out of Fredericksburg
to pursue my journey southward.

On the northwest corner of Charles and Lewis streets, in Fredericksburg,
is the house (the residence of Richard Stirling, Esq ) where the mother
of Washington resided during the latter years of her life, and where she
died. There that honored matron, and more honored son, had their last
earthly interview in the spring of 1789, after he was elected President
of the United States. Just before his departure for New York to take the
oath of office, and to enter upon his new duties, Washington, actuated
by that filial reverence and regard which always distinguished him, *
hastened to Fredericksburg to visit his mother. She was then fourscore
and five years old, bowed with age and the ravages of that terrible
disease, a deep-rooted cancer in the breast. Their interview was
deeply affecting. After the first emotions incident to the meeting had
subsided, Washington said, "The people, madam, have been pleased, with
the most flattering unanimity, to elect me to the chief magistracy of
the United States; but before I can assume the functions of that office,
I have come to bid you an affectionate farewell. So soon as the public
business which must necessarily be encountered in arranging a new
government can be disposed of, I shall hasten

* It is related that on one occasion, during the Revolution, his mother
was with him at a large social gathering. At nine o'clock in the evening
the aged matron approached her son, placed her arm in his, and
said. "Come, George, it is time for us to be at home; late hours are
injurious." With the docility of a child the general left the company
with his mother; "but," as Mrs. Hamilton said to me, when speaking of
the circumstance, "he came back again."

[[[Washington's last Interview with his Mother.--Her Death, and
unfinished Monument.--Cornerstone laid by President Jackson.]]]

{427}to Virginia, and--" Here the matron interrupted him with, "You will
see me no more.

My great age, and the disease which is fast approaching my vitals, warns
me that I shall not be long in this world. I trust to God I am somewhat
prepared for a better. But go, George, fulfill the destiny which Heaven
appears to assign you; go, my son, and may Heaven's and your mother's
blessing be with you always." Washington wept; the great man was again
a little child, and he kissed the furrowed cheek of his parent with all
the tender affection and simplicity of a loving boy. With a full heart
he went forth to "fulfill the destiny" which Heaven assigned him, and he
saw his mother no more. She died in the autumn of 1789, and was buried
on a beautiful knoll upon the estate of her son-in-law. Colonel Fielding
Lewis, * within sound of the busy hum of the city.

[Illustration: 8437]

In the midst of the thickly-falling sleet, I made a pilgrimage to the
grave of the mother of Washington, and sketched the half-finished and
neglected monument which was erected over it a few years ago. It stands
near a ledge of rocks, where she often resorted in fine weather for
private meditation and devotion. Years before her death she selected
that spot for her grave. The monument is of white marble, and, even in
its unfinished state, has an imposing appearance. The corner-stone was
laid by Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, on the 7th
of May, 1833, in the presence of a great concourse of people. He went
down the Potomac from Washington City on the 6th, ** and was met
at Potomac Creek, nine miles from Fredericksburg, by the _Monument
Committee_ of that city. He was also met by a military escort, and
conducted to the residence of Doctor Wallace, where he was entertained.
A large military and civic procession was formed the following day,
and proceeded to the grave, where the imposing ceremonies were to be
performed. Mr. Basset, in behalf of the citizens of Fredericksburg,
first addressed the president on the character of her whom they sought
to honor. The president made an eloquent reply; and, as he deposited an
inscribed plate in the hollow corner-stone, he said, "Fellow-citizens,
at your request, and in your name, I now deposit this plate in the spot
destined for it; and when the American pilgrim shall, in after ages,
come up to this high and holy place, and lay his hand upon this sacred
column, may he recall the virtues of her who sleeps beneath, and depart
with his affections purified, and his piety strengthened, while he
invokes blessings upon the memory of the mother of 'Washington."

Referring to this event, Mrs. Sigourney thus beautifully wrote for the
_Fredonia Arena_:=

```"Long hast thou slept unnoticed. Nature stole

```In her soft minstrelsy around thy bed.=

* Colonel Fielding Lewis married Elizabeth, the sister of Washington. He
was proprietor of half the town of Fredericksburg, and of an extensive
territory adjoining. During the war, in which his feelings were
warmly enlisted, he superintended the great manufactory of arms in
his neighborhood. He was a local magistrate for many years, and often
represented his county in the Legislature. He died in December, 1781, at
the age, of fifty-five years. His son George was at one time a captain
in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard, and his other three sons were active
public men. His daughter Elizabeth married Charles Carter Esq.

** While the boat was lying at the wharf at Alexandria on this occasion,
Lieutenant Randolph, who had lately been dismissed from the navy, went
on board, and proceeding into the cabin, where the venerable president
sat at table reading and smoking, made a brutal and cowardly attack upon
him. Randolph was instantly seized by the captain, when a number of his
friends, who accompanied him, rescued him, and bore him to the wharf.
A citizen of Alexandria hearing of the outrage, was so greatly incensed
that he said to the president, "Sir, if you will pardon me in case I am
tried and convicted, I will kill Randolph! for this insult to you, in
fifteen minutes." "No, sir," responded the president, "I can not do
that. I want no man to stand between me and my assailants, nor none
to take revenge on my account. Had I been prepared for this cowardly
villain's approach, I can assure you all that he never would have the
temerity to undertake such a thing again."

[[[The unfinished Obelisk for the Tomb of Washington's
Mother.--Departure from Fredericksburg.--General Mercer's Son]]]

{428}


```Spreading her vernal tissue, violet-gemm'd,

```And pearl'd with dews.

`````She bade bright Summer bring=

```Gifts of frankincense, with sweet song of birds,

```And Autumn east his reaper's coronet

```Down at thy feet, and stormy Winter speak

```Sternly of man's neglect. But now we come

```To do thee homage--Mother of our chief!--

```Fit homage, such as honoreth him who pays.

```Methinks we see thee, as in olden time--

```Simple in garb, majestic, and serene;

```Unmoved by pomp or circumstances: in truth

```Inflexible; and, with a Spartan zeal,

```Repressing vice and making folly grave.

```Thou didst not deem it woman's part to waste

```Life in inglorious sloth--to sport a while

```Amid the flowers, or on the summer wave.

```Then, fleet like the Ephemeron, away,

```Building no temple in her children's hearts,

```Save to the vanity and pride of life

```Which she had worship'd.=

`````For the might that clothed

```The "Pater Patria"--for the glorious deeds

```That make Mount Vernon's tomb a Mecca shrine

```For all the earth, what thanks to thee are due.

```Who, mid his elements of being wrought,

```We know not--Heaven can tell."=

Almost twenty years have passed away since the imposing pageant at
the laying of the corner-stone was displayed, and yet the monument is
unfinished,=

[Illustration: 9438]

````Still may Spring, and Summer, and

`````"Stormy Winter speak

````Sternly of man's neglect=

for the huge marble obelisk, as it came from the quarry, lies there yet,
defaced and mutilated by rude hands, and silently appealing to local
pride and general patriotism to sculpture its ornaments, and place it
where it was designed to be. Year after year the dust of the plain has
lodged upon the top of the half-finished pile, and the seeds of wild
flowers have been borne thither upon the wings of the zephyrs; and
where the base of the noble obelisk should rest, Nature, as if rebuking
insensate man, hath woven green garlands, and hung flowery festoons.
Upon the broad tablet whereon was to be inscribed the beautiful
memorial, "Mary, the Mother of Washington," dark green fungi have made
_their_ humiliating record instead.

I left Fredericksburg ** at two o'clock, with the intention of lodging
at Bowling Green, in Caroline county, twenty-two miles distant. The
post-road is one of the finest I ever traveled; broad, and in good
condition. It passes through a gently rolling, fertile country, and
apparently well cultivated. When within about twelve miles of my
destination I passed a farm-house, from which two men, with a span of
horses and a rickety market wagon,

* This is a sketch, from the original design of the monument, of the
obelisk and its surmountings, intended to be placed upon the present
structure. Why half-hewn marble has been allowed to remain so long
unfinished that Vandal relic-seekers have ruined it, I can not
comprehend. Is there not public spirit enough in Virginia to complete
this memorial of her most honored daughter? Independent of the reflected
glory of her son, she was a noble woman, because truly excellent in all
her relations in life; a sincere Christian; kind and benevolent; and
a mother who, like Cornelia, regarded her children as her jewels, and
cherished them accordingly.

** It is to me a matter of sincere regret, that when I was at
Fredericksburg, I was not aware that Colonel Hugh Mercer, the son of the
lamented General Mercer, who was killed at Princeton, was a resident
of that city. Educated at the public expense, by order of Congress, his
name and character belong to history. A portrait of this "foster-child
of the Republic" will be found in another part of this work.

[[[The Wrong Road.--Pamunkey River.--Hanover Court House.--The old
Tavern.--Anecdote.]]]

{429}were just departing for Richmond, whither I was making my way.
They, too, intended to lodge at Bowling Green, and offered to pilot me.
Their fresh horses tried Charley's speed and bottom to the utmost. We
crossed the Mattapony River, a tributary of the Parnunkey, at twilight,
over two high bridges. Night came on with sudden and intense darkness;
so dark that I could not see my pilots. At a fork I "lost my reckoning
they taking one branch and I the other. Charley neighed, and tried to
follow them. "I was wise in my own conceit," and reined him into the
other fork. I rode on for nearly an hour without passing a habitation,
and entirely unconscious of the nature or direction of the road I was
traveling.

[Illustration: 8439]

A heavy mist shrouded the country. At length the rays of a candle came
feebly from a window at the road-side. I hailed, and asked for and
obtained lodgings for the night. It was the hospitable mansion of Mr.
Burke, a planter, some seven miles from Bowling Green. I had wandered
four miles from the direct road to that village, but was not far
from the nearest highway to Hanover Court House, my next point of
destination.

I resumed my journey at daybreak, leaving Bowling Green on the left;
breakfasted at a small tavern, after a ride of six miles, and soon
overtook my pilots, who, in attempting to reach a point beyond Bowling
Green the night before, had broken an axle while crossing a swamp. We
journeyed on together to Hanover Court House, within nineteen miles
of Richmond. The appearance of the country changed materially after
crossing the Mattapony. It became more hilly, sandy, and sterile,
producing dwarf pines in abundance. We crossed the Parnunkey a little
below the confluence of its branches (the North and South Anna), and, at
a mile distant, reached Hanover Court House in time for a late dinner.
The village now (a) consists of the ancient court-house and tavern, one
brick house, several negro huts, and a jail. The latter was in process
of reconstruction [[ a 1851]] when I was there, having been burned a
few months previously. Here was a flourishing town before Richmond, now
containing thirty thousand inhabitants, was an incorporated village. The
Parnunkey was then navigable for sloops and schooners; now the channel
is filled with sand. Hanover was a place of considerable business.
Sixteen hundred hogs-heads of tobacco were annually exported from it,
and it was regarded as an eligible site for the state capital. When the
House of Burgesses were deliberating upon the subject of removing the
Capitol from Williamsburg, they came within a few votes of deciding upon
Hanover instead of Richmond. Where the populous village once stood I saw
traces of a recent corn crop, but not a vestige of former habitation.

The old tavern where I lodged, and the court-house, are objects of much
interest, from the circumstance that in the former Patrick Henry was a
temporary _bar-tender_, * and in the latter he made those first
efforts at oratory which burst forth like meteors from the gloom of his
obscurity. He had passed his youth-

* The Marquis de Chastellux, who visited Hanover in 1781, mentions this
tavern as "a tolerably handsome inn, with a very large saloon, and a
covered portico, and destined to receive the company who assemble every
three months at the court-house, either on private or publie affairs." I
slept in the "large saloon," and under shelter of the "covered portico"
mentioned bv the marquis, I sketched the court-house. The general
external appearance of the house. I was informed, has been changed. The
marquis relates the following anecdote respecting the passage of the
English through that county: "Mr. Tilghman, our landlord, though he
lamented his misfortune in having lodged and boarded Cornwallis and his
retinue, without his lordship having made the least recompense, could
not help laughing at the fright which the unexpected arrival Tarleton
spread among a considerable number of gentlemen who came to hear the
news, and were assembled in the court-house. A negro, on horseback, came
full gallop to let them know that Tarleton was not above three miles
off. The resolution of retreating was soon taken: but the alarm was so
sudden, and the confusion so great, that every one mounted the first
horse he could find, so that few of those curious gentlemen returned
upon their own horses."--Travels, ii., 13, 14.

** This view is from the front, looking east-northeast. The 'building is
of imported brick, with an arcade in front. It was erected about 1740.
An addition has been made to the rear, wherein is the judge's bench.

[[[Early Years of Patrick Henry.--The "Parsons's Cause."--His Début as
an Orator, described by Wirt]]]

{430}ful days in apparent idleness, and, lacking business tact and
energy, he failed to succeed in mercantile pursuits, in which he was
engaged. He became bankrupt, and no one was willing to aid him. He had
married at eighteen, and yet, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, he
had done little toward supporting a wife. They lived most of the time
with his father-in-law (Mr. Shelton), who kept the tavern at Hanover,
and when the proprietor was absent, young Henry took his place behind
the bar. As a last resort, he studied law. He applied himself diligently
for six weeks, when he obtained a license, but for nearly three years he
was "briefless;" indeed, he hardly knew how to draw a _brief_ correctly.
At the age of twenty-seven, he was employed in the celebrated _Parsons's
Cause_; and in Hanover court-house, on that occasion, his genius was
first developed. The case was a controversy between the clergy and the
Legislature of the state, relating to the stipend claimed by the
former! A decision of the court in favor of the clergy had left nothing
undetermined but the amount of damages in the cause whieh was pending.
Young Henry took part against the clergy, and in his plea his wonderful
oratory beamed out, for the first time, in great splendor. Wirt has
vividly described the scene in his life of the "American Demosthenes." *

* "The array before Mr. Henry's eyes was now most fearful. On the bench
sat more than twenty clergymen, the most learned men in the colony, and
the most capable, as well as the severest critics before whom it was
possible for him to have made his _début_. The court-house was crowded
with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded with an immense and
anxious throng, who, not finding room to enter, were endeavoring to
listen without in the deepest attention. But there was something still
more awfully disconcerting than all this; for in the chair of the
presiding magistrate sat no other person than his own father. Mr. Lyons
opened the cause very briefly; in the way of argument he did nothing
more than explain to the jury that the decision on the demurrer had put
the act of 1758 entirely out of the way, and left the law of 1748 as the
only standard of their damages. He then concluded with a highly-wrought
eulogium on the benevolence of the clergy. And now came on the first
trial of Patrick Henry's strength. No one had ever heard him speak, and
curiosity was on tiptoe. He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much
in his exordium. The people hung their heads at so unpromising a
commencement; the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks with each
other; and his father is described as having almost sunk with confusion
from his seat. But these feelings were of short duration, and soon
gave place to others of a very different character; for now were those
wonderful faculties which he possessed for the first time developed,
and now was first witnessed that mysterious and almost supernatural
transformation of appearance, which the fire of his own eloquence never
failed to work in him; for, as his mind rolled along, and began to
glow from its own action, all the exuviæ of the clown seemed to shed
themselves spontaneously. His attitude, by degrees, became erect
and lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his features. His
countenance shone with a nobleness and grandeur which it had never
before exhibited. There was a lightning in his eye which seemed to rivet
the spectator. His action became graceful, bold, and commanding; and in
the tones of his voice, but more especially in his emphasis, there was a
peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who ever heard him will speak
as soon as ever he is named, but of which no one can give any adequate
description. They can only say that it struck upon the ear and upon
the heart in a manner which language can not tell. Add to all these his
wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar phraseology in which he clothed
its images, for he painted to the heart with a force that almost
petrified it. In the language of those who heard him on this occasion,
'he made their blood run cold, and their hair to rise on end.'

* "It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard this most
extraordinary man to believe the whole account of this transaction,
which is given by his surviving hearers; and from their account, the
court-house of Hanover county must have exhibited, on this occasion, a
scene as picturesque as has been ever witnessed in real life. They say
that the people, whose countenances had fallen as he arose, had heard
but a very few sentences before they began to look up, then to look
at each other with surprise, as if doubting the evidence of their own
senses; then, attracted by some strong gesture, struck by some majestic
attitude, fascinated by the spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis,
and the varied and commanding expression of his countenance, they could
look away no more. In less than twenty minutes they might be seen,
in every part of the house, on every bench, in every window, stooping
forward from their stands, in death-like silence, their features fixed
in amazement and awe, all their senses listening and riveted upon the
speaker, as if to catch the last strain of some heavenly visitant. The
mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm, their triumph into
confusion and despair; and at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming
invective, they fled from the bench in precipitation and terror. As for
the father, such was his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture,
that, forgetting where he was, and the character which he was filling,
tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without the power or
inclination to repress them.

* "The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered that they
lost sight not only of the act of 1748, but that of 1758 also; for,
thoughtless even of the admitted right of the plaintiff, they had
scarcely left the bar when they returned with a verdict of _one penny
damages_. A motion was made for a new trial; but the court, too, had
now lost the equipoise of their judgment, and overruled the motion by
a unanimous vote. The verdict, and judgment overruling the motion, were
followed by redoubled acclamation from within and without the house. The
people, who had with difficulty kept their hands off their champion from
the moment of closing his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the cause
finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar, and, in spite of his
own exertions and the continued cry of 'order' from the sheriffs and the
court, they bore him out of the court-house, and, raising him on their
shoulders, carried him about the yard in a kind of electioneering
triumph."

[[[New Castle.--Road from Hanover to Richmond.--Birth-place of Henry
Clay.--Virginia Market wagons.]]]

{431}We shall meet Patrick Henri again presently in more important
scenes.

Upon the Pamunkey, a few miles below Hanover Court House, is New
Castle, once a flourishing village, but now a desolation, only one house
remaining upon its site.

[Illustration: 8441]

That is the place where Patrick Henry assembled the volunteers and
marched to Williamsburg, for the purpose of demanding a restoration of
the powder which Lord Dunmore had removed from the public magazine, or
its equivalent in money. Of this I shall hereafter write.

I lodged at Hanover, and, after an early breakfast, departed for
Richmond, the rain yet falling. Between three and four miles from
Hanover Court House,

I passed the birth-place of Henry Clay. It stands upon the right of the
turnpike to Richmond, in the midst of the flat piny region called the
slashes of _Hanover_. * It is a frame building, one story high, with
dormer windows, and two large chimneys on the outside of each gable.
Here the great statesman was born in 1777. The roads through this
desolate region are wretched, abounding in those causeways of logs known
as _corduroy roads_. Within ten miles of Richmond the scenery becomes
diversified, and the vicinage of a large town is denoted by the
numerous vehicles upon the broad road, consisting chiefly of uncouth
market-wagons, drawn by mules, frequently six or eight in a team, as
pictured in the sketch below. The negro driver is usually seated upon
one of the wheel mules, and without guiding lines, conducts them by
the vocal direction of _haw_ and _gee_. To the eyes of a Northern
man looking upon these caravans for the first time, they appear quite
picturesque.

I reached Richmond at meridian, (a) where I tarried with esteemed
friends for[[ a Dec. 14, 1848.]] several days.

[Illustration: 0441]

* The word slashes is applied to tracts of fiat clay soil, covered with
pine woods, and always wet. The clay is almost impervious to water, and
as evaporation goes on slowly in the shadow of the pines, the ground is
seldom dry. "The mill-boy of the slashes" was an electioneering phrase
applied to Henry Clay some years ago, when he was a candidate for
the presidency of the United States. Mr. Clay, who is now (1852) a
representative of Kentucky in the Senate of the United States, is the
last survivor of the Commissioners who negotiated the treaty at Ghent in
1815, with the representatives of the British government.

[[[Early Settlement at Rockett's and Powhatan.--Captain
Smith.--Abandonment of "Nonesuch."--Fort Charles.]]]

{432}




CHAPTER XVII.


```Virginia, hail! Thou venerable state

```In arms and council still acknowledged great!

```When lost Britannia, in an evil hour,

```First tried the steps of arbitrary power,

```Thy foresight then the Continent alarm'd;

```Thy gallant temper ev'ry bosom warm'd.

```And now, when Britain's mercenary bands

```Bombard our cities, desolate our lands

```(Our prayers unanswer'd, and our tears in vain),

```While foreign cut-throats crowd the ensanguined plain,

```Thy glowing virtue caught the glorious flame,

```And first renounced the cruel tyrant's name!

```With just disdain, and most becoming pride,

```Further dependence on the erown denied!

```While Freedom's voice can in these wilds be heard,

```Virginia's patriots shall be still revered."

`````Holt's New York Journal, June, 1776=.

[Illustration: 9442]

ICHMOND, the metropolis of Virginia, is situated at the Falls of the
James River, a locality known and mentioned as early as 1609, two years
after the commencement of a settlement at Jamestown, and the same year
that Henry Hudson first entered and explored New York Bay and the North
River. In that year, Captain West was sent, with one hundred and twenty
men, to make a settlement at the Falls. They pitched their tents at
the head of navigation, at a place now known as Rockett's, just below
Richmond. It was near one of the imperial residences of Powhatan when
the foundations of Jamestown were first laid. Captain John Smith, then
president of the colony, visited West's settlement toward the close of
1609. He disliked the situation, on account of the overflowing of the
river, and, purchasing from Powhatan a tract now known by that name, two
miles below Richmond, where the Indians had a palisade fort, he directed
the settlers to remove thither. They refused compliance, while Smith
strenuously insisted upon obedience. An open rupture ensued. Smith
committed some of the ringleaders to confinement; but this so
exasperated the remainder, that, with menaces of death, they drove him
to his vessel in the river. The Indians espoused the cause of Smith,
and the settlers and the natives became bitter enemies. Smith, greatly
chagrined, sailed down the river for Jamestown. As soon as he was gone,
the Indians fell upon West's people, and slew several of them. The
remainder were glad to recall Smith, who had not proceeded far down the
river, and receive his aid. He again imprisoned some of the leaders,
and established the settlement at Powhatan. There they had a strong
fort with dry wigwams, and about two hundred acres of land ready to
be planted. On account of the beauty and fertility of the place, they
called it "Nonesuch." As Smith was about to depart, West, who had been
at Jamestown, returned, and, by his influence, stirred up a mutiny,
which ended in the settlers abandoning "Nonesuch" and returning to the
Falls.

A fortification, called Fort Charles, was erected at the Falls in 1615.
Thirty-four years afterward, Captain William Byrd, having been granted
certain privileges contingent upon his making a settlement at the
Falls of fifty able-bodied men, well armed, as a protection against
the Indians, built a trading-house and mill upon the present site of
Richmond, about three fourths of a mile above Rockett's. The place was
called _Byrd's Warehouse_. The building from which the name was derived
stood near the present Exchange Hotel.

[[[Founding of Richmond.--Scenery on ihe James River at
Richmond.--Expedition of Arnold to Virginia]]]

{433}A town was established there with the name of Richmond (so called
because of its similarity in situation to Richmond on the Thames, near
London), in May, 1742, on land belonging to Colonel William Byrd, of
Westover. It is situated upon the north side of the James River, upon
the high hills of Shockoe and Richmond, and the margin of Shoekoe Creek,
which flows between them to the river.

The scenery from almost every point of view around Richmond is
exceedingly picturesque.

[Illustration: 8443]

The river is almost half a mile wide, dotted with beautiful wooded
islands, and broken into numerous cascades, which extend to Westham, six
miles up the stream. The Capitol stands in the center of a large square,
upon the brow of Shoekoe Hill, in the western division of the city. From
its southern colonnade there is an extensive view of the best portion
of the town, of the river, with its islands and cascades, and the
flourishing manufacturing village of Manchester, on the opposite shore,
with a back-ground of fertile slopes. From this point the eye takes
in almost the whole area of Richmond, made memorable by Revolutionary
events. Let us consider them.

When noticing the adventures of Sergeant Champe, while endeavoring to
abduct Arnold from New York (see page 206), I mentioned the fact that
the traitor sailed, in command of an expedition, to Virginia, taking
Champe with him. Arnold left New York (a) with nearly fifty small
vessels, and six hundred troops, principally [[ a Dec. 16, 1780]]
Loyalists, for the purpose of carrying on a predatory warfare in
Virginia. Contrary winds detained them at Sandy Hook, and they did not
leave their anchorage there until five days had elapsed. (b) Arnold
entered Hampton Roads on the 30th of [[ b Dec 21]] December. His
fleet had become dispersed, and several ships were missing. Anxious to
distinguish himself in the service of his royal purchaser, and favored
by the capture of some small American vessels by his advance frigate,
he pushed up the James River to seize or destroy the public stores at
Richmond and Petersburg. Williamsburg, situated about half-way between
the James and York Rivers, was the Capitol of the state when the
Revolution broke out. It was peculiarly exposed to the depredations of
the enemy, and was an unsafe place for the public records and stores.
Richmond, though quite an insignificant town of about eighteen hundred
inhabitants, one half of whom were slaves, offered a more secure
place for publie stores, and the quiet deliberations of the Virginia
Legislature; and thither, in the summer of 1779, the troops, arms, and
ammunition, together with the public records, were sent, by order of the
Assembly. Finally, the Burgesses, by an act passed in May, 1779, made
Richmond the permanent seat of government, and there all

* This view is from a long shaded island extending up the river from
Mayo's Bridge, one of the three structures which span the stream at
Richmond. Down the river from our point of view' is seen Mayo's Bridge,
and, in the extreme distance, the lower portion of Richmond, upon
Richmond or Church Hill. Several fish-traps are seen among the rapids in
the river. On the left are observed two or three smaller islands.
Since the above sketch was made, a bridge, for the accommodation of the
Danville rail-way, has been constructed from the Richmond end of Mayo's
Bridge, diagonally, to the southern end of the Petersburg rail-way
bridge, crossing very nearly our point of view. Not content with thus
marring the beauty of one of the finest series of islands and cascades
in the country, the company have covered the bridge, so as to shut out
from the eyes of passengers the surrounding attractions. Wherefore?

[[[Arnold, with his Fleet, in the James River.--Approach to
Richmond.--Activity of Jefferson.--The Militia]]]

{434}the state offices were located at the period in question. Thomas
Jefferson was then Governor of Virginia. *

On the 3d of January, (a) Arnold, with his fleet, anchored near
Jamestown, ** and the [[ a 1781]] next day proceeded as far as Westover,
the seat of the widow of Colonel Byrd, about twenty-five miles below
Richmond, where he landed almost a thousand troops, *** and led them
toward the metropolis. Governor Jefferson had been apprised of
the approach of the fleet, but was not certain whether Richmond or
Petersburg was the point of the intended attack, until advised of
the debarkation of the British troops. The whole country was speedily
alarmed. Jefferson called out all of the militia from the adjacent
counties; but so sudden was the invasion, and so great was the panic,
that only a handful could be collected The white population were few,
and scattered over plantations, with their habitations widely separated;
and private interest, in many cases, made the planters more intent upon
securing their slaves and horses from capture than defending public
property. Only about two hundred armed men could be collected for the
defense of Richmond. ****

The enemy encamped on the night of the 4th at Four Mile Creek, twelve
miles below Richmond. Governor Jefferson, perceiving that resistance
with his handful of raw militia would be useless, turned his attention
to the salvation of the public stores. By his activity a large quantity
was secured. Much of the portable property was carried across the river
to Manchester, and also the stores which had been sent to Westham, six
miles above Richmond, were ordered to be conveyed to the south side.

One object which Arnold had in view was the capture of Governor
Jefferson. That officer left Richmond on the evening of the 4th, tarried
a while at Westham to hasten the removal of the stores, and then rode
on to join his family at Tuckahoe, eight miles further. Early the next
morning he took them across the river to a place of safety, and then
rode to Britton's, opposite Westham, and gave further orders respecting
the disposition of the stores, [[ b Jan. 5, 1781]]Hastening to
Manchester, he arrived there in time to see the invading troops march,
unopposed, into Richmond, at one o'clock. (b)

When within a few miles of Richmond, Arnold so disposed his troops as
to have the appearance of twice their actual number. A patrol of the
militia who were assembled at Richmond, met them when within four miles
of the town, and, hastening back with the intelligence that fifteen
hundred British troops were within an hour's march of the place,
produced the greatest alarm and confusion. Many of the inhabitants fled
into the country, and were afterward followed by the militia themselves,
when the enemy entered the town.

Arnold, advised of the weakness of the place, halted at Rockett's, and
sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with the Queen's Rangers, to drive the
military from their position

* The public buildings were only temporary. The old Capitol in which the
Legislature held its sessions was private property, and stood upon the
site of the present custom-house.

** The Americans had a battery on Hood's Point, and when, late in
the evening, the enemy anchored, a fire was opened upon them.
Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe landed with one hundred and thirty of the
Queen's Rangers and the light infantry and grenadiers of the 80th
regiment, and made a circuit of about a mile in the dark to surprise the
garrison. On approaching the battery it was found to be abandoned, and
the fleet suffered no further inconvenience. See Simcoe's Journal, page
161.

**** Simcoe, who accompanied Arnold, says, "General Arnold's force did
not amount to 800 men." American writers generally agree that the number
was at least 900.

**** "The bare communication of the fact," says Tucker, in his Life of
Jefferson, "that a force of one thousand, or, at most, fifteen hundred
men, was able to invade a country containing at that time a population
of more than half a million, and fifty thousand enrolled militia, march
to its metropolis, destroy all the public, and much private property
found there and in its neighborhood, and to leave the country with
impunity, is a fact calculated to excite our surprise, and to involve
both the people, and those who administered its affairs, in one
indiscriminate reproach. But there seems to be little ground for either
wonder or censure, when it is recollected that these fifty thousand
militia were scattered over a surface of more than as many square
miles; that the metropolis which was thus insulted was but a village,
containing scarcely eighteen hundred inhabitants, half of whom were
slaves; and that the country itself, intersected by several navigable
rivers, could not be defended against the sudden incursion of an enemy,
whose naval power gave it the entire command of the water, and enabled
it to approach within a day's march of the point of attack."

[[[The British at Richmond.--Old City Tavern.--Baron
Steuben.--Depredations by British Frigates]]]

(A A) upon{435} Richmond Hill, near St. John's Church, on the south side
of the Shockoe Creek.

[Illustration: 9445]

He marched up the hill in small detachments, when the militia, after
firing a few shots, fled to the woods in the rear. Along the base of the
hill, leading into the portion of the town lying in the valley, Simcoe
sent his cavalry to surprise the militia there. The latter escaped
across the creek to Shockoe Hill, followed by the whole body of the
Rangers, and made a stand near the site of the Capitol (B).

[Illustration: 9445]

A large number of spectators were also there, and as the Rangers
ascended the hill, they fled to the country, hotly pursued by the
enemy's cavalry.

After taking possession of Richmond, Arnold ordered Simcoe to proceed
to Westham, and destroy the cannon-foundery and the magazine there.
The trunnions of most of the cannons were broken off; the powder in the
magazine which they could not carry away was thrown into the river, and,
before night, the foundery was a desolation. The Rangers returned to
Richmond, and the whole hostile force quartered in the town during the
night. (a) Arnold and Simcoe made their quarters at the Old City Tavern,
yet standing on Main Street, but partially in ruins, when I visited
Richmond. Many houses were entered and plundered by the invaders.

They obtained a considerable quantity of rum, and a large portion of
them spent the night in drunken revelry.

Baron Steuben, who was then collecting the Virginia levies for General
Greene's army at the South, was at Colonel Fleming's, in Powhatan
county, a few miles from Manchester. Thither Governor Jefferson went to
solicit aid. While there, some of the citizens waited on him to tender
an offer from Arnold to spare the town, provided British vessels
were permitted to come up unmolested, and carry off tobacco from the
warehouses. The governor promptly rejected the proposal, and the enemy
applied the torch.[[Jan. 5, 1781.]]

* Note.--This plan represents the invasion of Richmond on the 5th of
January, 1781. A A is the first position of the American militia on
Richmond Hill; B, the second position of the military and people on
Shockoe Hill; C, the Queen's Rangers marching to the attack; D, the
eavalry of the Queen's Rangers: E, Yagers; F, the main body of the
British with General Arnold; G, two cannons in battery; H, a fine
plantation, opposite the present Rockett's.

* This is a frame building, and stands on the northwest corner of Main
and Nineteenth streets. A portion of the lower part is yet inhabited
(1852). The glass and some of the sashes in the upper story are gone,
and the roof is partly decayed and fallen in on the west end. Here
Cornwallis and other British officers were quartered at a later period,
and beneath its roof the good Washington was once sheltered.

** British frigates ascended the rivers of Virginia, and levied
contributions upon all the tide-water counties. On one of these
occasions the Mount Vernon estate was menaced with destruction by
Captain Graves, of the Acteon. The manager, Mr. Lund Washington, to
save the buildings, complied with the terms, and consented to furnish a
supply of provisions. Washington highly disapproved of this proceeding,
and, in a letter to his nephew, declared that he would rather have had
the buildings destroyed, than saved by such "a pernicious example."

[[[Departure of Arnold from Richmond.--French Fleet in Hampton Roads.--
Houdon's Statue of Washington.]]]

[[ a Jan. 7.]]{436}Quite a number of public and private buildings,
together with a great quantity of tobacco, were burned. The public
records had been saved through the vigilance of Jefferson; and Arnold,
finding no more plunder or objects on which to pour out his wrath--the
ire of a most vindictive heart toward those whom he had foully
wronged--withdrew to Westover, and re-embarked to proceed to commit
other depredations upon the river shores and the coasts of the Virginia
bays. On the same day Jefferson returned to Richmond, and quiet was
restored.

A large body of militia rapidly rallied around Steuben; and General
Nelson also collected another large force lower down on the James River.
Arnold was pursued, but succeeded in reaching Portsmouth, opposite
Norfolk, where he established his head-quarters.

[Illustration: 8446]

Soon afterward a French sixty-four gun ship (the Eveille), and two large
frigates, from Newport, entered the Chesapeake. * Thus menaced by land
and water, Arnold resolved to remain at Portsmouth, whither the large
French vessels could not follow. ** The little fleet, after making a few
captures, and efforts to ascend the Elizabeth River, returned to[[b Feb.
24, 1781]] Newport, (b) having been absent only fifteen days. We
shall meet Arnold again presently.

I passed the day after my arrival at Richmond in visiting and sketching
some localities and objects of note within the city. I first went up
to the Capitol, where, after loitering an hour in the state library,
I copied the fine statue of Washington, by Houdon, a celebrated French
sculptor, which stands within an iron railing in the center of the
rotunda. It was made in. Paris, five years after the close of the
Revolution, by order of the Virginia Assembly, under the direction of
Mr. Jefferson, who was then minister at the court of Versailles. The
statue is of fine white marble, of life size; the costume, the military
dress of the Revolution. The right hand of the patriot rests upon a
staff, the left is upon the folds of a military cloak covering one end
of the fasces, with which is connected the plowshare, the emblem of
agriculture, the chief pursuit of the Virginians. The inscription upon
the pedestal was written by James Madison, afterward President of the
United States. *** In a small niche near is a marble bust of La Fayette,
and in the gallery of the rotunda is a fine full length portrait of
Chief-justice Marshall.

From the Capitol I walked to the Monumental Church, a neat edifice of
octagon form, belonging to the Protestant Episcopalians. It derives its

* At the solicitation of Governor Jefferson and of Congress, Luzerne,
the French minister, had requested that, if possible, a ship of the line
and some frigates might be sent up the Chesapeake to oppose Arnold. It
was determined to use every effort to capture the traitor; and, while
Steuben was narrowly watching his movements from a nearer point of view,
Washington detached La Fayette with twelve hundred men, drawn from the
New England and New Jersey lines, to march to Virginia, and co-operate
in the double enterprise of defending that state and capturing the
renegade. M. de Tilley was detached from Newport, on the 9th of
February, with a sixty-four and two frigates, for the Chesapeake. The
little squadron of De Tilley captured the Romulus, a British frigate of
forty-four guns, and also two privateers, one of eighteen and the other
of fourteen guns; sent four prizes to Yorktown, and burned four others.
They also captured about five hundred prisoners. Fortunately for Arnold,
Admiral Arbuthnot gave him timely warning of the approach of the
French vessels, and, as I have mentioned in the text, he escaped up the
Elizabeth River. The events at Portsmouth and vicinity will be detailed
presently.

** The Eveille did not attempt to follow him from Hampton Roads. One of
the frigates, the Surveillante, ran aground in endeavoring to ascend the
Elizabeth River, and was got off only by taking out her guns and casks
of water.

*** The following is a copy of the inscription:

*** "GEORGE WASHINGTON.

"The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia have caused this
statue to be erected, as a monument of affection and latitude to George
Washington, who, uniting to the endowments of a hero the virtues of the
patriot, and exerting both in establishing the liberties of his country,
has rendered his name dear to his fellow-citizens, and given the world
an immortal example of true glory. Done in the year of Christ, one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, and in the year of the
Commonwealth, the twelfth."

*** On the 22d of February, 1850, the corner-stone of a new and elegant
monument, to be erected upon Capitol Square, by order of the Virginia
Legislature, was laid with imposing ceremonies. The appropriation made
by the Legislature for the purpose was first suggested by the Virginia
Historical Society. Crawford, the eminent American sculptor, is now
engaged upon the work in Italy. The monument will be composed of a broad
base, with flights of steps between pedestals at proper intervals. These
pedestals, six in number, will support each a colossal eagle. From this
base will arise another for the lofty and elegantly wrought pedestal
in the center, designed to support a colossal equestrian statue of
Washington. Upon the second base are to be eight small pedestals,
supporting the statues of Virginia and Liberty, and of several of the
Revolutionary patriots of that state. The grand pedestal will contain,
in different parts, appropriate inscriptions, civic wreaths, stars, &c.
This is but a meager description of the beautiful design before me. It
will be an honor not only to Virginia, but to the Republic.

*** The grand master of the Masonic fraternity laid the corner-stone of
the monument, in the presence of President Taylor and his cabinet, the
Governor of Virginia, and a large concourse of people. On that occasion,
he wore the apron beautifully wrought by the hand of La Fayette's wife,
and presented to Washington by the Grand Lodge of France. Both generals
were members of the order. The apron is in the possession of Mount Nebo
Lodge, No. 91, located at Shepherdstown. * The oration delivered on the
occasion was by Robert G. Scott, Esq. It is expected that the monument
will be completed in 1855.

[[[Monumental Church.--Destruction of the Richmond Theater.--St. John's
Church.--Virginia Washington Monument]]]

{437}name from the circumstance that under its portico is a monumental
urn, erected to in-memory-of those who lost their lives when the
Richmond theater was burned, on the night of the 26th of December, 1811.
* This church was erected upon the site of the destroyed theater. There
the late venerable Bishop Moore preached during the whole time of his
residence in Richmond; and there I heard the voice of his successor,
Bishop Mead, on whom the mantle of his goodness hath fallen.

Crossing the deep valley of the Shockoe upon the broad and lofty
causeway just completed, I visited and sketched old St. John's Church
(see engraving on next page), upon Richmond Hill, and lingered long
among its venerable graves. It is the oldest church in Richmond, and one
of the most ancient in the state. The burial-ground which surrounds it
is embowered in trees and shrubbery, and from its southern slope there
is a noble view of the city and surrounding country. The main portion
of the building is the same as it was in the Revolution, the tower alone
being modern. On Sunday I sat within its hallowed walls, and, while the
voice of the preacher was uttering the eloquence of persuasive piety,
predicated upon the apostolic annunciation, "We are embassadors for
Christ," ** and urged his hearers to heed his voice of warning, and
join the standard of those who sought the _freedom of the Gospel_,
my thoughts involuntarily glanced back over a period of seventy-three
years, to the hour when, within that same temple, (a) the voice of
Patrick [[ a March 1775]] Henry enunciated those burning words which
aroused the Continent to action,

"_Give me liberty, or give me death!_"

There the people of Virginia assembled in rep-

* The audience on that night was uncommonly large, and composed chiefly
of the first class of citizens, among whom was the governor of the
state, George W. Smith. Some of the scenery was ignited by a chandelier
at the back part of the stage, while the most of it was concealed by a
drop-curtain. The combustible materials of all the stage arrangements
made the flames spread with wonderful rapidity, and before the audience
could make their escape by the only door of egress, in the front of the
building, the whole wooden edifice was in flames. Some leaped from the
windows and were saved; others were thus severely injured; and a large
number perished in the flames, or were suffocated by the smoke in the
burning building. Sixty-six white persons, and six colored ones, were
destroyed. The governor was one of the victims. It was a night of woe in
Richmond, and months and even years were required to elapse, before the
gloom was entirely dissipated. The funeral obsequies of the dead were
performed on the 28th of the month, in the presence of almost the entire
population.

** Gal., v., 20.

* Misled by careless historians and current tradition, I have stated
on page 307, of the first volume of this work, that Washington was
initiated into the secrets of the order at Morristown, in New Jersey.
The records exhibited by the orator on the occasion of laying the
corner-stone of the Virginia Monument, show that he was initiated on the
4th of November, 1752, in Lodge No. 4, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when
he was not quite twenty-one years of age. He was raised to the degree of
Master Mason on the 4th of August. 1753. It is asserted that all of the
major generals of the Revolutionary army were master masons, except one;
that one was the "lost Pleiad"--Benedict Arnold.

[[[The Constitutional Convention--The Members and their Vote--Mayo's
Bridge--The Old Stone House.]]]

[[1788]]{438}representative convention to ratify guaranty of our civil
freedom, or reject the Federal Constitution, the glorious Patrick Henry
was then there, and, filled with apprehension lest the new Constitution
should destroy state sovereignty and concentrate a fearful power in the
hands of the chief magistrate, he lifted up his eloquent voice against
it.

[Illustration: 0448]

There, too, were Madison and Monroe, who both subsequently filled the
chair of the chief magistracy of the republic.

[Illustration: 9448]

There was Chancellor Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence;
Marshall, the eminent chief justice, and the biographer of Washington;
Pendleton, one of Virginia's noblest sons, and president of the
Constitutional Convention; Mason, the sage, and personal friend of
Washington; Grayson, the accomplished scholar and soldier; Nicholas, an
officer of Washington's _Life Guard_; Edmund Randolph, then governor
of the state; Bushrod Washington, a nephew of the general; Innes,
the attorney general of the state; the brave Theodoric Bland of the
Continental army; Harrison, another signer of the great Declaration, and
many other luminaries of less brilliancy. _Of the 168 members who voted
on the measure in that convention, there was a majority of only two in
favor of the Federal Constitution._

Leaving St. John's and its interesting associations, I strolled into the
town, and crossed the James River to Manchester, over Mayo's Bridge. **
On my way I sketched the City tavern, printed on page 435, and the Old
Stone House near it, which was the first

* This view is from the burial-ground, looking southwest. The willow
seen on the left, leaning by the side of a monument, is a venerable
tree. It appears to have been planted by the hand of affection when the
monument was reared. In the progress of its growth the trunk has
moved the slab at least six inches from its original position. How
imperceptible was that daily motion when the sap was flowing, and yet
how certain and powerful!

** This bridge is nearly four hundred yards in length, and spans the
James River near the foot of the great rapids. It was built, soon after
the close of the Revolution, by Colonel John Mayo, who received a large
revenue from the tolls.

[[[Reminiscences of the "Old Stone House."--Anecdote of Monroe.--Patrick
Henry.]]]

{439}dwelling erected in Richmond. It stand eth streets, and was among
the houses in Richmond which was spared by the incendiary in 1781.

[Illustration: 8449]

It was occupied, when I visited it, by Mrs. Elizabeth Welsh, whose
great-grandfather, Jacob Ege, from Germany, built it before Byrd's
warehouse was erected. It was owned by Mrs. Welsh's, father, Samuel
Ege, who was a commissary in the American army during a part of the
Revolution. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (four of the
presidents of the United States) have all been beneath its roof. Mrs.
Welsh informed me that she well remembers the fact that Monroe boarded
with her mother, while attending the Virginia Convention in 1788, just
alluded to. * She was then ten years of age.

I passed a portion of the afternoon among the tobacco factories in
Richmond, and the cotton and iron factories at Manchester, and then
lingered until almost sunset upon the beautiful island above Mayo's
Bridge, ** from which I

* Mrs. Welsh related a circumstance whieh she well remembered. While
Monroe was boarding with her mother, Samuel Hardy, another member of the
convention, was also there. Hardy was a very modest, retiring man. One
morning at breakfast, Monroe, remarked to Hardy, in a jocular manner,
"I have no doubt you will be governor of the state yet." "Yes." rejoined
Hardy, "and you will have your hair cued and be sent to Congress." Hardy
was afterward lieutenant governor of the state, and Monroe was not only
"sent to Congress" as a senator, but became a foreign minister, and
chief magistrate of the nation.

** Another noble bridge spans the James River a short distance above,
which was constructed for the passage of the Richmond and Petersburg
rail-way. A third bridge has been erected since my visit there, which is
referred to on page 433.

*** Patrick Henry was born at the family seat of his father, called
Studley, in Hanover county, Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. At the
age of ten years he was taken from school, and placed under the tuition
of his father, in his own house, to learn Latin. He acquired some
proficiency in mathematics; but it now became evident that he had a
greater taste for hunting and fishing than for study. We have already
considered the character of his youth and early manhood, on page 430,
until his powers of eloquence were first developed in a speech in
Hanover court-house. From that period Mr. Henry rose rapidly to the
head ol his profession. He removed to Louisa county in 1764, and in the
autumn of that year he was employed to argue a case before a committee
on elections of the House of Burgesses. He made an eloquent speech on
the right of suffrage, and his uncouth appearanee was entirely lost
sight of by the wondering burgesses. He was elected a member of the
Virginia Legislature in 1765. During that session he made his memorable
speeeh in opposition to the Stamp Act, whieh I shall notice more
particularly hereafter. Mr. Henry was admitted to the bar of the General
Court in 1769. At that time he was again a resident of his native
county; and from that period until the close of the Revolution he was
connected with the House of Burgesses as a member, and as governor of
the state. He was elected a delegate to the first Congress in 1774. and
there, as we have seen, gave the first impulse to its business. In 1775,
when Lord Dunmore seized and conveyed on board a British vessel of war a
part of the powder in the provincial magazine at Williamsburg, Mr.
Henry assembled the independent companies of Hanover and King William
counties, and, boldly demanding its restoration or its equivalent in
money, forced a compliance. He was chosen the first republican governor
of Virginia, after the departure of Dunmore, in 1776, which office he
held for several successive years. In the Virginia Convention of 1788,
assembled to consider the Federal Constitution, Mr. Henry opposed its
adoption with all his eloquence. In 1795, Washington nominated him as
Secretary of State, but he declined the honor and trust. President Adams
appointed him an envoy to France, with Ellsworth and Murray, in 1799,
but his indisposition and advanced age caused him to decline that honor
also. He died soon afterward at his seat at Red Hill, Charlotte county,
on the 6th of June, 1799, aged nearly sixty-three He had six children
by his first wife, and nine by his second. He left his family rich.
His widow married the late Judge Winston, and died in Halifax county in
February, 1831.

* In private life Mr. Henry was amiable and virtuous, and in public
and private strictly temperate. He was never known to utter a profane
expression, dishonoring the name of God. He was not a member of any
church, yet he was a practical Christian, and a lover of the Bible.

* Wirt, in his brilliant biography of the great orator, has given
several illustrations of the power of his eloquence. I give one in
conclusion. A Scotchman, named Hook, living in Campbell county, was
suspected of being a Tory. On the occasion of the joint invasion of
Cornwallis and Phillips, the American army was greatly distressed. A
commissary, named Venable, took two of Mr. Hook's steers, without his
consent, to feed the starving soldiers. At the conclusion of the war, a
lawyer, named Cowan, advised Book to prosecute Venable for trespass, in
the District Court of New London. Venable employed Patrick Henry.

[Illustration: 9450]

* The case was tried in the old court-house in New London. Mr. Henry
depicted the distress of the American soldiers in the most glowing
colors, and then asked, where was the man, "who had an American heart,
who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, his cellars, the
doors of his house, the portals of his breast, to have received with
open arms the meanest soldier in that little band of famished patriots?
Where is the man? There he stands; but whether the heart of an American
beats in his bosom you, gentlemen, are to judge." "He then," says Wirt,
"carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, to the plains
around York, the surrender of which had followed shortly after the act
complained of. He depicted the surrender in the most glowing and
noble colors of his eloquence. The audience saw before their eyes the
humiliation and dejection of the British as they marched out of the
trenches--they saw the triumph which lighted up every patriotic
face, and heard the shouts of victory, and the cry of 'Washington and
Liberty,' as it rung and echoed through the American ranks, and was
reverberated from the hills and shores of the neighboring river--| but
hark! what notes of discord are these which disturb the general joy, and
silence the acclamations of victory? They are the notes of John Hook,
hoarsely bawling through the American camp, 'beef! beef! beef!'

* "The whole audience were convulsed. The clerk of the court, unable to
contain himself, and unwilling to commit any breach of decorum in his
place, rushed out of the court-house, and threw himself upon the grass,
in the most violent paroxysm of laughter, where he was rolling when
Hook, with very different feelings, came out for relief into the yard
also. 'Jemmy Steptoe,' he said to the clerk, 'what the divil ails ye,
mon?' Mr. Steptoe was only able to lay that he could not help it. 'Never
mind ye.' said Hook, 'wait till Billy Cowan gets up; he'll show him the
la'!' Mr. Cowan was so overwhelmed that he could scarcely utter a word.
The jury instantly returned a verdict against Hook. The people were
highly excited, and Hook was obliged to leave the county to avoid a coat
of tar and feathers."--Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. *

* This is from a picture in Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia,
p. 220. The house is upon a ridge, the dividing line of Campbell and
Charlotte counties. "From the brow of the hill, west of the house,"
says Howe, "the Blue Ridge, with the lofty peaks of Otter, appear in the
horizon at the distance of nearly sixty miles." In a grove of locusts
and other trees at the foot of the garden, are the graves of Governor
Henry and his first wife. In the parlor of the house hangs the portrait,
by Sutly, of which the one given on the preceding page is a copy. The
dress is black, cravat white, and a red velvet mantle is thrown over the
shoulders. The sketch of the old court-house in New London is also from
Howe's valuable hook, p. 212.

[[[Departure from Richmond.--Aspect of the Scene.--Effect of Patrick
Henry's Eloquence.--His Residence.]]]

{440}made the sketch printed on page 433, contemplating the beauty and
grandeur of the scenery, charming even in December, when the trees were
leafless and the sward of a russet hue.

[Illustration: 9450]

The storm had subsided, the clouds had dispersed, and the sun and
air were as genial to the feelings as a day in mid-May. Bright and
beautiful, also, was the Sabbath; but when I left Richmond for Charles
City and old Jamestown on Monday morning, every thing was draped in
a thick vapor which had arisen from the river during the night. I had
scarcely left the suburban village of Powhatan, and turned my horse's
head toward the open country, when=

`````"That sea of vapor

```Parted away, and, melting into air,

```Rose round me, and I stood involved in light,

```As if a flame had kindled up, and wrapp'd me

```In its innocuous blaze."--Percival.=

The sun came forth brilliant and warm, and for an hour I could trace the
sinuous course

[[[Appearance of the Country below Richmond. Westover. Colonel Byrd.
Birth-place of President Harrison]]]

{441}of the James River by the line of the white vapor which stretched
away, far southward, like a huge serpent measuring its mighty length
over the land.

Before leaving Richmond, I endeavored to ascertain the exact location
of Westover, the famous estate of Colonel Byrd, and memorable as
the landing-place of Arnold's troops. I could not learn its relative
position in distance from the direct road to Charles City courthouse,
the goal of my first day's journey, and I thought I should pass it
by unvisited. After leaving Richmond a few miles, the hilly country
disappeared, and there spread out a level or gently rolling region,
bearing extensive pine forests, which inclose quite large plantations.
I dined in my wagon upon cold turkey and biscuit, furnished by my kind
friend, Mrs. G., of Richmond, after giving Charley a lunch of meal and
water, by the side of a small stream in the way. The day was very
warm ***---too warm to ride comfortably [[ a Dec. 18, 1848]] with an
overcoat. Not suspecting that I might diverge into a wrong road by one
of the numerous forks which characterize the highway, I allowed Charley
to jog on leisurely, and with a loose rein, while I gave myself up to
contemplation, which was occasionally interrupted by a passing regret
that I was obliged to forego the pleasure of visiting Westover.

[Illustration: 8451]

Suddenly, on emerging from a pine forest into an open cultivated region,
the bright waters of a broad river, dotted with an occasional sail,
were before me. On the bank of the river was a spacious brick mansion,
approached from the country by a broad lane, in which a large number of
servants, men and women, were engaged _shucking or husking_ corn. The
gleaming water was the James River, and the spacious mansion was that
of John A. Selden, Esq., once the residence of Colonel Byrd. I was at
Westover, scarcely conscious how I had reached it; for I supposed myself
to be upon the direct road to Charles City courthouse, and probably a
dozen miles from the spot I desired to see. I was between two and three
miles from the main road, led thither by a deceptive by-way, and was
obliged to retrace the journey, after passing half an hour in viewing
the location. The family of the proprietor was absent, and not a white
person was upon the plantation. It must be a delightful place in summer,
and, when it was occupied by the accomplished family of the widow of
Colonel Byrd, * doubtless justified the Marquis de Chastellux in giving
his glowing account of the beauty of its location and the charms of
society there. "That of Mrs. Byrd," he says, "to which I was
going, surpasses them all [fine mansions on the James River] in the
magnificence of the buildings, the beauty of its situation, and the
pleasures of society." ** Mrs. Byrd was a cousin of Benedict Arnold,
and this relationship, and the fact that West-over was made the place of
landing for the British troops three times under Arnold and Cornwallis,
so excited the suspicions of the vigilant Whigs, that the government
once took possession of her papers. She was wrongfully suspected, and
the landings of the enemy were great misfortunes to her in various ways.
I made a sketch of the fine old mansion before leaving Westover, but
lost it that very evening.

A short distance above Westover, and in sight of its gardens, upon
the river shore, is Berkeley (called Barclay in the old books), the
residence of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, and the birth-place of his son, the ninth president of
the United States. It is a brick edifice, with gambrel-roof, and stands
about an eighth of a mile from the bank of the river. Around it are tall
Lombardy poplars, rising in stately beauty above shrubbery and lesser
trees. I made this sketch from the deck of a steam-boat, while ascending
the James River a few days afterward, at the distance of a quarter of a
mile, aided in my view of the details by the captain's spy-glass.

* Colonel William Byrd, whose widow owned Westover when Arnold landed
there, was the son of Colonel William Byrd, once president of the
Virginia Council, and one of the wealthiest and most accomplished
gentlemen in the province. Like his father, he was an active public man.
He was a commissioner to treat with the Indians in 1756, and accompanied
Forbes in his expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. Being a gay
spendthrift and a gambler, his immense wealth was much lessened at his
death, and his affairs were left in great confusion.

** Travels, ii., 16

[[[Anecdote of Harrison's Father.--Charles City Court House.--Birth
place of President Tyler.--Jefferson's Marriage.]]]

{442}For many years Berkeley was the seat of elegant taste and
refinement, for its distinguished owner as a legislator, and as
governor of the state, drew around him the wealthy and honorable of
the commonwealth. His portrait, and a sketch of his life, will be found
among those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in another
part of this work. *

Leaving Westover, I returned to the highway, and after traversing a
beautiful level country, garnished with fertile plantations and handsome
mansions, for about six miles, I reached Charles City Court House. It
was just at sunset, and there I passed the night with Mr. Christian, who
was the clerk of the county, the jailer, and innkeeper.

[Illustration: 9452]

His house of entertainment, the old court-house and jail, and a few
out-houses and servants' quarters, compose the village.

[Illustration: 8452]

The county is the smallest in Virginia, yet bears the honor of having
given birth to two presidents of the United States, and of being the
place of marriage of a third. ** I passed the birth-place of President
Tyler just before reaching Mr. Christian's inn. It is the last dwelling
upon the Richmond road, when leaving the Court House. His father,

John Tyler, was one of the leading revolutionary men in Virginia. He
succeeded Benjamin Harrison as speaker of the Virginia Assembly, and in
1808 he was chosen governor of the state.

[Illustration: 6452]

While Judge of the District Court of the United States, he died, at his
seat, in January, 1813.

Mr. Christian allowed me to pass the evening searching among the dusty
records in the old court-house. I found nothing there relating to
Revolutionary events; but in a bundle of papers, wrapped up and laid
away probably for more than half a century, I discovered the marriage
license-bond of Thomas Jefferson, in his own handwriting. I made a fac
simile copy of it, which is printed on the opposite page. Mr. Jefferson
was married to Martha Skelton, of Charles City county, in January, 1772.
She was the widow of Bathurst Skelton, and daughter of John Wayles,
an eminent lawyer of Virginia. She brought her husband a considerable
fortune, and was only twenty-three years of age when she was married to
Mr. Jefferson. Through the stormy period of the Revolution she shared
his joys and sorrows, and died in 1782, leaving two daughters. It will
be perceived that in writing the bond, which is countersigned by Francis
Eppes (the father of Mr. Eppes, who afterward married Mr. Jefferson's
daughter), the usual word _spinster_ was introduced, but erased, and the
word _widow_ substituted by another hand.

* The Marquis de Chastellux gives an interesting account of his visit to
Mr. Harrison, at his residence in Richmond, while he was governor of
the state. He relates an anecdote of Mr. Harrison, which illustrates
the confidence of the people in their delegates to the first Congress
at Philadelphia. When he was on the point of leaving home, with Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Lee, a large number of the country people waited upon
him, and said, "You assert that there is a fixed intention to invade our
rights and privileges. We own that we do not see this clearly; but since
you assure us it is so, we believe the fact. We are about to take a very
dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are ready to support you
in every measure you shall think proper to adopt." Shortly afterward
appeared Lord North's speech, clearly avowing his intentions toward the
colonies. When Mr. Harrison returned home, at the close of the session,
the same people came to him, with the assurance that they were now
convinced that he had not deceived them, that their confidence was not
misplaced, and that henceforth they were determined on war.--Travels,
ii., 159.

** William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were both born in that county,
and there Thomas Jefferson was married.

*** The style of this building is similar to that of Hanover
court-house. It is constructed of imported brick, and was erected
previous to that at Hanover. I could not discover the exact period
when it was built. Among its records I found notices of courts held at
Charles City as early as 1639.

**** I copied this signature from a letter written to the lady of
General Gates in August, 1780.

[Illustration: 0453]

{443}Charles City Court House was a scene of mortal strife between the
Queen's Rangers, under Simcoe, and a party of American militia, on the
evening of the day after Arnold's return from Richmond. (a) Arnold had
directed a patrol on that evening toward [[ a Jan 8, 1781]] Long Bridge,
in order to obtain intelligence. The patrol consisted of about forty
cavalry, under Simcoe. Falling in with some American videttes, they
captured two or three, and from them Simcoe learned that a party of
militia, under General Nelson, lay at and near Charles City Court-house.
The night was clear and frosty, and the moon at its full. * The enemy
had no knowledge of the way. A negro prisoner was made to act

* Simcoe, in his journal, says "the night was very dark." Mr. Tyler
informed me that his father, who was then at home, and witnessed a part
of the affray, always declared that the sky was cloudless, and the moon
in full orb.

[[[Attack upon the American Militia.--Carelessness of Dudley.--"Sherwood
Forest."--Ex-president Tyler.]]]

{444}as guide. The party at the Court House, consisting of one hundred
and fifty militia, under the command of Colonel Dudley, were completely
surprised, for they had no intimation of the immediate approach of a foe
until their sentries were fired upon, and two bugles sounded the signal
of attack, upon the frosty air of that winter's night.

[Illustration: 9454]

A confused and scattering fire ensued, when the American detachment
fled and joined the main body, which lay a few miles distant, toward the
Chickahominy River. A part of Simcoe's dragoons dismounted, rushed into
the tavern, and seized several of the Americans. Two of the militiamen
(Deane and Ballard) were killed. One of them was slain upon the landing
at the head of the stairs, while fleeing to the chamber for safety. The
spot was pointed out to me, where, until within a few years, the stains
of the victim's blood might be seen. The attack was so sudden and
furious, that those who escaped and communicated the fact to the militia
under Nelson, so alarmed that body, that a large number of them broke
from the camp, and fled to Williamsburg. Simcoe collected his prisoners
and a few captured horses as speedily as possible, and before dawn he
joined Arnold at Westover.

Mr. Tyler (the late President of the United States), on whom I called
while on my way from Charles City Court House to Jamestown, informed me
that his father, who was then a member of the Virginia Assembly, but at
his residence at the time, aware of the force of the enemy at Westover
and Berkeley, earnestly advised Colonel Dudley, the commander of the
county militia, to place his men in a position for defense; offering, at
the same time, to join them, and act in any capacity. He advised him
to remove his party from the tavern, for, if left there drinking and
carousing as usual, they would surely be surprised. The haughty colonel
would not heed his warning, and the result was defeat and disgrace. ***

It was another glorious morning when I left Charles City Court House.
Warm and brilliant as May, I anticipated a delightful day's journey. Nor
was I disappointed. A heavy fog during the night had hung each bough and
spray with liquid jewels, and these, glittering in the early sun, fell
in radiant showers as the light breezes touched their resting-places.
Traversing a rough road for nearly four miles, I crossed a rapid stream
at a mill, and ascending to a plain half a mile beyond, I reined up at
the entrance-gate to Sherwood Forest, the estate of ex-President Tyler.
His mansion is very spacious, and stands upon the brow of a gentle
slope, half a mile from the highway. It is sheltered in the rear by a
thick forest of oaks, pines, and chestnuts, while from the front the eye
overlooks almost the whole of his plantation of fourteen hundred
acres, with occasional glimpses of the James River. The distinguished
proprietor was at home, and received me with that courteous hospitality
so common in the South, which makes the traveler feel at ease, as if
at the house of a friend. Mr. Tyler is tall and slender in person, his
locks long, thin, and slightly grizzled, and he was dressed in the plain
garb of a Virginia planter. After giving warm expressions of interest in
my enterprise, and an invitation to remain longer at Sherwood Forest,

** This tavern, in which I lodged, was built about ten years before
the skirmish which occurred within and around it. It is now occupied
hy Edmund F. Christian, Esq., the clerk of Charles City county when I
visited it in 1848.

*** A man named Royston, whom Mr. Tyler well knew, was badly wounded
in the affray. A pistol was discharged so near his head, that grains
of powder sprinkled his face, and disfigured him for life. He was then
struck down by a saber blow, and the troopers cruelly tried to make
their horses trample him to death. The animals, more humane in action
than their riders, leaped over him, and he was saved. He crawled to the
residence of Mr. Tyler, where a colored nurse, the only inmate of the
house, dressed his wounds and gave him food and drink. Mr. Tyler had
moved his family to a place of safety, beyond the Chickahominy River.

[[[The Slashes of the Chickahominy.--Difficulties at the Ferry.--The
Chickahominy and its Associations.]]]

{445}he sketched a map of my route to Jamestown, as a guide among the
diverging ways. Time was precious, and I passed only an hour at the
hospitable mansion of the ex-president, and then departed for the
Chickahominy.

Soon after leaving Sherwood Forest, I entered a low, wet region, covered
with pines, called the _slashes_. These extended to the banks of the
Chickahominy, a distance of seven miles; and in all that journey,
without a clearing to cheer the eye, I saw no living thing, except an
occasional "wild boar of the wood," a dwarf breed of hogs which inhabit
this dreary region. Here, where once broad fields were smiling with
culture-blessings, and this road, now almost a quagmire, but fifty years
ago was one of the finest highways in Virginia, wild deers and
turkeys abound, as if the land was a primeval wilderness. It was a sad
commentary upon the past husbandry of Virginia, and a sadder picture
of the inevitable result of the present bad husbandry which prevails
in many regions of the South. Year after year the tillers make constant
drafts upon the vitality of the soil without an ounce of compensating
manure, until all fertility is exhausted. I saw thousands of acres in
the course of my journey, where tillage had levied its withering taxes
until the generous soil could no longer yield its tithe, nor even its
hundredth. The earth was completely covered with "poverty grass," dwarf
pines, or stately forests of the same tree, patiently renewing its
strength during a long Sabbath-rest of abandonment by man.

It was at meridian when I emerged from the wilderness and halted upon
the high sandbank of the Chickahominy, a few miles above its confluence
with the James River. Above, all appeared bright and beautiful; below,
all was gloomy and desolate. Silence reigned here, where once the busy
ferryman plied his oars from morning until night. No voice was to be
heard; no human habitation was to be seen. The broad and turbid river
moved sluggishly on without a ripple, and on the beach a scow, half
filled with water, told only of desolation. There appeared no way for me
to cross the stream. If denied that privilege, I must make a circuit of
thirty miles' travel to a public crossing above! I looked for the smoke
of a dwelling, but saw none. I shouted; there was no response but that
of echo. Remembering that, just before reaching the clearing upon the
Chickahominy, I saw a road, covered with leaves, diverging toward the
James River, I returned, reined into it, and followed it with hope.
Presently I saw a log hut upon the shore, and heard the voices of men.
They were negroes, busily preparing a canoe for a fishing excursion. I
inquired for a ferryman, and was informed that nobody crossed now, and
the scow would not float. Two of the men speedily changed their opinion
when I offered a bright half dollar to each if they would "bail out" the
craft and "pole" me across. They worked faithfully, and within half an
hour I was embarked upon the stream, with my horse and vehicle, in a
shell just long enough and broad enough to contain us. To keep Charley
quiet, so as to "trim the boat," I allowed him to dine upon some oats
which I procured at Charles City Court House. The Chickahominy is here
about a quarter of a mile wide. The current was quite strong, and so
deep, that the poles, by which the bateau was impelled, were sometimes
too short for use. We drifted some distance down the stream, and, at one
time, I anticipated an evening voyage upon the James River, but by the
great exertions of the motive-power we reached the landing-place in
safety, after rather a dangerous voyage of nearly three quarters of
an hour. The bateau was again almost half filled with water, and the
ferrymen were obliged to empty it before returning. I was too much
occupied while crossing with apprehensions of an involuntary bath to
reflect upon the perils which Captain John Smith encountered upon this
very stream, before the empire of the white men had commenced; but when
safely seated in my wagon upon the Jamestown side of the river, I looked
with intense interest upon the wooded shores of those waters, up which
that adventurer paddled. More than sixty miles above the place where
I crossed he was captured by Opechancanough, the king of Pamunkee, and
carried in triumph to Powhatan, at Werowocomoeo, where he was saved
from death by the gentle Pocahontas. These events we shall consider
presently.

I was now eight miles from old Jamestown, the goal of my day's journey.
Hungry and thirsty, I was about entering another dreary region of
_slashes_, five miles in extent, when I

[[[Green Spring and its Associations.--Distant View of Jamestown
Island.--Changes in the River Banks.--Tradition.]]]

{446}saw a log hut on the verge of the woods. I hailed, but no person
appeared, except a little child of six years, black as ebony, and having
nothing on but its birth-day suit and a tattered shirt. It brought me a
draught of cool water in a gourd from a spring near by. Dropping half
a dime into the emptied shell, I pursued my way. Emerging from the
_slashes_, I passed through a portion of the celebrated _Green Spring_
plantation, its mansion appearing among the trees on my left, half a
mile distant. *

[Illustration: 0456]

It is now in possession of two brothers, named Ward, formerly of New
Jersey, who, for many years, as skippers upon the James River, bartered
for the products of this plantation, until they were able to purchase
it. _Green Spring_ was the theater of an interesting episode in our
Revolutionary history, for there the American army, under La Fayette,
Wayne, and Steuben, were encamped for a few days in the summer of 1781,
while watching the movements and foiling the designs of Cornwallis in
Virginia.

It was almost sunset when I passed the morass in front of _Green
Spring_, over which the Americans crossed to the attack of Cornwallis at
Jamestown Ford. I crossed the plantation of John Coke, Esq., and halted
upon the shore of an estuary of the James River, at the cottage of
Mr. Bacon, opposite Jamestown island. It was too late to visit the
consecrated spot that evening. I sketched this distant view of the
portion of the island where-

* This was the residence of Sir William Berkeley, one of the early
governors of Virginia. It afterward belonged to Philip Ludwell, one of
the king's council, from whom it descended to William Lee, sheriff of
London under the celebrated John Wilkes.

** This view is from the north side of what was once a marsh, but now a
deep bay, four hundred yards wide. On the left is seen the remains of a
bridge, destroyed by a gale and high tide a few years ago; and beyond
is the James River. Near the point of the island, toward the end of the
bridge, are the remains of an ancient church, a near view of which is
given upon the opposite page. Mr. Coke resided upon the island when the
tempest occurred which destroyed the bridge. The island was submerged,
and for three davs himself and family were prisoners. It was in winter,
and he was obliged to cut the branches of ornamental trees that were
close to his house, for fuel. I was gravely informed by a man on the
beach, while making the sketch, that Pocahontas crossed at that very
spot "in her skiff," when she went to warn the Jamestown settlers of
threatened danger. The dear child had no need of a skiff, had such
a thing existed in America, for I was told by Mr. Coke that his
father-in-law well remembered when a marsh, so narrow and firm that a
person might cross it upon a fence rail, was where the deep water at the
ruined bridge now is. Every year the current of James River is changing
its margins in this region, and within a few years Jamestown Island,
made so only by a marsh on the land side, will have a navigable channel
around it. Already a large portion of it, whereon the ancient town was
ereeted, has been washed away; and I was informed that a cypress-tree,
now many yards from the shore, stood at the end of a carriage-way to the
wharf, sixty yards from the water's edge, only sixteen years ago. The
destructive flood is gradually approaching the old church tower, and
if the hand of man shall not arrest its sure progress, that too will be
swept away, and not a vestige of Jamestown will remain. Virginians,
look to it, and let a wall of masonry along the river margin attest your
reverence for the most interesting historical relic within your borders!
Some remains of the old fort may be seen at low water, several yards
from the shore.

[[[Mr. Coke's Plantation.--The Council Tree.--Remains of Old Jamestown
Church and Grave yard.]]]

{447}on the ancient city stood, and then returned to the mansion of Mr.
Coke, (who is brother of the late Richard Coke, member of Congress from
Accomac district), to pass the night under his roof, where I experienced
true Virginia hospitality. Mr. Coke was for many years sheriff of the
county, is an influential man, and an excellent practical agriculturist.

[Illustration: 8457]

He owns a plantation of nineteen hundred acres, nearly one thousand of
which is under cultivation. Unlike too many agriculturists of the South,
he is his own general overseer, and his family of seventy persons (only
eleven of whom are white), receive his daily personal care. He owns all
the soil that is left unsubmerged on which the English built their first
town in America. His house has many bullet-marks, made there during the
battle at Jamestown Ford, on the 6th of July, 1781; and in the broad
level field in front of his mansion, the French army was encamped when
on its way to Yorktown the same year. Within that field a venerable
chestnut-oak, riven, but not destroyed, by lightning, was yet standing,
under which a court-martial was held by Cornwallis, and upon its
branches a culprit was hanged. It is called the "Council Tree." Mr.
Coke's plantation is truly classic ground, for upon it occurred events
connected with those widely-separated incidents, the opening and the
closing of the heroic age of America. Over it the lordly Powhatan
once walked, and the feet of his gentle daughter pressed its soil when
speeding on her mission of mercy to the doomed settlement of Jamestown.
Over it the royal and republican armies marched, and there fought
desperately for victory.

I was at Mr. Bacon's cottage soon after an early breakfast, and before
nine o'clock had crossed the estuary in a punt, and sat within the
shadow of the old church tower, which stands like a sentinel, watching
the city of the dead at its feet. This crumbling pile, surrounded by
shrubbery, brambles, and tangled vines; and the old church-yard wall, of
English brick, inclosing a few broken monuments, half buried in earth or
covered with a pall of ivy and long grass, are all the tangible records
that remain of the first planting of an English colony in America. As I
sat upon the hollow trunk of a half-reclining and decayed old sycamore,
and sketched the broken tower, the questionings of the eloquent Wirt
came up from the depth of feeling: "Whence, my dear S---- arises this
irrepressible reverence and tender affection with which I look at this
broken steeple?

* This view is from the old church-yard, looking toward James River,
a glimpse of which may be seen through the arches. The stream is here
about three miles wide. It is uncertain at what precise time the church,
of which now only a portion of the tower remains, was erected. It was
probably built sometime between 1617 and 1620. According to Smith, a
fire consumed a large portion of the town, with the palisades, at about
the close of 1607, the first year of the settlement. Captain Smith and
Mr. Scrivener were appointed commissioners to superintend the rebuilding
of the town and church. Afterward, in speaking of the arrival of
Governor Argali in 1617, he says, "In James towne he found but five
or six houses, the church downe, the pallizados broken, the bridge in
pieces, the well of fresh water spoiled, the store-house used for the
church," &c. The tower here represented was doubtless that of the third
church built, and is now (1852) about 234 years old. The tower is now
about thirty feet high, the walls three feet thick, all of imported
brick.

[[[Wirt's Musings at the Church at Jamestown.--The Ancient
Monuments.--Paulding's Ode.--Efforts at Early Settlement.]]]

{448}Is it that my soul, by a secret, subtile process, invests the
moldering ruins with her own powers; imagines it a fellow-being--a
venerable old man, a Nestor or an Ossian, who has witnessed and survived
the ravages of successive generations, the companions of his youth and
of his maturity, and now mourns his own solitary and desolate condition,
and hails their spirits in every passing cloud? Whatever may be the
cause, as I look at it, I feel my soul drawn forward as by the cords of
gentlest sympathy, and involuntarily open my lips to offer consolation
to the drooping pile." * Around this=

```"Old cradle of our infant world,

````In which a nestling empire lay,"=

the Spirit of Romance and the Muse of Poetry delight to linger, and the
bosom of the American glows with increased patriotism as he contemplates
this small _beginning_ of the mighty _progression_ around him.=

```"What solemn recollections throng,

````What touching visions rise,

```As, wandering these old stones among,

````I backward turn my eyes,

```And see the shadows of the dead flit round,

```Like spirits when the last dread trump shall sound!

```The wonders of an age combined,

````In one short moment memory supplies;

```They throng upon my 'waken'd mind,

````As Time's dark curtains rise.

```The volume of a hundred buried years,

```Condensed in one bright sheet appears. ********

```Jamestown and Plymouth's hallow'd rock

````To me shall ever sacred be;

```I care not who my themes may mock,

````Or sneer at them and me.

```I envy not the brute who here can stand

```Without a thrill for his own native land.

```And if the recreant crawl her earth.

````Or breathe Virginia's air,

```Or in New England claim his birth,

````From the old pilgrims there,

```He is a bastard, if he dare to mock

```Old Jamestown's shrine, or Plymouth's famous rock.'

`````James Kirke Paulding.=

Although it was late in December, the sun was shining almost as warm as
at [[ a Dec 21, 1848]] the close of May. While finishing my sketch, I
was glad to take shelter from its beams in the shadow of the sycamore.
Here, upon this curiously-wrought slab, clasped by the roots of the
forest _anak_, let us sit a while and ponder the early chronicles of
Virginia. **

I have mentioned, in the Introduction to this work, the efforts made by
the English, Spanish, and French adventurers to plant colonies in the
New World, and their failures. The idea was not abandoned; and the
public mind, particularly in England, was much occupied with the visions
of new and opulent empires beyond the ocean, of which a few glimpses had
appeared. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh,
published a hypothetical treatise on a northwest passage to the East
Indies, which attracted great attention, and exerted much influence
favorable to colonizing expeditions. He obtained [[ b June 11, 1578]] a
patent from Queen Elizabeth (b) to colonize such parts of North America
as were already possessed by any of her allies. Raleigh, a young,
ardent, and ambitious student at Oxford, had just completed his studies,
and was about to engage in a military life in France. He was induced
by his step-brother to join with him in an expedition to America. They
sailed early in 1579, but never reached our Continent, because, as
was alleged, their little squadron was broken up in a conflict with
a Spanish fleet, when they returned to England. Gilbert's patent was
limited, and he made great efforts to plant a colony before it should
expire. He and Raleigh equipped a new squadron in 1583. ***

* Wirt's Letters of a British Spy, page 128.

** The slab referred to was a blue stone about four inches thick.
The roots of the sycamore were so firmly entwined around it that no
church-yard thief could take it away. It bore the date of 1608. The
remainder of the inscription was so broken and defaced that I could not
decipher a name. This is probably the oldest tomb-stone extant in the
United States. Vandalism has been at work in that old grave-yard as
elsewhere. Almost every monument has a fragment broken from it. A small
piece, with some letters upon it, had been recently broken from one, and
was left lying in the grass. This I brought away with me, not, however,
without a sense of being an "accessory after the fact" in an act of
sacrilege.

** The names of the vessels were Raleigh, Swalloir, Hind, Delight,
and Squirrel. The Raleigh went but a lew leagues from Portsmouth, and
returned.

[[[Loss of Sir Humphrey Gilbert.--Raleigh's Perseverance.--Amidas and
Barlow.--Native Hospitality abused.--Grenville and Lane.]]]

{449}Raleigh did not sail with the expedition. Gilbert reached
Newfoundland, and at St. John's he performed the feudal ceremonies of
taking formal possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, in
the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese adventurers who were located
there. (a)

[Illustration: 8459]

Soon afterward the expedition sailed southward. The flag-ship of [[ a
August 5, 1583]] Gilbert was the _Squirrel_. Tempests arose. One
night, "about twelve o'clock, the lights of the _Squirrel_ suddenly
disappeared, and neither the vessel nor any of its crew was ever again
seen." * The survivors of the expedition reached England in the _Hind_,
on the 22d of September following.

Raleigh was not disheartened. He resolved to plant a colony in a more
southern region, and readily obtained a patent from Elizabeth as ample
as that of his lost step-brother. He was constituted a lord proprietary,
with civil and political privileges in his prospective domain almost
monarchical. He equipped two vessels, with an ample supply of men and
provisions, and gave the command to Philip Arnidas and Arthur Barlow,
two experienced mariners. They sailed for America on the 27th of
April, 1584, and reached Cuba, in the West Indies, in July. Departing
northward, they landed upon Wocoken Island, the southernmost of the
group which form Ocracock Inlet, on the shores of North Carolina. The
natives, ignorant of the character and designs of the English, received
them with friendly greetings after the first emotions of fear and wonder
had subsided. Amidas and Barlow explored Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds,
enjoyed the hospitality of Granganimeo, the father of King Wingina, upon
the beautiful island of Roanoke (now belonging to Tyr-rel county, N.
C.), and then returned to England, accompanied by Wanchese and Manteo,
two natives of the forest. The glowing accounts of his captains of the
beauty and fertility of the land, and the gentleness of the natives,
filled Raleigh's heart with joy. The captains were presented at court,
and their tales of the enchanting region which they had discovered made
Elizabeth feel that the most glorious event of her reign had just
been accomplished. She named the new-found region in the Western world
_Virginia_, as a memorial of her unmarried state.

Raleigh was elected a member of Parliament for Devonshire, obtained a
confirmation of his patent, (b) was knighted, and became one of the
most popular men in England. [[ b Dec 18, 1584]] In 1585, he fitted out
another fleet. The command was given to Sir Richard Grenville, one of
the most gallant men of the age. The fleet consisted of seven vessels,
and bore one hundred and eight emigrants, designed to colonize Virginia.
Ralph Lane (afterward knighted by Elizabeth) accompanied them as
governor of the colony, and several men of learning were his companions.
Among them was With, a meritorious painter, whose sketches of the people
and scenery in the New World were made with remarkable faithfulness.
This expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, and reached
Florida on the 20th of June. Coasting northward, they arrived at the
beautiful Roanoke Island, lying between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
They went to the Main, and explored the beautiful county of Secotan,
around Albemarle Sound and the Chowan, in various directions. Ignorant
of the power of kindness, they foolishly quarreled with the simple
natives; and because they supposed a lost silver cup had been stolen
by one of them, a whole village was burned, and fields of standing corn
were destroyed. From the ashes arose the spirit of discord which ever
afterward separated the Indian and the white man.

Grenville returned with the fleet to England, leaving Lane and his
colony to perfect a settlement. Instead of cultivating the soil for the
production of maize and the potato, which were indigenous, they sought
gold. A wily savage, intent on revenge, told them wondrous tales of a
land of gold at the head waters of the Roanoke River. Up that broad and
rapid stream, Lane and a portion of his people went, for the two-fold
purpose of exploring the

* Bancroft, i., 91.

** This sketch is from a picture published in a Treatise on Navigation
in 1595.

[[[Hostilities with the Indiana.--Colonists Return to England.--Another
Expedition.--"City of Raleigh."--Virginia Dare.]]]

{450}country and seeking gold. They ascended no further than the present
village of Williams-town, when a flight of arrows from the wooded shore
revealed the enmity of the natives. Lane hastened back to Roanoke, and
summoned Wingina, the most powerful of the chiefs, to an audience.
The sachem and his followers appeared. Their secret plans for the
destruction of the English were suspected, indeed, quite certainly
known, and the white men were on the alert. With apparent friendliness
Wingina appeared at the council. At a given signal the English fell
upon the chief and his handful of warriors, and put them to death. The
calumet was now buried forever; the hatchet was brightened and made
sharp by intensest hatred. The English felt the danger of their
situation, and were desponding, when the fleet of Sir Francis Drake
anchored outside of Roanoke Inlet. He came from the West Indies to visit
the domain of Raleigh, and generously offered to furnish the colony with
means to pursue their discoveries; but fear gained the mastery of their
avaricious de[[ a June 19, 1586]] sires, and the colonists sailed with
Drake for England. (a) A few days after their departure a ship arrived,
laden with stores for the colony; and, within a fortnight, Grenville
also arrived with three well-furnished ships. The commander sought in
vain for the colony, and, leaving fifteen men on the Island of Roanoke
to maintain English dominion, he returned to England with the sad
intelligence for Raleigh. *

Raleigh, undismayed by misfortunes, fitted out another expedition. He
changed his policy, and sent a colony of men, women, and children
to establish an agricultural state. John White was appointed their
governor. They sailed on the 26th of April, 1587, and arrived on the
coast of North Carolina in July. When they reached Roanoke, they found
no vestige of the fifteen men left by Grenville, except a few scattered
bones. The Indians had slain them all. Wild deers were in the untenanted
habitations, and rank grass covered their gardens, They proceeded to lay
the foundation of "the city of Raleigh," pursuant to the instructions
of the proprietor, but it was an idle show. ** White endeavored to make
treaties of amity with the natives, but failed, though aided by the
friendly Manteo, who accompanied Amidas and Barlow to England. *** The
neighboring tribes exhibited implacable hatred and jealousy. Winter
approached, and the vessel which brought them was prepared for departure
for England. White was urged strongly to go with it, and use his
endeavors to send them immediate relief, for they had neither planted
nor reaped, and to England alone they looked for supply. He was
unwilling to appear as a deserter of his colony, and refused. He had
another tie. His daughter, Eleanor Dare, had given birth to a child, the
first offspring of English parents in the New World. Little _Virginia
Dare_ twined the tendrils of affection close around the heart of her
grand-parent, and he lingered. **** He at length consented to go,
leaving his daughter and child as pledges that he would return. Very
long the poor colonists waited for relief. Three years passed away
before White returned, and then he found the settlement a desolation.
There was evidence upon the bark of a tree that the people had departed
for Croatan, (v) the residence of Manteo; but

* It is believed that these returning colonists first carried the
tobacco plant to England, as prepared by the natives for smoking.
Raleigh first used it privately. It is related that when his servant
entered his room with a tankard of ale, and for the first time saw the
smoke issuing from his master's mouth and nostrils, he cast the liquor
in his face. Terribly frightened, he alarmed the household with the
intelligence that Sir Walter was on fire.

** The Island of Roanoke is now uninhabited, except by a few wreckers
and pilots. Slight traces of Lane's fort may be seen near the north end.

*** By command of Raleigh, Manteo was baptized, and invested by White
with the rank of feudal Baron, as the Lord of Roanoke. It was the first
creation of an American peer of the realm.

**** It is a coincidence worth noticing, that White was the name of
the progenitors of the first two children born of English parents in
America. One on the Island of Roanoke, in August, 1587; the other in the
May Flower, in Plymouth harbor, more than thirty-three years afterward.

* (v) It was agreed, on the departure of White, that if the colony
should go to Croatan, they would signify the fact by inscribing the
letters C R O upon the bark of a tree. This inscription, and also
the full name of Croatan, was found. White has been censured for
heartlessness in not prosecuting his search with more perseverance,
particularly as his own relatives were among the settlers. The colony
was composed of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and two children. What
was their fate is left to conjecture. Lawson, in his Travels among
the Indians, with a Description of North Carolina, published in 1700,
hazards the opinion that the colonists intermarried with the Hatteras
Indians, and cites the physical character of that tribe in support of
his hypothesis. Such, too, was the tradition of the Indians at a late
day.

[[[Loss of a Colony.--Other Expeditions.--London and Plymouth
Companies.--Death of Raleigh.--Newport.]]]

{451}the season was far advanced, and search was abandoned. "White put
to sea without intelligence of the fate of his daughter and child,
and returned to England. Five several times Raleigh sent a vessel with
trusty men to search for his colony, when hope fading, his fortune
almost exhausted, and his health and heart broken by domestic griefs,
he abandoned all ideas of settlement in America, and assigned his
proprietary rights to a company. * Virginia, then including in its
indefinite boundaries all of North Carolina, remained untouched by
the English for twenty years, except by an occasional adventurer who
voluntarily searched for Raleigh's colony. These attempts at settlement
on the coasts of our Middle States, form a wonderful chapter of
adventure and moral heroism in the history of the world.

We will now consider the modern settlement of Virginia. The efforts of
Raleigh awakened intense interest in the public mind. Other expeditions
were fitted out, but all failed to make permanent settlements. Gosnold,
Weymouth, Pring, Smith, and others, who visited America, gave such
glowing accounts of the country, that men of rank, capital, and
influence were induced to embark in colonizing schemes. They were made
acquainted with the general character of a fertile region, extending
over eleven degrees of latitude, from Cape Fear to Halifax, all in
the temperate climates, diversified with noble rivers and harbors, and
displaying the most luxuriant vegetation. An association was formed, (a)
of men eminent as merchants, and wealthy titled commoners, of London and
Bristol. ** King James encouraged the scheme, and gave them a charter.
(b) They formed two [[ a April 10, 1606]] companies; the men of London
for colonizing the south portion of the territory, and called the
_London Company_; those of Bristol for settling the more northern
region, and called the _Plymouth Company_. A line of three degrees
between both was allowed, upon which settlements in common might
be made, it being stipulated that whenever one should first become
permanently seated, the other should settle at least one hundred
miles distant. Each of the colonies was to be governed by a council of
thirteen persons. The companies were to have full property in all lands,
fisheries, &c., except a fifth of the gold, and a fifteenth of the
copper ore that might be found, which was to be paid to the king. James,
with his usual pedantry, prepared a code of laws for them, written with
his own hand. The colonists and their posterity were declared English
subjects, but were vested with no political rights, not even trial
by jury, unless in capital charges. Minor offenses were punished
arbitrarily by the council. That body was to be appointed by the home
government, the former choosing its own president. The property of the
colonists was to continue in joint stock for five years. The English
Church was exclusively established, and strict injunctions were given
for the mild and just treatment of the natives. ***

Three small vessels, whose joint tonnage amounted to only one hundred
and sixty, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, with a
colony of one hundred and five men, sailed for Virginia on the 19th of
December, 1606. The king had placed the names of the future council
of Virginia in a sealed box, which, was not to be opened until their
arrival in

* Sir Walter Raleigh experienced the folly of "putting his trust in
princes." For years after abandoning his schemes for colonization, he
served his country nobly against its enemies. He also was sent by Queen
Elizabeth on an expedition in search of gold, up the Oronoco, in South
America. Once, because he married without the queen's consent, she
committed him to the Tower for a brief season. Finally, on the death of
his royal mistress in 1602, and the accession of James I., he became the
victim of a conspiracy. He was tried, and condemned for treason; and for
fifteen years he remained in the Tower a prisoner, first under sentence
of death, afterward under the merciful provision of a reprieve. During
that long imprisonment he wrote his History of the World. On being
released, he went on another expedition to Guiana; but it being
unsuccessful, he was cast into prison on his return, and the royal
scoundrel who occupied the throne of England allowed the decrepit old
man, who had given more true luster to the crown than any living mortal,
to be beheaded. He was then in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

** Among these were Sir Thomas Gates; Sir George Summers; Sir John
Popham, lord chief justice of

England; Edward Maria Wingfield, a wealthy, sordid, and unprincipled
merchant; Richard Hakluyt, one of the assignees of Raleigh, who wrote
an interesting collection of voyages, in three volumes; Robert Hunt, a
clergyman; and Captain John Smith.

*** Chalmers, pages 15, 16.

[[[Captain John Smith.--Founding of Jamestown.--Visit to
Powhatan.--Energy of Smith.--Bartholomew Gosnold.]]]

{452}America. Only twelve laborers and a few mechanics were among
the voyagers; the remainder of the one hundred and five persons were
adventurers, with hands unused to labor. Dissensions arose on the
voyage, and, as there was no acknowledged head, in consequence of the
folly of the king, much confusion ensued. Captain Smith possessed more
genius than any man among them, and, consequently, great jealousy of
him was felt. Under the absurd accusation of an intention to murder the
council, and make himself King of Virginia, he was put in confinement.
After a voyage of four months, the expedition entered the [[ a April 26,
1607]]Chesapeake, (a) having been driven by a storm northward of their
point of destination. The capes of the noble bay they named in honor
of the two sons of the king, Henry and Charles. They landed upon Cape
Henry, made peace with the natives, opened the sealed paper of the king,
discovered the names of the council, and chose the unscrupulous and
narrow-minded Wingfield to be president. Smith was named one of the
council, but was excluded from that body. His accusers thought it
prudent, however, to withdraw their charges, and he was released from
confinement.

A few days after their arrival in the Chesapeake, the little fleet
entered the mouth of the noble River Powhatan, which they named _James_,
in honor of their sovereign. Up its broad channel they sailed about
fifty miles, and there, upon a charming peninsula, an island at high
tide, they determined to build a town and plant a permanent settlement.
The natives received them kindly; and in the beautiful month of May,
1607, the first sound of an ax was heard, the first tree was felled, and
the first rafter was laid in Virginia. A village was planned, and,
in honor of the king, was called Jamestown. While the carpenters and
laborers were rearing the city, Smith and Newport, with twenty others,
ascended the river to the Falls, and at his imperial residence of twelve
wigwams, just below Richmond, they visited Powhatan, the "Emperor of the
Country." The events connected with that visit have been noticed on page
432.

Newport returned to England with his vessels in June, leaving one
hundred men, and a pinnace with stores, at Jamestown. The colonists,
wanting habits of industry, soon perceived the helplessness of their
situation. Many of them were of dissolute habits; and before autumn,
the dampness of the climate, and the malaria arising from the decay of
luxuriant vegetation, produced diseases which swept away fifty of their
number, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, * the eminent navigator and
projector of the settlement.

The survivors relied chiefly upon sturgeons and crabs, and scanty
supplies of maize, for their subsistence, while Wingfield and a part of
his council were appropriating the stores to their own use. Wingfield,
and Kendall (one of the council), were detected in a conspiracy to
abandon the colony, and escape with the pinnace and stores to the West
Indies. They were deposed, and, Ratcliffe, an irresolute and indolent
man, was appointed president. Fortunately for the colony, he was quite
willing to bear the empty honors of his office without exercising its
functions, and he allowed Captain Smith, by far the ablest man among
them, to have the principal management of affairs. The colony at once
assumed a new and better aspect under the direction of Smith. As far as
possible, he infused his own energetic spirit into his companions; but
they were generally too indolent and dissolute to profit much by his
example. Smith quelled the spirit of anarchy and rebellion; restored
order in the midst of confusion; visited the chiefs of the neighboring
tribes, and inspired them with respect for the English; and, by his
consummate skill, he procured from the natives an ample stock of corn
and wild fowl when winter approached.

We are now at a point in the history of the New World full of the most
romantic interest, and the pen is tempted from its present line of duty
by a thousand seductive influences. The exploits of Smith--his exploring
voyages--his discoveries--his indomitable perseverance

* Gosnold crossed the Atlantic in 1602. and, after a voyage of six
weeks, saw land at the northern extremity of Massachusetts Bay. He
sailed southward, and landed upon a promontory, which he called Cape
Cod, on account of the great quantity of cod fish which abounded there.
Pursuing his voyage along the coast, he discovered and named Elizabeth
Islands, thirteen in number, Martha's Vineyard, and others in the
neighborhood of Buzzard's Bay. After an absence of only four months,
Gosnold returned to England.

[[[Progress of Jamestown Colony.--Smith's Voyage up the
Chickahominy.--His Capture.--His Adventures in Europe.]]]

{453}and courage--his hardships, sufferings, escapes, and forbearance
with his ungrateful companions, all plead eloquently for the services of
pen and pencil. These must be briefly sketched in faint outline, for it
is foreign to my plan to detail colonial history, except so much as is
necessary to illustrate the main subject of these volumes--The War for
Independence.

The Jamestown colony was placed beyond the effects of want in the
autumn of 1607, and Smith, with a few companions, set out to explore the
country.

[Illustration: 8463]

He went up the Chickahominy, in an open boat, fifty miles from its
mouth. * There he left his boat, the water being shallow, and, with two
companions and two Indian guides, pushed into the interior. He ordered
those in the boat not to leave it. Disobeying his instructions, they
wandered on shore and were slain. Smith was surprised by a party of
Indians, under Opechancanough, the "King of Pamunkee his two companions
were killed, and he, after slaying several Indians, was made a prisoner.
His life was spared, and he was conducted in triumph through the several
Indian villages, from the Chickahominy to the banks of the Rappahannock
and Potomac, and was finally brought back to the seat of Opechancanough,
at Pamunkee, on the York River. There, for three days, the priests
performed incantations to discover the character of their prisoner, and

* Among the positive instructions of the London Company, was an
injunction for the colonists to endeavor to find a passage to the South
Sea, or, in other words, to the East Indies, by a northwest passage, the
object of the polar expeditions of the present day. For this purpose,
they were instructed to explore every considerable stream that came
from the northward; and hence we find Smith (who did not share in the
geographical ignorance of his employers, but was willing to engage
in discoveries) exploring the James, Chickahominy, York, and Potomac
Rivers. The wily Indian mentioned on page 449 as having invented the
wonderful story of a gold region at the head of the Roanoke, informed
Lane that the source of that river was among high rocks so near the
ocean on the west, that the salt water would sometimes dash over into
the clear fountains of the stream!

** John Smith was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559.
He was early distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure.
At the age of thirteen, he sold his school-books and satchel to procure
money to pay his way to the sea-board, for the purpose of going to sea.
He was prevented, and was apprenticed to a merchant. He left home when
he was fifteen years old, and went to France and the Low Countries. For
two years he studied military tactics; and, at the age of seventeen,
having procured a portion of an estate left by his father, went abroad
seeking adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a storm
arose, and the Roman Catholic crew believing the heretic, as they called
Smith, to be a Jonah, they cast him into the sea to quiet the waters.
He was a good swimmer, and reached the shore of a small island in the
Mediterranean, called St. Mary's. From St. Mary's he went in a French
vessel to Alexandria, in Egypt. He soon went from thence to Italy, and
then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army, and, by his daring
exploits at the siege of Olympach, was rewarded by the command of a
troop of horse. These obtained the name of the "Fiery Dragoons," in the
war against the Turks. At the siege of Regall, a Turkish officer, the
Lord Turbishaw, "to amuse the ladies," offered to engage in single
combat with any Christian soldier. The lot fell upon Smith; and, in the
sight of both armies, he cut off the head of Turbishaw, and carried it
in triumph to the Austrian camp. He fought two other champions, Grualgo
and Mulgro, with the same result. In a subsequent battle Smith was
wounded, captured, and sold to a pacha. This dignitary sent him to
Constantinople, as a present to a damsel whom he loved. She, in turn,
loved Smith, and to place him in safety, sent him to her brother.
There, however, Smith was cruelly treated. He beat out the brains of
the tyrant, and escaped to Muscovy, and finally reached Austria. He
went with a French captain to Morocco and the Canaries, encountered a
sea-fight with the Spaniards, and returned to his native country. His
restless spirit made him yearn for adventures in the New World. Here,
after many great exploits, and the endurance of many hardships, he
planted the Virginia colony on a firm basis, and returned to England. He
died in London in 1631, at the age of 72.

[[[The Indians outwitted by Smith.--His Trial and
Sentence.--Pocahontas--her Marriage, Death, and Descendants.]]]

{545}the most expedient disposition of him, for they considered him a
superior being. * They finally carried him to Wevowoeomoco, ** the lower
seat of Powhatan, and referred the decision to that powerful chief.

Seated upon a raised platform, the trunk and branches of the towering
pine for a palace, the lordly Powhatan, with his two favorite daughters
beside him, and his "grim courtiers" and women around him, received the
prisoner.

[Illustration: 9464]

In solemn state he was tried; with solemn words he was adjudged to die.
On the right of the Indian emperor sat Pocahontas, his youngest and best
loved daughter. Her heart beat quick with sympathy the moment she saw
the manly form of Smith, and in her young bosom glowed intense desire to
save his life.=

```"How trembled then the maid, as rose

````That captive warrior, calm and stern,

```Thus girded by his wolfish foes

````His fearless spirit still would spurn.

```How bright his glance, how fair his face,

```And with what proud, enfranchised grace

````His footsteps free advance, as still

```He follow'd firm the bloody mace

```That guided to the gloomy place

````Where stood the savage sent to kill."

`````W. Gillmore Simms=

* Smith showed them a pocket compass, and explained its properties, and
the shape of the earth; how "the sun, and the moon, and the stars chased
each other." They were astonished, and regarded him with awe. They made
him offers of "life, liberty, land, and women," if he would tell them
how to obtain possession of Jamestown. They also obtained some of his
powder. Smith made them waste it (for they had been made acquainted with
its use) by letting them sow it as seed and raise a crop for themselves.
In various ways he outwitted them, and so perfectly retained his
self-possession that they regarded him with great respect.

** Werowocomoeo, the scene of Smith's salvation by Pocahontas, was
upon the north side of the York River, in Gloucester county, about
twenty-five miles below the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony
Rivers, which form the broad and navigable York. According to Charles
Campbell, Esq., of Petersburg, Virginia, who has carefully examined the
matter, Shelly, the scat of Mrs. Mann Page, nearly opposite the mouth
of Queen's Creek, is the site of Werowocomoeo. Carter's Creek, emptying
into the York at Shelly, afforded a safe harbor for canoes. Such was
also the opinion of Governor Page, whose plantation (Rosewell) adjoined
that of Shelly. The enormous beds of oyster shell (on account of which
Governor Page named the place Shelly) at this point indicate that it was
once a place of great resort by the natives.

*** Pocahontas was a girl "of ten or twelve" years of age when she saved
the life of Captain Smith. Two years afterward, when not over fourteen
years old, she went from her father's camp, on a dark and stormy night,
to Jamestown, and informed Smith of a conspiracy among the Indians to
destroy the settlers. This timely interposition saved them. While Smith
remained in the colony, she was a welcome visitor at Jamestown, and
often bore messages between the white men and her kindred. In 1612,
after Smith had returned to England, she was treacherously betrayed, for
the bribe of a copper kettle, into the hands of Captain Argali, and by
him kept as a prisoner, in order to secure advantageous terms of peace
with Powhatan. The Indian king offered five hundred bushels of corn for
her ransom; but, before her release was effected, a mutual attachment
had sprung up between her and John Rolfe, a young Englishman of good
family. With the consent of her father she received Christian baptism,
and was married to Rolfe. The former ceremony is the subject, of a
beautiful painting by John G. Chapman, Esq., which graces one of
the panels of the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Pocahontas
accompanied her husband to England in 1616, where she was received at
court with the distinction of a princess. The bigoted King James was
highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry into a
royal family, and absurdly apprehended that, because Rolfe had married
an Indian princess, he might lay claim to the crown of Virginia! It is
said that Pocahontas was much afflicted because Smith, fearing the royal
displeasure, would not allow a king's daughter to call him father, her
usual endearing name when addressing him. She remained in England about
a year; and when on the point of returning to America, with her husband,
in 1617, she sickened and died at Gravesend. The Lady Rebecca (for so
she was called in England) had many and sincere mourners. She left one
son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became a distinguished man in Virginia.
He left an only daughter, and from her some of the leading families of
Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Bollings, Hemmings,
Murrays, Guys, Eldridires, and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of
Roanoke, was a descendant of the Indian princess. Her portrait here
given is from a painting made in England, while she was there. Her
costume shows the style of a fashionable dress of that day.

[[[Smith's Life saved by Pocahontas.--Condition of Jamestown.--Newport's
Folly.--Smith's Exploring Expedition.]]]

{455}With his arms pinioned, Smith was laid upon the ground, with his
head upon a stone, and the executioner had lifted the huge club to dash
out his brains. With a bound like that of a frightened fawn, Pocahontas
leaped from the side of her father to that of the prisoner, and
interposed her delicate form between his head and the warrior's mace;=

```Then turns--with eye grown tearless now,

````But full of speeeh, as eye alone

```Can speak to eye, and heart in prayer--

````For merey to her father's throne!=

```How could that stern old king deny

```The angel pleading in her eye?

```How mock the sweet, imploring grace.

```That breathed in beauty from her faee,

```And to her kneeling action gave

````A power to soothe, and still subdue,

```Until, though humble as a slave,

````To more than queenly sway she grew?

```Oh! brief the doubt--oh! short the strife;

```She wins the captive's forfeit life;

```She breaks his bands, she bids him go,

```Her idol, but her country's foe,

```And dreams not, in that parting hour,

````The gyves that from his limbs she tears

```Are light in weight, and frail in power,

````To those that round her heart she wears."

`````Simms.=

Smith's life was spared. The enmity of the natives was changed to
friendship, and, with a guard of twelve men, he was sent to Jamestown, a
wiser man; for, during his seven weeks of captivity, he had traversed
a large extent of country, observed its resources, and the habits and
condition of the Indians, and made himself quite familiar with their
language. He established a friendly intercourse with Powhatan and his
confederates, and often the "dearest daughter of the king," with her
companions, brought baskets of corn for the garrison.

Disorder prevailed at Jamestown on Smith's return. Only forty men
remained, and these were on the point of abandoning the country where
they had suffered so much, and escape with the pinnace. The courage and
energy of Smith compelled them to remain. Newport soon afterward arrived
with supplies, and one hundred and twenty emigrants, chiefly idle
gentlemen, "packed hither," as Smith says, "by their friends, to escape
ill destinies," and goldsmiths, the very men least needed in the colony.
Gold was the chief incentive of the Company and the adventurers to risk
capital and life. Discovering something resembling grains of the metal
near the site of Richmond, "there was no talk, no hope, no work, but
dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Newport loaded his vessel
with, worthless earth, and returned to England with the idea that he was
exceedingly rich, but to have science and skill pronounce him miserably
poor in useful knowledge and well-earned reputation.

Smith remonstrated against idleness, and pleaded for industry, but in
vain. He implored the settlers to plow and sow, that they might reap
and be happy. They refused to listen, and he turned from Jamestown with
disgust, and, with a few sensible men, explored the Chesapeake Bay and
its tributaries. He went up the Potomac to the Falls above Washington
City. He also entered the Patapsco, and ate maize upon the site of
Baltimore. These long voyages were made in an open boat, propelled
by oars and paddles. It was one of the most wonderful of exploring
expeditions, considered in all its aspects, recorded by the pen
of history. Smith constructed a map of his discoveries, and every
subsequent survey of the region attests its remarkable accuracy.

Three days after Smith's return to Jamestown he was made president
of the colony. (a) Newport soon afterward arrived from England with a
supply of food. With [[ a Sept. 10, 1608]] him came two females, the
first English women seen upon the James River.

Smith again exerted his energies to turn the little industry of the
settlers to agriculture, and succeeded in a degree. The colony was
beginning to thrive under his management, when the features of its
political character were modified. A new charter was [[ b May 23, 1609]]
given to the London Company, (b) with provisions for a more powerful
government.

* The new charter extended the limits of the colony, and transferred to
the Company the power which had before been reserved to the king. The
council in England, formerly appointed by the king, was now to have its
vacancies filled by the votes of a majority of the corporation. This
council was authorized to appoint a governor, and to delegate to him
almost absolute power, even in cases capital and criminal, as well
as civil. They could give him power to declare martial law at his
discretion; and thus the lives, liberties, and fortunes of the colonists
were placed at the will of a single man.

[[[Lord De la Ware.--Commissioners.--Anarchy at
Jamestown.--Famine.--Timely Relief]]]

{456}The colonists had no voice in the matter; neither their rights
nor wishes were consulted or respected. While extraordinary powers were
given to the governor, not one new civil privilege was conceded to them.

Under the new charter, Lord De la Ware, or Delaware, a virtuous and
upright nobleman, was appointed governor and captain-general of Virginia
for life. Before his departure for America, nine ships, under the
command of Newport, with more than five hundred emigrants, were sent to
the James River. Sir Thomas Gates (the governor's deputy), Newport,
and Sir George Somers, were sent as commissioners to administer the
government until the arrival of Lord Delaware. A hurricane drove
the fleet toward the West Indies. The vessel in which were the three
commissioners was stranded on the rocks of the Bermudas, and only seven
vessels of the squadron reached Virginia. The commissioners were not
lost; but their arrival in the colony with the emigrants was prevented,
and great confusion followed. A large portion of the new comers were
idle and dissolute scions of wealthy families, without energy or good
principles. They regarded the colony as without a head until the arrival
of the commissioners or the governor, and were disposed to set at naught
the authority of President Smith. That energetic man was equal to the
exigency of the case, and he boldly and successfully maintained his
authority until an accident prostrated his body, and he was obliged to
go to England for surgical aid. * He delegated his authority to George
Percy, brother of the Duke of Northumberland, and sailed for England in
the summer of 1608.

The colonists, released from the control of Smith, now gave themselves
up to every irregularity of life. The Indians lost their respect for,
and dread of Englishmen; and when the ample stock of provisions of
the latter was consumed, the former refused assistance. Famine ensued;
thirty escaped in a vessel to become pirates; and within six months,
hunger, sickness, and Indian hatchets had reduced the colony of more
than five hundred left by Smith, to sixty persons, and these were
perishing with hunger. "It was not the will of God that the new state
should be formed of these materials; that such men should be the fathers
of a progeny, born on the American soil, who were one day to assert
American liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor."
** This period of distress was long remembered with a shudder as "the
starving time."

At the moment when the destitution was greatest, the commissioners and
their wrecked companions arrived. Upon the uninhabited island where they
stranded they had constructed two rude vessels, loaded them with the
stores of their ship, which laid among the rocks, and sailed for the
James River. They arrived in June; (a) but, instead of finding a large
[[ a 1609]] and flourishing colony, they were greeted by a handful of
emaciated men, on the point of dying. Death by famine awaited all, and
Gates resolved to sail for Newfoundland, and disperse the company among
the English fishing vessels there. Jamestown was utterly abandoned, and
toward Hampton Roads the dejected settlers sailed in the four pinnaces
which remained in the river. As they approached that broad harbor on the
following morning, a vision of white sails cheered their hearts; and as
the sun came up, the longboat of Lord Delaware was seen approaching. He
came with emigrants and supplies; and that night, Jamestown, abandoned
to the rude natives in the morning, was made vocal [[ b June 9]] with
hymns and thanksgivings from truly grateful lips. (b) The next day
solemn religious exercises were held; the commission of Lord Delaware
was read, and the foundation stone of the Virginia Commonwealth was
permanently laid. Delaware ad-

* I have noticed the efforts of Smith to establish a permanent
settlement at Powhatan, near Richmond. While returning from that place
down the James River, his powder-bag accidentally exploded and almost
killed him. He was dreadfully lacerated, and so acute was the pain, that
he threw himself into the river for alleviation. He was recovered when
nearly drowned.

** Bancroft, i. 138.

[[[Arrival of new Emigrants and Supplies.--Prosperity of the
Colony.--Implantation of Republicanism.--New Constitution.]]]

{457}ministered the government with equity until the failure of his
health required him to return to England. (a) Percy was left in charge
of affairs until Delaware's successor should [[ a 1611]]arrive. In
the mean while, Sir Thomas Dale, an "experienced soldier of the Low
Countries," arrived with supplies, (b) and assumed the government, which
he [[ b May 10]] administered upon the basis of martial law. In less
than four months afterward, Sir Thomas Gates arrived with supplies,
and three hundred emigrants, in six ships, and assumed the functions
of governor. Under Dale and Gates, the colony, now numbering nearly a
thousand souls, thrived wonderfully. There were but few drones; industry
and sobriety prevailed, and a bright future dawned upon Jamestown.

A new charter was granted to the London Company in 1612. The supreme
council in England was abolished, and its powers were transferred to the
whole Company, who were to meet as a democratic assembly, elect their
own officers for the colony, and establish the laws therefor. This was
the republican seed which found its way to Virginia, and took deep root
there. Another important concession was made; the Bermudas, and all
islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore, were
included in the grant, and opened a commercial field. The colony
continued to flourish; and the marriage of John Rolfe with Pocahontas,
with the consent of her father, and the concurrence of Opechancanough,
her uncle (who "gave her away" at the marriage altar), cemented the
friendship which had been gradually forming between the white men and
natives.

In 1614, Gates went to England, and left affairs in the hands of Dale,
who ruled with energy for five years, when he appointed George
Yeardly deputy governor, and returned to England. Yeardly encouraged
agriculture, and, during his administration, the tobacco plant began to
be cultivated. It soon became not only the staple, but the _currency_
of the colony. He was succeeded in office (c) by Samuel Argali, an
unprincipled man, and sort of [[ c 1617]] buccaneer, * who ruled
with tyranny for two years, and was then displaced. Yeardly was made
governor; the planters were released from further tribute-service to the
colony; martial law was abolished; and on the 29th of June, 1619, the
first colonial assembly ever held in America was convened at Jamestown.
The domain of the English had been divided into eleven boroughs. Two
representatives from each were present at the assembly, and were
called burgesses. This was the kernel of the Virginia government which
prevailed until the Revolution--a governor, his council, and a house of
Burgesses. It was the beginning of the American constitutions.

Twelve years had elapsed since planting Jamestown, and now the
settlement first assumed the character of permanency. Ninety respectable
young women were sent over in 1620, ** and the following year sixty more
came to be wives for the planters. The settlers "fell to building houses
and planting corn," with a determination to make Virginia their home.
The gold mania had passed away, and the wealth of the rich mold was
delved for with success. A written constitution was granted to the
colony by the Company in 1621, (d) which ratified the form of government
introduced by Yeardly. It was [[ d August, 1621]] brought over by Sir
Francis Wyatt, who succeeded Yeardly, and was received with joy by the
colonists. General prosperity prevailed, and glad dreams of happiness
filled

* Argali, as we have noticed, obtained possession of Pocahontas, and
made her his prisoner, in 1613. The same year he sailed with his fleet
to the coast ol Maine, to protect the English fisheries. He broke up a
French colony near the Penobscot, and sent some of the people to France
and some to Virginia. He also broke up a French settlement at Port
Royal, and made the conquest of Acadia. On his return voyage to
Virginia, he entered the Bay of New York, and compelled the little Dutch
trading settlement there to acknowledge the supremacy ol' England.

** On the 20th of August, in this year, a Dutch man-of-war entered the
James River, and landed twenty negroes for sale. Almost simultaneously
with the birth of civil liberty in Virginia, by the concession of the
representative system, and the tacit acknowledgment of the universal
right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the system of
human bondage, which has ever weighed upon our national energies,
and tarnished our national character, was introduced. Englishmen have
attempted to cast off the stain from themselves by alleging that the
traffickers from a foreign country first brought the negroes here. Had
not Englishmen become the willing purchasers, the slave-trade and its
system would never have been known in this country.

[[[Massacre by the Indians.--Retaliation.--The Patents canceled.--Policy
of Charles I.--Governor Harvey.]]]

{458}the minds of the settlers. They were now four thousand strong, and
fast increasing; but a cloud was gathering.

Powhatan, the firm friend of the English since the marriage of his
daughter, was now dead. * The restraints of his influence were lifted
from his people, and they, apprehending their own annihilation by the
white men, resolved to strike a blow of extermination. At [[ b March 22,
1622]] mid-day, (a) the hatchet fell upon the more remote settlements
around Jamestown, and more than seventeen scores of men, women, and
children perished in an hour. ** A friendly Indian, a Christian convert,
warned his white friend (Pa Ca) in Jamestown of the plot the night
before. The people prepared for defense, and were, with the nearest
settlements, to whom they sent notice, saved. General alarm prevailed.
The remote planters fled to Jamestown, and the number of plantations was
reduced from eighty to eight. A terrible reaction ensued. The English
arose, and, moved with a spirit of hatred and revenge, they smote
the Indians with great slaughter, and drove them far back into the
wilderness.

We have seen the government of Virginia gradually changed from a royal
tenure, under the first charter, to a proprietary and representative
government under the second and third charters. The king now began to
look upon it with suspicion, as inimical to royalty, and a breeder of
disloyal men. The holders of the stock of the London Company had become
very numerous, and their election of officers assumed a political
character, presenting two parties--the advocates of liberty, and the
upholders of the royal prerogative. The king, disliking the freedom of
debate which prevailed at their meetings, attempted to control
their elections; but failing in this, he determined to recover, by a
dissolution of their Company, the influence in the affairs of the New
World of which he had deprived himself by his own charter. He appointed
a çommission, composed of his own pliant instruments, to examine
the affairs of the Company. They, of course, reported favorable to a
dissolution of the association, and an equally pliant judiciary effected
a consummation of the measure. A quo warranto was issued; it was feebly
defended, and in June, 1624, a decision was given against the Company,
and the patents were canceled. The enterprise had, thus far, been
an unprofitable speculation for the Company, and there was not much
opposition. The king took the political affairs of the colony into his
own hands, and it became a royal government; yet no material changes
were made in the domestic policy of the settlers, and they were allowed
to retain their popular legislative assemblies as a branch of their
government. [[ b April 6]] James died in 1625, (b) and his son, the
unfortunate Charles I., succeeded him.

The policy of the new monarch toward the colonists was governed entirely
by selfish motives, and he allowed them liberty under which to prosper,
that gain to himself might accrue. He imposed some restrictions, and
attempted, but in vain, to gain for himself a monopoly of the trade
in tobacco, by becoming the sole factor of the planters. ** Governor
Yeardly died in November, 1627, and the king appointed John Harvey, one
of his warmest [[ c 1628]] supporters, and a member of the commission
appointed by James, governor; (c) but his unpopularity in the colony
lost to the king all the advantages his selfishness coveted. The
Virginians deprived Harvey of his government in 1635; summoned an
assembly to receive complaints against him, and appointed commissioners
to proceed to England

* Powhatan died in 1618, and his younger brother, Opechancanough, heired
his power, but not his friendly influence favorable to the English.
He always harbored a secret aversion to the white men. Only a few days
before the massacre, he declared "that sooner the skies would fall than
his friendship with the English be dissolved."

** Exaggerated reports went to England. Smith, in his Advertisements
for the Unexperienced Planters, stated the number of killed at 5000.
Berkeley rated it at 2000. Edward Waterhouse transmitted to the Company
a statement containing the names of every victim. The number was
347.--Declaration of the State of the Colony, &c., pages 14--21.

*** In his efforts to obtain the control of the tobacco trade, by
becoming himself the sole purchaser of the crop, the king unconsciously
recognized the legality of the Virginia Assembly. In a letter to the
governor and council, written in June, 1628, he offered to contract for
the whole crop of tobacco, and expressed a desire that an assembly might
be convened to consider his proposal. "This is the first recognition,"
says Bancroft (i., 196), "on the part of a Stuart of a representative
assembly in America." James permitted it, but did not expressly sanction
it.

[[[Wyatt and Berkeley.--The Commonwealth.--Intolerance in
Virginia.--Indian Wars.--Berkely and Loyalty.]]]

{459}with an impeachment. Harvey accompanied the commissioners. The king
would not even admit the accusers to a hearing, and the accused was
sent back, clothed with full authority from Charles to administer the
government. He remained in office until 1639, when he was succeeded
by Sir Francis Wyatt. (a) Sir William Berkeley succeeded Wyatt in [[ a
Nov.]] 1641. (b) During his first administration of ten years, the civil
condition of the [[ b Aug.]] Virginians was much improved. The rights of
property, and the rewards of industry, were secured, and the people were
prosperous and happy. *

The democratic revolution in England, which brought Charles to the block
and placed Cromwell in power, now began, and religious sects in England
and America assumed a political importance. Puritans had hitherto been
tolerated in Virginia; and Puritan ministers were even invited by the
council to come to that province from Massachusetts Bay. Now, as the
monarch and the Church were united in interest, and the Virginians were
loyal to Church and king, it was decided that no minister should preach
or teach except in conformity to the constitution of the Church of
England, and Non-conformists were banished from the colony. This was
a cloud upon the otherwise clear skies of the settlement. But a darker
cloud was gathering. The Indians prepared for another massacre of the
white men. The war-whoop sounded along the frontier settlements, and a
general border contest ensued. (c) The [[ c April, 1646]] Indians were
generally defeated, and old Opechancanough, the chief instigator, was [[
d 1646]] made a prisoner, and died in captivity. (d) Peace was speedily
effected by the Indians making large concessions to the white men. **

The Virginians remained loyal during the civil war in England; and when
the king was beheaded, and the Republicans bore rule, they recognized
Charles, the son of their murdered sovereign, though then a fugitive
in a foreign country. The Parliament was incensed at the audacity of a
colony resisting the will of the supreme government, and took measures
to enforce submission. *** A powerful fleet, under Sir George Aysene,
entered the Chesapeake, and east anchor at the mouth of the James River.
Sir William Berkeley, **** with the cavaliers

* In 1648, the number of colonists was twenty thousand. '"The cottages
were filled with children, as the ports were with ships and emigrants."
Ten ships from London, two from Bristol, twelve from Holland, and
seven from New England, were trading in Virginia at Christmas of that
year.--Mass. Hist. Coll., ix., 118.

** Necotowance, the successor of Opechancanough, was forced to
acknowledge that he held his kingdom of the crown of England. It was
agreed that the Indians should remove to the north side of the York and
Pamunkey Rivers; and they ceded to the white men all the lands from the
Falls of the James River, at Richmond, between the two rivers, to the
Bay forever. Thus were the natives driven from their beautiful land--the
most beautiful in all Virginia--leaving few traces of their existence
behind.

*** An ordinance was passed on the 3d of October, 1650, empowering the
Council of State to reduce the rebellious colonies to obedience, and,
at the same time, establish it as a law, that foreign ships should
not trade in any of the ports in Barbadoes, Antiguas, Bermudas, and
Virginia.

**** Sir William Berkeley was of an ancient family near London. He was
educated at Oxford, and admitted Master of Arts in 1629. The next year
he traveled extensively in Europe, and became a model of an elegant
courtier and cavalier. He succeeded Sir Francis Wyatt as governor of
Virginia in 1641, and held that post most of the time during the civil
wars in England, and until the restoration of monarchy in 1660. He
exhibited shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of Parliament,
sent to subdue the loyal colony of Virginia, appeared in the James
River; and, by good management, both parties were satisfied. Cromwell
appointed "worthy Samuel Mathews" governor, and, at his death, Berkeley
was elected governor by the people. His obsequious deference to royalty
offended the independent Virginians, and his popularity declined.
His obstinacy in refusing compliance with the expressed wishes of the
inhabitants that Nathaniel Bacon might lead an expedition against the
Indians, further alienated the affections of his people. He became
irritable and revengeful; and when juries refused to aid his projects of
vengeance against those who followed Bacon, he resorted to martial law,
and fines, confiscations, and executions ensued. In view of this conduct
Charles II. remarked, "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked
country than I have taken for the murder of my father."

**** Berkeley returned to England, after an administration of nearly
forty years, and died soon after his arrival. He was buried at
Twickenham, July 13, 1677. He was possessed of quite liberal views in
respect to government, but these were often hidden or perverted by his
cringing loyalty. In his reply to commissioners sent in 1671 to inquire
into the state of the colony, he said, "Thank God there are no free
schools nor printing-press, and I hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into
the world, and printing has divulged these and libels against the best
government." In this last sentence the old bigot courtier uttered one
of the most glorious truths whieh the march of progress has practically
developed. Tyranny always fears enlightenment. Napoleon said he was in
more dread of one free printing-press than a hundred thousand Austrian
bayonets.

[[[Opposition to parliamentary Commissions.--Concession to the
Colonists.--Commercial Restrictions.--King of Virginia.]]]

{460}who had fled to Virginia, on the death of Charles, for safety, were
prepared for their reception. Armed Dutch vessels, lying in the river,
were pressed into service; and, although the Virginians had resolved to
submit as soon as they perceived the arrival of the fleet, they, like
Falstaff, declared they would not do it "on compulsion." This unexpected
show of resistance made the commissioners of Parliament, who were sent
out to negotiate, hesitate; and, instead of opening their cannon upon
the colonists, they courteously proposed submission to the authority
of the Protector, upon terms quite satisfactory to the Virginians. The
liberties of the colonists were more fully secured than they had ever
been; indeed, they were allowed nearly all those rights which the
Declaration of Independence a century and a quarter later charged the
King of Great Britain with violating. Until the restoration of monarchy
in 1660, Virginia was virtually an independent state; for Cromwell made
no appointments for the state, except a governor. On the death of Oliver
Cromwell In 1658, the Virginians were not disposed to acknowledge the
authority of Richard, his successor, and they _elected_ Matthews, and
afterward Berkeley, to fill the office of governor. Universal suffrage
prevailed; all freemen, without exception, were allowed to vote; and
servants, when the terms of their bondage ended, became electors, and
might be made burgesses.

When the news of the probable restoration of Charles the Second reached
Virginia, Berkeley disclaimed the popular sovereignty, proclaimed the
exiled monarch, issued writs for an assembly in the name of the king,
and the friends of royalty came into power. * High hopes of great
favor from the new king were entertained. They were speedily blasted.
Commercial restrictions, grafted upon the existing colonial system of
the commonwealth, were rigorously enforced. ** The people murmured, and
finally remonstrated, but in vain. The profligate monarch, who seems
never to have had a clear perception of right and wrong, but was always
guided by the dictates of caprice and passion, gave away to special
favorites large tracts of land, some of it cultivated and valuable. ***
The Royalist party in Virginia soon began to have an evil influence. The
Assembly abridged the liberties of the people; the members, elected
for only two years, assumed to themselves the right of an indefinite
continuance of power, and the representative system was virtually
abolished. Intolerance began to grow again, and heavy fines were imposed
upon Baptists and Quakers. Taxes were made unequal and oppressive.
Loyalty waned; the people learned to despise the very name of king, and
open discontent ensued. The common people formed a Republican party,
opposed to the aristocracy and the Royalists.

The menaces of the hostile Susquehannas, a fierce tribe on the northern
frontier, who had been driven southward by the Five Nations, and were
then desolating the remote set-

* Berkeley proclaimed Charles the Second king of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Virginia. Charles was therefore made king in Virginia, by
the supreme authorities of the colony, before he actually became so in
England. Already, when they were informed that Cromwell was about to
send a fleet to reduce them to submission, the Virginians sent, in a
small ship, a messenger to Charles, at Breda, in Flanders, to invite him
to come over and be King of Virginia. He was on the point of sailing,
when he was called to the throne of his father. In gratitude to
Virginia, he caused the arms of that province to be quartered with
those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent member of
the empire. From this circumstance Virginia received the name of The Old
Dominion. Coins with these quarterings were made as late as 1773.

** The colonial system of all kingdoms has uniformly been to make the
industry of colonists tributary to the aggrandizement of the parent
country. The Navigation Act, which, down to the time of our Revolution,
was a fruitful source of complaint, was now rigorously applied, and
new and more stringent provisions added to it. Under it, no commodities
could be imported into any British settlement, nor exported from them,
except in English vessels; and tobacco, turpentine, and other principal
commodities of the colonies, could be shipped to no country except
England. The trade between the colonies was also taxed for the benefit
of the imperial treasury, and in various other ways the colonies were
made dependent on the mother country.

*** He gave away to Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington, two of his
favorites, "all the dominion of land and water called Virginia," for the
space of thirty-one years. Culpepper became governor in 1680.

[[[Indian Hostilities.--"Bacon's Rebellion."--Republican
Triumphs.--English Troops.--Burning of Jamestown.]]]

{461}tlements of Maryland, offered the people an excuse for arming. The
Indians hovered nearer and nearer, and committed murders on Virginia
soil. The planters, with Nathaniel Bacon, a popular, bold, and talented
man, for their leader, demanded of Governor Berkeley the privilege of
protecting themselves. Berkeley refused; for he doubtless had sagacity
to perceive how the people would thus discover their strength. At
length, some people on Bacon's plantation having been killed by the
Indians, that gentleman yielded to popular clamor, placed himself at the
head of five hundred men, and marched against the invaders. Berkeley,
who was jealous of Bacon's popularity, immediately proclaimed him a
traitor, (a) and [[ a May, 1676]] ordered a body of troops to pursue and
arrest him. * Bacon was successful against the Indians, while Berkeley
was obliged to recall his troops to put down a rising rebellion in the
lower counties. The people generally sympathized with the "traitor."
They arose in open insurrection; Berkeley was compelled to yield;
the Long Assembly was dissolved, and a new one elected; new laws
were granted; universal suffrage was restored; arbitrary taxation
was abolished, and Bacon was appointed commander-in-chief. Berkeley,
compelled by the popular will, promised to sign Bacon's commission, but
this promise was never fulfilled. Fearing treachery, the latter withdrew
to Williamsburg, then called the Middle Plantation, where he assembled
five hundred men, and marched to Jamestown, to demand his commission
from the governor. It was reluctantly granted; and Berkeley and the
Assembly, overawed, attested the bravery and loyalty of Bacon, and on
the 4th of July, 1676, just one hundred years before the birth-day of
our republic, a more liberal and enlightened legislation commenced
in Virginia. "The eighteenth century in Virginia was the child of the
seventeenth; and Bacon's rebellion, with the corresponding scenes
in Maryland, Carolina, and New England, was the earlier harbinger of
American independence and American nationality." **

The moment Bacon left Jamestown to confront the invading Indians,
Berkeley treacherously and rashly published a proclamation, reversing
all the proceedings of the burgesses; again declaring Bacon a traitor,
and calling upon the loyal aristocracy to join him. The indignation
of Bacon was fiercely kindled, and, marching back to the capital,
he lighted up a civil war. The property of Berkeley's adherents
was confiscated; their wives were seized as hostages; and a general
destruction of the plantations of the Royalists ensued. Berkeley and his
followers were driven from Jamestown, and sought shelter on the eastern
shore of the Chesapeake. Bacon became supreme ruler, and, having
proclaimed the abdication of Berkeley, he summoned an Assembly in his
own name, and prepared to cast off all allegiance to the English
crown. When troops came from England to support Berkeley, Bacon and his
followers resolved to oppose them. *** A rumor reached the capital that
a strong party of Royalists, with the imperial troops, were approaching,
and, in a council of war, Bacon and his followers resolved to burn
Jamestown. The torch was applied just as the night shadows came over the
village, and the sun rose the next morning upon the smoking ruins of the
first English town built in America. Naught remained standing but a few
chimneys and the church tower, that solitary monument which now attracts
the eye and heart of the traveler.

* Nathaniel Bacon was a native of Suffolk. He was educated for the legal
profession in London. He went to Virginia, where his high character
for virtue and integrity soon procured him a seat in the council.
He purchased a plantation not far from the present city of Richmond.
Handsome in person, eloquent in speech, and thoroughly accomplished, he
acquired great popularity; and when he proposed to lead the young men of
the settlement against the murderous Indians, he had many adherents. In
defiance of the wrath of the jealous Berkeley, he headed an expedition.
The governor proclaimed him a traitor, and his followers rebels. Bacon
was successfully beating back the Indians on one side, and the governor
s adherents on the other, when death, from a severe disease, closed his
career. Had he lived to complete what he had begun, his memory would
have been cherished as a patriot, instead of being clouded with
the stigma of the insurgent. He died at the house of Dr. Green, in
Gloucester county, October 1, 1676.

** Bancroft., ii., 222.

*** This was the first time that English troops were sent to America to
suppress republicanism. The same determined spirit prevailed which,
a century later, made all the Anglo-American colonies lift the arm of
defiance against the armies and navies of Great Britain, when sent here
to burn our towns, ravage our coasts, and eat out the substance of the
people."

[[[Death of Bacon.--Vengeance of Berkeley.--His Recall and
Death.--Jamestown and its Associations.]]]

{462}Leaving the smoking ruins behind, Bacon pushed forward with his
little army to drive the Royalists from Virginia; but the malaria from
the low lands infused its poison into his [[ a October, 1676]] veins,
and on the north bank of the York River that brave patriot died. (a) His
death was a blow of unutterable evil to his followers, for no other man
could wear the mantle of his influence. The fugitive governor returned
to the Middle Plantation In triumph, and began to wreak his vengeance
upon the principal insurgents. Twenty were hanged, ** and others were
on their way to the gallows, when the Assembly implored that "he would
spill no more blood." Berkeley yielded; but the fines, confiscations,
and other punishments continued. He ruled with an iron hand, which rule
begot him many enemies at home. ** He was soon recalled, and went to
England, but died before he obtained an audience with his king. ***

As briefly as perspicuity would allow, I have sketched the early history
of Virginia, in order to illustrate the gradual development of that
spirit of liberty which spoke out so boldly, and acted with so much
decision and power there, in the incipient and progressive stages of
the War for Independence. We have seen the republican tree spring up and
flourish on the banks of the James River, until its branches overspread
a wide region, and sheltered thousands of freemen who, a hundred years
before our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, were ready to
forswear allegiance to the British monarch, unless he should virtually
recognize their sovereignty as a people. In the struggle between
monarchy and republicanism, represented by Berkeley and Bacon, we have
seen the capital of the new state, after an existence of seventy years,
reduced to ashes, never to be restored. For a century and three quarters
it has been a desolation. The green grass, the waving corn, and the
golden wheat now cover the earth where streets and lanes were trodden by
Smith and Gosnold, Newport, Gates and Berkeley, Powhatan and Pocahontas,
and a host of Englishmen, whose spirits seem to have taken root in
the soil, and multiplied a thousand-fold--whose scattered bones, like
dragons teeth sown upon the land, seem to have germinated and sent up
full-armed heroes. Nothing remains of the past but this old tower
and these broken tombs, among which we have sat while pondering the
antecedents of the present. We will close the chronicle for a while,
and, taking a glance at later Revolutionary events here, hasten away to
Williamsburg--the "Middle Plantation"--the second capital of Virginia.

* Among those who suffered were Colonel Hansford; Captains Carver,
Farlow, and Wilford; Major Cheeseman; William Drummond (former governor
of Carolina), and Colonel Richard Lawrence. Colonel Hansford was the
first native of Virginia who died on the gallows, and he has been justly
termed the first martyr to American liberty. This civil war cost the
colony a quarter of a million of dollars.

** Afraid of popular enlightenment, Berkeley would not allow a
printing-press in Virginia. To speak ill of him, or any of his friends,
was punished as a crime by whipping, or a fine; to speak, write, or
publish any thing in mitigation or favor of the rebellion or rebels,
was made a misdemeanor, and, if thrice repeated, was evidence of
treason.--Henning's Statutes of Virginia, ii., 385.

*** Berkeley was much censured in England, and those censures affected
him greatly. His brother, Lord Berkeley, declared that the unfavorable
report of the commissioners caused the death of Sir William.

[[[Departure from Jamestown.--Remains of Fortifications.--"Spencer's
Ordinary."--Retreat of Cornwallis.]]]

{463}




CHAPTER XVIII.


```"I look'd, and thought the quiet of the scene

````An emblem of the peace that yet shall he,

```When, o'er earth's continents and isles between,

````The noise of war shall cease from sea to sea,

````And married nations dwell in harmony;

```When millions, crouching in the dust to one,

````No more shall beg their lives on bended knee,

```Nor the black stake he dress'd, nor in the sun

```The o'er-labor'd captive toil, and wish his life were done."

`````Bryant.=

[Illustration: 9473]

N hour before meridian I left the old church-yard at Jamestown, and
sauntered along the pebbly shore back to the little punt in which I was
to reach the mainland. I picked up two or three _Jamestown diamonds_,
and a small brass key of antique form, which lay among the pebbles, and
then left that interesting spot, perhaps forever. The day was very warm,
and I was glad to get within the shadow of the pine forests which skirt
the road almost the whole way from Jamestown to Williamsburg, a distance
of four miles and a half. Not a leaf stirred upon the trees, and the
silence of solitude prevailed, for the insects had gone to their winter
repose, and the birds had finished their summer carols.

A mile and a half from Jamestown, I crossed the Powhatan Creek, a
sluggish stream which finds its way into the James River through a fen
in the rear of Jamestown Island. On its northern bank, a few yards from
the road, are the remains of a fortification, which was thrown up by
Cornwallis in the summer of 1781. The embankments and ditches are very
prominent. Neighborhood tradition calls them the remnant of Powhatan's
fort. In this vicinity two engagements took place between the Royalists
and Republicans in June and July, 1781. The first occurred at the forks
of the road, one of which makes a circuit to the Chickahominy, the
other leads to Williamsburg. The place is known in history as _Spencer s
Ordinary_, from the circumstance that a man named Spencer kept a tavern
at the forks. Let us see what the pen of history has recorded.

In the spring of 1781, Cornwallis left Wilmington, in North Carolina,
and marched into Virginia, to join the invading forces under Phillips
and Arnold at Petersburg. After attempts to capture stores in the heart
of Virginia, and finding the forces of La Fayette, Wayne, and Steuben
rapidly increasing, the earl thought it prudent to return toward the
sea-shore. He accordingly retreated to Richmond, and from thence across
the Chickahominy to Williamsburg and Jamestown, and then down the James
River to Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. From the stables and pastures of
the planters he took the fine horses which they had refused to Greene, *
and well mounted his cavalry. In his retreat he was closely pursued, and
greatly annoyed by La Fayette and Wayne, with about four thousand men.
**

Cornwallis reached Williamsburg on the 25th of June. (a) Informed that
the Americans had some boats and stores on the Chickahominy River, he
sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with his Rangers, and a company of
Yagers, under Major Armstrong and Captain Ewald, to destroy them, and to
collect all the cattle they could find. *** La Fayette,

* Greene, then in command of the Southern army, had left Steuben in
Virginia to collect troops, horses, and stores, and send them to him at
the South.

** There were 2100 regulars, of which number 1500 were veteran troops,
who had experienced service at the North.

*** Simcoe found but little to destroy on the Chickahominy, and
returning, halted at Dandridge's, within three, miles of the Diesckung
Creek, a branch of the Chickahominy. The next morning they marched
to the creek, repaired the bridge sufficiently to pass over, and then
utterly destroyed it. They then marched to Cooper's Mills, nearly twenty
miles from Williamsburg. Simcoe was anxious concerning his safety, for
he could not gain a word of reliable information respecting La Fayette's
movements. He promised a great reward to a Whig to go to the marquis's
camp and return with information by the next morning, when his
detachment should march. The Whig went; but instead of returning with
information for Simcoe, he piloted Wayne, with a considerable force, to
the place of the Rangers' encampment. The fires were yet burning, but
the coveted prize had departed an hour before.--See Simcoe's Military
Journal.

[[[Simcoe's Expedition.--Engagement between the advanced Guards of the
Belligerents.--Battle at Spencer's Ordinary.]]]

{464}with great circumspection, had kept about a score of miles in
the rear of the royal army while pursuing Cornwallis. He was at Tyre's
plantation, about twenty miles from Williamsburg, when informed of
Simcoe's expedition, and immediately detached Lieutenant-colonel
Percival Butler, a brave officer of the Pennsylvania line, to intercept
that partisan on his return. * Butler's detachment consisted of a corps
of Continental troops, two rifle corps, under Majors Call and Willis,
and about one hundred and twenty horsemen, under Major M'Pherson. Simcoe
accomplished his purpose without opposition, and was hastening back to
Williamsburg with a quantity of cattle procured from the planters, when
he was overtaken at Spencer's _Ordinary_ by M'Pherson and his dragoons,
and a very severe skirmish ensued. Both parties were ignorant of the
real strength of each other, and maneuvered with caution.

[Illustration: 9474]

Simcoe believed the whole force of La Fayette to be near, and Butler
supposed his detachment was fighting with the advanced guard of
Cornwallis's army.

The approach of the Americans was first discovered by trumpeter Barney,
of the Queen's Rangers, who was stationed as a vidette on an eminence
about half way between Lee's farm and the road along which the patriots
were approaching. A body of cavalry, under Captain Shank, were then
dismounted at Lee's farm, where they were foraging. Barney galloped
toward Spencer's, and this averted the blow which might have fallen
fatally upon the dismounted cavalry at Lee's, if they had been seen by
the Americans. The latter, perceiving the direction of the vidette's
flight, and concluding he was retreating to his corps, pushed on toward
Spencer's. The dragoons at Lee's immediately mounted, and, dashing
through the wood, made a furious charge upon the right flank of the
Americans. In this onset Major M'Pherson was thrown from his horse by
Sergeant Wright of the Rangers, and so severely hurt that he did not
again engage in the conflict. The belligerents swept on beyond him, too
intent upon battle to stop for prisoners, and his life and liberty were
spared.

The infantry and rifle corps under Simcoe were now brought into action.
Butler's riflemen had also reached the scene of conflict. The fence
on each side of the road had been thrown down by Simcoe early in the
morning, to allow greater freedom for his troops. The action became
general and fierce within an eighth of a mile of Spencer's. Simcoe soon
perceived that he could not win a victory by fair fighting, and turned
his attention to stratagem. While Captain Althouse with the

* Lieutenant-colonel Butler was Morgan's second in command at Saratoga.

* Note.--The letters in the above map have reference as follows: A,
American infantry; B, American cavalry; C, the Queen's Rangers halting
at the forks of the road; D, the Rangers in line, prepared for attack;
E, the cavalry of the Queen's Rangers, foraging at Lee's farm; F,
the British cavalry, and B, the American cavalry, contending at the
beginning of the battle; G, the Rangers after the battle; and H, I, the
line of retreat back to the road near Spencer's; K, trumpeter Barney,
when he first discovered the Americans and gave the alarm; L, the
Yagers, commanded chiefly by Ewald; M, a three-pounder near Spencer's;
N, Captain Althouse with British riflemen.

[[[Simcoe's Stratagem.--A drawn Battle.--The Loss.--Burial with the
Honors ot War.--March of Cornwallis from Williamsburg.]]]

{465}riflemen, and Captain Ewald with the Yagers, were engaged in fierce
conflict with the corps of Call and Willis, he moved the whole body of
his mounted Hangers to an eminence near Lee's, displayed them imposingly
in full view of the Americans for a few moments, and then withdrew them.
This maneuver, as was intended, deceived the patriots. The march of
Simcoe was concealed from them by intervening hills and woods, and they
did not suspect the party thus displayed to be that partisan's Rangers.
They believed them to be the front of a more formidable force deploying
in the rear, preparatory to a general charge. At the same moment a
three-pounder, which had been stationed upon the hill (M, in the plan),
near Spencer's, was discharged; and, while its echoes were booming over
the country, Shank, with his cavalry, made another furious attack upon
the main body of the Republicans, now gathered more compactly in the
road and the adjacent fields, a short distance from Spencer's. *

The idea that Cornwallis was advancing with artillery alarmed the
Americans, and, when Shank made his charge, they fell back in confusion
upon the reserve corps of Continentals in the rear, and the battle
ended. Simcoe was quite as much afraid of the advance of La Fayette and
his force to the support of Butler, as was the latter of the appearance
of Cornwallis. He immediately formed his corps in retreating order, and
pushed on toward Williamsburg. Butler thought it imprudent to follow
them; for he was informed that Cornwallis, on hearing the first fire,
commenced a march, with a strong force, to the support of Simcoe.
Neither party could fairly claim a victory, though both parties did
so. It was a sort of drawn battle. The Americans returned to Tyre's
plantation.

So widely different are the official accounts of the numbers lost in
this engagement that it is difficult to ascertain the truth. La Fayette
states the loss of the British at sixty killed and one hundred wounded,
while Cornwallis says that only three officers and thirty privates were
killed and wounded. The latter also states that three American officers
and twenty-eight privates were taken prisoners. The number of the
Americans killed has never been named by our writers. Simcoe says,
"It is certain they had a great many killed and wounded, exclusive of
prisoners;" but this was merely conjecture. He also says that his own
groom was the only prisoner secured by the Americans, the bat-men at
Lee's, who were captured at the commencement of the action, having been
rescued, except the groom. Cornet Jones, a promising young officer of
the Rangers, who was killed, was greatly beloved, and was buried at
Williamsburg, the next day, with military honors. **

At this time, Sir Henry Clinton, having received some intercepted
letters written by Washington, in which a plan for attacking New York
was divulged, *** became alarmed for his safety. He accordingly made
a requisition upon Cornwallis for a portion of his troops to be sent
immediately to New York. The earl, supposing himself too weak, after
complying with this requisition, to remain at Williamsburg, resolved
to retire to Portsmouth, near Norfolk. He broke up his encampment
at Williamsburg on the 4th of July, (a) [[ a 1781]] and marched for
Jamestown Island. He disposed of his troops in such a manner as

* Simcoe's Journal, p. 226--236. Lee's Memoirs of the War in the
Southern Department, p. 298--301.

** The expression "buried with military honors" is often used, but,
I apprehend, often without a clear understanding of its purport. The
general reader may be interested in knowing in what consist "military
honors" in the sense here used. The rules generally adopted are as
follows: The funeral of a commander-in-chief is saluted with three
rounds of 11 pieces of cannon, 4 battalions, and 6 squadrons; that of
a lieutenant general with three rounds of 9 pieces of cannon, 3
battalions, and 4 squadrons; that of a major general with three rounds
of 7 pieces of cannon, 1 battalion, and 2 squadrons; that of colonel by
his own battalion (or an equal number by detachment), with three rounds
of small-arms; that of a lieutenant colonel by 300 men and officers,
with three rounds of small-arms; that of a major by 200 men and
officers, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a captain by his own
company, or 70 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a
lieutenant by a lieutenant, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, 1 filer, and 36
rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of an ensign by 1
ensign, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, and 27 rank and file, with three rounds
of small-arms; that of a sergeant by 1 sergeant and 10 rank and file,
with three rounds of small-arms; that of a corporal, musician, private
man, drummer, or fifer by 1 sergeant and 13 rank and file, with three
rounds of small-arms. The pall is supported by officers of the same rank
as that of the deceased; if that number can not be had, officers next in
seniority are to supply their place.

*** These letters, written by Washington for the express purpose of
deceiving Sir Henry Clinton, have been noticed on page 213.

[[[Movements of La Fayette.--Cornwallis's Stratagem.--March from Green
Spring.--Colonel Armand]]]

{466}to cover the ford, and the Queen's Rangers crossed over to the
island the same evening. The two succeeding days were employed in
passing over the baggage of the army.

La Fayette was exceedingly active and vigilant. As soon as he was
informed by Lieutenant-colonel Mercer, who had been sent to reconnoiter,
that Cornwallis had left Williamsburg, he moved forward and encamped
within nine miles of Jamestown. Upon the activity and skill of Wayne the
marquis relied with confidence. America had no truer or braver officers
in the field than the "French game-cock" and "Mad Anthony." The marquis,
who had steadily pursued the earl from Richmond, but always avoiding a
general engagement, now resolved to fall upon his rear, when the main
body should have passed over to Jamestown Island. Cornwallis suspected
this design, and prepared for the emergency. He encamped the greater
portion of his army on the main land, as compactly as possible,
and sheltered from view by a dense pine forest. He also cast up a
fortification on the right bank of Powhatan Creek, by the Williamsburg
road, the remains of which, I have just mentioned, are still very
prominent. He allowed but a few soldiers to make their appearance on the
edge of the wood; deployed those on the island to the best advantage;
drew in his light out-guards; suffered his pickets to be insulted;
and, by every means in his power, gave the impression that only his
rear-guard was upon the main. These maneuvers of Cornwallis, and
abounding false intelligence, completely deceived La Fayette, and caused
him to make an attack upon the British, a step which involved his whole
army in imminent peril.

La Fayette and his troops were at Green Spring plantation * on the
morning of the 6th of July. (a) At sunrise, the whole country was
enveloped in a fog; at noon, an un-[[ a 1781]] clouded sun poured down
its almost vertical rays with fierce intensity. Assured that only the
rear-guard of Cornwallis's army remained off the island, the marquis
moved from Green Spring, at three o'clock in the afternoon, for the
purpose of attacking them. This late hour was judiciously chosen; the
heat was less oppressive, and, if deceived concerning the numbers of
the enemy on the main land, the night-shadows would favor a retreat. In
front of Green Spring mansion, and extending to the Williamsburg road
from the lower ford of the Chickahominy, where I crossed, was low,
sunken ground, and a morass bridged by a causeway of logs. Over this, in
narrow files, the Americans were obliged to make their way, and it
was almost five o'clock before they arrived in sight of the British
outposts. La Fayette detached Wayne, with about eight hundred men, to
make the attack. His advanced guard consisted of the rifle corps of Call
and Willis, and a patrol of dragoons. These were followed by the cavalry
of Armand's and Mercer's troops, led by Major M'Pherson,

* See page 446.

[Illustration: 9476]

** Charles Armand, marquis de la Rouarie, was a French officer in the
Continental army, who had been ten years in military service before he
came to this country. On the 10th of May, 1777, Congress gave him the
commission of colonel, and authorized him to raise a corps of Frenchmen,
in number not exceeding two hundred men He was a zealous and spirited
officer, and did good service throughout the war. He was with La Fayette
in New Jersey, after the battle of Red Bank, in the fall of 1777, and
the next year was actively engaged in Westchester county, New York, in
opposition to the corps of Simcoe and Emerick, and the Loyalists under
Bare-more. The latter was captured by Armand, who, at one time, had his
quarters at a house which stood on the site of the present St. John's
College, at Fordham. He was stationed at Ridgefield, in Connecticut,
under General Robert Howe, in the summer of 1779. Belonging to his corps
was a company of cavalry called Maréchaussée * whose duties appertained
chiefly to the police of the army. Armand's corps, exclusive of this
company, was incorporated with Pulaski's in February, 1780. Armand was
with the army under Gates at Clermont, near Camden, in South Carolina,
and was directed by that general to form an advance attacking party in
the night-march against Cornwallis at Camden. He censured the conduct of
his general on that occasion very much. "I will not say," he remarked,
"that the general contemplated treason; but I will say, that if he had
desired to betray his army, he could not have chosen a more judicious
course." Armand was dissatisfied with the promotions in the army, for he
perceived no chance for himself to advance, yet he continued in faithful
service. He went to France in February, 1781, to procure clothing and
accoutrements, but came back again in time to join the army before
Yorktown in Oetober of that year. On the earnest recommendation of
Washington, who knew his worth, Congress gave Colonel Armand the
commission of brigadier general in the spring of 1783. He returned to
France in 1784. In a letter to Rochambeau, written in May of that year,
Washington strongly recommended General Armand as worthy of promotion in
his own eountry. He was married, in 1786, to a wealthy lady, belonging
to an ancient family, and on that occasion wrote a letter to Washington,
inviting him to come to Europe and partake of the hospitalities of his
home. In his reply, Washington remarked, "I must confess I was a little
pleased, if not surprised, to find you think quite like an American on
the subject of matrimony and domestic felicity; for, in my estimation,
more permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered
walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous
pleasure, or the more tumultuous and imposing scenes of successful
ambition. This sentiment will account in a degree for my not making
a visit to Europe." General Armand took an active part in the
revolutionary movements in his own country, and became a prisoner in the
Bastile, for a time, in 1789. He participated in the sanguinary scenes
in La Vendee, during the first year of the French Revolution. Sick
when the news of the execution of Louis XVI. reached him, it produced
a powerful effect upon his weakened system. A crisis in his malady was
induced, and, on the 30th of January, 1793, he expired. He was buried
privately, by moonlight; but his remains were disinterred by the
Revolutionists within a month afterward, and the papers inhumed with
him revealed the names of associates, some of whom were afterward
guillotined. General Armand was of middle size, dark complexion, urbane
in deportment, polished in manners, an eloquent and persuasive speaker,
and a practiced marksman. He was greatly beloved by his friends, and his
opponents were not his enemies.

* The Maréchaussée was a useful corps. In an encampment, it was its
business to patrol the camp and its vicinity, for the purpose of
apprehending deserters, thieves, rioters, &e., and soldiers who should
be found violating the rules of the army. Strangers without passes were
to be apprehended by them, and the sutlers in the army were under the
control of the commander of the corps. In the time of action they were
to patrol the roads on both flanks of the army to arrest fugitives, and
apprehend those who might be skulking away.

[[[The Baltic Order.--Attack upon the Outpost.--The Enemy in full
Force.--Retreat of the Americans.]]]

{467}who had recovered from the effects of his unhorsing at Spencer's.
The Continental infantry, chiefly Pennsylvania troops, under Wayne,
supported the whole. La Fayette, with nine hundred Continentals and some
militia, halted after crossing the morass, to be in readiness to
support Wayne, if necessary. Steuben, with the main body of the militia,
remained as a reserve at Green Spring.

After moving about a mile, the van patrol were attacked by some of the
enemy's Yagers, and the riflemen and militia commenced the attack upon
the British pickets at about five o'clock. A desultory fire was kept
up for a few minutes, when the cavalry made a furious charge, and the
pickets were driven within their lines in great confusion and with
considerable loss. The British outpost, which covered and concealed the
main body of the royal army, was now assailed by the riflemen, who were
stationed in a ditch, near a rail fence. They were under the immediate
direction of M'Pherson and Mercer, and terribly galled the Yagers who
garrisoned the point assailed, yet without driving them from their
position. The assailants were speedily joined by two battalions of
Continental infantry, one under Major Galvan, and another under Major
Willis, of Connecticut, supported by two pieces of artillery, under the
direction of Captain Savage. The Americans felt certain of victory, and
were about to leave the ditch and engage hand to hand with the enemy,
when more than two thousand of the royal troops were led from their
concealment into action by Lieutenant-colonel Yorke on the right,
and Lieutenant-colonel Dundas on the left. The brigade of the latter
consisted of the forty-third, seventy-sixth, and eightieth regiments,
the flower of Cornwallis's army. Yorke soon put to flight the American
militia on the right; but, on the left, the riflemen, cavalry, and the
Pennsylvania infantry sustained the unequal conflict with great bravery.
Superior numbers, however, overmatched skill and courage, and the
Americans, after a sanguinary battle of ten minutes, gave way; first
the riflemen, then the cavalry, and finally the whole body of infantry
retreated in confusion upon Wayne's line, which was drawn up in compact
order in the field in front of the present residence of Mr. Coke.

Wayne now perceived the whole breadth of Cornwallis's stratagem, and
the imminence of the danger which surrounded his troops. Already strong
detachments were rapidly outflanking him and gaining his rear, while a
solid body of veterans were confronting him. It was a moment of great
peril. To retreat would be certain destruction to his troops; a false
movement would involve the whole in ruin. Wayne's presence of mind never
forsook him, and, in moments of greatest danger, his judgment seemed the
most acute and faithful. He now instantly conceived a bold movement, but
one full of peril. He ordered the trumpeters to

[[[Wayne's Charge upon Ihe British Line.--Retreat of Cornwallis to
Portsmouth.--Tarleton's Expedition.--Williamsburg.]]]

{468}sound a charge, and, with a full-voiced shout, his whole force,
cavalry, riflemen, and infantry, dashed forward in the face of a
terrible storm of lead and iron, and smote the British line with ball,
bayonet, and cutlass so fiercely, that it recoiled in amazement. La
Fayette, who had personally reconnoitered the British camp from a tongue
of land near the present Jamestown landing, perceived the peril of
Wayne, and immediately drew up a line of Continentals half a mile in
the rear of the scene of conflict, to cover a retreat if Wayne should
attempt it. When the latter saw this, and perceived the flanking parties
of the enemy halting or retrograding, he sounded a retreat, and in
good order his brave band fell back upon La Fayette's line. Never was
a desperate maneuver better planned or more successfully executed. Upon
that single cast of the die depended the safety of his corps. It was
a winning one for the moment, and the night-shadows coming on, the
advantage gained was made secure.

Cornwallis was astonished and perplexed by the charge and retreat. The
lateness of the hour, and the whole movement, made him view the maneuver
as a lure to draw him into an ambuscade; and, instead of pursuing the
Republicans, he called in his detachments,[[ a July 9, 1781]] crossed
over to Jamestown Island during the evening, and three days afterward
(a) crossed the James River with the largest portion of his troops,
and proceeded by easy marches to Portsmouth. * The other portion of his
army, pursuant to General Clinton's requisition, embarked in transports
for New York. ** In this action, according to La Fayette, the Americans
lost one hundred and eighteen men *** (including ten officers), in
killed, wounded, and prisoners; also the two pieces of cannon, which
they were obliged to leave on the field, the horses attached to them
having been killed. The British loss was five officers wounded, and
seventy-five privates killed and wounded. ****

The Americans, under La Fayette, remained in the vicinity of
Williamsburg until the arrival of the combined armies, nearly two months
afterward, on their way to besiege Cornwallis at Yorktown.[[ b Dec 20,
1848]] I arrived at Williamsburg at noon, (b) and proceeded immediately
to search out the interesting localities of that ancient and earliest
incorporated town in Virginia. They are chiefly upon the main street, a
broad avenue pleasantly shaded, and almost as quiet as a rural lane. I
first took a hasty stroll upon the spacious green in front of William
and Mary College, the oldest literary institution in America except
Harvard University. (v) The entrance to the green is flanked by stately
live oaks, cheering the visitor in winter with their evergreen
foliage. In the center of the green stands the mutilated statue of Lord
Botetourt, the best beloved of the colonial governors. This statue was
erected in the old capital in 1774, and in 1797 it was removed to its
present position. I did not make a sketch of it, because a student at
the college promised to hand me one made by his own

* Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton and his legion were dispatched on the 9th
to New London, in Bedford county, nearly two hundred miles distant, to
destroy some stores destined for Greene's army at the South, said to
be in that district. Tarleton, with his usual celerity, passed through
Petersburgh the same evening, and pushed forward toward the Blue Ridge.
He was disappointed, for he could find no magazines of stores. He was
also informed that Greene was besieging Ninety-Six, and successfully
reconquering the districts over which the British had marched
victoriously. He returned toward the sea-board, and rejoined Cornwallis
at Suffolk on the 24th. The whole army then proceeded to Portsmouth.

** Before they left Hampton Roads, Cornwallis received orders to retain
these troops, and occupy some defensible position in Virginia.

*** Stedman says (ii., 395) the American loss "amounted to about three
hundred." That officer (who belonged to the surgeon's staff) was with
Cornwallis at Jamestown. He gives the whole number of the British loss
at seventy-five.

**** Marshall, i., 439, 440; Stedman, ii., 394, 395; Girardin; Simcoe's
Journal; Howison.

* (v) William and Mary College was founded in 1692, and the sovereigns
whose name it bears granted the corporation twenty thousand acres of
land as an endowment. In 1693 the building was erected. It is of brick,
and large enough to accommodate one hundred students. For its support
a penny a pound duty on certain tobacco exported from Virginia and
Maryland was allowed, also a small duly on liquors imported, and furs
and skins exported. From these resources it received ample support. It
was formerly allowed a representation in the House of Burgesses. There
is now a law school connected with the institution.

[[[Remains of Dunmore's Palace.--Brenton Church.--Lord Botetourt.--His
Reception in Virginia.--Ode.]]]

{469}pencil before I left the place. He neglected to do so, and
therefore I can give nothing pictorially of "the good Governor
Botetourt," * the predecessor of Dunmore.

I next visited the remains of the palace of Lord Dunmore, the last
royal governor of Virginia. It is situated at the head of a broad and
beautiful court, extending northward from the main street, in front of
the City Hotel.

[Illustration: 8478]

The palace was constructed of brick. The center building was
accidentally destroyed by fire, while occupied by the French troops
immediately after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. It was
seventy-four feet long and sixty-eight feet wide, and occupied the
site of the old palace of Governor Spottswood, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century.

[Illustration: 9479]

Attached to the palace were three hundred and sixty acres of
land, beautifully laid out in gardens, parks, carriage-ways, and a
bowling-green. Dunmore imported some fine linden-trees from Scotland,
one of which, still in existence, is one of the finest specimens of
that tree I have ever seen. In vice-regal pomp and pageantry Dunmore
attempted to _reign_ among the plain republicans of Virginia; but his
day of grandeur and power soon passed away, and the sun of his official
glory set amid darkest clouds. All that remains of this spacious edifice
are the two wings seen in the engraving above; the one on the right was
the office, the one on the left was the guard-house.

A little eastward of Palace Street or Court, is the public square,
on which area are two relics of the olden time, _Brenton Church_,
a cruciform structure with a steeple, ** and the old _Magazine_,
an octagon building, erected during the administration of Governor
Spottswood. (a) The sides of the latter are each twelve feet in hori-[[
a 1716]]

* Norborne Berkeley (Baron de Botetourt) obtained his peerage in 1764.
He was appointed Governor of Virginia in July, 1768, to succeed General
Amherst. He arrived at Williamsburg in October, and was received with
every demonstration of respect. After taking the oath of office, and
swearing in the members of his majesty's council, he supped with the
government dignitaries at the Raleigh Tavern. The city was illuminated
during the evening, and balls and festivities succeeded. * His
administration was mild and judicious. He died at Williamsburg October
15, 1770, and was succeeded by John Murray, earl of Dunmore. The
following year the Assembly resolved to erect a statue to his memory,
which was accordingly done in 1774.

** This church was built at about the commencement of the last century,
and was the finest one in America at that time. Hugh Jones, who wrote
"The present State of Virginia,'' &c., and who was one of the
earliest lecturers in that church, speaks of it as "nicely regular and
convenient, and adorned as the best churches in London." I was informed
that the pew of Governor Spottswood remained in the church in its
original character until within a few years. It was raised from the
floor and covered with a canopy, and upon the interior was his name in
gilt letters.

* In an ode sung on the occasion, the following air, recitative, and
duet occur. It is copied from the "Virginia Gazette," first independent
paper published in Virginia.

     AIR.
     He comes! His Excellency comes,
     To cheer Virginia's plains!
     Fill your brisk bowls, ye loyal sons,
     And sing your loftiest strains.
     Be this your glory, this your boast,
     Lord Botetourt's the favorite toast!
     Triumphant wreaths entwine.
     Fill your bumpers swiftly round,
     And make your spacious rooms rebound
     With music, joy, and wine.
     Search every garden, strip the shrubby bowers
     And strew his path with sweet autumnal flowers!
     Ye virgins, haste, prepare the fragrant rose,
     And with triumphant laurels crown his brows.

     DUET.
     Enter virgins with flowers, laurels,
     See, we've stripp'd each flowery bed;
     Here's laurels for his lordly head;
     And while Virginia is his care.
     May he protect the virtuous fair!

[[[Ancient Powder Magazine.--The Old Capitol.== Resumption of the
Historical Narrative.--Plan of Williamsburg.]]]

{470}zontal extent. Surrounding it, also in octagon form, is a massive
brick wall, which was constructed when the building was erected.

[Illustration: 9480]

This wail is somewhat dilapidated, as seen in the engraving. The
building was occupied as a Baptist meeting-house when I visited
Williamsburg, and I trust it may never fall before the hand of
improvement, for it has an historical value in the minds of all
Americans. The events which hallow it will be noticed presently.

On the square fronting the magazine is the court-house.

[Illustration: 8480]

It stands upon the site of the old capitol, in which occurred
many interesting events connected with the history of our War for
Independence. The present structure was erected over the ashes of the
old one, which was burned in 1832 Around it are a few of the old bricks,
half buried in the green sward, and these compose the only remains of
the _Old Capitol_ ** While leaning against the ancient wall of the old
magazine, and, in the shadow of its roof, contemplating the events
whieh cluster that locality with glorious associations, I almost lost
cognizance of the present, and beheld in reverie the whole pageantry of
the past march in review. Here let us consult the oracle of history, and
note its teachings.

At the close of the last chapter we considered the destruction of
Jamestown, the termination of "Bacon's rebellion," and the departure
and death of Governor Berkeley. To make the events connected with the
opening scenes of the Revolution in Virginia intelligible, we will
briefly note the most prominent links in the chain of circumstances
subsequent to the desolation of the ancient capital.

We have noticed the unrighteous gift of Charles the Second, of the
fairest portions of

* This view is from the square, looking southeast. South of it is a
neat frame building, whieh was occupied by President Tyler before his
election to the office of Vice-president of the United States.

** Jones describes the capitol which preceded the one in question, and
which was destroyed by fire in 1746. He says, "Fronting the college
[William and Mary], at near its whole breadth, is extended a street,
mathematically straight--for the first design of the town's form is
changed to a mueh better*---just three quarters of a mile in length,
at the other end of whieh stands the capitol, a noble, beautiful, and
commodious pile as any of its kind, built at the cost of the late queen
[Anne], and by direction of the governor" [Spottswood].... "The building
is in the form of an H, nearly; the secretary's office and the general
court taking up one side below stairs, the middle being a handsome
portico, leading to the clerk of the Assembly's offiee and the House
of Burgesses on the other side; which last, is not unlike the House
of Commons. In each wing is a good stair-ease, one leading to the
council-chamber, where the governor and council sit in very great state,
in imitation of the king and council, or the lord chaneellor and House
of Lords.... The whole is surrounded with a neat area, encompassed with
a good wall, and near it is a strong and sweet prison for criminals;
and, on the other side of the open court, another for debtors." On
account of other public buildings having been burned, the use of fire,
candles, and tobacco in the capitol was forbidden; nevertheless, it was
destroyed by fire.

*** This is from an engraving in Howe's Historical Collections of
Virginia, page 329. Mr. Howe obtained the drawing from a lady of
Williamsburg, to whose patriotic taste our countrymen are indebted for
a representation of the edifice whieh was the focus of rebellion in
Virginia.

* The original plan of Williamsburg was in the form of a cipher, made
of the letters W and M, the initials of William and Mary. Its site was
known as the Middle Plantation while Jamestown was the capital. Situated
upon a ridge nearly equidistant from the York and James Rivers, it was
an eligible place for a town, and there Governor Nicholson established
the capital in 1698. It was the residence of the royal governors, and
the capital of the colony, until the War of the Revolution, and was,
from that circumstance, the center of Virginia refinement. Yet, in its
palmiest days, the population of Williamsburg did not exceed twenty-five
hundred. Many of its present inhabitants are descendants of the old
stock of Virginia aristocracy; and an eminent seat of learning being
located there, no place South is more distinguished for taste and
refinement than Williamsburg, in proportion to its population.

[[[Culpepper.--Lord Howard and Nicholson.--Federal Union
proposed.--Orkney and his Deputies.--Spottswood.]]]

{471}Virginia to his two favorites, Arlington and Culpepper. (a) Two
years after this [[ a 1675]] grant, Culpepper, who possessed the whole
domain between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, was appointed
governor for life. He was proclaimed soon after the departure of
Berkeley. Virginia was thus changed into a proprietary government, like
Maryland and Pennsylvania. Culpepper came to Virginia in 1680, and was
more intent upon enriching himself than advancing the prosperity of the
colonists. He was speedily impoverishing Virginia, when the grant
was recalled. (b) He was deprived of his office, and [[ b 1684]] the
province again became a royal demesne. Arlington had already assigned
his rights to Culpepper. The name of the latter is ignoble in the annals
of that colony, yet it is perpetuated by the name of a county given in
his honor, a distinction awarded generally to men whose actions were
praiseworthy.

Lord Howard, of Effingham, who succeeded Culpepper as governor, was
not more popular; for he, too, was governed by avaricious motives,
and practiced meaner acts to accomplish his purposes of gain than his
predecessor. Desiring to please his royal master, he put all penal laws
in full force, particularly those against printing and the restrictions
of the Navigation Act. The bigot, James the Second, the successor of
Charles, continued Effingham in office; but when that monarch was driven
from the throne, (c) the governor returned to England. William the Third
reappointed him, but with the stipulation [[ c 1688]] that he should
remain in England, and a deputy should exercise his functions in
Virginia. His deputy was Francis Nicholson, a man of genius and taste,
who came to Virginia in 1690. Two years afterward, Sir Edmund Andross,
the infamous tool of James the Second, was made governor, and succeeded
Nicholson. He administered the government badly until 1698, when he was
recalled, and Nicholson was reinstated. On the return of that officer to
Virginia, he moved the seat of government to the Middle Plantations,
and Williamsburg was thenceforth the capital of the province for eighty
years.

Governor Nicholson, who was a bold and ambitious man, conceived a scheme
for uniting all the Anglo-American colonies. His plan was similar in its
intended results to that of Andross, attempted twelve years before, when
James issued a decree for uniting the New England colonies. Nicholson's
ostensible object was the mutual defense of all the colonies against the
encroachments of the French on the north, and the Indians made hostile
by them along the frontiers. He submitted his plan to the king, who
heartily approved of it, and recommended the measure to the colonial
assemblies. Virginia refused to listen to any such scheme, and
Nicholson's ambitious dream was dissolved in a moment. Greatly
chagrined, he villified the Virginians; impressed William and Mary with
an idea that they were disloyal; and represented to the ministers
of Queen Anne (d) that they were "imbued [[ d 1704]] with republican
notions and principles, such as ought to be corrected and lowered in
time." He memorialized the queen to reduce all the American colonies
under a viceroy, and establish a standing army among them, to be
maintained at their own expense, declaring "that those wrong, pernicious
notions were improving daily, not only in Virginia, but in all her
majesty's other governments." Anne and her ministers did not approve
of his scheme, and the Virginians becoming restive under his
administration, he was recalled. [[1704]]

The Earl of Orkney succeeded Nicholson as governor, but exercised the
functions of the office through deputies. He enjoyed the sinecure for
thirty-six years. His first deputies were Mott and Jennings; the
first remaining in office one year, and the other four years. In 1710,
Jennings was succeeded by Sir Alexander Spottswood, * one of the most
acceptable

* In 1757, a son of Colonel Spottswood, who was with a company scouting
for Indians on the frontier, wandered from his companions, and was lost.
His remains were found near Fort Duquesne. An elegaic poem, founded on
the circumstances, was published in Martin's Miscellany, in London. The
writer assumes that he was killed by the Indians, and says,

     "Courageous youth! were now thine honor'd sire
     "May Forbes yet live the cruel debt to pay,
     To breathe again, and rouse his wonted fire,
     And wash the blood of Braddock's field away;
     Nor French nor Shawnee durst his rage provoke,
     Then fair Ohio's blushing waves may tell
     From great Potomac's spring to Roanoke."
     How Briton's fought, and how each hero fell." *

* See page 478.

[[[Character of Spottswood.--Conflicting Claims of the French and
English.--Injustice toward the Indians.--The Ohio Company.]]]

{472}governors Virginia ever had. He was liberal-minded and generous,
and at once reversed the usual practice of royal governors, by making
his private interest, if necessary, subservient to the public good. * He
promoted internal improvements, set an example of elegant hospitality,
encouraged learning, revered religion, and if he had been the royal
representative when the eloquence of Henry aroused every generous heart
in the Old Dominion, he would doubtless have been among the boldest
_rebels_ of the day. From the close of his administration in 1722, until
the commencement of difficulties with the French and Indians, more than
twenty years afterward, Virginia continued to increase in wealth, and
general happiness and prosperity prevailed within its borders. **

We have already considered the most important events connected with the
French empire in America which occurred along our northern frontier,
and alluded to the fact that, in the ambitious scheme for gaining the
mastery of this continent, the French made strenuous efforts to form a
continuous chain of military works from the northern lakes to the Gulf
of Mexico. Upon widely different grounds did the French and English base
their claims to the possession of the territory west of the Alleghany
Mountains. The former claimed a right to the soil because of prior
actual occupation; the latter claimed the domain as their own on account
of the discovery of the Atlantic coast by the Cabots, before the French
had made any settlements. The Pacific coast was considered as the
western boundary. Upon the principle of settling claims by drawing a
line interiorly at right angles from the coast discovered, the French,
from their undisputed province of Acadia, might have claimed almost the
whole of New England, and one half of New York, with all the lakes. It
was a difficult question, while the argument rested upon a foundation of
unrighteousness. **

The French had long occupied Detroit. They had explored the Mississippi
Valley, formed settlements at Kaskaskias and Vincennes (the former now
in the southern portion of Illinois, and the latter in the south part of
Indiana), and along the northern border of the Gulf of Mexico, when
the dispute arose. To vindicate their claims to the country they had
explored, they commenced building forts. These the English viewed with
jealousy, and determined to contravene the evident attempts to supersede
them in the empire of the New World.

In 1749, a royal grant of six hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio
River was made to a number of English merchants and Virginia planters,
who, under the name of _The Ohio Company_, had associated for the
ostensible purpose of trade. The British ministry, anticipating early
hostility with France, had also sent out orders to the governor of
Virginia to build two forts near the Ohio River, for the purpose of
securing possession. But the order came too late; already the French
were planting fortifications in that direction. The establishment of
this trading company was the first positive intimation which the French
had received of the intention of the English to vindicate their claims.
They regarded the movement as the incipient steps toward a destruction
of their western trade with the In-

* I have in my possession a document, signed by Spottswood, to which is
attached the great seal of Virginia, a huge disk of beeswax, four and a
half inches in diameter, on one side of which is impressed the English
arms, and on the other a figure of Britannia, holding a scepter in one
hand and a globe in the other, and receiving the obeisance of an Indian
queen, who, bowed upon one knee, is presenting a bunch of the tobacco
plant to her.

** In the early part of his administration, Governor Spottswood led, in
person, an expedition over the Blue Ridge, beyond which no white man's
foot had yet trodden in that direction, and obtained glimpses of those
glorious valleys which stretch away along the tributaries of the mighty
Mississippi. In commemoration of this event, King George the First
conferred upon him the honor of knighthood, and in allusion to the
fact that he commanded a troop of mounted men on the occasion, he was
presented with a silver miniature horseshoe, on which was inscribed
the motto, "Thus he swears to cross the mountains."

*** In these discussions the natives, the original proprietors of the
soil, were not considered. The intruding Europeans assumed sovereignty
and possession without ever pretending to have purchased a rood of the
soil from the aboriginal owners. It is related that when Mr. Gist went
into the Ohio Valley on a tour of observation for the Ohio Company,
a messenger was sent by two Indian sachems to inquire, "Where is the
Indian's land? The English claim it all on one side of the river, the
French on the other; where does the Indian's land lay." The true answer
to that question would have been, "Every where," and the intruders
should have withdrawn from the soil and closed their lips in shame.

[[[Jealousy of the French.--Erection of Forts.--Dinwiddie's
Measures.--George Washington sent to the French Commandant]]]

{473}dians, and to break their communication between New France or
Canada, and Louisiana. With such impressions they resolved on defensive
measures--aggressive ones too, if necessary. A pretense was not long
wanting. While some English traders were engaged in their vocation near
the present site of Pittsburgh, they were seized by some French and
Indians, and conveyed to Presque Isle, now the town of Erie, on the
lake of that name. The object was to learn from them the designs of the
English in Virginia. In retaliation for this outrage, the Twightwees, *
a body of Indians friendly to the English, seized some French traders,
and sent them to Pennsylvania. Bitter animosity was now engendered, and
it was intensified by those national and religious feuds which had so
long made the English and French inimical to each other. Finally, the
French began the erection of forts on the south side of Lake Erie,
sending troops across the lakes with munitions of war, and forwarding
bodies of armed men from New Orleans. One fort was built at Presque Isle
(now Erie); another at Le Bouf (now Waterford), on the head waters
of the Venango (now French Creek ** ), and a third at Venango (now
Franklin, the capital of Venango county, Pennsylvania, at the junction
of French Creek with the Alleghany). The _Ohio Company_ complained, and
Robert Dinwiddie, *** the lieutenant governor of Virginia, within whose
jurisdiction the offensive movement occurred, felt called upon to send
a formal remonstrance to the French commandant, M. De St. Pierre,
and demand a withdrawal of his troops. The mission was an exceedingly
delicate one, and demanded the exercise of great courage, discretion,
and judgment. George Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, was
chosen, from among the hundreds of the Virginia aristocracy, to execute
this commission of trust. At the age of nineteen he had received the
appointment of adjutant general of one of the four military districts of
Virginia, with the rank of major. The appointment was as creditable to
the sagacity of Dinwiddie as it was flattering to the young officer.

On the 31st of October, 1753, Major Washington, bearing a letter
from Dinwiddie to the French commandant of the Western posts, left
Williamsburg. At Fredericksburg he engaged Jacob Vanbraam, a Dutchman,
to accompany him as French interpreter, and John Davidson as Indian
interpreter, and then turned his face toward the wilderness. Before him
was a journey of more than five hundred miles. At the junction of Will's
Creek with the Potomac (now Cumberland, in Maryland), fourteen days
journey from Williamsburg, he was joined by Mr. Gist (mentioned in a
note on page 472) and four other [[ a Nov 14, 1753]] men, two of them
Indian traders. (a) This point, at the mouth of Will's Creek on
the Potomac, was on the verge of civilization, and near the lofty
Alleghanies, then covered with snow. Over these the little party pushed
their way, enduring every hardship incident to a dreary wilderness and
the rigors of winter. The streams in the valleys were swollen, and upon
frail rafts the travelers crossed them; or, when occasion demanded, they
entered the chilling flood, and, by wading or swimming, accomplished
a passage. At length they reached the forks of the Ohio, (b) at the
present site of Pittsburgh, and, after resting part of a day, they
hastened onward twenty miles down the river, to Logstown (now [[ b Nov.
23]] in Beaver county), accompanied by Shingias, a chief sachem of the
Delawares.

There Washington called the surrounding Indian chiefs together in
council, (c) made [[ c Nov. 26]]

* According to Mr. Gist, who visited them in 1751, the Twightwees, or
Tuigtuis, as the Freneh wrote it, were a very numerous people, composed
of many tribes. At that time they were in amity with the Six Nations,
and were considered the most powerful body of Indians westward of the
English settlements. While they resided on the Wabash, they were in the
interests of the French, but left them, came eastward, and joined the
fortunes of the English. Some assert that the Twightwees and the Ottawas
were the same, originally.

** This is ealled Beef River on Bouquet's map.

*** The first successor of Spottswood in the chair of administration was
Hugh Drysdale, in 1722, who was succeeded by William Gooch in 1727. In
1749, Thomas Lee, president of the council, was acting governor, and, in
1750, Lewis Burwell held the same responsible office. Robert Dinwiddie
was appointed lieutenant governor in 1752. He administered the office
for six years, and was succeeded by Francis Fauquier. Ten years later
(1768), Lord Botetourt was appointed, and from the period of his death
until the arrival of Lord Dunmore, the last of the royal governors.
William Nelson, father of one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, was acting governor.

[[[Friendly Offices of the Indians.--St. Pierre.--His Letter to
Dinwiddie.--Washington's Journey.--Preparations for War.]]]

{474}known to them the objects of his visit, and solicited a guide
to conduct him to the French encampment, one hundred and twenty miles
distant. The request was complied with, and Tanacharison * (Half King),
with two other chiefs, ** and a bold hunter, accompanied Washington and
his little band. After suffering terrible hardships, they reached the
French camp. At Venango, a French outpost, attempts were made to detain
the Indians, though

[[Dec. 5, 1753]] Joncaire, the commandant, received Washington with
civility. The head-quarters of the French were higher up the stream,
at Fort Le Bouf, and there the [[Dec 12.]] Virginia commissioner was
received with great politeness by M. De St. Pierre. After a perilous
journey of forty-one days, Washington had reached his destination.

St. Pierre was an elderly man, a knight of the order of St. Louis.
He entertained Washington and his party for four days with cordial
hospitality, and then delivered to him a sealed reply to Governor
Dinwiddie's letter. *** In the mean while, Washington and his attendants
made full observations respecting the fort and garrison, construction
of the works, numbers of cannon, &c.; information of much value. After a
journey marked by more perils and hardships than the first, **** a large
portion of which Major Washington and Mr. Gist per-[[Jan. 16, 1754]]
formed alone and on foot, the former reached Williamsburg, having been
absent eleven weeks. (v)

Dinwiddie was greatly incensed when he opened the letter of St. Pierre.
That officer, writing like a soldier, said it did not belong to him as
a subaltern to discuss treaties; that such a message as Washington bore
should have been sent to the Marquis Duquesne, governor of Canada, by
whose instructions he acted, and whose orders he should obey; and that
the summons to retire could not be complied with. There could be no
longer a doubt of the hostile designs of the French. (vi) Governor
Dinwiddie called his council together, and, without waiting for
the Burgesses to convene, took measures for the expulsion of their
troublesome neighbors from Virginia soil. The council advised the
enlistment of two companies, of one hundred men each, for the service;
and the Ohio Company sent out a party of thirty men to erect a fort at
the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers (Pittsburgh),
a spot which Washington strongly recommended as most eligible, and to
enlist men among

* This chief was a bold and patriotic man. He warned both the English
and the French to leave the country. He had felt the encroachments of
the French, by their taking actual possession of large tracts of land;
but as yet he mistook the character of the English, and believed that
they came simply to trade with his race. He and his brethren soon
learned, by fearful experience, that the French and English were equally
governed by whatever policy was necessary for the accomplishment of
those acts of rapacity and injustice which are sanctioned by the law of
nations! "Fathers," said Tanacharison to the French, "The Great Being
above allowed this land to be a place of residence for us, so I desire
you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers the English; for I will
keep you at arm's length. I lay this down as a trial for both, to see
which will have the greatest regard to it, and that side we will
stand by, and make equal shares with us." The French treated him with
contempt, and hence he was the friend of the English.

** Jeskakake and White Thunder.

*** Dinwiddie, in his letter, asserted that the lands on the Ohio
belonged to the Crown of Great Britain: expressed surprise at the
encroachments of the French; demanded by whose authority an armed force
had crossed the lakes, and urged their speedy departure.

**** On one occasion, an Indian, supposed to have been induced by
Joncaire, at Venango, attempted to shoot them. On another occasion,
after working a whole day in constructing a frail raft, they attempted
to cross the swift current of the Alleghany, then filled with drifting
ice. Their raft was destroyed among the ice, and the travelers, drenched
in the river, were east upon a desert island, where they laid upon
the snow all night. In the morning the ice over the other channel was
sufficiently strong to bear them. They crossed over, and toward evening
reached the house of Frazier (who was a lieutenant under captain Trent
the following May), near the spot where a year and a half afterward was
fought the battle of the Monongahela. The island on which they were cast
now bears the name of Washington's Island. It is directly opposite
the United States Arsenal, at Lawrenceville, two or three miles above
Pittsburgh.

* (v) See Washington's Journal. This journal was published in the
newspapers here, and also in England and France, where it excited great
attention.

* (vi) Washington says in his Journal, in reference to the imprudence of
Joncaire and his party, on account of too free indulgence in wine: "They
told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the
Ohio, and by God they would do it; for that, although they were sensible
the English could raise two men to their one, yet they knew their
motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of
theirs."

[[[Expedition against the French.--Attack upon the Virginians.--Fort
Duquesne.--Fort Necessity.--Surprise of Jumonville.]]]

{475}the traders on the frontier. The command of the two companies was
given to Major Washington, one of which was to be raised by himself; the
other by Captain Trent, who was to collect his men among the traders in
the back settlements. Washington proceeded to Alexandria, while Trent
went to the frontier and collected his corps in the neighborhood of the
Ohio Fork.

When the Virginia Assembly met, they voted ten thousand pounds toward
supporting the expedition to the Ohio. The Carolinas also voted
twelve thousand pounds. With this aid, and promises of more, Dinwiddie
determined to increase the number of men to be sent to the Ohio to three
hundred, to be divided into six companies. Colonel Joshua Fry * was
appointed to the command of the whole, and Major Washington was made
his lieutenant. Ten cannons and other munitions of war were sent to
Alexandria for the use of the expedition.

Washington left Alexandria, with two companies of troops, on the 2d of
April, [[1754]] and arrived at Will's Creek on the 20th. He was joined
on the route by Captain Adam Stephen, the general who was cashiered
after the battle at Germantown, twenty-three years subsequently. When
about to move on, Ensign Ward arrived with the intelligence that Captain
Trent's corps, with those sent out by the Ohio Company to construct a
fort at the Ohio Fork (now Pittsburgh), had been obliged to surrender
the post to a French force of one thousand men, most of them Indians,
under Monsieur Contrecoeur. ** [[April 7]] This was the first overt act
of hostility--this was the beginning of the _French and Indian war_,
which lasted seven years. The French completed the fort taken from
Trent, and called it _Duquesne_, in honor of the governor general of
Canada.

Washington pushed forward with one hundred and fifty men, to attempt to
[[May 1, 1754]] retrieve this loss, confident that a larger force than
his own, under Colonel Fry, would speedily follow. He marched for the
junction of the Red Stone Creek and Monongahela River, thirty-seven
miles from Fort Duquesne, where he intended to fortify himself, and wait
for the arrival of Colonel Fry, with artillery. On the way, he received
intelligence from Half King [[May 24]] that a French force was then
marching to attack the English, wherever they might be found. Washington
was now a few miles beyond the Great Meadows, an eligible place for a
camp, and thither he returned and threw up an intrenchment, which
he called Fort Necessity, from the circumstances under which it was
erected. On the 27th, he received another message from Half King,
informing him that he had discovered the hiding-place of a French
detachment of fifty men. With a few Indians, and forty chosen troops,
Washington proceeded to attack them. They were found in a well-sheltered
place among rocks, and, assaulting them by surprise, he defeated them
after a severe skirmish of ten minutes. Ten of the Frenchmen were killed
(among whom was M. De Jumonville, the commander), one wounded, and
twenty-one made prisoners. Washington had only one man killed, and two
or three wounded. The prisoners were conducted to Fort Necessity, and
from thence sent over the mountains into Eastern Virginia. ***

*Joshua Fry was a native of Somersetshire, England, and was educated at
Oxford. He was at one time professor of mathematics in William and
Mary College, Williamsburg; was subsequently a member of the House of
Burgesses, and served as a commissioner in running the boundary line
between Virginia and North Carolina. With Peter Jefferson, he made a map
of Virginia, and by these employments became well acquainted with the
frontier regions. In 1752, he was one of the Virginia commissioners for
making a treaty with the Indians at Logstown. His integrity, experience,
and knowledge of the Indian character qualified him to command the
expedition against the French in 1754. He died at Will's Creek, while on
his way to the Ohio, on the 31st of May, 1754.

** Ensign Ward was in command of the post when the enemy approached,
Captain Trent being then at Will's Creek, and Lieutenant Frazier at his
residence, ten miles distant. The whole number of men under Ward was
only forty-one.

*** The French made a great clamor about this skirmish, declaring that
Jumonville was the bearer of dispatches; and French writers unjustly
vilified the character of Washington, by representing the affair as
a massacre. Cotemporary evidence clearly indicates that Jumonville's
embassy was a hostile, not a peaceful one; and, as Contrecour had
commenced hostilities by capturing the fort at the Ohio Fork, Washington
was justified in his conduct by the rules of war.

[[[Death of Colonel Fry.--Washington in Command.--Fort
Necessity.--Washington's Return home.--The Great Meadows.]]]

{476}Two days after Washington wrote his dispatch to Colonel Fry,
communicating the facts [[May 31]] respecting attack on the French,
that officer died at Will's Creek. His troops, intended to re-enforce
Washington, were sent forward, and swelled his little army to four
hundred men. On the death of Fry, the chief command of the expedition
devolved upon Washington, and with his inadequate force he proceeded
to attack Fort Duquesne. He held a council of war at Gist's plantation,
where information was received that the French at Duquesne were
re-enforced, and were preparing to march against the English. Captain
Mackay, with his South Carolina company, and Captains Lewis and
Poison, with their detachments, were summoned to rendezvous at Gist's
plantation, where another council was held, and a retreat was resolved
upon. The intrenchments thrown up at Gist's were abandoned, and, with
their ammunition and stores, the whole party reached Fort Necessity
on the first of July. [[1754]] There, on account of great fatigue, and
suffering from hunger, they halted, and commenced the construction of a
ditch and abatis, and strengthened the stockades. *

On the third of July, a French force under M. De Villiers, Jumonville's
brother, reported to be nine hundred strong, approached to the attack
of Fort Necessity. It was about eleven o'clock when they came within six
hundred yards of the outworks, and began an ineffectual fire. Colonel
Washington had drawn up his little band outside the trenches, and
ordered his men to reserve their fire until the enemy were near enough
to do execution. But the French were not inclined to leave the woods and
make an assault upon the works. At sunrise, rain had begun to fall, and
toward noon it came down in torrents, accompanied by vivid lightning.
The trenches into which Colonel Washington ordered his men were filled
with water, and the arms of the provincials were seriously injured. A
desultory fire was kept up the whole day by both parties, without
any decisive result, when De Villiers sent proposals to capitulate.
Washington at first declined, but on consultation with his officers,
and being assured there was no chance of victory over such overwhelming
numbers, he consented, and highly honorable terms were conceded. The
English were allowed to march out of the fort with all the honors of
war, retaining their baggage, and every thing except their artillery,
and to return to Will's Creek unmolested. Washington agreed to restore
the prisoners taken at the skirmish with Jumonville, ** and that
the English should not attempt to erect any establishment beyond the
mountains for the space of one year. On their march from the fort,
a party of one hundred Indians, who came to re-enforce the French,
surrounded them, and menaced them with death. They plundered their
baggage, and committed other mischief.

The provincials finally arrived at Will's Creek, and Washington, with
Captain Mackay, proceeded to Williamsburg, where the former communicated
to Dinwiddie, in person, the events of the campaign. *** The House of
Burgesses of Virginia approved generally of the conduct of the campaign,
and passed a vote of thanks to Washington and his officers. **** The

* The Great Meadows, where Fort Necessity was built, is a level bottom,
cleft by a small creek. Around it are hills of a moderate height and
gradual ascent. The bottom is about two hundred and fifty yards wide
where the fort was erected. It was a point well chosen, being about one
hundred yards from the upland or wooded grounds on one side, and about
a hundred and fifty on the other. The creek afforded water for the fort.
On the side nearest the wood were three entrances, protected by short
breast-works or bastions. The site of this fort is three or four hundred
yards south of what is now called the National Road, four miles from the
foot of Laurel Hill, and fifty miles from Cumberland, at Will's Creek.
When Mr. Sparks visited the site in 1830, the lines of the fort were
very visible.--See Sparks's Writings of Washington, ii., 457.

** This part of the capitulation the governor refused to ratify, because
the French, after the surrender, took eight Englishmen prisoners, and
sent them to Canada. Vanbraam and Stobo, whom Washington left with
De Villiers, as hostages for the fulfillment of the conditions of the
capitulation, were sent to Canada. The prisoners on both sides were
finally released.

*** It was during this campaign that the colonial convention was held
at Albany, noticed on pages 302 and 303, vol. i., of this work, where a
plan for a political union of all the colonies, similar in some of its
features to that proposed by Governor Nicholson fifty years before, was
submitted.

**** All the officers were named in the resolution of thanks, except
those of the major of the regiment, who was charged with cowardice, and
Captain Vanbraam, who was believed to have acted a treacherous part in
falsely interpreting the terms of capitulation, which were written in
French, by which Washington was made to acknowledge that Jumonville was
assassinated. A pistole (about three dollars and sixty cents) was given
as a gratuity to each soldier engaged in the campaign.

[[[Loss at Fort Necessity.--French Duplicity.--General
Braddock.--Provincial Governors.--March toward Fort Duquesne.]]]

{477}exact loss of the provincials in this engagement is not known.
There were twelve killed, and forty-three wounded, of the Virginia
regiment; the number of killed and wounded belonging to Captain Mackay's
Carolinians is not recorded. The number of provincials in the fort was
about four hundred; the assailants were nearly one thousand strong, five
hundred of whom were Frenchmen. The loss of the latter was supposed to
be more than that of the former.

When the British ministry called the attention of the French court
to the transactions in America, the latter expressed the most pacific
intentions and promises for the future, while its actions were in direct
opposition to its professions. The English, therefore, resolved to send
to America a sufficient force to co-operate with the provincial troops
in driving the French back to Canada. On the twentieth of February,
1755, General Braddock arrived at Alexandria, in Virginia, with two
regiments of the British army from Ireland, eaeh consisting of five
hundred men, with a suitable train of artillery, and with stores and
provisions. His colonels were Dunbar and Sir Peter Halket. At a meeting
of colonial governors, * first called at Annapolis, and afterward
convened at Alexandria, three expeditions were planned, one against
Fort Duquesne, under Braddock; a second against Niagara and Frontenac
(Kingston, U. C.), under General William Shirley; and a third against
Crown Point, under General William Johnson. The last two expeditions
have been fully considered in the first volume of this work.

General Braddock, with the force destined to act against Fort Duquesne,
left Alexandria on the twentieth of April, and, marching by the way
of Winchester, reached Will's Creek about the tenth of May. Here a
fortification was thrown up, and named Fort Cumberland. Washington
had left the service on account of a regulation by which the colonial
officers were made to rank under those of the regular army, but being
earnestly urged by General Braddock to accompany him, he consented to
do so in the character of aid, and as a volunteer. The great delay
in procuring wagons for transporting the baggage and stores, and in
furnishing other supplies, gave the French an opportunity to arouse the
Indians, and prepare for a vigorous defense.

On numbering his troops at Will's Creek, Braddock ascertained that his
force consisted of a little more than two thousand effective men, about
one half of whom belonged to the royal regiments.

[Illustration: 9487]

The remainder were furnished by the colonies, among whom were portions
of two independent companies, contributed by New York, under Captain
Horatio Gates, unto whom Burgoyne surrendered twenty-two years later.
Braddock separated his army into two divisions. The advanced division,
consisting of over twelve hundred men, he led in person; the other was
intrusted to the command of Colonel Dunbar, who, by slower marches, was
to remain in the rear. Braddock reached the junction of the Voughiogheny
and Monongahela Rivers, within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne, on the
eighth of July, where he was joined by Colonel Washington, who had just
recovered from an attack of fever.

On the morning of the ninth, [[1755]] the whole army crossed the
Monongahela, and marching five miles along its southwestern banks, on
account of rugged hills on the other side, they again crossed to
the northeastern shore, and proceeded directly toward Fort Duquesne.
Lieutenant Colonel Gage, afterward the commander of the British forces
at Boston when besieged by the Americans under Washington, led the
advanced guard of three

* Six colonial governors assembled on this occasion, namely: Shirley,
of Massachusetts; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; James Delaney, of New York;
Sharpe, of Maryland; Morris, of Pennsylvania; and Dobbs, of North
Carolina. Admiral Keppel, then in command of his majesty's fleet in
America, was also present.

[[[Alarm of the French.--Passage of the Monongahela.--The
Battle.--Washington's Advance.--Death of Braddock.]]]

{478}hundred men in the order of march. Contrecoeur, the commandant of
Fort Duquesne, had been early informed of the approach of Braddock,
and his Indian scouts were out in every direction. He had doubts of his
ability to maintain the fort against the English, and contemplated an
abandonment, when Captain De Beaujeu proposed to head a detachment of
French and Indians, and meet them while on their march. The proposition
was agreed to, and on the morning of the ninth of July, [[1755]] at the
moment when the English first crossed the Monongahela, the French and
Indians took up their line of march, intending to make the attack at the
second crossing of the river. Arriving too late, they posted themselves
in the woods and ravines, on the line of march toward the fort.

It was one o'clock, and the sun was pouring its rays down fiercely, when
the rear of the British army reached the north side of the Monongahela.
A level plain extended from the river to a gentle hill, nearly half
a mile northward. This hill terminated in higher elevations thickly
covered with woods, and furrowed by narrow ravines. * Next to Gage, with
his advanced party, was another division of two hundred men, and then
came Braddock with the column of artillery and the main body of the
army. Just as Gage was ascending the slope and approaching a dense wood,
a heavy volley of musketry poured a deadly storm into his ranks. No
adversary was to be seen. It was the first intimation that the enemy
was near, and the firing seemed to proceed from an invisible foe. The
British fired in return, but at random, while the concealed enemy, from
behind trees, and rocks, and thick bushes, kept up rapid and destructive
volleys. Beaujeu, the commander of the French and Indians, was killed
at the first return fire, and M. Dumas took his place. Braddock advanced
with all possible speed to the relief of the advanced guard; but
so great was their panic, that they fell back in confusion upon the
artillery and other columns of the army, and communicated their panic
to the whole. The general tried in vain to rally his troops. Himself and
officers were in the thickest of the fight, and exhibited indomitable
courage. Washington ventured to suggest the propriety of adopting
the Indian mode of skulking, and each man firing for himself, without
orders; but Braddock would listen to no suggestions so contrary to
military tactics. ** For three hours he endeavored to form his men into
regular columns and platoons, as if in battle with European troops upon
a broad plain, while the concealed enemy, with sure aim, was slaying his
brave soldiers by scores. Harassed on every side, the British huddled
together in great confusion, fired irregularly, and in several instances
shot down their own officers without perceptibly injuring their enemies.
The Virginians under Washington, contrary to orders, now adopted the
provincial mode of fighting, and did more execution than all the rest of
the troops. The carnage was dreadful. More than half of Braddock's whole
army, which made such a beautiful picture in the eyes of Washington in
the morning, *** were killed and wounded. General Braddock received a
wound which disabled him, and terminated his life three days afterward.
**** Through the

* Mr. Sparks visited this battle-field in 1830. He says the hill up
which Gage and his detachment were marching is little more than an
inclined plain of about three degrees. Down this slope extended two
ravines, beginning near together, at about one hundred and fifty yards
from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions,
until they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the enemy
were concealed and protected. In 1830, they were from eight to ten
feet deep, and capable of holding a thousand men. It was between these
ravines that the British army was slaughtered.--See Sparks's Washington,
ii., 474. Although nearly one hundred years have elapsed since the
battle, grape-shot and bullets are now sometimes cut out of the trees,
or, with buttons and other metallic portions of military equipage, are
turned up by the plowmen.

** It was on this occasion that the haughty and petulant Braddoek is
said to have remarked contemptuously, "What, a Virginia colonel teach a
British general how to fight!" It is proper to remark that this anecdote
rests upon apocryphal authority.

*** Washington was often heard to say, during his lifetime, that the
most beautiful spectacle he had ever beheld was the display of the
British troops on that morning. Every man was neatly dressed in full
uniform; the soldiers were arranged in columns, and marched in exact
order; the sun gleamed from the burnished arms; the river flowed
tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest overshadowed them with
solemn grandeur on the left.--Sparks.

**** General Braddock had five horses shot under him before he was
mortally wounded himself. He was conveyed first in a tumbril, then
on horseback, and finally by his soldiers in their flight toward Fort
Cumberland after the defeat. He was attended by Dr. James Craik. * He
died on the night of the 15th, and was buried in the road, to prevent
his body being discovered by the Indians. Colonel Washington read
the impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church over it, by
torch-light. The place of his grave is a few yards north of the present
National Road, between the fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from
Cumberland, and about a mile west of the site of Fort Necessity, at the
Great Meadows. It is said that a man named Thomas Faucett, who was among
the soldiers under Braddock, shot his general. Faucett resided near
Uniontown. Fayette county, Pennsylvania, toward the close of the last
century, and never denied the accusation. He excused his conduct by the
plea that by destroying the general, who would not allow his men to fire
from behind trees, the remnant of the army was saved.

[[[Washington's Skill.--Providential Care acknowledged.--Lord
Loudon.--New Expedition.--General Forbes.]]]

{479}stubbornness of that general, his contempt of the Indians, and the
cowardice of many of his regular troops, an army thirteen hundred strong
was half destroyed and utterly defeated by about one half that number,
a large portion of whom were Indians. * Every mounted officer, except
Washington, was slain before Braddock fell, and the whole duty of
distributing orders devolved upon the youthful colonel, who was almost
too weak from sickness to be in the saddle when the action commenced. **

William Pitt entered the British ministry at the close of 1757, and one
of his first acts was the preparation of a plan for the campaign of 1758
against the French and Indians.

Lord Loudoun, who had been appointed to the chief command of the troops
in America, *** was also appointed the successor of Dinwiddie, who left
Virginia in January, 1758.

[Illustration: 9489]

Loudoun's deputy, Francis Fauquier, a man greatly esteemed, performed
the functions of governor. Pitt, in his arrangements, planned an
expedition against Fort Duquesne. Every thing was devised upon a just
and liberal scale. Brigadier-general Forbes **** was intrusted with
the command of the expedition. The Virginian army was augmented to two
thousand men. These were divided into two regiments. The first was under
Colonel Washington, who was likewise commander-in-chief of the Virginia
forces; the second was under Colonel William Byrd, of Westover,
mentioned on page 441. After much delay in the collecting of men and
munitions, the Virginians were ordered to Fort Cumberland, on the
Potomac, at Will's Creek, to join the other portions of the expedition.
The illness of General Forbes detained him long in Philadelphia, and,
when able to move, his perversity of judgment placed many obstacles in
the way of

* In a letter to his mother, written at Fort Cumberland nine days after
the battle, Washington said, after mentioning the slaughter of the
Virginia troops; "In short, the dastardly behavior of those they call
regulars exposed all others who were inclined to do their duty to
almost certain death; and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the
officers to the contrary, they ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it
was impossible to 'rally them." He used similar language in writing to
Governor Dinwiddie.

** Colonel Washington had two horses shot under him, and four bullets
passed through his coat. ** Secretary Shirley was shot through the head,
Sir Peter Halket was instantly killed, and among the wounded officers
were Colonel Burton, Sir John St. Clair, Lieutenant Colonel Gage,
Colonel Orme, Major Sparks, and Brigade-major Halket. Five captains were
killed, and five wounded; fifteen lieutenants killed, and twenty-two
wounded; out of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed, and
thirty-seven wounded. The killed and wounded of the privates amounted to
seven hundred and fourteen. One half of them were supposed to be killed,
and these were stripped and scalped by the Indians.

*** See volume i., p. 110.

**** John Forbes was a native of Petincenet, Fifeshire, Scotland, and
was educated for a physician. He entered the army in 1745. After serving
as quarter-master general under the Duke of Cumberland, he was appointed
brigadier general, and sent to America. The remainder of his public
career is recorded in the text. The fort at Will's Creek he called
Cumberland, in honor of his former commander, and the town since built
there retains its name.

* See page 241.

** Speaking of this in a letter to his brother, he remarked, "By the
all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond
all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my
coat, and two horses shot under me, and escaped unhurt, although death
was leveling my companions on every side of me." Dr. Craik, the intimate
friend of Washington through life, and who was in this battle, relates
that fifteen years afterward, while traveling near the junction of the
great Kenhawa and Ohio Rivers in exploring wild lands, they were met by
a party of Indians with an interpreter, headed by a venerable chief. The
old chief said he had come a long way to see Colonel Washington, for in
the battle of the Monongahela, he had singled him out as a conspicuous
object, fired his rifle at him fifteen times, and directed his young
warriors to do the same, but not one could hit him. He was persuaded
that the Great Spirit protected the young hero, and ceased firing at
him. The Rev. Samuel Davies of Hanover (afterward president of Princeton
College, New Jersey), when preaching to a volunteer company a month
after the battle, said, in allusion to Colonel Washington, "I can not
but hope Providence has hitherto preserved him in so signal a manner,
for some important service to his country." Washington was never wounded
in battle.

[[[Movements of Forbes.--Defeat of Grant Attack on Bouquet.--Abandonment
of Fort Duquesne.--Washington's Resignation.]]]

{480}success. Instead of following Braddock's road over the mountains,
he insisted upon constructing a new one farther northward; and in
September, when it was known that not more than eight hundred men
were in garrison at Fort Duquesne, and the British might have been
successfully beleaguring the fortress if Washington's advice had
been heeded, General Forbes with six thousand men was yet east of the
Alleghanies!

[Illustration: 9490]

It was November when he reached the scene of action, and then his
provisions were nearly exhausted.

In the mean while, Major Grant, of a Highland regiment, who had been
ordered by Colonel Bouquet to march _toward_ Fort Duquesne with
about eight hundred men, and reconnoiter the country, exceeded his
instructions, and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture it. [[Sept.
21]], The British were defeated with great loss, and both Major Grant
and Major Andrew Lewis, of Washington's regiment (who commanded a rear
guard), were made prisoners, and sent to Montreal. The retreat of the
survivors was effected by the skill and energy of Captain Bullit, who,
with fifty men, was left in charge of the baggage. The total loss on
that occasion was two hundred and seventy-eight killed, and forty-two
wounded. * The French, greatly inspirited by this event, determined to
attack Colonel Bouquet at Loyal Hanna, ** before General Forbes should
arrive from Fort Bedford. *** A force under De Vetrie, consisting of
twelve hundred French and two hundred Indians, marched eastward, and on
the twelfth of October attacked Bouquet's camp. The battle lasted four
hours, and the French were repulsed with considerable loss. Colonel
Bouquet lost sixty-seven men in killed and wounded. The Indians,
bitterly disappointed, left the French in great numbers, and went out
upon their hunting-grounds to secure a supply of food for the winter.

General Forbes arrived, toward the close of October, at Loyal Hanna,
about half way between Fort Bedford and Fort Duquesne, where he called a
council of war. The increasing inclemency of the season and scarcity of
provisions, made it appear inexpedient to attempt to reach the fort, and
they were about to abandon the expedition until Spring, when a
knowledge of the extreme weakness of the garrison at Fort Duquesne was
communicated by some prisoners who had been taken. Encouraged by
this intelligence, the expedition moved on, the regiment of Colonel
Washington forming the advanced corps. When he was within a days'
march of Fort Duquesne, he was discovered by scouts. Fear magnified his
numbers, and the garrison "burned the fort, and ran away by the light of
it at night, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five
hundred men, according to the best information." **** [[Nov. 25, 1758]]
The English took possession of its site the next day. The blackened
chimneys of thirty tenements stood in bold relief among the ruins.
(v) The works were repaired, and the name of Pitt was given to the new
fortress. After furnishing two hundred men from his regiment to garrison
Fort Pitt, Colonel Washington marched back to Winchester, from whence
he soon proceeded to Williamsburg to take his seat in the House of
Burgesses, to which he had been elected a member by the county of
Frederick, while he was at Fort Cumberland. The French being expelled
from the Ohio, and the fear of frontier troubles subsiding, Washington
determined to yield to the demands of enfeebled health and required
attention to private affairs, and leave the army. At about the close of
the year, he resigned his commission as colonel of the first Virginia
regiment and commander-in-chief of all the troops raised in the colony.
(vi)

* Marshall, i., 25.

** Now Ligonier, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, fifty miles west of
Bedford.

*** This fort was on the site of the present village of Bedford, the
capital of Bedford county.

**** Washington's letter to Governor Fauquier.

* (v) Day's History of Western Pennsylvania, page 140.

* (vi) It was on the occasion of his visit to Williamsburg, at the close
of this campaign, that a touching event in the life of Washington is
said to have occurred. He went into the gallery of the old Capitol when
the House of Burgesses were in session, to listen to the proceedings. As
soon as he was perceived by Mr. Speaker Robinson, that gentleman called
the attention of the House to the young hero, and greatly complimented
him for his gallantry. Washington, who was naturally diffident, and
never a fluent extemporaneous speaker, was much confused. He arose to
express his acknowledgments for the honor, but, blushing and stammering,
he was unable to utter a word intelligibly. Mr. Robinson observed his
embarrassment, and with admirable tact relieved him. "Sit down, Mr.
Washington," he said; "your modesty is equal to your valor, and that
surpasses the power of any language that I possess." Mr. Robinson, the
speaker of the House on this occasion, was the father of Colonel Beverly
Robinson, the distinguished Loyalist of New York during the Revolution,
whose portrait is printed on page 141. The last surviving son of Colonel
Robinson, Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, died at his residence
at Brighton, England, on the first of January, 1852, at the age of
eighty-seven years.

[[[Development of Washington's Military Character.--Sir Frederick
Philipse Robinson.]]]

{481}In this rapid sketch--this mere birds-eye view of the colonial
history of Virginia, we have seen the development of those principles
which made that state so eminently republican and patriotic when the
Revolution broke out; and we have also seen the budding and growth of
the military genius and public esteem of him who led our armies through
that sanguinary conflict to victory and renown. We will now consider
some of the events of the war for Independence which distinguished the
peninsula below Richmond, lying between the York and James Rivers.

[[[Effect of the Stamp Act in Virginia.--Boldness of Patrick Henry.--His
Resolution in Opposition to the Act.]]]

{482}




CHAPTER XIX.


`````Mansfield.

```Would you worry the man that has found you in shoes?

```Come, courage, my lord, I can tell you good news--

```Virginia is conquer'd, the rebels are bang'd,

```You are now to go over and see them safe hang'd:

```I hope it is not to your nature abhorrent

```To sign for these wretches a legal death-warrant.

```Were I but in your place, I'm sure it would suit

```To sign their death-warrants, and hang them to boot.=

`````Dunmore.

```My lord! I'm amazed--have we routed the foe?

```I shall govern again, then, if matters be so;

```And as to the hanging, in short, to be plain,

```I'll hang them so well they'll ne'er want it again.

```With regard to the wretches who thump at my gates, *

```I'll discharge all their dues with the rebel estates;

```In less than three months I shall send a polacca

```As deep as she'll swim, sir, with corn and tobacco."=

``"Dialogue between Lords Mansfield and Dunmore," by Philip Freneau.=

[Illustration: 9492]

URING the progress of more than a century and a quarter, the Virginians
had fully appreciated the principles of civil freedom, and particularly
that great truth that government possesses no inherent right to tax the
people without their consent. At various times, the Virginia Assembly
had resisted the attempts of Parliament to levy taxes upon them; and
when, in 1764, the Stamp Act was proposed by ministers, they resolved
never to submit to it. The following year [[1765]] that act became a
law. The Virginia House of Burgesses were in session, in the old capital
at Williamsburg, when intelligence of the fact reached them. They talked
boldly in private, but none were willing to act bravely in public, until
near the close of the session, when Patrick Henry, the youngest member
of the Assembly, and seated there for the first time only a few days
before, took the lead. He had already led the Democratic members
successfully against a paper-money scheme, the prime object of which was
to cover up defalcations of Robinson, the treasurer of the colony. Now
he exerted his powers in a broader field. Upon a scrap of paper torn
from a fly-leaf of an old copy of "Coke upon Lyttleton," he wrote five
resolutions, and submitted them to the House. The _first_ declared that
the original settlers of the colonies brought with them and transmitted
to their posterity all the privileges, franchises, and Immunities,
enjoyed by the people of Great Britain. The _second_ affirmed that these
privileges, &c., had been secured to the aforesaid colonists by two
royal charters granted by King James. The _third_ asserted that taxation
of the people by themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves, was the
distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and without which the
ancient Constitution could not exist. The _fourth_ maintained that the
people of Virginia had always enjoyed the right of being governed by
their own Assembly in the article of taxes, and that this right had
been constantly recognized by the king and people of Great Britain. The
_fifth_

* This refers to the fact that Dunmore was a great spendthrift, and
always in debt. Such, in truth, was the case of a large proportion of
the English nobility, at that time, who were engaged in public affairs,
notwithstanding their large incomes. Mansfield here named, was the
celebrated chief justice, who, because he gave the weight of his legal
opinions, and the services of his pen against the colonists while
struggling for independence, became very obnoxious to the Americans.

[[[Effect of Henry's Resolutions.--Eloquence and Skill of the
Orator.--Dissolution of the Assembly.--General Congress proposed.]]]

{483}resolution, in which was summed up the essentials of the preceding
four, declared "That the General Assembly of this colony have the sole
right and power to levy taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of
this colony; and that every attempt to vest such power in any other
person or persons whatsoever, other than the General Assembly aforesaid,
has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."

Had lightning from the clouds fallen in the midst of that Assembly,
they could not have been more startled. The boldest were astonished;
the timid were alarmed; the loyal few were amazed and indignant. Many
threats were uttered, and those who were willing to submit abused Mr.
Henry without stint. A violent debate ensued, and Henry's energies were
aroused in all their majesty and might. His eloquence, sometimes deeply
pathetic, at other times full of denunciatory invective, shook that
Assembly like thunder peals. In the midst of his harangue he exclaimed,
in clear bell-tones, "Cæsar had his Brutus--Charles the First his
Cromwell; and George the Third--"

"_Treason!_" cried the excited speaker; and "Treason! Treason!" was
shouted from every part of the House. Henry did not falter for a moment.
Rising to a loftier altitude, and fixing his eyes, beaming with the fire
of exalted genius, upon Robinson, the speaker, he concluded the sentence
with, "_may profit by their example_. If this be treason, make the most
of it." *

The moment Henry sat down, Randolph, Pendleton, Bland, Wythe, and
others, who afterward became the boldest and most ardent opposers of
British power, arose to their feet, and denounced the resolutions as
disloyal, and dangerous to the public welfare. Their hearts were with
Patrick Henry, but their heads adjudged his course to be premature and
injudicious. Again Henry took the floor, and his eloquence, like an
avalanche, crushed the most sturdy opposition. The resolutions were
carried; the fifth by a majority of only one. They formed the first
gauntlet of positive defiance cast at the feet of the British monarch,
and gave the first impulse to the storm of revolution which soon swept
over the land. In Henry's absence, the next day, the resolutions
were reconsidered and modified, and the fifth one stricken out. But
manuscript copies were already on their way to other colonies, and the
timidity of the Virginia Burgesses did not soften their force. **

Francis Fauquier was at that time lieutenant governor, and the acting
chief magistrate of Virginia. He was a man of great private worth, and,
for his many virtues and righteous administration of affairs, he was
exceedingly popular. As a man, he sympathized with the Legislature; but
as the king's representative, he was obliged to use his prerogative in
suppressing disloyalty. Therefore, as soon as he was informed of the
action of the Burgesses in adopting Henry's resolutions, he dissolved
the Assembly and ordered a new election. The eloquence of Henry seemed
to have touched every heart in the Old Dominion; and every where the
people re-elected the friends of the resolutions, and filled the seats
of their opposers with tried patriots.

Within a fortnight after those resolutions went abroad, Massachusetts
invited the other colonies to meet her in a general representative
Congress at New York. Fauquier refused to call the Virginia Assembly
together for the purpose of appointing delegates thereto. Confiding in
the patriotism and integrity of the other colonies, the members elect
signed a letter to the Congress, in which they promised to acquiesce
in any action that might be had. That Congress was held in October,
[[1765]] and the rights of the American col-

* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. Robinson had reasons for disliking
Henry, and would gladly have crushed his influence, in the bud. Already
he had thwarted the speaker in his attempts to insure his power and put
money into his own purse at the public cost, by defeating a bill which
provided for new issues of paper money, on the loan-office plan. By
virtue of his office as speaker, Robinson was treasurer of all sums
voted by the Assembly, and he had the means of loaning money to his
friends and to himself. He had already done so, and was now anxious
to have a colonial loan-office established by which he might shift the
responsibility of loaning to men unable to repay, from himself to the
colony. Henry foresaw the evils of this scheme, and his wisdom was
made manifest, when, in the following year, Robinson died, and his
defalcations were made known.

** See a notice of copies of these resolutions in Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston, on page 466, volume i.

[[[Repeal of the Stamp Act.--Lord Botetourt.--Thomas
Jefferson.--Dissolution of the Assembly.--The Apollo Room.]]]

{484}onies were so lucidly set forth in their declaration, that the
people lacked no sure guide in their future course. *

The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, and Virginia, rejoicing with hope
like her sister colonies, sent an address of thanks to the king
and Parliament, and voted a statue to his majesty as a token of her
gratitude and love. ** Like her sister colonies, she was doomed to
disappointment, and her sincere loyalty was speedily transformed into
open rebellion.

[Illustration: 9494]

From the repeal of the Stamp Act until the close of the Revolution,
Virginia wrought hand in hand with the other colonies in efforts to
obtain justice and maintain popular liberty.

Governor Fauquier died early in 1768, and was succeeded by Lord
Botetourt. That gentleman bore to his people assurances that the king
and Parliament were sincerely desirous of doing justice to the colonies,
and that all the obnoxious acts would be speedily repealed. These
assurances, and the excellent character and conduct of the governor,
allayed the excitement in Virginia for a while, and her people looked
forward to seasons of prosperity and repose. Their dream was of short
duration. Soon the intelligence came that the engine of oppression was
again at work, and new schemes for harassing the colonies were maturing.
Virginia was much excited when its Legislature for 1769 convened. Among
its members was Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle county, a young lawyer of
eminent abilities, liberality of views, and boldness of character.
His first act in the Assembly evinced his appreciation of freedom; he
proposed a law which should give the masters of slaves unrestricted
right to emancipate them. This motion did not succeed, but it drew
the attention of the Assembly to his talents, and he was employed
in preparing the counter-resolutions and addresses of the House of
Burgesses, [[May, 1769]] in opposition to those of the Lords

Commons, then just received. In these resolutions Virginia displayed
a manifest disposition to consider the cause of Massachusetts a common
one. The governor, on being informed of their proceedings, as in duty
bound, and conformable to his oath, dissolved them. The next day they
met in the Apollo room of the Raleigh tavern; formed themselves into a
voluntary convention; drew up articles of association against the use
of any merchandise imported from Great Brit-ian; signed and recommended
them to the people, and then repaired to their several counties. All
were re-elected except those who had declined assent to the proceedings
of the majority. **** Botetourt, unlike some of the royal governors, did
not make the matter a personal consideration, lose his temper, and act
unjustly and unwisely; but, following the prescribed line of duty, he
courteously endeavored to prevent rebellious proceedings and to allay
excitement. He was esteemed by all parties; and, as we

* See page 464, volume i.

** See page 472, volume i.

*** The room used for publie meetings is in the rear building of the
old Raleigh tavern at Williamsburg, and up to the day of my visit it had
remained unaltered. Carpenters were then at work remodeling its style,
for the purpose of making it a ball-room; and now, I suppose, that
apartment, hallowed by so many associations connected with our war for
independence, has scarcely an original feature left. Had my visit been
deferred a day longer, the style of the room could never have been
portrayed. Neat wainscoting of Virginia pine ornamented the sides below
and partly between the windows, and over the fire-place, which was
spacious. This view is from the entrance door from the front portion of
the building. On the left were two large windows; on the right were
two windows and a door; and on each side of the fire-place was a door
opening into small passage ways, from the exterior. Through the door on
the left is seen a flight of stairs leading to the dormitory. The walls
were whitewashed, and the wood-work painted a lead color. In this room
the leading patriots of Virginia, including Washington, held many secret
caucuses, and planned many schemes for the overthrow of royal rule in
the colonies. The sound of the hammer and saw engaged in the work of
change seemed to me like actual desecration; for the Raleigh tavern,
and the Apollo room are to Virginia, relatively, what Faneuil Hall is to
Massachusetts.

**** Jefferson's Memoirs, i., 4.

[[[Death of Botetourt.--Lora Dunmore.--His Character.--Committees of
Vigilance and Correspondence.]]]

{485}have seen, his death, which occurred in 1771, was considered a
public calamity, and mourned as a public bereavement.

[Illustration: 0495]

Condolences were set forth; and they expressed their concurrence and
sympathy with their brethren in New England. Jefferson, Henry, Richard
Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph, the speaker, urged immediate and bold
action, and through their efforts a committee of vigilance was appointed
[[March 10, 1772]]to obtain the most clear and authentic intelligence
of all such acts of Parliament or ministry as might affect the rights
of the colonies. This committee was also authorized to open a
correspondence and communication with the other colonies. **

They were about to adopt other resolutions equally unsubmissive to royal
rule, when their proceedings were cut short by Dunmore, who dissolved
the Assembly. The committee of correspondence met, however, the next
day, and dispatched a circular letter containing the resolutions to the
speakers of the several Colonial Assemblies. The General Court

* These are copied from the third volume of the Documentary History of
New York, edited by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan.

** The committee consisted of Peyton Randolph, Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton,
Patrick Henry, Dudley Diages, Dabney Carr, Archibald Carey, and Thomas
Jefferson. This committee was formed at a caucus held in a private room
in the Raleigh tavern, the evening before it was proposed in the House.
The caucus consisted of Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Franeis
Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Dabney Carr (his brother-in-law),
and two or three others. Strong resolutions were drawn up, and it was
proposed that Mr. Jefferson should submit them to the House. Desirous
of bringing into notice the brilliant talents of Mr. Carr, Mr. Jefferson
proposed that he should submit them. It was agreed to, and the next day
Mr. Carr moved the adoption of the resolutions. They were carried,
and the above committee of correspondence was appointed. Virginia and
Massachusetts have disputed for the honor of originating committees of
correspondence. It will be seen by referring to page 494, volume
i., that the address of the people of Massachusetts, in which their
grievances and their rights were stated, and which called out the action
of the Virginia Burgesses when their committee of correspondence was
formed, contained a recommendation to appoint such committees in the
several towns in that province. In Massachusetts, this recommendation
was made some six weeks before the action on the subject took place
in the Virginia Legislature. Massachusetts was the first to suggest
committees of correspondence within its own domain; Virginia was the
first to appoint a committee for national correspondence. And yet eaeh
colony seems actually to have originated the idea; for, according
to Peyton Randolph, the messengers from the respective Legislatures,
bearing the resolutions of each, passed each other on the way.--See
Jefferson's letter to Samuel A. Wells, 1819, in the appendix to his
Memoirs, page 100.

[[[Fast day in Virginia.--Assembly Dissolved by Dunmore.--Meeting at the
Raleigh.--The Proceedings.]]]

{486}of Massachusetts responded by the appointment of a committee of
fifteen, instructing them to urge the other colonies to take similar
action.

[Illustration: 9496]

The New England colonies, and Pennsylvania and Maryland, did so, and
thus was formed the first sound link of our confederacy.

The Boston Port Bill, * which was to go into effect on the first of
June, 1774, had excited the greatest sympathy for the people of Boston
throughout the colonies, and on the twenty-fourth of May the Virginia
Assembly adopted strong resolutions of condolence, and appointed the
first of June to be observed as a fast. Dunmore was highly offended,
_officially_, and the next day dissolved them by a verbal proclamation.
** The delegates, eighty-nine in number (of whom Washington was
one), immediately assembled in the Apollo room of the Raleigh tavern,
organized themselves into a voluntary convention, and prepared an
address to their constituents, in which they declared that an attack
upon one colony was an attack upon all. They recommended several
important measures. Among other propositions was one for a _General
Congress_, a proposition which was made by Massachusetts six days
afterward, **** and being immediately sent forth, was heartily concurred
in by all the other colonies except Georgia. Twenty-five of the
delegates remained at Williamsburg to engage in the religious services
of the appointed fast-day. While awaiting its arrival, [[May 29]]they
received an account of a town meeting in Boston, at which the
inhabitants of the colonies were invited to enter into a general
non-importation agreement. The twenty-five delegates did not feel
authorized to act in a matter of so much gravity, and therefore only
recommended, by a circular, that the Burgesses should meet again in
convention at Williamsburg on the first of August Pursuant to this
recommendation, all the Burgesses who met at the Raleigh were present on
that day. They adopted resolutions to import no more slaves, nor British
goods, nor tea; and, if colonial grievances were not speedily redressed,
to export no more tobacco to England, and not to deal with any
merchants who should refuse to sign the agreement. They recommended the
cultivation of such articles of husbandry, instead of tobacco, as might
form a proper basis for manufactures of all sorts; and also particularly
recommended the improvement of the breed of sheep, the multiplying of
them, and the killing of as few as possible. On the 5th of August they
chose seven delegates to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress,
appointed to meet on the fifth of September follow-

* See page 503, volume i.

** Dunmore's speech on that occasion was very brief. The following is a
copy: "Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses,--I have
in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such
terms as reflects highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great
Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you are dissolved
accordingly."

Notwithstanding this act on the part of the governor, the delegates did
not omit to carry out arrangements which they had made for honoring Lady
Dunmore with a ball on the 27th. Every mark of respect and attention
was paid to Lord Dunmore and his lady on that occasion, as if nothing
unpleasant had occurred. In fact, according to entries in Washington's
Diary, the matter was not made personal at all, for on the day after
the dissolution of the Assembly, although he was one of the foremost in
expressions of sympathy for the people of Boston, he remarks, "Rode out
with the governor to his farm, and breakfasted with him there."

*** When I visited Williamsburg in December, 1848, the front part of the
old Raleigh tavern had been torn down, and a building in modern style
was erected in its place. The old tavern was in the form of an L, one
portion fronting the street, the other extending at right angles, in the
rear. Both parts were precisely alike in external appearance, and as
the rear building was yet standing and unaltered, I am able to give a
restored view of the Raleigh, as it appeared during the Revolution. The
wooden bust of Sir Walter Raleigh, which graced the front of the old
inn, now ornaments the new building.

**** The latter colony could not have heard of the action of the
former, and therefore the recommendation was as original with it as with
Virginia.

[[[Delegates to the Continental Congress.--Expedition against the
Indians.--Dunmore's Schemes.--Camp at the Great Kenawha.]]]

{487}ing, in Philadelphia, * and then adjourned, each pledged to do all
in his power to effect the results contemplated in their proceedings.

While these clouds of difficulty were gathering in the horizon of
Virginia politics, and the colony was menaced with civil-war, the
Indians on the frontiers had commenced fierce hostilities, and were
driving civilization back from its adventurous settlements west of the
Blue Ridge. Although several times chastised, they were still bold.
In 1764, Colonel Bouquet, ** having dispersed the Indians besieging
Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country, by the way of Sandusky Bay,
and compelled the head men of the tribes to agree to a treaty of peace.
The Shawnees and Delawares in the Ohio county still continued hostile.
Bouquet, the same year, marched from Fort Pitt to the Muskingum, awed
the Indians, procured the restoration of prisoners in their hands,
and made a treaty of peace with them, and for several years they kept
comparatively quiet, though exhibiting unmistakable signs of deadly
hostility.

Early in 1777, the hatchet again fell with terrible fury upon the
frontier settlements of Virginia, and its keenness was heightened by the
encouragement which the savages received from a few white scoundrels,
who hoped to gain personal advantage in the contest. The scheme which
Governor Dunmore afterward entered into for banding these forest tribes
against the colonists, has left upon his memory the suspicion that even
thus early, in view of impending hostilities, he had tampered with
them, through his agents, and made them bold. History gives no positive
warrant for suspicions so damning, and we may charitably hope that his
expedition against the Indians, in the summer of that year,[[1774]] was
undertaken with a sincere desire to save the colony from their cruel
incursions. It is true, Dunmore was very tardy in his preparations, and
his expedition did not march until the voice of his indignant people
compelled him to go, and alert suspicion made him fearful of its
consequences.

The chief rendezvous of the hostile Indians was on the Sciota, within
the limits of the present Pickaway county, Ohio. There were three
principal towns, and against these Dunmore marched with a force of
three thousand men, early in August.[[1774]] The army proceeded in two
divisions; one composing the left wing, under Colonel Andrew Lewis, the
other led by Dunmore in person. The left wing struck the Great Kenawha,
and followed that stream to the Ohio; the right wing passed the
mountains of the Potomac gap, and reached the Ohio a little above
Wheeling. The plan of the campaign was to form a junction before
reaching the Indian villages. Lewis encamped on the site of Point
Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha, on the sixth of October. In
expectation of the approach of Dunmore, he cast up no intrenchments. In
this exposed situation, he was attacked on the morning of the tenth,
by one thousand chosen warriors of the western confederacy under the
celebrated _Cornstalk_, who came from the Pickaway Plains to confront
Colonel Lewis before the other division should join him. *** So
stealthily had the

* The following were the delegates appointed: Peyton Randolph, Richard
Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin
Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. These were all present at the opening of
the Congress in Carpenter's Hall, and, as wc have seen, Peyton Randolph
was chosen the first president of that body.

** Henry Bouquet was of French descent. He was appointed lieutenant
colonel in the British army in 1756. He was active in his co-operations
with General Forbes, and was highly esteemed by Amherst. That officer
sent him to the relief of Fort Pitt, with stores, in 1763. He was
attacked on his way by a powerful body of Indians, whom he defeated. In
1764, as noticed in the text, he was successful in the Ohio county.
The following year he was appointed a brigadier. He died at Pensacola,
Florida, in February, 1766.

*** Stuart, in his Memoir of Indian Wars, and Withers, in his Chronicles
of Border Warfare, express the opinion, and adduce strong corroborating
evidence of its truth, that Dunmore arranged the expedition in such a
way, that the whole Indian force should fall upon and annihilate Lewis's
detachment, and thereby weaken the physical strength, and break down the
spirit of the Virginians. It must be admitted that the fact of the great
body of Indians leaving their towns and marching directly to attack
Lewis, when Dunmore, with a foree equally strong, was approaching in
another direction, gives the color of probability to these suspicions.
His subsequent conduct in inciting servile war in Virginia, shows that
he was capable of so nefarious a scheme.

[[[Battle at Mount Pleasant.--March to the Shawnee Towns.--Old
Chillicothe.--Fort Gower.]]]

{488}Indians approached, that within one hour after Lewis's scouts
discovered those of the enemy a general battle was in progress.

Colonel Charles Lewis, a brother of the general, with three hundred men,
received the first assault. He and his aid, Hugh Allen, were mortally
wounded, and so overwhelming in numbers and fierce in aspect were the
assailants, that his line broke and gave way. * At this moment, a party
under Colonel Fleming attacked the enemy's right, and, being sustained
by a reserve under Colonel Field, the Indians were driven back. The
battle continued with unabated fury until one o'clock in the afternoon,
the Indians slowly retreating from tree to tree, while the gigantic
_Cornstalk_ encouraged them with the words, "Be strong! Be strong!" **
The peculiarity of the ground, it being upon a point at the junction
of two rivers, made every retreat of the enemy advantageous to the
Virginians, because as their line extended from river to river, forming
the base of an equilateral triangle, it was lengthened, and consequently
weakened. The belligerents rested within rifle shot of each other, and
kept up a desultory fire until sunset. The battle was a desperate one,
and neither party could fairly claim the victory. The Virginians lost
one half of their commissioned officers, and fifty-two privates were
killed. The Indians lost, in killed and wounded, two hundred and
thirty-three. During the night they retreated, but Lewis did not
think it prudent to pursue them. Lieutenant Shelby (the hero at King's
Mountain, and afterward governor of Kentucky) was left in command of a
garrison at Point Pleasant, until July, 1775.

On the day after the battle, Colonel Lewis received orders from Dnnmore
to hasten on toward the Shawnee towns, on the Sciota, and join him at a
point eighty miles distant.

[Illustration: 0498]

Dunmore was ignorant of the battle, and the weakened condition of
Lewis's division. But the latter did not hesitate. Leaving a small
garrison at Point Pleasant, he pressed onward, through an unbroken
wilderness to the banks of Congo Creek, in Pickaway township, within
striking distance of the Shawnee or Shawanese towns. The principal
village of the Indians stood upon the site of the present borough
of Westfall, on the west bank of the Seiota, and was called _Old
Chillicothe,_ there being other towns of the same name. When Colonel
Lewis arrived, he found Dunmore and his party in the neighborhood. The
governor had descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Hockhocking,
where he built a redoubt or block-house, and called it Fort Gower. ****
From this point he marched up that

* From a "Song of Lament," written at the time, I quote the following
stanzas, which are more remarkable for pathos than poetry:

     "Colonel Lewis and some noble captains,
     Did down to death like Uriah go,
     Alas! their heads wound up in napkins,
     Upon the banks of the Ohio.
     Kings lamented their mighty fallen
     Upon the mountains of Gilboa,
     And now we mourn for brave Hugh Allen,
     Far from the banks of the Ohio.
     Oh bless the mighty King of Heaven
     For all his wondrous works below,
     Who hath to us the victory given
     Upon the banks of the Ohio."

** Howison's History of Virginia, ii., 15.

*** This little map shows a portion of the Pickaway Plains upon which
the towns of the Shawnees were built. These plains are on the cast side
of the Sciota, and contain the richest body of land in Ohio. When first
cultivated by the whites, the soil was a black vegetable mold, the
result of long ages of decomposition, and for many years one hundred
bushels of corn, or fifty bushels of wheat to the acre, was an average
yield. This region was for many generations the principal rendezvous of
Indian chiefs in council, in the Ohio country, and here many victims,
brought from the frontier settlements, endured the torments of savage
cruelty.__See Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 403.

* Explanation of the Map.--a a, the ancient works at Circleville;
b, Logan's cabin near; c, Old Chillicothe; d, Black Mountain; e,
Cornstalk's town; f Squaw's town; g, Council-house; h, the point where
Dunmore and Colonel Lewis met; i the camp of Colonel Lewis; Camp Lewis;
m, High Lands.

**** This was in Athens township. Dunmore was a great admirer of Earl
Gower, and in honor of that nobleman he named this, the first fort he
ever erected.

[[[Junction of the Armies of Dunmore and Lewis.--Camp Charlotte.--Logan
and Cresap.]]]

{489}stream into the Indian country, and when Lewis arrived, he was
encamped on the left bank of Sippo Creek, about seven miles southwest
of the present village of Circleville. Dunmore called his station _Camp
Charlotte_, * and hither the Indians, dispirited by their engagement
with Colonel Lewis, and perceiving the destruction of their towns to be
inevitable, came to treat for peace. Dunmore had been met by a flag of
truce from the Indians, borne by a white man named Elliot, ** and
his readiness to treat with the enemy, instead of striking a blow of
annihilation, is adduced as evidence of his ulterior designs for making
these warriors subservient to his use in enslaving Virginia. Colonel
Lewis was greatly irritated because Dunmore would not allow him to crush
the enemy within his grasp, and the

Virginians, eager for revenge, almost mutinied. *** The treaty was held
in the presence of all the troops, amounting to twenty-five hundred
in number. The Shawnee chiefs were quite numerous. _Cornstalk_ was
the principal speaker, and, in the course of his remarks, he adroitly
charged upon the white people the causes of the war, in consequence,
principally, of the murder of the family of Logan, a Mingo chief, a few
months previously. **** Logan,

* Camp Charlotte, according to Charles Whittlesy, Esq. (from whose
discourse before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, at
Cincinnati, in 1840, the principal facts of this narrative have been
gleaned), was upon the farm then (1840) owned by Thomas J. Winship, Esq.
Camp Lewis was situated about four and a half miles southwest of Camp
Charlotte.

** The Tory companion of Girty and M'Kee.

*** From concurrent testimony, it appears that suspicions of Dunmore's
treachery was rife in the camp, and for that reason Lewis was more
disposed to disobey his orders. It is said that Dunmore, in the violence
of his anger, because his subaltern insisted upon fighting, drew his
sword upon Lewis, and threatened him with instant death if he persisted
in his disobedience.

**** This circumstance is alluded to on page 313, where a copy of
Logan's speech to Dunmore, as preserved by Jefferson, is given. Mr.
Brantz Mayer, in an able discourse delivered before the Maryland
Historical Society in May, 1851, has adduced sufficient evidence to
fully acquit Colonel Cresap of the charge made in the reported speech
of Logan, and removed the foul stain of cold-blooded murder which has so
long rested upon the fair fame of a brave and honorable man. It appears
that, in the spring of 1774, Michael Cresap was upon the Ohio, below
Wheeling, engaged in planting a settlement. Some pioneers on their way
to make a settlement in Kentucky, under the auspices of Colonel George
Rogers Clarke, resolved to attack an Indian town near the mouth of the
Seiota, and solicited Cresap to command the expedition. He advised them
to forbear, and, with him, they all repaired to Wheeling. Dr. Connelly,
whom Lord Dunmore had appointed magistrate of West Augusta, sent Cresap
word, on the 21st of April, that an Indian war was inevitable. Cresap,
always vigilant, called a council of the pioneers, and on the 26th made
solemn declaration of war against the Indians. They established a new
post of defense, and the very next day two canoes, filled with painted
savages, appeared. They were chased fifteen miles down the river, when
a skirmish ensued. One man was killed, and several Indians were made
prisoners. On the return of the pursuing party, an expedition against
the settlement of Logan, * near the mouth of the Yellow Creek, thirty
miles above Wheeling, was proposed. Cresap raised his voice against the
proposed expedition, for the people of Logan's settlement seemed
rather friendly than otherwise. His couneil prevailed, and the pioneers
proceeded that evening to Red Stone Old Fort, at the mouth of Dunlap's
Creek, on the Monongahela, now the site of Brownsville. Other white
people upon the Ohio were less cautious and humane. On the bank of the
Ohio, nearly opposite Logan's settlement, was the cabin of a man named
Baker, where rum was sold to the Indians, which consequently augmented
the savageism of their nature. On account of the shooting of two Indians
near Yellow Creek, by a settler named Myers, the savages resolved to
cross over and murder Baker's family. A squaw revealed "the plot to
Baker's wife, and twenty white men, armed, were concealed in and around
his cabin. The next morning early, three squaws, with an infant and
four Indian men, unarmed, came to Baker's. The whole party of red people
became intoxicated, an affray occurred, and the whole of the Indians
were massacred, except the infant. Logan's mother, brother, and sister,
were among the slain. The vengeance of the chief was aroused, and during
nearly all of that summer Logan was out upon the war-path. Michael
Cresap was known to be a leader among the pioneers upon the Ohio, and
Logan supposed he was concerned in the affair. The researches of Mr.
Mayer show that, at the time of the massacre, Cresap was with his young
family in Maryland, and had nothing to do with the matter. * It is also
demonstrated that at about the hour when the massacre took place, two
canoes, with Indians painted and prepared for war, approached. The
appearance fully corroborated the disclosures of the squaw, and
justified the vigilance (but not the murder of women and unarmed men) by
the neighbors of Baker.

* The Indian name of Logan, according to competent authority quoted by
Mr. Mayer, was Ta-ga-jute, which means "short dress."

** This squaw was the wife for the time of John Gibson, the Indian
trader, to whom the reputed speech of Logan was communicated. Her
infant, who was saved, was cared for by Gibson.

*** Logan evidently held Cresap responsible, as appears hy the following
note, quoted by Mr. Mayer, page 56. It was written with ink made of
gunpowder and water, at the command of Logan, by William Robinson,
who had been made a prisoner by that chief nine days before: "Captain
Cresap,--What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white
people killed my kin at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought
nothing of that. But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took
my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too; and I have been
three times to war since. But the Indians are not angry--only myself.
"July 21 st, 1774. Captain John Logan." This note was attached to a
war club, and left in the house of a man whose whole family had been
murdered by the savages.

[[[John Gibson.--Logan's Speech.--His Death.--Sketch of Colonel
Cresap.]]]

{490}who was then at Old Chillicothe, disdained to meet the white men in
council, and sat sullenly in his cabin while the treaty was in progress,
Dunmore sent a messenger (John Gibson * ) to Logan, to invite him to
attend the council. The chief took Gibson into the woods, and sitting
down upon a mossy root, he told him the story of his wrongs, and, as
that officer related, shedding many bitter tears. He refused to go to
the council, but, unwilling to disturb the deliberations by seeming
opposition, he sent a speech, in the mouth of Gibson, to Governor
Dun-more. That speech, as preserved in print, ** has been greatly
admired for its pathetic eloquence. ***

* John Gibson, who afterward became a major general, was an Indian
trader, and an active man among the settlers on the Ohio. Washington
esteemed him as a brave and honest man, and in 1781 intrusted him with
the command of the western military department. He was succeeded by
General Irvine in 1782. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention
in 1788; was major general of militia, and was secretary of Indian
territory during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison. He was
at one time associate judge of the Common Pleas of Alleghany county,
in Pennsylvania. Colonel George Gibson, who was mortally wounded at St.
Clair's defeat in Ohio, was his nephew.

** Gibson repeated the substance to Dunmore and other officers. They
wrote it down, and, on returning to Williamsburg, caused it to be
published in the Virginia Gazette, February 4, 1775. This was the name
of the first newspaper published in Virginia. It was first issued at
Williamsburg in 1736, a sheet about twelve inches by six in size. It
was printed weekly bv William Parks, at fifteen shillings per annum. No
other paper was published in Virginia until the Stamp Act excitement, in
1765-6. The Gazette was so much under government control, that Jefferson
and others got Mr. Rind to come from Maryland and publish a paper, which
was also called "The Virginia Gazette." It was professedly open to all
parties, but influenced by none. This was the paper in which Logan's
speeeh was published. Another "Virginia Gazette" was printed at
Williamsburg in 1775, and published weekly lor several years.--See
Thomas's History of Printing.

*** Logan, whose majestic person and mental accomplishments were the
theme of favorable remark, became a victim to the vice of intemperance.
Earlier than the time when Dunmore called him to council, he was
addicted to the habit. The last years of his life were very melancholy.
Notwithstanding the miseries he had suffered at the hands of the white
man, his benevolence made him the prisoner's friend, until intemperance
blunted his sensibilities, and in 1780 we find him among the marauders
at Ruddell's Station (see page 500). The manner of his death is
differently related. The patient researches ol Mr. Mayer lead me to
adopt his as the correct one, as it was from the lips of an aged man who
knew Logan well, and corresponds in all essential particulars with an
account I received from an aged Mohawk whom I saw at Caglmawaga, twelve
miles from Montreal, in the summer of 1848. His mother was a Shawnee
woman, and when he was a boy, he often saw Logan. In a drunken phrensy
near Detroit, in 1780, Logan struck his wife to the ground. Believing
her dead, he fled to the wilderness. Between Detroit and Sandusky, he
was overtaken by a troop of Indian men, women, and children. Not
yet sober, he imagined that the penalty of his crime was about to be
inflicted by a relative. Being well armed, he declared that the whole
party should be destroyed. In defense, his nephew, Tod-kah-dohs, killed
him on the spot, by a shot from his gun. His wife recovered from his
blow.

* Michael Cresap was the son of a hardy pioneer, who was one of the Ohio
Company in 1752. He was horn in Maryland (Alleghany county), on the
29th of June, 1742. While yet a minor, he married a Miss Whitehead,
of Philadelphia. He became a merchant and trader, and at length a bold
pioneer upon the Ohio, lie raised a company ot volunteers in the summer
of 1774, and proceeded to aid his countrymen on the Ohio, when he was
stopped by Connolly. Dunmore, however, valuing his services, sent him a
commission of captain in the militia of Hampshire county, in Virginia He
then proceeded to the Ohio, and was engaged in Dunmore's expedition
of that year. When Gibson reported Logan's speech, the charge against
Cresap was laughed at as ridiculous; and George Rogers Clarke, who was
standing by, said, *' He must be a very great man, as the Indians palmed
every thing that happened upon his shoulders."

* Cresap returned to Maryland after the conclusion of Dunmore's
expedition, and early in the spring he again went to the Ohio, and
penetrated the wilderness of Kentucky. On his return, he was informed
that he had been appointed to the command of a company of Maryland
riflemen, raised by a resolution of Congress. Although suffering from
ill health, he immediately went to Boston with his company, and joined
the continental army under Washington. His sickness continuing, he
left the army for his home among the mountains. At New York he sunk,
exhausted, where he died on the 18th of October, 1775, at the age of
thirty-three years. His remains were buried in Trinity church yard with
military honors, in the presence of a vast concourse of people, where
they yet rest.--See Mayer's Discourse; also Jacob's Life of Cresap. In
the appendix to his Discourse, Mr. Mayer presents the results of patient
investigation, concerning the authenticity of Logan's speech. It appears
probable that the sentiment was Logan's, delivered, not as a speech or
message, but as the natural expressions of the feelings of a man who
felt that he had been greatly injured; the composition was evidently the
work of some hand in Dunmore's camp.

[[[Treaty with the Indians.--Sentiments of Dunmore's Officers.--Indian
Wars in the West.--Daniel Boone.]]]

{491}At the conclusion of the treaty, Dunmore and his troops returned to
Virginia, by the way of Fort Gower. At that place, the officers held a
meeting on the fifth of November[[1774]] for the purpose of considering
the "grievances of British America." The proceedings

were not at all palatable to Lord Dunmore, notwithstanding one of the
resolutions highly complimented him personally. The speech of one of
the officers, and the resolution which followed, notwithstanding
the attestations of loyalty freely expressed, evidently implied a
determination no longer to submit to royal rule. Dunmore was offended,
and both parties returned home dissatisfied.

[Illustration: 9501]

Before resuming our record of events in the progress of the Virginia
colony toward independence, let us take a brief survey of succeeding
Indian hostilities on the Virginia frontier, until the close of the war.
It is a wide and romantic field, but we must not be tempted into minute
details. We will note the most prominent features of those events,
and refer the reader to fuller details drawn by other pens. I briefly
referred to the Indian war in this region on page 264, volume i., and
promised a more extended notice. Here I will fulfill that promise.

For a while after the treaty on the Seiota, the western Indians made no
concerted attacks upon the white settlements on the frontiers; but
small parties continually harassed those civil heroes who went over the
Alleghany ranges and explored the broad forests which stretched between
the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas of the south, and the Shawnees
Delawares, and Wyandols, of the north, now the state of Kentucky. The
first of these bold pioneers was Daniel Boone, * a hero in the truest
sense of the term. He explored a portion of the wilderness west of the
Blue Ridge as early as 1769, and for two years dwelt among the solitudes
of the forests. Accustomed to the woods from earliest childhood, he
found his highest' happiness in the excitements of forest life, and in
1773 his own and a few other families accompanied him to the paradise
lying among the rich valleys south of the Ohio From that time, until
the power of the western tribes was broken by the expedition under Major
George Rogers Clark, Boone's life was an almost continual conflict with
the Indians. Engaged in Dunmore's expedition in 1774, he was marked
for vengeance by the savages; and when he built his little fort at
Boonsborough,[[1775]] a few miles from Lexington, they viewed his labors
with jealousy, and resolved to drive him from his foothold. Already the
Indians had killed his eldest son, and now his wife

* Daniel Boone was born about the year 1730. His parents, who came from
Bridgenorth, in England, went from Pennsylvania to the banks of the
Yadkin River, in North Carolina, and his childhood was spent in the
forest. In 1769, he was induced to accompany John Finley in the wilds
west of the mountains, within the limits of the present state of
Kentucky. From that period his own history is identified with that of
the state. During his first visit there, he was captured by the Indians,
but escaped within a week or ten days afterward. He look his family to
Kentucky in 1775, and settled on the Clericle River. In 1774, at the
request of Lord Dunmore, he accompanied a party of surveyors to the
Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), and was active in expeditions against
the Indians during that year. He removed to the locality of the present
Boonsborough, and built a fort there in 1775. In the course of three or
four years, many other settlers came to his vicinity. While at the Blue
Lick, on the Licking River, making salt for his garrison, in February,
1778, he and his companions were captured by a party of Indians, and
taken to Chillicothe. The Indians became much attached to him. A family
adopted him as a son, according to the Indian custom, and an offer of
§500 for his ransom, made by Governor Hamilton of Canada, was refused.
Four months after his capture, he learned that five hundred warriors
were preparing to march against Boonsborough. He effected his escape
on the 16th of June, and arrived home on the 20th, having traveled one
hundred and sixty miles, and eaten only one meal, during four days. He
arrived in time to assist in preparing the fort for the expected attack
mentioned in the text. Boone's wife, with his children, in the mean
while, had returned to the house of her father, on the Yadkin, where
Boone visited them in 1779. He remained there until the next year,
when he returned to Kentucky. He subsequently accompanied George Rogers
Clarke in his expeditions against the Indians on the Ohio, and was an
active partisan until the close of the war. From that time, until 1798.
he resided alternately in Kentucky and Virginia. In consequence of a
defect, in his title to lands in Kentucky, he was dispossessed of what
was an ample estate, and made poor. The region he had explored,
and helped to defend, now contained a population of half a million.
Indignant because of being dispossessed, he shouldered his rifle,
left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged into the
interminable forests of Missouri, west of the Mississippi.

     "Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,
     Was happiest among mortals any where;
     Who passes for in life and death most lucky,
     For, killing nothing but a bear or buck, he
     Of the great names, which in our faces stare,
     Enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days,
     The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,
     Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.

     --Byron's Don Juan, VIII., lxi.

* They settled upon the Little Osage in 1799, and the following year
explored the head waters of the Arkansas. At the age of eighty years,
accompanied by only two men (one white and the other black), he made a
hunting excursion to the great Osage, where they trapped many beavers
and other game. At about that time (1812), Boone addressed a memorial to
the Legislature of Kentucky, setting forth that he owned not an acre
of ground on the face of the earth, and, at the age of fourscore, had
nowhere to lay his bones. He asked for a confirmation of his title to
land in Louisiana, given him by the Spanish government in 1794,
before that territory was ceded to the United States. The Legislature
instructed their delegates in Congress to solicit a confirmation of
this grant, and two thousand acres were secured to him. He died on the
twenty-sixth of September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. On
that occasion, the Legislature of Missouri, then in session, agreed to
wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a token of respect.
The grave of Boone is by the side of that of his wife, in the Cemetery
at Frankfort, Kentucky, but no stone identifies it to the eye of a
stranger.

[[[Boone's Family on the Kain-tuck-ee. Boone's Fort assailed by Indians.
Capture of Boone's Daughter and Companions.]]]

{492}and daughters, the first white women who ever stood upon the banks
of the Kain-tuck-ee, were with him and engaged his solicitude. Kenton,
Henderson, Logan, the M'Afees, Hardin, Harrod, Hart, Kay, the Irvines,
Bryants, Rogers, and others, soon followed; and in the course of seven
or eight years the "western precincts of Finley county," as Kentucky was
called, contained scores of adventurers planting small settlements along
the water-courses.

A record of the adventures of the settlers with the Indians would fill
volumes. I have space to notice only a few of the prominent events of
that period which have a direct relation with the history of our war for
Independence. *

In the spring of 1775, Daniel Boone erected a fort on the western bank
of the Kentucky River, the site of the present village of Boonsborough.
It was the first fortification built in that region; and the British,
who had forts of the Indians respecting it. In December of that
year,[[Dec 23, 1775]] a party of Indians assailed it, but were repulsed;
the little garrison lost but one man. On the seventh of July following,
one of Boone's daughters, and two other girls who were amusing
themselves near the fort, were caught and carried away by the Indians,
but were speedily rescued. ***

In 1774, Harrodsburg, in Mercer county, Kentucky, was founded, and
several log-cabins were

* The reader, desirous of possessing minute information respecting
this exciting portion of our early history, will be amply rewarded by
a perusal of "Kentucky, its History, Antiquities, and Biography,'" an
excellent work of nearly six hundred large octavo pages, with forty
engravings, by Lewis Collins of Louisville, Kentucky.

** This sketch is from a drawing by Colonel Henderson, and published in
Collin's Historical Collections of Kentucky, page 417. It was composed
of a number of log-houses disposed in the form of an oblong square.
Those at each corner, intended particularly for block-houses, were
larger and stronger than the others. The length of the fort was about
two hundred and fifty feet, and the width about one hundred and fifty
feet.

*** Betsey and Frances Calloway, the youngest about thirteen years of
age, were the companions of Miss Boone on that occasion. Their screams
alarmed the people in the fort. It was just at sunset when the Indians
carried off their victims. Boone and seven others started in pursuit.
The next day they came up with the savages, forty-five miles distant
from Boonsborough, furiously attacked them, and rescued the girls,
who had received no farther injury than that produced by the effect of
excessive fright.

[[[Construction of other Forts.--Indian Assaults.--Expedition against
the Kentucky Settlements--George Rogers Clarke.]]]

{493}built. Early in 1776, Colonel Benjamin Logan, and a small party of
settlers, encamped about a mile west of the present town of Stanford,
in Lincoln county, and erected a log fortification, which they called
Logan's Fort. These two settlements and Boone's Fort were simultaneously
attacked by a large party of Indians on the fifteenth of April, 1777.
The assailants, having neither artillery nor scaling-ladders, made but
little impression upon Boonsborough. A few men of the garrison were
killed, and a quantity of corn and cattle belonging to the settlers was
destroyed. Many of the assailants were killed.

[Illustration: 8503]

On the fourth of July following, about two hundred warriors attacked
Boonsborough with great vigor. The assailants were repulsed with the
loss of seven of their number, while the garrison had but one man
killed, and two wounded. The siege lasted two days and nights. On the
ninth of September, 1778, a third attack was made upon Boonsborough. The
Indians, five hundred in number, were led by Captain Duquesne, and other
skillful Canadian officers. When the enemy appeared in front of the
fort, the British flag was displayed, and a formal demand for the
surrender of the fortress was made. Boone requested an allowance of
two days for consideration. It was granted, and in the mean while the
garrison, consisting of only fifty men, prepared for a vigorous defense.
Boone assembled the defenders, and set before them the actual state of
things. To surrender might insure them their lives, but they would lose
all their property; to resist and be overcome, would result in the
death of every man, woman, and child. Every one resolutely determined
to defend the fort to the last, and this decision Boone communicated to
Captain Duquesne. The Canadian was chagrined, and sought to obtain by
stratagem what he feared he might not accomplish by force. * The siege
was commenced, and lasted nine days, when the assailants, having lost
many of their number, and unable to make any impression on the fort,
retreated suddenly and in great confusion. This was the last, time that
Boonsborough was assailed, for the garrisons of other forts between it
and the Ohio were rapidly augmenting in numbers and strength, and made
it dangerous for the enemy to penetrate far into Kentucky.

With the single exception of Dunmore's expedition in 1774, hostilities
west of the

Alleghanies were nothing but a series of border conflicts, each little
party acting upon its own responsibility, until 1778, when Major George
Rogers Clarke led a regular expedition against the frontier posts of the
enemy in the wilderness. Clarke first went to Kentucky in 1775, when he
paddled down the Ohio with the Reverend David Jones,

* Duquesne, professing great humanity, proposed to Boone to send out
nine of the principal men of his garrison to treat for an accommodation,
the entire safety of the people within the fort being the basis.
Unsuspicious of treachery, Boone and eight others went out to the camp
of the enemy. While engaged in council, at a concerted signal, two
strong warriors for each man attempted to seize and carry off the
delegation. The whole nine succeeded in releasing themselves, and
escaping to the fort amid a shower of bullets from the enemy. Only one
man was wounded. The siege immediately commenced.

** George Rogers Clarke was born in Albermarle county, Virginia, on the
nineteenth of November, 1752, little is known of his early youth, he was
engaged in land surveying, and this led him to love a forest life. He
commanded a company in Dunmore's army in 1774, and then first became
acquainted with the country west of the Alleghanies. In 1775 he first
went to Kentucky, and, while there, he was placed in temporary command
of armed settlers. His subsequent military career, until the close of
the Revolution, is given in the text. Three years after the conclusion
of the war (1786), Clarke commanded an expedition of one thousand men
against the Indians on the Wabash. It was disastrous. Several years
afterward, Genet, the French minister, undertook to raise and organize a
force in Kentucky, for a secret expedition against the Spaniards on the
Mississippi, and General Clarke accepted a commission as major general
in the armies of France, to conduct the enterprise. Before it could be
matured, Genet was recalled, and Clarke's commission annulled. General
Clarke never appeared in public life afterward. After suffering for many
years from a rheumatic affection, he was prostrated by paralysis, and
died near Louisville, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-six.

[[[Clarke's Explorations in the Wilderness.--Expeditions against British
Forts.--Simon Kenton.]]]

{494}then on his way to preach the Gospel to the Western Indians. He was
at once impressed with the importance of that fertile region, and the
necessity of making it a secure place for settlements. His mind was
clear and comprehensive; his personal courage of the truest stamp; his
energies, physical and mental, always vigorous, and he soon became
an oracle among the backwoodsmen. During the years 1775 and 1776, he
traversed vast regions of the wilderness south of the Ohio, studied the
character of the Indians chiefly from the observations of others, and
sought to discover a plan by which a tide of emigration might flow
unchecked and secure into that paradise of the continent.

[Illustration: 9504]

He soon became convinced that the British garrisons at Detroit,
Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, were the nests of those vultures who preyed
upon the feeble settlements of the west, and deluged the virgin soil
with the blood of the pioneers. Virginia, to which province this rich
wilderness belonged, was at that time bending all her energies in
advancing the cause of independence within her borders east of the
Alleghanies, and the settlers west of the mountains were left to their
own defense. Major Clarke, convinced of the necessity of reducing the
hostile forts in the Ohio country, submitted a plan for the purpose to
the Virginia Legislature, in December, 1777.

His scheme was highly approved, and Governor Henry and his council were
so warmly interested, that all the preliminary arrangements were soon
made. Major Clarke received two sets of instructions, one public,
ordering him to "proceed to the defense of Kentucky," the other private,
directing an attack upon the British fort at Kaskaskia. Twelve hundred
pounds were appropriated to defray the expenses of the expedition;
and the commandant of Fort Pitt was ordered to furnish Clarke with
ammunition, boats, and other necessary equipments. His force consisted
of only four companies, but they were all prime men. Early in the
spring[[1778]] they rendezvoused upon Corn Island, at the Falls of the
Ohio, six hundred and seven miles by water, below Fort Pitt. Here Clarke
was joined by Simon Kenton, one of the boldest pioneers of the west,
then a young man of twenty-two years. He had been acting as a spy for
two years previously; henceforth he was engaged in a more honorable, but
not more useful service.

* Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, May 15th, 1755.
His father was a native of Ireland; his mother came from Scotland. He
fled to the wilderness at the age of sixteen, on account of an affray
with a young man who had married his affianced. Believing he had killed
his rival in a fist fight, he went over the Alleghanies, and became
a noble pioneer in the march of western civilization. At Fort Pitt he
formed an intimacy with Simon Girty, the desperate renegade in after
years, and his daily companions were trappers and hunters. He was an
active spy for Governor Dunmore in 1774, and after that he had many
encounters with the sons of the forest in their native wilds. He
became a companion of Boone, and with him and his co-laborers arrested
Kain-tuck-ee from the red men. He joined Major Clarke at the Falls of
the Ohio in 1778, and after the surprise of Kaskaskia he returned to
Boonsborough. Toward the close of that year he was captured by the
Indians, and finally became a prison laborer in the hands of the British
at Detroit. Aided by a trader's wife, he escaped in company with two
fellow-prisoners, the renowned Captain Bullitt and Lieutenant Coffee,
and arrived at the Falls in July, 1779. Kenton subsequently joined
Clarke in his expeditions. It was in 1782 when he heard that he had not
killed his rival in love, and that his old father still lived. He went
to Virginia» and, after spending some time among the friends of his
early youth, he returned to Kentucky, taking his father and family with
him. On the way the old man died; the remainder of the family reached
Kenton's settlement in safety. From that period, until Wayne's
expedition in 1793, Kenton was much engaged in Indian warfare.

* Poor Simon Kenton experienced the bitter effects of wrong,
ingratitude, and neglect. On account of some legal matters concerning
his lands in Kentucky, he was imprisoned for twelve months upon the very
spot where he built lis cabin in 177-3. In 1802, beggared by lawsuits
and losses, he became landless. Yet he never murmured at the ingratitude
which pressed him down, and in 1813 the veteran joined the Kentucky
troops under Shelby, and was in the battle of the Thames. In 1824, then
seventy years old, he journeyed to Frankfort, in tattered garments and
upon a miserable horse, to ask the Legislature of Kentucky to release
the claims of the state upon some of his mountain lands. He was stared
at by the boys, and shunned by the citizens, for none knew him. At
length General Thomas Fletcher recognized him, gave him a new suit of
clothes, and entertained him kindly. When it was known that Simon Kenton
was in town, scores flocked to see the old hero. He was taken to the
Capitol and seated in the speaker's ehair. His lands were released, and
afterward Congress gave him a pension of two hundred and forty dollars a
year. He died, at the age of eighty-one years, in 1836, at his residence
at the head of Mad River, Logan county, Ohio, in sight of the place
where, fifty-eight years before, the Indians were about to put him to
death.

[[[Kenton's Life and Sufferings.--Surprise of Kaskaskia.--Capture of the
Garrison.--Location of Kaskaskia.]]]

{495}From Corn Island they proceeded in boats to the mouth of the
Tennessee River, and landed upon the site of Paducah. There they met a
party of hunters from Kaskaskia and obtained valuable information. They
reported that M. Rocheblave, commander of the garrison at Kaskaskia, was
an exceedingly vigilant officer, and kept spies continually on the alert
to discover the approach of Kentuckians. The hunters believed that a
surprise might be effected, and they offered to accompany the expedition
as guides. Their services were accepted, and the expedition having
dropped down the Ohio to a proper point on the Illinois shore, and
concealed their boats, commenced their march through the wilderness
to Kaskaskia. ** They arrived in the vicinity of the town toward the
evening of the fourth of July,[[1778]] where they remained until dark,
unperceived by any of the people. Before midnight the town and garrison
were in possession of the Kentuckians. Philip Rocheblave, the British
commander, was surprised in bed, like Delaplace at Ticonderoga.
His wife, whom the polite Kentuckians would not disturb, secured or
destroyed most of his papers. The rest of his papers, which revealed the
fact that the British were stimulating the Indians to hostilities, were
sent, with the commandant himself, to Williamsburg, in Virginia. It was
a bloodless conquest, and in the course of a few days the prudent policy
of Clarke secured the respect of the French people, and they accepted
the government of Virginia with satisfaction.

About sixty miles further up the Mississippi was Cahokia, a village
coeval in settlement with Kaskaskia. It was a place of considerable
trade, and a depository of British arms for distribution among the
Indians. Clarke dispatched Captain Joseph Bowman with a little

* The city of Louisville is at the Falls or Rapids of the Ohio. The
rapids, formed by a dike of limestone stretching across the river,
extend about two miles. Captain Bullitt, of Virginia, a brave officer,
who accompanied Washington in his expedition against Fort Duquesne,
visited this spot in 1773. and, it is said, laid out the city there, on
the south side of the river. But no settlement was made until 1778, when
a small number of families accompanied Mr. Clarke down the Ohio, and
were left by him upon Corn Island. In the autumn they moved to the main
land, built a block-house of logs, and thus founded Louisville, now
(1851) a city and port of entry, with a population of 50,000. In 1780,
the Virginia Legislature passed an aet for establishing the town of
Louisville, the name being given in honor of Louis XVI. of Franee, then
lending his aid to the Americans. A stronger fort was built there in
1782, and was called Fort Nelson, in honor of Governor Thomas Nelson, of
Virginia. For several years the settlement was harassed by the Indians,
but it soon became too strong to fear them. The commerce of Louisville
began in 1783, when Daniel Broadhead took goods from Philadelphia and
exposed them for sale there.--Collins, page 360.

** Kaskaskia, the present capital of Randolph county, Illinois, is
situated on the west side of Kaskaskia River, seven miles from its
junction with the Mississippi. It was settled by some French Jesuits
about 1683, and was one of the towns which went into the possession of
the British by the treaty of 1763, at the conclusion of the Seven Years'
War. It then contained about one hundred families, and that was about
the amount of its population at the time of Clarke's expedition.

[[[Surprise of Cahokia.--Capture of Vincennes.--Its Loss and
Recapture.--Terrible March over the "Drowned Lands."]]]

{496}less than two companies,[[July 8]] to reduce that post, and also to
capture two other small towns. Several inhabitants of Kaskaskia gladly
accompanied them. The expedition was successful at the small towns, and
reached Cahokia unobserved. The surprise was complete. The inhabitants
were greatly alarmed; but when the Kaskaskia people explained the whole
matter, the fears of the people were changed to emotions of joy, and the
American flag was saluted with three hearty huzzas. They took the oath
of allegiance, and the conquest was thorough. The region thus brought
under the sway of Virginia was erected into a county, and named
Illinois.

The stronger and more important post of Vincennes * was yet unsubdued,
and Clarke felt that the object of his mission would be but half
accomplished if he did not gain possession of that place. It was
necessary to garrison Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in order to retain them,
and to do this would so weaken his little army that he could scarcely
hope for victory in an attack upon Vincennes, unless he should be as
successful in effecting a surprise as he had in capturing the posts
already in his possession. While thus perplexed, and doubting what
course to pursue, he communicated his desires to Father Gibault, a
French priest, who agreed to endeavor to bring those inhabitants of
Vincennes, over whom he had pastoral charge, to the support of the
American cause. The influence of the priest was successful; the
inhabitants arose in the night and cast off' their allegiance to the
British, expelled the garrison from the fort, and pulled down the
English standard

The American flag floated in triumph over the ramparts in the
morning.[[Aug. 1778]] Major Clarke, just promoted to colonel by the
Virginia authorities, now applied himself to the pacification of the
Indian tribes. His reputation as a warrior was great among them, and, as
the qualities of a hero inspires the Indian with respect, his influence
was also great. He was a successful negotiator, and the prejudices of
many of the tribes against the provincials were subdued. While thus
engaged, he received no news from Vincennes, and he began to have
fears for its safety. On the twenty-ninth of January, 1779, he received
intelligence that Governor Hamilton had marched an expedition against
that place, from Detroit, nearly a month previously, and that the town
was again in possession of the enemy. He was also informed that another
and more formidable expedition was to be sent out in the spring to
recapture Kaskaskia, and to assail the various posts on the Kentucky
frontier. With his usual promptness and energy, Colonel Clarke prepared
to anticipate the enemy, and strike the first blow. He planned an
expedition against Vincennes, and on the seventh of February[[1779]]
commenced his march through the wilderness, with one hundred and
seventy-five men. He had previously dispatched Captain Rogers and forty
men, two four-pounders, and a boat, with orders to force their way up
the Wabash to a point near the mouth of White River, and there wait for
further orders. For a whole week Colonel Clarke's party traversed the
drowned lands of Illinois, suffering every privation from wet, cold,
and hunger. When they arrived at the Little Wabash, at a point where the
forks of the stream are three miles apart, they found the intervening
space covered with water to the depth of three feet. The points of dry
land were five miles apart, and all that distance those hardy soldiers
waded the cold snow-flood, sometimes armpit deep!

On the evening of the eighteenth,[[Feb.17779]] they halted a little
distance from the mouth of Embarrass Creek, and so near Vincennes that
they could hear the booming of the evening gun. Here they encamped for
the night, and the next morning at dawn, with their faces blackened with
gunpowder to make themselves appear hideous, they crossed the river in a
boat they had secured, and pushed on through the floods toward the town.
Just as they reached dry land, in sight of Vincennes, they captured
a resident, and sent him into the town with a letter demanding the
immediate surrender of the place and fort. The people, taken by
surprise, were greatly alarmed, and believed the expedition to be
from Kentucky, composed of the fierce and strong of that advancing
commonwealth. Had armed men dropped in their midst from the clouds, they
could not have been more astonished, for it

* Vincennes is the capital of Knox county, Indiana. It is situated on
the east bank of the Wabash River, one hundred miles above its entrance
into the Ohio. A French trading post was established there in 1730.

[[[Colonel Hamilton made Prisoner.--Detroit.--Tory Emissaries.--Dr.
Connolly.--Official Tampering with the Indians.]]]

{497}seemed impossible for this little band to have traversed the
deluged country. The people were disposed to comply with the demand, but
Governor Hamilton, who commanded the garrison in person, would not
allow it. A siege commenced, and for fourteen hours a furious conflict
continued. The next day the town and fort were surrendered, and the
garrison were made prisoners of war. * The stars and stripes took
the place of the red cross of St. George; a round of thirteen guns
proclaimed the victory, and that night the exhausted troops of Colonel
Clarke reposed in comfort.

While Boone and his companions were beating back the Indians from the
Kentucky frontier, and Colonel Clarke was prosecuting his conquests and
establishing the American power over the more westerly posts, Detroit
was a position toward which the Continental Congress, and the Assemblies
of Pennsylvania and Virginia, looked with anxiety, for it was the focal
point of British influence over the Western Indians, and the rendezvous
for expeditions against the frontier settlements. Colonel Hamilton, the
commandant at that post, was actively engaged, from the commencement
of the war, in winning the Indians over to the British interest, and
in organizing parties to go out upon the war-path for blood and spoil.
Among his most active emissaries were three Tories--Girty, M'Kee, and
Elliot, whom I have alluded to on page 264, of the first volume of this
work. Governor Dunmore, too, was implicated, as early as the summer of
1775, in the nefarious business of exciting the Indian tribes to fall
upon the white settlements on the frontiers of his province, hoping
thereby to weaken the powers and resources of the people, then engaged
in their struggle for independence. The capture of Connolly, his chief
agent in the business, exposed the whole plot, and made the Continental
Congress more vigilant, as well as more determined. ** General Gage also
appears to have been concerned in the measure, and there can not be
a doubt that the representatives of royalty in British America were
secretly engaged, after the battle of Bunker Hill, in a grand scheme for
uniting the various Indian tribes, and bringing them down upon the white
people with the desolating fury of a tornado The fidelity of some of the
Indian chiefs impeded the consummation of the plan until countervailing
measures were taken by Congress, and the darling project of Dunmore and
his associates was frustrated.

Simon Girty, who with Elliot and M'Kee had been confined by the patriots
at Pittsburgh, burned with a spirit of revenge. He collected about four
hundred Indian warriors at Sandusky, in the summer of 1777, and marched
toward Limestone (now Maysville), on the Kentucky frontier. Fort
Henry, *** a small establishment near the mouth of Wheeling Creek (now
Wheeling), was garrisoned by about forty men, under the command of
Colonel Sheppard. The movements of Girty were known at that post, and
scouts were kept on the

* Governor Hamilton and several of his chief officers were sent to
Williamsburg, in Virginia, where, on account of their having incited the
Indians to their cruel deeds, they were confined in jail, and heavily
ironed. Governor Jefferson used his influence in favor of relieving
them of this rigorous treatment. He was successful, and Hamilton and his
associates were allowed to go to New York on parole.

** John Connolly was a physician, and resided at Pittsburgh, where he
and Washington became acquainted. At the commencement of the war he took
sides with Dunmore, and doubtless suggested to the governor the plan
of arousing and combining the Indian tribes against the colonists.
He visited General Gage in the autumn of 1775, and ten days after his
return to Williamsburg, in Virginia, he left Dunmore and departed
for the Ohio country with two companions, Allen Cameron, and Dr. John
Smythe. Near Hagerstown, in Maryland, they were stopped as suspicious
characters, and taken back to Frederickton. Connolly's papers were
concealed in the tree of his saddle. They revealed the whole nefarious
plot. It appeared that Connolly had received from Dunmore the
appointment of colonel, and was to raise a regiment in the western
country and Canada. Detroit was to be his place of rendezvous, from
whence, as soon as his forces could be collected, he was to enter
Virginia, march to Alexandria in the spring, and there meet. Lord
Dunmore with a naval armament and another body of troops. Connolly
and his papers were sent to Philadelphia; the first was placed in the
custody of the jailer, the latter in that of Congress. Connolly was
afterward a prisoner in Baltimore, and he was left in durance until
about the close of the war.

*** This fort was erected in 1774, during Dunmore's campaign, as a place
of refuge. It was first, called Fort Fincastle; afterward its name was
changed to Henry, in compliment to the great Virginia orator The fort
stood on the south branch of the Ohio, about a quarter of a mile below
the mouth of Wheeling Creek.

[[[Girty before Fort Henry.--Massacre of a Reconnoitering Party.--Attack
upon the Fort.--Elizabeth Zane and Mrs. Merrill.]]]

{498}alert. Girty's design seemed to be to cross the Ohio and attack the
Kentucky frontier; but, with dextrous caution, he pushed up the river,
and, undiscovered by Sheppard's scouts, he appeared before Fort Henry
with his fierce followers, early on the morning of the twenty-sixth of
September. Fortunately for the settlers of Wheeling, then a scattered
village of about twenty-five log-huts, they had intimations of savages
being near on the evening previous, and all had taken refuge in the
fort.

The first attack was made upon a reconnoitering party under Captain
Mason. The Indians were ambushed, and fell upon the little band without
a moment's warning. More than one half of them perished. Captain Ogle,
with twelve men, sallied out to the assistance of Mason, and only four
of his company escaped. Bullet and tomahawk cut them down, and the
garrison was thus reduced to only twelve men and youths, among whom
Colonel Sheppard, and Ebenezer and Silas Zane, were the most prominent.
* The women and children of the little settlement were within the
pickets, overwhelmed with grief and fear, and all hope for the salvation
of the fort and its inmates faded away. At that critical moment,
Simon Girty appeared with a white flag, and demanded the unconditional
surrender of the fort. Although the assailants outnumbered the garrison
forty-fold, the beleaguered resolved to resist, and Colonel Sheppard
promptly told the scoundrel that it should never be surrendered to
_him_, nor to any other man, while there was an American left to defend
it. Girty was enraged, and immediately ordered a siege The Indians
entered the log-houses near the fort for protection, and for six hours
they kept up an ineffectual fire against the pickets (for they had no
artillery), while the sharp-shooters within seldom sent a bullet upon a
fruitless errand of death. At meridian the Indians fell back to the
base of Wheeling Hill, and the firing ceased. This season of quiet was
employed by the garrison in a bold attempt to bring some powder into
the fort, for their ammunition was almost exhausted. This feat was
accomplished by an intrepid young woman, a sister of the Zanes. **

* Ebenezer Zane became the founder of Zanesville, in Ohio, twenty years
afterward.

** Elizabeth Zane was the sister of Ebenezer and Silas Zane. She had
just returned from Philadelphia, where she had completed her education,
and was but little accustomed to the horrors ot border warfare. With
other females in the fort, she assisted in casting bullets, making
cartridges, and loading rifles. When the powder in the fort, was
exhausted, Ebenezer Zane remembered that there was a keg of the article
in his house, sixty yards distant from the fort. The man who should
attempt to go for it would be exposed to the close and numerous shots of
the Indians. Only one man for the service could be spared from the fort.
Colonel Sheppard was unwilling to order any one to the duty; he asked
for a volunteer. Every man present eagerly offered to undertake the
hazardous duty. They contended so long for the honor, that it was feared
that the Indians would return to the siege before an attempt to get the
powder should be made. At this moment Elizabeth Zane came forward and
asked permission to go for the powder, giving as a reason that her life
was of less value to the garrison than that of a man. At first she
was peremptorily refused, but so earnest were her solicitations, that
consent was reluctantly given. She went out the gate, and fearlessly
passed the open space to her brother's house. The Indians saw her, and
watched her movements. When she eame out of the house, and, with the
keg of powder in her arms, sped with the fleetness of a fawn toward
the fort, they sent a full volley of bullets after her, but not a hall
touched her person. The shield of God's providence was about her, and
the noble girl entered the fort in safety with her valuable prize.
A loud shout welcomed her, and every man, inspired by her heroism,
resolved to repulse the foe or die in the trench. Elizabeth Zane was
twice married. The name of her first husband was M'Laughlin; of
the second, Clarke. She resided on the Ohio side of the river, near
Wheeling, until within the last ten years. The story of Elizabeth Zane
ought to be perpetuated in marble, and preserved in the Valhalla of our
Revolutionary heroes.

* The history of our Western States is full of the chronicles of
heroic women, who boldly battled with the privations incident to new
settlements, or engaged in actual conflicts with the Indian tribes upon
lands which the white men wrongfully invaded. Elizabeth Zane was a type
of the moral, and Mrs. Merrill of the physical heroines of that day.
During the summer of 1787, the house of John Merrill, in Nelson county,
Kentucky, was attacked by a party of Indians. It was midnight when
the approach of the savages was announced by the barking of a dog. Mr.
Merrill opened the door to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, when
he received the fire of five or six rifles, and his thigh and arm were
broken. He fell, and called to his wife to close the door. She was an
Amazon in strength and courage, and seizing an ax for defense, closed
the door just as several Indians approached with tomahawks. They soon
made a breach and attempted to enter. Mrs. Merrill killed or badly
wounded four of them with the ax, and maintained her post. The Indians
ascended the roof, and essayed to enter the house by the broad chimney.
Mrs. Merrill seized her only feather-bed, ripped it open, and east the
contents upon the fire. The suffocating smoke brought two of the savages
down almost insensible. These she dispatched with the ax. The only
remaining savage now tried to force his way in through the door. Across
his cheek Mrs. Merrill drew the keen blade of the ax. With a horrid
yell, he fled to the woods, and, arriving at Chillicothe, gave a
terrible account of the strength and fury of the "long knife squaw." I
might fill pages with similar recitals. For such records, see M'Clung's
Sketches of Western Adventure.

[[[Effect of a Log Field piece.--Arrival of Succor.--Abandonment of the
Siege.--Escape of M'Culloch]]]

{499}The assailants renewed the attack at half past two o'clock. Again
they took possession of the cabins near the fort, and were thus covered
from the fire of the Republicans. They also attempted to force the gate
of the fort, but were obliged to abandon it after six of then-number
were shot down. Still they eagerly sought to secure their prey within.
Approaching darkness did not end the conflict. The Indians converted a
hollow maple log into a field piece, and after dark conveyed it within
sixty yards of the fort. It was bound with chains, filled to the muzzle
with stones, pieces of iron, and other missiles, and discharged against
the gates of the fort. The log burst into a thousand fragments, and
its projectiles were scattered in all directions. Several Indians were
killed, but not a picket of the fort was Injured. This failure of their
artillery discouraged the assailants, and the conflict ceased for
the night. At four o'clock in the morning, [[Sept. 28, 1777]] Colonel
Swearingen and fourteen men arrived, and fought their way into the fort
without losing a man; and at daybreak Major McCulloch arrived with forty
mounted men. His followers entered the fort in safety, but he, being
separated from his companions, was obliged to flee to the open country.
He narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the Indians, who thirsted
for his blood, for he was their most skillful enemy. They hated him
intensely, and yearned to subject him to their keenest tortures. *

Girty and his fellow-savages abandoned all hope of capturing the fort,
after this augmentation of the garrison, and, setting fire to the houses
and fences outside of the palisades, and killing about three hundred
head of cattle belonging to the settlers, they raised the siege and
departed for the wilderness. ** Mot a man of the garrison was lost
during the siege; twenty-three of the forty-two in the fort were slain
at the first attack, before the siege commenced. The loss of the enemy
was between sixty and one hundred. *** The defense of Fort Henry was
one of the most remarkable for courage, on record, and deserves far
more prominence in the catalogue of battles for independence than has
generally been awarded to it by historians.

Early in 1778, Congress sent three commissioners to Pittsburgh to make
observations, and determine the importance of Detroit as a place of
rendezvous for the hostile tribes. They reported the activity of the
commander, and his influence among the Indians, and represented the
necessity of sending an expedition against that post immediately.
Congress resolved to do so, but the financial embarrassments of the
government, then fearfully increasing, rendered an expedition so
expensive quite incompatible. The design was reluctantly abandoned,
**** and in lieu thereof, General Lachlin M'Intosh, then commanding
the western department, was ordered to march from Fort Pitt (his
head-quarters), with a sufficient force, against the principal Indian
towns in the Ohio country, and so to chastise them

* The Indians might have killed Major M'Culloch, but they determined
to take him alive and torture him. His horse was fleet, but the savages
managed io hem him in on three sides, while on the fourth was an almost
perpendicular precipiee of one hundred and fifty feet descent, with
Wheeling Creek at its base. He had the single alternative, surrender
to the Indians, or leap the precipiee. His horse was a powerful animal.
Gathering his reins tightly in his right hand, and grasping his rifle in
his left, M'Culloch spurred his charger to the brow of the declivity and
made the momentous leap. They reached the foot of the bluff in safety,
and the noble animal dashed through the creek, and bore his rider far
away from his pursuers.

** Simon Girty was the offspring of crime. His father, a native of
Ireland, and settler in Pennsylvania, was a sot; his mother was a bawd.
They had four sons; Simon was the seeond. With two brothers, he was made
a prisoner by the Indians at Braddock's defeat. His brother James was
adopted by the Delawares, and became the fiercest savage of the tribe:
Simon was adopted by the Senecas, became a great hunter, and exercised
his innate wickedness to its fullest extent. For twenty years the
name of Simon Girty was a terror to the women and children of the
Ohio country. He possessed the redeeming quality of honesty in all his
transactions. It was his earnest wish that he might die in battle. That
wish was gratified; he was killed at Proctor's defeat in the battle of
the Thames, on the fifth of October, 1813.

*** American Pioneer.

**** See Journals of Congress, iv., 245 and 305.

[[[Fort M'Intosh.--Expedition against Sandusky Towns.--Successful
Expedition from Detroit against Kentucky Forts.]]]

{500}as to insure their future quiet. As soon as spring opened, M'Intosh
descended the Ohio River about thirty miles, and erected a fort at
Beavertown, at the mouth of Beaver Creek, to intercept the war
parties on their marches toward the settlements, and to make effective
demonstrations against the savages when opportunities should occur.
* After considerable delay, he marched toward the Sandusky towns, on
Sandusky Bay, with one thousand men. The season was so far advanced when
they reached the Tuscarawas, that General M'Intosh thought it imprudent
to advance farther. He built a fort about half a mile below the present
village of Bolivia, and named it Fort Laurens, in honor of the then
president of Congress

[[1778]] Leaving a garrison of one hundred and fifty men under the
command of Colonel John Gibson (the embassador to poor Logan), he
returned to Fort Pitt barren of the honors of an Indian fight.

On the first of June, 1780, an expedition was sent out from Detroit,
composed of six hundred Canadians and Indians under Colonel Byrd. They
took with them six pieces of artillery; their destination was some of
the stations upon the Licking River, in Kentucky. Colonel Byrd went
up the Licking as far as the forks, where he landed his artillery, and
erected some huts upon the site of Falmouth. Gathering strength on his
way, he marched from the forks, with nearly one thousand men and his
artillery, for Ruddell's Station, on the south fork of the Licking,
three miles below the junction of Hinkston and Stoner's branches of
that stream. The Kentucky stockades, all wanting cannons, were quite
powerless before the artillery of Colonel Byrd, and Captain Ruddell at
once surrendered, after being assured that the people within should
not be made the prisoners of the Indians. When the gates were opened,
however, Byrd could not restrain his savage allies. They rushed in, and
seizing men, women, and children promiscuously, claimed them as their
own, and thus families were separated during a long captivity. All
the property was destroyed or carried away, and the place was made a
desolation. Elated with their success, the Indians proposed an attack
upon Martin's, Bryant's, and Lexington Stations, all lying between the
Licking and Kentucky Rivers. Colonel Byrd endeavored to dissuade them,
for his humanity was shocked by the scenes at Ruddell's. The chiefs
finally consented to allow all future prisoners to be under the control
of their commander. The army then proceeded to Martin's Station,
captured it without opposition, and, bearing away all the property found
there, took up its line of march toward the fork of the Licking, leaving
Bryant's and Lexington unmolested, except by marauding parties
of Indians, who drove away many horses from each place. The whole
expedition returned to Detroit by the way of the Great Miami, on the
banks of which, at the point where they commenced their land journey
toward Detroit, they concealed their artillery.

This incursion from Detroit aroused all the energies of Colonel Clarke.
He visited Richmond in December,[[1780]] and urged the Provincial
Assembly to furnish him with means to chastise the enemy for his
insolence. While there, Arnold invaded the state by

* Fort M'Intosh (as the redoubt was called) was erected under the
general superintendence of the Chevalier De Cambray, a French engineer,
who commanded the artillery in the western department. It was built of
strong stockades furnished with bastions, and mounted one six-pounder.
Cambray's chief officer was Captain William Sommerville, conductor of
the artillery, who, from letters front De Cambray to him (copies of
which are before me), appears to have been an officer of mueh merit.* He
was in the continental service four years and a half (more than two
of which as conductor of artillery, with the rank of captain), when
he resigned, and, at the close of the war, settled in the Valley of
Virginia, in Berkeley county, where he died about 1825. Like many of
the subordinate officers of merit connected with the artillery service
of the Revolution, Captain Sommerville has not received the attention
of the historian How many patriots of that struggle lie in forgotten
graves!

* The following extract from a letter of instruction, sent by Colonel
De Cambray to Captain Sommerville, and dated "Fort Pitt, 6th January,
1779," is a fair specimen of that officer's diction in English: "For
the supplies necessary to your department, you are to apply to the
quarter-master (Colonel Archibald Steele), and, in case of refusal, to
form your complaint against them. You must insist repeatedly for your
store-house to be put in order, to secure the military stores, who, if
continue to be neglected in three months more ought to be unfit for
service, if you insist, you shall not be accountable of it, but the
commanding officer. If I did omit something, I leave to your discretion
to supply it. I recommend to you once more the greatest care, and to be
very scrupulous on the orders of issuing, for to avoid, if possible, the
bad effects of the wasting genius who reign all over this department."

[[[Colonel Clarke in Virginia.--Made a Brigadier.--Battle at the Blue
Licks. The Indians subdued.]]]

{501}way of the James River, and Clarke took a temporary command under
Baron Steuben. He afterward succeeded in raising a considerable foree
for an expedition against Detroit, and the corps destined for the
service was ordered to rendezvous at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville),
on the fifteenth of March. [[1781]]Clarke was promoted to the rank of
a brigadier, and joined his troops at the appointed, time. Unexpected
difficulties arose.

Cornwallis was menacing all Virginia with desolation; the financial
resources of Congress were at their lowest point, and operations on the
western frontier were confined to defensive acts. Like a lion chained,
Clarke beheld the British and their forest allies lording it over the
chosen country of the pioneers, who were without strength sufficient
to drive them away, or hardly able to beat them back when they came
as assailants. Finally, the disastrous battle at the Blue Licks, which
spread a pall of gloom over Kentucky, aroused his desponding spirit, and
he raised a war-cry which awoke responsive echoes every where in that
deep forest land. * That battle was fought in August,[[Aug. 19, 1872]]
and in September, General Clarke, at the head of more than one thousand
mounted riflemen, assembled at the mouth of the Licking (opposite the
present city of Cincinnati), crossed the Ohio, and pressed forward to
the Indian towns on the Sciota. He was accompanied by Simon Kenton as
pilot, and who had command of a company on that occasion. The natives
fled before the invaders and eseaped; but five of their villages, and
numerous corn-fields and orchards, were laid waste. The Kentuckians
returned to the mouth of the Licking on the fourth of November.2 This
expedition had a salutary effect; it awed the savages, and no formidable
Indian war party ever afterward invaded Kentucky. For more than ten
years subsequently, the Indians on our northwestern frontier were
troublesome, and it was not until Wayne and a powerful force
desolated their country,[[1794]] and wrung from them a general treaty of
peace,[[1795]] that they ceased their depredations.

Let us return from the "dark and bloody ground" west of the Alleghanies,
and view the progress of events at Williamsburg and vicinity.

* The battle at the Blue Licks! in Nicholas county, Kentucky, occurred
on the nineteenth of August, 1782. For some time a strong body of
Indians, partially under the control of Simon Girty, had committed
depredations in the neighborhood, and it was finally resolved to pursue
and chastise them. Daniel Boone with a party from Boonsborough, Trigg
from Harrodsburgh, and Todd from Lexington, joined their forces at
Bryant's Station, about five miles northeast of Lexington. The little
army consisted of one hundred and eighty-two men. They marched on the
eighteenth, notwithstanding the number of the enemy was nearly twice
their own, but expecting to be joined by General Logan, then at Lincoln,
within twenty-four hours. Early on the following morning they came
within sight of the enemy at the lower Blue Licks, who were ascending
the opposite bank of the stream. The Kentuckians held a council of war,
and Boone proposed waiting for the arrival of Logan. They were generally
inclined to adopt the prudent council of the veteran, when Major M'Gary,
impetuous and imprudent like Meeker before the fatal battle of Minisink,
raised a war-whoop, dashed with his horse into the stream, and, waving
his hat, shouted, "Let all who are not cowards follow me!" Instantly
the mounted men and footmen were dashing through the strong current of
a deep ford in wild confusion. They ascended the bank and rushed forward
in pursuit of the enemy, and, as Boone had suggested, fell into an
ambuscade. The Indians, concealed in bushy ravines, almost surrounded
the Kentuckians, who stood upon a bald elevation between. The Kentucky
sharp-shooters fought like tigers, but the Indians, greatly superior
in numbers, came up from the ravines, closed in upon their victims, and
produced terrible slaughter. Most of the Kentucky leaders, including a
son of Daniel Boone, were killed, and utter destruction seemed to await
the pioneers. It was soon perceived that the Indians were extending
their line to cut off the retreat of the Kentuckians. A retrograde
movement was immediately ordered. A tumultuous retreat ensued, and great
was the slaughter by the pursuing Indians. The mounted men eseaped, but
nearly every man on foot was slain. A large number were killed at the
ford, and the waters of the river were reddened with the blood of the
victims. Those who succeeded in crossing the river plunged into
the buffalo thickets, and by various routes escaped to Bryant's
Station.--See M'Citing's Sketches of Western Adventure.

** It was while the expedition was slowly winding its way down this hill
above Cincinnati (then an unknown name, now a city with almost 120,000
inhabitants), that Captain M'Cracken, then dying from the effects of a
wound in his arm, proposed that they should all enter into an agreement
that, fifty years thereafter, the survivors should "meet there and talk
over the affairs of the campaign." On the fourth of November, 1832, many
of those veterans met in Cincinnati, and more would doubtless have been
there, had not the ravages of the cholera prevented. Kenton was still
living, but debility prevented his joining his old companions in
arms.--See Collins's Kentucky.

[[[Affairs at Williamsburg.--Patrick Henry's bold Resolutions in favor
of Military Preparations.--His eloquent Defense of them.]]]

{502}We left Governor Dunmore and the Virginia House of Burgesses in
open rupture. The governor had dissolved them, and they had assembled at
the Raleigh tavern in convention, and appointed delegates to represent
Virginia in the approaching General Congress. That Congress met; its
acts have elsewhere been noticed in detail. * The breach between the
governor and the people continued to widen; the affairs of Great Britain
and her American colonies rapidly approached a crisis. Every day the
power of royal governors became weaker; every day the representatives
of the people became bolder. To sagacious minds war appeared inevitable,
and preparations for it were regarded as acts of common prudence.

In the Virginia Legislature, convened at Richmond in March, 1775,
Patrick Henry, in a series of resolutions, recommended a levy of
volunteer troops in each county, for the better defense of the country;
in other words, a standing army of minute-men, pledged to the republican
cause. He had seen with impatience the temporizing spirit of his
colleagues, and he determined to test their courage and patriotism by a
bold proposition in' the form of resolutions. Like his famous Stamp Act
resolutions ten years before, these filled the House with consternation.
His proposition was considered as premeditated rebellion, and it was
opposed as rash and premature by several who afterward became his most
zealous co-workers. Opposition aroused all the fire of Henry's genius,
and he poured forth a flood of brilliant eloquence such as the Virginia
Assembly had never heard. [[March 23, 1775]] He closed his speech with
a loud cry of "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" and when he sat down,
not a murmur of applause or of disapprobation was heard. ** "After the
trance

* See pages 265-270 inclusive.

** Mr. Wirt, in his life of Patrick Henry, gives the following report of
his speech on that occasion. Referring to the apparently gracious manner
in which the king had received their petitions, he exclaimed: "Sutler
not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss. Ask yourselves how this
gracious reception comports with those warlike preparations which cover
our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a
work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to
be reconciled, that force must be called in to win us back to our love?
Let us not deceive ourselves, sir! These are the implements of war and
subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen,
what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to
submission? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world,
to call for all this accumulation of armies and navies? No, sir, she has
none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are
sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British
ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them?
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying argument for the
last ten years.... We have petitioned; we have supplicated; we
have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its
interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted: our remonstrances have
produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been
disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of
the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be
free; if we wish to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for
which we have been so long contending: if we mean not basely to abandon
the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we
have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of
our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must
fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us.
"They tell us, sir, that we are weak--unable to cope with so formidable
an enemy. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, or next
year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British
guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by
irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual
resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive
phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the
God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed
in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we
possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against
us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just
God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up
friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. And again,
we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too
late to retire from the contest. * There is no retreat but in submission
and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the
plains of Boston! The war is inevitable! and let it come!! I repeat it,
sir, let it come!!! It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen
may cry peace, peace; but there is no peaee! The war is actually begun!
The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the
clash of resounding arms!* Our brethren are already in the field! What
is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or
peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as
for me," he cried, with both arms extended aloft, his brow knit, every
feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and with his voice
swelled to its loudest note, 'Give me Liberty or give me Death!!!'"

* This prediction was speedily fulfilled; for almost "the next gale from
the north" conveyed the boom of the signal-gun of freedom at Lexington.

* The boldness of Mr. Henry, and the great influence whieh he exerted,
caused him to be presented to the British government in a bill of
attainder. His name, with that of Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph,
John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and several others, were on that
black list.

[[[Effect of Henry's Speech.--Seizure of Powder by Dunmore.--Patrick
Henry with a Military Force.--A Compromise.]]]

{503}of a moment," says Wirt, "several members started from their seats.
The cry _to arms!_ seemed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every
eye. Richard Henry Lee arose, and supported Mr. Henry with his usual
spirit and eloquence, but his melody was lost amid the agitations of
that ocean which the master spirit of the storm had lifted on high. That
supernatural voice still sounded in their ears, and shivered along their
arteries. They heard, in every pause, the cry of Liberty or Death! They
became impatient of speech--their souls were on fire for action." The
resolutions were adopted by a large majority.

During the spring of 1775, secret orders came from the British ministry
to the royal governors to remove the military stores out of the reach of
the colonists, if there should appear symptoms of rebellion. The attempt
by Governor Gage, of Boston, to execute their orders, produced the
conflicts at Lexington and Concord;[[April 19, 1775]] and a similar
attempt made by Governor Dunmore, on the very next day[[April 20]]
brought the Virginians out in open rebellion. The British man-of-war
_Magdalen_, Captain Collins, was lying at anchor in the York River, a
little below Williamsburg, and at midnight Dunmore had the powder in
the old magazine secretly removed to that vessel. The movement was
discovered, and at dawn the minute-men of Williamsburg assembled,
with their arms, and were with difficulty restrained from seizing the
governor. The people also assembled, and sent a respectful remonstrance
to Dunmore, complaining of the act as specially wrong at that time, when
a servile insurrection was apprehended. Dunmore made an evasive reply.
He pretended that he feared a slave insurrection in a neighboring
county, and said that in case a rising of the negroes in James City
county should occur, the powder should be restored. His reply was quite
unsatisfactory, and the people demanded the immediate surrender of the
ammunition. Patrick Henry was then at his home in Hanover county.
When intelligence of the movement reached him, he assembled a corps of
volunteers at New Castle, * and marched immediately for the Capitol to
secure the treasury from a like outrage, and to procure a restoration
of the powder. His corps augmented on its march, and numbered about
one hundred and fifty well-armed men when he arrived at Doncaster's
ordinary, within sixteen miles of the capital. There he was met by some
of the Virginia delegation to Congress, on their way to Philadelphia,
and was informed that his approach had frightened the governor. There he
also met Corbin, the receiver-general, who came with authority from the
governor to compromise the matter. Henry demanded and received the value
for the powder (three hundred and thirty pounds), and immediately
sent it to the treasury at Williamsburg. ** The volunteers were
disbanded,[[May 4, 1775]] and they returned to their homes. Henry
departed for Philadelphia a week afterward, he being a delegate to
Congress.

Dunmore was greatly irritated by the result, and menaced the people. He
swore by

* See page 431.

** All the arms and ammunition in the magazine were not sufficient to
cause a disturbance, for they were too small in amount to have been of
much service to either party. The amount of powder removed by Dunmore
was fifteen half barrels, containing fifty pounds each. In fact, it was
not the value of the powder, nor the harm that might result from its
removal, which probably induced Patrick Henry to summon to his standard
the volunteers of Hanover. He deemed it of higher importance that the
blow, which must be struck sooner or later, should be struck at
once, before an overwhelming royal force should enter the colony. The
Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, a Scotch gentleman, who visited this
country in 1836 (and in 1851 was married to a lady of New York,
since dead), is a lineal descendant of Lord Dunmore. In his published
narrative of his travels, he mentions, as a rather singular coincidence,
that when he went down the Chesapeake from Baltimore for the purpose
of visiting Williamsburg, the steam-boat that conveyed him was named
Patrick Henry.

[[[Dunmore's Oath.--General Excitement.--Proceedings of the
Assembly.--Attempt to Destroy the Magazine.--Dunmore's Flight.]]]

{504}the living God, that if any of his officers were injured, he would
raise the royal standard, enfranchise all the negroes, and, arming them
against their masters, lay the city of Williamsburg in ashes. He also
issued a proclamation[[May 6]] against "a certain Patrick Henry, of the
county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers," and forbade all
persons countenancing them in the least. He converted his palace into a
garrison, filled it with his adherents, and surrounded it with cannon.
The injudicious course of Dunmore, especially his savage threats and the
fortifying of his palace, greatly exasperated the people throughout
the colony. Six hundred inhabitants of the upper country, full armed,
assembled at Fredericksburg, and offered their services to defend the
Capitol against the governor. They were restrained from marching to
Williamsburg by the prudent advice of Randolph and Pendleton, who begged
them to remain quiet until the Continental Congress should adopt some
relative measure. * In every county committees of vigilance and safety
were formed, and at public meetings the conduct of Patrick Henry was
loudly applauded. Some of Dunmore's letters to ministers were brought
to light, and, like Governor Hutchinson on a similar account, he was
despised for the meanness which they exhibited. ** Dunmore unwittingly
raised a whirlwind which swept away every vestige of his power.

In the midst of the excitement, the governor unexpectedly convened the
Assembly.[[June 1]] His object was to obtain the approbation of the
Burgesses for a conciliatory plan proposed by Lord North. That plan was
as specious and deceptive as the king's gracious speech against which
Patrick Henry had warned them, and the Burgesses rejected it. *** While
the Assembly was in session, some inconsiderate young men attempted to
procure arms from the magazine,[[ June 5]] and one of them was wounded
by a spring gun, placed there by order of the governor. This event
exasperated the people, and a large concourse assembled, broke open
the magazine, and took away most of the arms. Leading members of the
Burgesses induced them to return them, and the next day the keys of the
magazine, by order of the governor, were delivered to the speaker of the
House. On examination, several barrels of powder were found under the
floor, evidently designed by Dunmore to blow up the magazine. This
discovery augmented the excitement, and when, on the seventh,[[June
1775]] a rumor prevailed that Captain Collins, of the Magdalen, had
slipped her cables, and was coming up the river with one hundred marines
in boats, the citizens flew to arms. The report was untrue, but the
readiness of the people to seize arms on every occasion of alarm, was a
lesson of deep import to Dunmore; and fearing personal violence, he left
Williamsburg, with his family, early on the morning of the eighth, and
proceeded to Yorktown, where he went on board the Fowey man-of-war. He
was the first royal representative who "abdicated government here."

From the Fowey, Lord Dunmore sent letters, messages, and addresses,
to the House of Burgesses, and received the same in return. They were
mutually spirited. Finally, when the necessary bills were passed, and
the House asked him to return to Williamsburg to sign them, at the same
time pledging their honor for the safety of his person, he refused, and
demanded that they should present themselves at his present residence
(the ship-of-war) for signature. Of course they would not comply, for
the demand was unwarrantable.

They then adjourned[[July 18]] until October, after having appointed a
committee of the del-

* They held a council on the receipt of this advice, and it was by a
majority of only one that they concluded to disperse. They sent forth
an address, which was tantamount to a declaration of independence. They
pledged themselves to resist by force of arms all tyranny, and by the
same to defend the laws, liberties, and rights of Virginia, or any
sister colony. The address was sent to the neighboring counties, and
read with approval at the head of each company of volunteers. In large
letters, at the bottom of the address were the words, God save the
Liberties of America!

** In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, Dunmore charged the colonists with a
desire to subvert the government, in order to avoid the payment of heavy
sums of money due to merchants in Great Britain. That some unprincipled
men were flaming patriots for such a purpose, there is no doubt, but it
was the rankest injustice to charge the whole people with such a motive.

*** "We examined it minutely," said the Burgesses in an address to the
governor; "we viewed it in every point of light in which we were able to
place it, and, with pain and disappointment, we must ultimately declare
it only changes the form of oppression, without lightening the burden."

[[[Military Preparations.--Dunmore at Norfolk.--New Government
planned.--Militia Organized.--Great Sea.]]]

{505}egates, as a permanent convention, to whom was intrusted the
unlimited powers of government. * That committee immediately took
measures to raise a sufficient armed force to defend the colony. **
Dunmore's flight, and this act of the people, terminated royal power in
Virginia.

Early in the autumn, the British fleet, with Dunmore, proceeded to
Norfolk, where his lordship established his head-quarters and put his
threat of hostility into execution. He unfurled the royal ensign from
the Fowey, and proclaimed freedom to all the slaves who should repair
to it and bear arms for the king.[[Nov 7, 1775]] He also issued a
proclamation declaring martial law throughout Virginia, and in various
ways assumed an attitude of deadly hostility to the colony. The result
we shall consider presently.

The Virginia committee of safety exercised its delegated powers with
industry and energy. Having provided for the military defense of the
colony, its attention was directed to a new organization of government.

[Illustration: 9515]

Elections were held throughout the state, and on the sixth of May
following,[[1776]] a general convention of delegates assembled at
Williamsburg. *** The old House of Burgesses also met on the same day,
but as they had not been summoned by a governor, they conceived that
they could not act legally, and accordingly dissolved themselves.
With that dissolution passed away forever the forms of royal rule in
Virginia, and the convention exercised all the functions of government.
By resolution, the delegates of Virginia in the Continental Congress,
were instructed to propose a total separation from Great Britain.[[May
15, 1776]] The convention also appointed a committee to prepare a
_Declaration of Rights,_ and a _plan of government_ for the colony.
The former was adopted on the twelfth of June, and the latter on the
twenty-ninth. ****

[Illustration: 8515]

On the fifth of July, it was decreed that the name of the king should
henceforth be suppressed in all the public prayers, and the Church
Liturgy was altered accordingly. It was also ordained that the great
seal of the commonwealth should be changed, upon which Virtue should be
represented as the tutelar genius of the province, robed in the drapery
of an Amazon, resting one hand upon her lance, and holding a naked sword
in the other; trampling upon tyranny, under the figure of a prostrate
man, having near him a crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one
hand a broken chain, and in the other

* The following-named gentlemen composed the committee of safety, Edmund
Pendleton, George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee,
Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, James Mercer, Carter Braxton, William
Cabell, and John Tabb.

** The convention appointed Patrick Henry colonel of the first regiment,
and "commander of all the forces raised and to be raised for the defense
of the colony." He immediately summoned corps of volunteers from various
parts of the colony. Three hundred minute-men instantly assembled at
Culpepper Court House, and marched for Williamsburg. One third of them
were Culpepper men, who adopted a flag with the significant device of a
coiled rattle-snake, * seen in the engraving. They were dressed in green
hunting shirts, with Henry's words, Liberty or Death, in large white
letters, on their bosoms. They had bucks' tails in their hats, and
in their belts tomahawks and scalping-knives. Their fierce appearance
alarmed the people as they marched through the country. They did good
service in the battle at the Great Bridge in December following. William
Woodford was appointed to the command of the second regiment. Alexander
Spottswood was appointed major, and the heroic Captain Bullit, who had
distinguished himself at Fort Duquesne, was made adjutant general.

*** Edmund Pendleton was chosen president, and John Tazewell, clerk.
Patrick Henry, who, to the great regret of the Virginians, had resigned
his military commission, was elected a member of the convention for
Hanover county, and took his seat on the first day of the meeting.

**** These documents were drawn by George Mason, the friend and
associate of Washington. Mr. Jefferson then a member of the Continental
Congress, also prepared a constitution and sent it to the Convention. It
arrived a day or two after the adoption of Mason's form. The convention
prefixed Jefferson's preamble to it, which, in a great degree, resembles
the Declaration of Independence.--See Tucker's Life of Jefferson.

* This device was upon many flags in the army and navy of the
Revolution. The expression "Don't tread on me," had a double
signification It might be said in a supplicating tone, "Don't tread on
me or menacingly, "Don't tread on me."

[[[Declaration of Independence proclaimed at Williamsburg.--Officers
under the new Government.--Freneau's Prophecy]]]

{506}a scourge. Over the device was placed the word Virginia; and
beneath, Sic semper tyrannis. "Thus we serve tyrants." * The convention
adjourned on the fifth of July, and the government under the new
Constitution was established. **

The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed at Williamsburg on the
twenty-fifth of July, amid great rejoicings, and from that time until
1779, when the government offices were removed to Richmond, the
old Capitol of the commonwealth for eighty years, was the center of
Revolutionary energy in Virginia.

Here let us close the chronicle and depart for Yorktown, the scene of
the last great triumph of the patriot armies of the Revolution.

* The device on the reverse of the great seal is a group of three
figures. In the center is Liberty, with her wand and cap; on the right
side, Ceres, with a cornucopia in one hand, and an ear of wheat in the
other; and on her left side, Eternity, holding in one hand the globe on
which rests the Phoenix.

** The following-named gentlemen were appointed to fill the respective
offices provided for by the Constitution: Patrick Henry, governor;
John Page, Dudley Digges, John Taylor, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of
Berkeley, Bartholomew Dandridge, Charles Carter, and Benjamin Harrison
of Brandon, counselors of state; Thomas Whiting, John Hutchings,
Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, Jr., and George Webb, commissioners of
admiralty; Thomas Everard, and James Cooke, commissioners for settling
accounts; and Edmund Randolph, attorney general. The General Assembly
of Virginia met at Williamsburg for the first time on the seventeenth of
October, 1776. Then commenced her glorious career as a sovereign state
of a "great and free confederacy. It was a joyful day for her patriot
sons; and her sages, scanning the future with the eye of faith and hope,
were prone to exclaim, in the words of Freneau, written a year before:

     "I see, I see
     Freedom's established reign; cities and men,
     Numerous as sands upon the ocean shore,
     And empires rising where the sun descends!
     The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town
     Of note; and where the Mississippi's stream,
     By forests shaded, now runs sweeping on,
     Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame
     Than Greece and Rome of old!
     We, too, shall boast
     Our Scipio's, Solon's, Cato's, sages, chiefs
     That in the lapse of time yet dormant lie,
     Waiting the joyous hour of life and light.
     Oh snatch me hence, ye muses, to those days
     When, through the veil of dark antiquity,
     A race shall hear of us as things remote,
     That blossom'd in the morn of days!"


[[[Ride to Yorktown.--William Nelson, Esq.--Location and Appearance of
Yorktown.--Its early Settlement]]]

{507}




CHAPTER XX.


```Again to fair Virginia's coast

```I turned, and view'd the British host

```Where Chesapeake's wide waters lave

```Her shores and join the Atlantic wave.

```There famed Cornwallis towering rose,

```And scorned, secure, his distant foes;

```His bands the haughty ramparts raise,

```And bid the royal standard blaze.

```When lo, where ocean's bounds extend,

```Behold the Gallic sails ascend,

```With fav'ring breezes steer their way,

```And crowd with ships the spacious bay.

```Lo! Washington from northern shores,

```O'er many a region wheels his force,

```And Rochambeau with legions bright

```Descends in terror to the fight.

`````John Trumbull.=

[Illustration: 9517]

VENING was approaching when I left Williamsburg for Yorktown, twelve
miles distant. It was an exceedingly pleasant afternoon, so mild,
that wild flowers peeped eautiously from the hedges, and a wasp and a
grasshopper alighted on the splash-board of my wagon, while stopping on
the margin of a clear stream. Soon after leaving Williamsburg, the road
entered a pine forest; and all the way to Yorktown these solitudes form
the principal feature in the landscape. The country is quite level, and
the cultivated clearings are more frequent and extensive than further
up toward the Chickahominy. The green foliage of the lofty pines, of
the modest holly, and the spreading laurel, made the forest journey less
gloomy than it would otherwise have been; for the verdure, the balmy
air, and the occasional note of a bird, made me forget that the
Christmas holidays were near at hand, and that the mountains of New
England were probably white with snow.

I arrived at Yorktown at twilight,[[Dec. 20, 1848]] and passed the night
at the only inn in the plaee, whieh is owned by William Nelson,
Esq., grandson of Governor Thomas Nelson, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. To the kindness and intelligence of that
gentleman, I am indebted for much of the pleasure and profit of my visit
there. We supped together upon far-famed York River oysters just brought
from their oozy bed, and it was near midnight before we parted company.
Mr. Nelson resides in the fine old mansion which belonged to his
grandfather, and which yet bears marks of the iron hail poured upon it
during the siege of Yorktown.

Early the next morning I strolled over the village. It is situated upon
a high bluff of concrete or stone marl, covered with a sandy soil, on
the south side of the York River, about eleven miles from its mouth. The
peninsula on whieh the town stands is level, and is embraced upon eaeh
side by deep ravines, whieh almost meet in the rear. The ground is the
highest upon either the York or James Rivers, below Richmond. Being the
shire town of the county, it contains the publie buildings. * These,
with about forty dwellings, some of them decaying, compose the village,
which formerly was one of the most flourishing towns

* York is one of the original counties into which Virginia was divided
in 1634. The village was established by law in 1705, and for a long time
vied with Williamsburg, the capital. The average width of the river is
here nearly two miles, but is narrowed to a mile opposite Yorktown, by
the projecting cape on which Gloucester stands. The latter village was
once a thriving place. It had considerable commerce, but, like Yorktown,
the depreciation of the surrounding country for agricultural purposes
paralyzed its enterprise, and made busy the fingers of decay.

[[[Old Church at Yorktown--The Nelson Tombs.--Cornwallis's Cave.--An
Imposition]]]

{508}on the peninsula. It contained about sixty houses at the time of
the siege in 1781. A fire which occurred in 1814 destroyed much property
there, and from that blow the village seems never to have recovered.

[Illustration: 8518]

At that time its old church, built a century and a half before, was
destroyed; nothing but its stone-marl walls were left standing. In
this picturesque condition it remained for thirty years, when it
was repaired, and is now used as a place of worship. In the old
burial-ground adjoining it are the tombs and monuments of the Nelson
family, situated a few yards from the banks of the York. The nearer one
in the engraving, which stands over the grave of the first emigrant of
the family (who was called "Scotch Tom"), although mutilated, is yet
highly ornamental.

[Illustration: 9518]

It is about four feet high, three feet wide, and six feet long. Upon one
end are sculptured two angel-heads breaking from the clouds.

Over the upper one are the words, "All glory be to God."

The one below it is blowing On the other end are two heads, one of which
is about receiving a crown. On the side is an heraldic cloth, with the
head of an angel at the center of the top; and on the top slab is the
Nelson coat of arms, with an appropriate epitaph. This monument is of
white marble, and was made in London. The second monument is that
of president William Nelson. It is built of brick, with a handsomely
wrought and inscribed marble slab on the top. In a vault at the end
of the fragment of the brick wall seen beyond the monuments, rest the
remains of Governor Nelson, the signer of the Declaration. There is no
monument above it, and nothing marks the spot but a rough stone lying
among the rank grass. Around these are strewn fragments of the stone
marl of the old church wall, beautifully crystallized, and indurated by
exposure. The view from this point is very charming, looking out upon
the York stretching away toward the broad Chesapeake, and skirted by
woodlands and cultivated fields.

After breakfast, accompanied by Mr. Nelson in his carriage, I visited
the several localities which make Yorktown historically famous. We first
descended the river bank and, visited the excavation in the marl bluff,
known as Cornwallis's Cave.

It is square, twelve by eighteen feet in size, with a narrow passage
leading to a smaller circular excavation on one side. It is almost
directly beneath the termination of the trench and breastworks of the
British fortifications, which are yet very prominent upon the bank
above. Popular tradition says that this excavation was made by order of
Cornwallis, and used by him for the purpose of holding councils with
his officers in a place of safety, during the siege. Taking advantage of
this tradition, cupidity has placed a door at the entrance, secured it
by lock and key, and demands a Virginia ninepence (12 1/2 cents) they
paid the penalty of curiosity, knowing that I was submit-

* This view is from the burial-ground looking down the York River toward
Chesapeake Bay. The inscription upon the first monument is in Latin;
the following is a translation of it: "Here lies, in certain hope of a
resurrection in Christ, Thomas Nelson, gentleman, son of Hugo and Sarah
Nelson, of Penrith, in the county of Cumberland; born February 20th,
A.D. 1677, died October 7th, 1745, aged sixty-eight years." The
inscription upon the second monument is much longer, and quite
eulogistic. William Nelson was president of his majesty's council in
Virginia, and died on the nineteenth of November, 1772, at the age of
sixty-one years. No epitaph tells of the many virtues and heroic deeds
of him who lies in the obscure vault beyond. History has written them
upon the enduring pages of the chronicles of our republic; and in this
work his biography and portrait may be found among those of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence.


[[[Present Appearance of the British Works.--American and French
Armies--Morris and Peters.--Change in Plan of Operations,]]]

{509}ting to imposition, for I was assured, on the authority of an
old lady who resided at Yorktown at the time of the siege, that
this excavation was made by some of the people wherein to hide their
valuables. A house stood directly in front of it, the foundation of
which is yet there. The building made the spot still more secluded.

[Illustration: 9519]

A quarter of a mile below Lord Cornwallis _did_ have an excavation in
the bank, which was lined with green baize and used by the general for
secret conferences during the siege. No traces of his council chamber
are left.

We next visited the lines of intrenchments cast up by the British on the
south side.

A letter from De Grasse announcing his intention to remain in the West
Indies, and another from La Fayette from Williamsburg, informing him
of the departure of Cornwallis for Portsmouth and the embarkation of a
large portion of his army for New York, were the principal causes which
influenced Washington in making an entire change in the programme of the
operations of the combined armies during the remainder of the campaign.
**

* This view is from the fields in the direction of the American works,
looking north. Toward the left is seen a portion of Governor Nelson's
house, and on the extreme left, a few other houses in Yorktown appear.

** It is related that when Washington received the letter from De
Grasse, Robert Morris, the superintendent of finance, and Richard
Peters, the secretary of the board of war, were at the head-quarters
of the general in the Livingston House, printed on page 195, and were
present.* Washington was bitterly disappointed, for he saw no fair hope
of success without the aid of a fleet. The cloud upon his brow was but
for a moment. He instantly conceived the expedition to Virginia, and,
turning to Judge Peters, asked. "What can you do for me?" "With money,
every thing; without it, nothing," was his brief reply, at the same time
turning an anxious look toward Morris. "Let me know the sum you desire,"
said the patriot financier, comprehending the expression of his eye.
Before noon, Washington completed his estimates, and arrangements were
made with Morris for the funds. Twenty thousand hard dollars were loaned
from Count De Rochambeau, which Mr. Morris agreed to replace by the
first of October. The arrival of Colonel Laurens from France, on the
twenty-fifth of August, with two millions and a half of livers, a
part of a donation of six millions by Louis XVI. to the United States,
enabled the superintendent of finance to fulfill his engagement without
difficulty.

* These gentlemen were appointed commissioners by Congress to proceed to
head-quarters, and consult the commander-inchief respecting the army for
the ensuing campaign. The basis of a scheme which they proposed was a
reduction of the army.--Sparks, viii., 142.

[[[Cornwallis ordered to the Chesapeake.--Takes Post at Yorktown and
Gloucester, and Fortifies them.--Sketch of Cornwallis.]]]

{510}As we have observed (page 213), the allies crossed the Hudson and
marched southward to co-operate with La Fayette in Virginia.

On the arrival of nearly three thousand troops, many of them Hessians,
to re-enforce him in New York,[[Aug 11, 1781]] Sir Henry Clinton
countermanded his orders in which he had directed Cornwallis to send a
portion of his army northward. The letter reached the Earl at Portsmouth
before the transports left Hampton Roads! It also contained exclamations
of surprise that his lordship should have left the vicinity of
Williamsburg without informing his commander-in-chief; and he was
directed to take some strong position.

The marquis did not feel sufficiently strong to attack Cornwallis, and
the tatter was unwilling to impede the progress in fortifying Yorktown,
by engaging his troops in other enterprises.

While Washington was uncertain what course to pursue, he received
dispatches from Count De Barras, *** the successor of Ternay at Newport,
bearing the agreeable intelligence

* Charles Cornwallis, son of the first Earl of Cornwallis, was born at
Culford Hall, in Suffolk, in 1738. He was educated at Westminster
and St. John's College, Cambridge. He entered the army in 1759, and
succeeded to the title and estates of his father in 1761. He was the
most competent and energetic of all the British generals sent here
during the war, but the cruelties exercised by his orders at times,
during the southern campaigns, have left an indelible stain upon his
character. Soon after the close of the war, he was appointed Governor
General of the East Indies, which office he held six years. During that
time he conquered the renowned Tippoo Sultan, for which service he
was created a marquis, and made master of the ordnance. He was Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland from 1798 to 1801, and was instrumental in
restoring peace to that country, then distracted by rebellion. He signed
the treaty of Amiens in 1802, and in 1804 was again appointed Governor
General of India. He died in October the succeeding year at Ghazepore,
in the province of Benares, at the age of sixty-seven years.--See
Georgian Era, London, 1833.

** The works, which surrounded the village, consisted of seven redoubts
and six batteries on the land side, connected by intrenchments. On the
river bank was also a line of batteries; one near the church was a grand
battery, with eleven pieces of cannon, which commanded the passage of
the river between York and Gloucester. The outworks consisted of three
redoubts on the margin of the ravine, southwest of the town, one a
little eastward of the road to Hampton, two on the extreme right, near
the river, and the fusileers' redoubt on the extreme left, near the
river. Cornwallis's head-quarters were at the house of Governor Nelson.

*** Barras, in his dispatches to Washington, said, that as the Count
De Grasse did not require him to form a junction with his fleet in the
Chesapeake, but left him at liberty to undertake any other enterprise,
he proposed an expedition against Newfoundland, and expressed a desire
to take with him the land forces which had been left at Newport under
M. De Choisé. Both Washington and De Rochambeau disapproved of this
proposition, and, as soon as he received their remonstrance against it,
Barras resolved to proceed to the Chesapeake.

[[[Southern Campaign.--De Grasse in the Chesapeake.--Sketch of De
Grasse.--Cornwallis's Attempt to Escape into Carolina.]]]

{511}that the Count De Grasse * was to sail from Cape François, in
the West Indies, on the thirteenth of August for the Chesapeake, with
between twenty-five and twenty-nine sail of the line, and three thousand
two hundred land troops under the command of the Marquis St. Simon.

[Illustration: 9521]

De Grasse desired every thing to be in readiness to commence operations
when he should arrive, for he intended to return to the West Indies
by the middle of October ** The plan of the southern campaign was,
therefore,, speedily arranged, and, as we have seen, the allied armies
were far on their march toward the head of Elk before Sir Henry Clinton
was assured of their real destination. ***

The Count De Grasse, with twenty-eight ships and several brigades,
arrived in the Chesapeake at the close of August.[[Aug. 31, 1781]]

[Illustration: 8521]

At Cape Henry, an officer sent by La Fayette gave De Grasse full
information respecting the situation of the two armies in Virginia.
De Grasse immediately dispatched four ships of the line and several
frigates to blockade the mouth of the York River, and to convey the land
forces commanded by the Marquis De St. Simon (for portrait, see next
page), who were destined to join those of La Fayette on the James River.
**** Cornwallis' now perceived the imminent peril that surrounded him,
and conceived a plan for escaping into North Carolina, but the vigilance
of La Fayette prevented his attempting the movement. (v) He could
console himself only with the hope that Sir Henry Clinton would send him
timely aid.

* François Joseph Paul, Count De Grasse, a native of France, was born in
1723. He was appointed to command a French fleet, to co-operate with
the Americans at the beginning of 1781. Although he was the junior in
service of Count De Barras, he was made his superior in command, with
the title of lieutenant general. His co-operation was much more
valuable to the Americans than that of D'Estaing; and in the capture of
Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown, he played a very important part.
His domestic relations seem to have been very unhappy; his second wife,
whom he married after leaving America, proving a very unworthy woman.
His life was a burden to him, particularly after losing the favor of his
king in consequence of an unfortunate military movement. He died early
in 1788, at the age of sixty-five years. Alluding to the unhappiness of
his latter days, Washington, in a letter to Rochambeau, April, 1778, on
hearing of the death of De Grasse, said, "His frailties should now be
buried in the grave with him, while his name will be long deservedly
dear to this country, on account of his successful co-operation in the
glorious campaign of 1781. The Cincinnati in some of the states have
gone into mourning for him."

** The land troops for this expedition were borrowed from the garrison
at St. Domingo, and consisted of detachments from the regiments of
Gatinois, Agenois, and Tourraine. There were one hundred artillery, one
hundred dragoons, ten pieces of field ordnance, and several of siege
artillery and mortars. De Grasse promised to return these troops by the
middle of October.

*** See page 214.

**** The distance between the York and the James River, at Yorktown, is
only about six miles, and this gave the Americans a great advantage in
the siege that ensued.

* (v) A Jerseyman named Morgan was for some time employed as a spy
in the British camp at Yorktown, by La Fayette. He pretended to be a
deserter, and enlisted in the army of Cornwallis. On one occasion that
general inquired of Morgan whether La Fayette had many boats. Morgan,
according to instructions, told him the marquis had enough to transport
his whole army across at a moment's warning. "There!" exclaimed
Cornwallis, turning to Tarleton, "I told you this would not do." That
expression was an evidence that escape across the James River had been
contemplated. Morgan could not be prevailed upon to accept money for
his services in La Fayette's behalf, neither would he receive office.
He only desired a favorite gun to be restored to him. Morgan said he
believed himself to be a good soldier, but he was not certain that
he would make a good officer. These circumstances were related to Mr.
Sparks by La Fayette himself, fifty years after their occurrence.

[[[Admirals Hood and Graves proceed against the French Fleet.--Naval
Battle off the Virginia Capes.--French Squadron.]]]

{512}Admiral Rodney, commander of the British fleet in the West Indies,
at this time was aware that De Grasse had sailed for the American coast,
but seems not to have suspected that his whole fleet would proceed to
the Continent.

[Illustration: 9522]

He dispatched Sir Samuel Hood after him with only fourteen sail,
believing that that number would be quite sufficient to compete with
the French squadron. Hood arrived at Sandy Hook on the twenty-eighth of
August, and informed Admiral Graves, the successor of Arbuthnot, who was
lying in New York Bay with seven ships of the line, only five of which
were fit for service, that De Grasse was probably on the Virginia coast.
Intelligence was received on the same day, that De Barras had sailed
for the Chesapeake from Newport with a considerable squadron. Graves
immediately prepared for sea, with the whole fleet, consisting of
nineteen sail

of the line, proceeded in quest of the French.[[Aug. 31]]Not suspecting
the strength of De Grasse, he hoped to fall in with one or the other of
the French squadrons and defeat it.

The French fleet lay in Lynn Haven Bay, just within the Chesapeake, near
Cape Henry, to sea, desiring more room for conflict than the waters of
the Chesapeake afforded. Admiral Graves bore down upon De Grasse,
and both fleets, in attempting to gain the weather gage, slowly moved
eastward, clear of the Capes, upon the broad Atlantic. At four o'clock
in the afternoon, a partial action commenced between the van and part of
the center of the two fleets, and continued until sunset. Several ships
were considerably damaged, but neither commander could claim a victory.
Admiral Graves preserved the weather gage during the night, and intended
to have renewed the battle on the following morning; but, having
ascertained that several ships of the van division, under Admiral Drake,
could not safely be brought into action again without being repaired, he
deferred an attack. For five successive days the hostile fleets were in
sight of each other, sometimes approaching quite near, but neither party
seemed desirous of renewing the contest. At length the Count De Grasse
bore away for the Chesapeake, and anchored again in Lynn Haven Bay,
within the Capes.[[Sept. 10]] There he found De Barras with his
squadron, and a considerable land force under M. Choise (for portrait,
see opposite page), together with fourteen transports, with heavy
artillery and military stores suitable for carrying on a siege. Graves
approached the Capes of the Chesapeake, but, finding the entrance
blocked up by a force with which he was unable to contend with a hope
of success, he bore away and returned on the morning of the fifth
of September.[[1781]] At sunrise the British fleet was seen off Cape
Charles.

[Illustration: 8522]

At first Count De Grasse supposed it to be the squadron of De Barras,
but being soon undeceived, he prepared for battle. The wind was fair,
and the British fleet sailed directly within the Capes for the purpose
of attacking the French. De Grasse slipped his cables, and put

* The portraits of the French officers given in this chapter I copied
from Trumbull's picture in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington,
representing the surrender of Cornwallis. Trumbull painted the most of
them from life in 1787, at the house of Mr. Jefferson, in Paris, when
that statesman was minister there.

[[[Loss in the Naval Action.--March of the Allied Armies.--Arrival of
Washington and French Officers at Williamsburg.]]]

{513}to New York, for he began to entertain greater fears of the
equinoctial gales on the coast than of the guns of the French ships
of the line. The French lost in the action two hundred and twenty men,
including four officers killed and eighteen wounded.

[Illustration: 8523]

The English lost ninety killed, and two hundred and forty-six wounded.
The _Terrible,_ one of the English ships, was so much damaged, that,
after taking out her prisoners and stores, they set fire to and burned
her. *

While these events were occurring on the Virginia coast, the allied
armies were making their way southward with all possible dispatch, and
Sir Henry Clinton, certified of their destination, ** was trying to
divert their attention from the South, and recall some of their forces
by menacing movements at the North.

[Illustration: 9523]

He sent Arnold with a strong force to attack New London, an event which
we have considered on pages 42 and 45 inclusive. He also threatened New
Jersey, and caused a rumor to go abroad that he was about to proceed
with a strong force against the American posts in the Hudson Highlands,
which Washington had left in charge of General Heath, with fourteen
regiments. These movements and rumors failed to produce their desired
effect; and the outrages committed by Arnold at New London and vicinity
served only to heighten the exasperation of the patriot army, and nerve
it to more vigorous action.

When the allied forces arrived at the head of Elk there were not vessels
sufficient to transport them, and a large portion of the American
troops, and all of the French, made their way to Baltimore and Annapolis
by land. Washington, with Count De Rochambeau and the Marquis De
Chastellux, *** reached Baltimore on the eighth,[[Sept. 1781]] Mount
Vernon on the tenth, **** and Williamsburg on the evening of the
fourteenth. He had ordered the troops that were embarked on the
Chesapeake to halt, after learning that the fleet

* Marshall, i., 448. Stedman, ii., 398-401. Ramsay, Gordon, Rochambeau's
Memoirs.

** Sir Henry seems not to have suspected the destination of the allies
until the second of September, on which day he wrote to Cornwallis, and
expressed his belief that they were marching toward Virginia.

*** Francis John, Marquis De Chastelieux, came to America with
Rochambeau, hearing the title of major general. He traveled extensively
while here, and wrote a journal of his tour. A large portion of it was
printed on board one of the ships of the French fleet, before leaving
America. Only twenty-four copies were printed for distribution among his
most intimate friends. The complete work was translated by an English
traveler from the original manuscript, and published in London, with
maps and drawings, in 1787. On his return to France, the king made De
Chastellux a field-marshal, and the French Academy elected him one of
its members. At the close of 1787, he married an accomplished lady, a
relative of the Duke of Orleans. This circumstance he communicated to
Washington, who, in a playful letter (April, 1788) in reply, said, "I
saw, by the eulogium you often made on the happiness of domestic life in
America, that you had swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely
be taken, one day or another, as that you were a philosopher and a
soldier. So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my
heart and soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served
for coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across
the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic
felicity, which, like the small-pox or plague a man can have only once
in his life." De Chastellux died in 1793. The fortune of himself
and wife seems to have been swept away by the storm of the French
Revolution, for in 1795 his widow made application to Washington, asking
for an allowance from our government to her and her infant son, on
account of the services of her husband. The application was unavailing.

**** This was the first time that Washington had visited his home since
he left it to attend the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in 1775,
a period of six years and five months: and he now remained there only
long enough to await the arrival of Count De Rochambeau, whom he left at
Baltimore.

[[[Arrival of Troops at Williamsburg.--Washington's first Interview with
De Grasse.--Approach of the Allied Armies.]]]

{514}of De Grasse had left the Capes to fight Graves, but when he
arrived at Williamsburg and found both French fleets in the Chesapeake,
* he sent Count Fersen, one of Rochambeau's aids, with ten transports
from Barras's squadron, to hasten the troops forward.

[Illustration: 9524]

This was speedily accomplished, and the forces at the head of Elk, and
at Annapolis, proceeded by water to the James River.

On the seventeenth, [[Sept]]Washington, accompanied by Rochambeau, De
Chastellux, and Generals Knox and Du Portail, proceeded to visit De
Grasse on board of his flag-ship, the _Ville de Park_, lying off Cape
Henry. They sailed in a small vessel called the _Queen Charlotte_, and
arrived on the eighteenth. Satisfactory arrangements were made for an
immediate attack upon Cornwallis, as soon as the American troops should
reach Williamsburg. **

[Illustration: 8524]

While awaiting their approach, information was received that Admiral
Digby, with six ships of the line, had arrived at New York as a
re-enforcement for Graves. Confident that nothing would be left untried
in attempts to relieve Cornwallis, and thinking his situation in the
Chesapeake unfavorable for an engagement with the augmented force of the
English, now nearly equal to that of his own. De Grasse communicated to
Washington his intention to leave a few frigates to blockade the York
and James Rivers, and to put to sea with his ships of the line in quest
of the British. This communication alarmed Washington, for a superior
naval force might enter the Chesapeake in the mean while, and assist
Cornwallis in making his escape.

He prevailed upon De Grasse to remain, and on the twenty-fifth, the last
division of the allied troops having reached Williamsburg, preparations
for the siege commenced.

Cornwallis, with the main division of his army, occupied Yorktown. The
main body of his troops were encamped on the open grounds in the rear of
the town.

Lieutenant-colonel Dundas, who did good service at Jamestown,
occupied Gloucester, with about seven hundred men, and was joined by
Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton and his legion when the siege commenced. The
Duke De Lauzun with his legion, the marines from the squadron of Barras,
and a brigade of Virginia militia under General Weeden * the whole
commanded by the French General De Choisé, were sent to arrest
Gloucester.

On the morning of the twenty-eighth, the combined armies, about twelve
thousand strong, left Williamsburg by different roads, and marched
toward Yorktown. On their approach, the British left their field-works,
and withdrew to those near the town, the remains of which are mentioned
on a preceding page." The American light infantry and a considerable
body

* Count De Grasse, anxious to accomplish the object of his expedition,
and impatient at the delay of the allied armies, had urged La Fayette
to co-operate with him in an attack, by land and water, upon York
and Gloucester. But the marquis, governed by more prudent counsels,
unwilling to hazard the advantage he possessed, refused to make any
offensive movement before the arrival of Washington.

** De Grasse refused to comply with the desire of Washington, that he
should ascend the river above Yorktown with a few of his vessels. He was
unwilling to risk a blockade in so narrow a space.

*** For a sketch of Lauzun, see page 34.

**** Intelligence from General Clinton at New York induced Cornwallis
thus to abandon his field-works, without an attempt to defend them. In
his letter, Clinton informed him of the arrival of Digby, and that at
a council of officers it was determined to send at least five thousand
troops with the fleet to relieve him, and that they would sail as early
as the sixth. Cornwallis, therefore, withdrew within his interior works,
confident that he could hold out there, and keep possession of both
Yorktown and Gloucester, until the arrival of these re-enforcements.
Just four years before, Burgoyne received like assurances from Clinton,
but was disappointed. Had he not expected aid, he could have retreated
back to Lake Champlain in time to have saved his army; had not
Cornwallis expected promised aid from Clinton, he might possibly
have escaped into North Carolina, notwithstanding the vigilance of La
Fayette.

[[[Death of Colonel Scammell.--Yorktown and Gloucester
invested.--General Arrangements of the Land and Naval Forces.]]]

{515}of French troops were ordered to take possession of these abandoned
works, and to serve as a covering party for the troops while digging
trenches and casting up breast-works. Cannonading from the town, and one
or two sorties, occurred during the day. Colonel Alexander Scamnell,
* the officer of the day, while reconnoitering near the Fusileers'
redoubt (A), situated upon the river bank, at the mouth of a little
stream on the extreme left, was surprised by two or three Hessian
horsemen.

[Illustration: 8525]

He surrendered, but they shot him, and left him for dead. He was carried
into Yorktown, and at the request of Washington, Cornwallis allowed him
to be taken to Williamsburg. This circumstance is mentioned on page 430,
volume i. I visited the site of the redoubt represented in the sketch,
and was informed that Colonel Scammell was killed near the stream, which
there crosses the river road from Williamsburg to Yorktown.

On the thirtieth the place was completely invested by the allied armies,
their line extending in a semicircle, at a distance of nearly two miles
from the British works, each wing resting upon the York River. The
French troops occupied the left, the Americans the right, while Count De
Grasse with his fleet remained in Lynn Haven Bay, to beat off any naval
force which might come to the aid of Cornwallis. On the extreme left of
the besieging army were the West India regiments under St. Simon, and
next to them were the French light infantry regiments, commanded by
the Baron and the Viscount Viomenil. The most distinguished colonels of
these regiments were the Duke De Laval Montmorenci, and Counts William
Deuxponts and Custine. (For portraits, see next page.) The French
artillery and the quarters of the two chiefs occupied the center; and
on the right, across a marsh, were the American artillery under General
Knox, assisted by Colonel Lamb, Lieu-

[Illustration: 7525]

* Alexander Seammell was born in Menden (now Milford), Massachusetts,
and graduated at Harvard College in 1769. He studied law with General
Sullivan, assisted Captain Holland In his surveys for the map of New
Hampshire, and in 1775 was appointed brigade major in the militia of
that state. He was appointed colonel in 1776, and in that capacity
fought nobly, and was wounded in the first battle at Stillwater. In
1780, he was appointed adjutant general of the American army, and was
a very popular officer. He was shot while reeonnoitering a redoubt
at Yorktown, on the thirtieth of September, 1781. He was conveyed to
Williamsburg, where he died of his wounds on the sixth of October. His
friend, Colonel Humphreys, who took the command of his regiment, wrote
the following epitaph on the day after the surrender of Cornwallis:
_"Alexander Scammell, adjutant general of the American armies, and
colonel of the first regiment of New Hampshire, while he commanded a
chosen corps of light infantry at the successful siege of Yorktown, in
Virginia, was, in the gallant performance of his duty as field
officer of the day, unfortunately captured, and afterward insidiously
wounded--of which wound he expired at Williamsburg, October, 1781. Anno
Ætatis."_ The elegiac lines appended to this epitaph are printed on page
431, volume i., of this work.

[[[French Officers.--Biographical Sketch of Lieutenant-colonel
Stevens]]]

{516}tenant-colonels Stevens * and Carrington, and Major Bauman ** the
Virginian, Maryland,

[Illustration: 0526]

* The history of the services of several most meritorious officers of
the Revolution is only partially written; this is especially true of
those of Lieutenant-colonel Stevens of the artillery, who was a most
efficient and patriotic officer from the commencement of the war to its
close.

* Ebenezer Stevens was born in Boston in 1752, and at an early age
became strongly imbued with the principles of the Sons of Liberty. He
was engaged in the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, in December,
1773 (see list of names, volume i., p. 499), and, anticipating evil
consequences to himself, he went to Rhode Island to reside. When that
province, after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, sent an army
of observation to Roxbury (see page 24), young Stevens received a
commission as lieutenant, which bears date May eighth, 1775. His skill
was soon perceived by Gridley and Knox, and early in December of that
year, he was directed by General Washington to raise two companies of
artillery, and one of artificers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
and proceed to join the expedition against Quebec. The recruiting was
speedily accomplished, and with Captains Eustis and Nichols, Captain
Stevens being in command, traversed, with cannon and mortars, through
deep snows, the rough hills of New Hampshire and Vermont, to the mouth
of Otter Creek, on Lake Champlain, nearly opposite Split Rock, enduring
great privations and sufferings. They descended the lake, and the Sorel
to the St. Lawrence, and went down that stream as far as Three Rivers,
where they heard of the fall of Montgomery, and the defeat of the
Americans at Quebec. They returned to St. John's, and Major Stevens and
his corps rendered efficient service in the northern department during
1776. In the spring of 1777 he went to Ticonderoga, and commanded the
artillery there. On the approach of Burgoyne, when St. Clair and the
garrisons retreated, Major Stevens shared in the mortifications
produced by that retreat. He joined General Schuyler at Fort Edward, and
commanded the artillery at the battle of Stillwater, in which service he
was greatly distinguished. He continued in the command of the artillery
at Albany; and in April, 1778, "in consideration of his services, and
the strict attention with which he discharged his duty as commanding
officer of artillery in the northern department during two campaigns," *
he received from Congress brevet rank as lieutenant colonel of foot,
and in November following was appointed lieutenant colonel of artillery.
General Gates desired to retain him in the command of the artillery
of the northern and middle department. Hitherto his corps had been
considered by him as an independent one: now it was attached to that of
Colonel Crane. Unwilling to serve under this officer, Lieutenant-colonel
Stevens was assigned to Colonel Lamb's regiment in the New York line,
until the close of the war. He was often intrusted with special duties
of great moment, and was for some time at the head of the laboratory
department. He was selected to accompany La Fayette in the contemplated
expedition into Canada. Early in 1781 he proceeded with La Fayette into
Virginia to oppose the ravages of Arnold, and in the autumn of that year
was actively engaged with very full powers, under the orders of General
Knox, in collecting and forwarding artillery and other munitions to be
employed in the siege of Yorktown. During that siege he was in alternate
command of the artillery with Colonel Lamb and Lieutenant-colonel
Carrington. After the surrender of Cornwallis, Lieutenant-colonel
Stevens returned north, and from that time until the close of the war he
remained in command with Colonel Lamb, at West Point and its vicinity.
When peace returned, he commenced the business of a merchant in New
York, at the same time performing the duties first of colonel, then
of brigadier, and finally of major general, commanding the division of
artillery of the State of New York. He held the latter office when the
war of 1812 broke ont, and was called into the service of the United
States for the defense of the city. He continued to be the senior major
general of artillery until the peace of 1815. General Stevens was
often employed by government in services requiring skill, energy,
and integrity. In the year 1800, he superintended the construction of
fortifications on Governor's Island. For many years he was one of
the leading merchants of New York, in which pursuit he amassed a
considerable fortune. He died on the second of September, 1823.

* Colonel Trumbull has introduced Lieutenant-colonel Stevens, in his
picture of the surrender of Cornwallis, mounted at the head of the
regiment; and also prominently in his picture of the surrender of
Burgoyne. Letters written to Colonel Stevens by Generals Washington,
La Fayette, Schuyler, Knox, Gates, Lincoln, and other officers, yet
in possession of his family, attest the extent of his services, his
efficiency as an officer, and their high regard for him as a man. The
gold medal voted by Congress to General Gates, and his small library,
were left to members of General Stevens's family, and are still retained
by them. General Stevens's second wife was Lucretia, sister of Colonel
William Ledyard, who was massacred in Fort Griswold, at Groton, as
recorded on page 44.

** The same officer whose name was appended to the report on the
condition of the artillery of West Point, which was furnished to Arnold
when preparing for his treasonable act. Major Bauman was postmaster at
New York city for thirteen successive years, commencing in 1790.

* Journals of Congress, iv., 180.

[[[Position of the American Corps.--Approach by Parallels.--Cannonade
and Bombardment.--Burning of British Ships.]]]

{517}and Pennsylvanian troops, under Steuben; the New York, Rhode
Island, and New Jersey troops, with sappers and miners under General
James Clinton; the light infantry under La Fayette; and the Virginia
militia under Governor Nelson. The quarters of General Lincoln were on
the banks of Wormeley's Creek, on the extreme right.

[Illustration: 9527]

The general disposition of the troops will be better understood by
reference to the map on the next page.

From the first until the sixth of October, the besieging armies were
employed in bringing up heavy ordnance, and making other preparations.
The evening of the sixth was very dark and stormy, and under cover of
the gloom, the first parallel ** was commenced within six hundred yards
of Cornwallis's works. General Lincoln commanded the troops detailed
for this service. So silently and so earnestly did they labor, that they
were not discerned by the British sentinels, and before daylight the
trenches were sufficiently complete to shield the laborers from the
guns of the enemy. On the afternoon of the ninth, several batteries
and redoubts were completed, and a general discharge of twenty-four
and eighteen pounders was commenced by the Americans on the right. This
cannonade was kept up without intermission during the night, and early
the next morning[[Oct. 10]] the French opened their batteries upon the
enemy. For nearly eight hours there was an incessant roar of cannons
and mortars; and hundreds of bombs and round shot were poured upon the
British works. So tremendous was the bombardment, that the besieged soon
withdrew their cannon from the embrasures, and fired very few shots
in return. At evening red hot cannon balls were hurled from the French
battery F, on the extreme left, at the _Guadaloupe and Charon,_ two
British vessels in the river. The _Guadaloupe_ was driven from her post,
and the _Charon_ of forty-four guns and three large transports were
burned. The night was starry and mild, and invited to repose, but
the besiegers rested not, and Yorktown presented a scene of terrible
grandeur, such as is seldom witnessed by the eye of man. ** All night
long the allies kept

* Adam Philip, Count De Custine, was born at Metz in 1740. He entered
the army in early life, and served under Frederick the Great, of
Prussia, during the Seven Years' War. He commanded a regiment in the
French army in America, under Rochambcau. On returning to France, he
was made governor of Toulon. In 1792, he had command of the army of the
Rhine, when he was suddenly summoned to Paris by the Terrorists and sent
to the guillotine. He was decapitated in August, 1793, at the age of
fifty-three years.

** Parallel is a technical term applied to trenches and embankments dug
and thrown up as a protection to besiegers against the guns of a fort.
In this way the assailants may approach a fort, and construct batteries
within short gun-shot of the works of the beleaguered, and be well
protected in their labors.

*** Doctor Thatcher in his journal, page 274, says, "From the bank of
the river I had a fine view of this splendid conflagration. The ships
were enwrapped in a torrent of fire, which, spreading with vivid
brightness among the combustible rigging, and running with amazing
rapidity to the tops of the several masts, while all around was thunder
and lightning from our numerous cannons and mortars, and in the darkness
of night, presented one of the most sublime and magnificent spectacles
which can be imagined. Some of our shells over-reaching the town, are
seen to fall into the river, and bursting, throw up columns of water,
like the spouting of the monsters of the deep.

[[[Continued Approaches toward the British Works.--Preparations to Storm
Redoubts.--Plan of the Siege of Yorktown.]]]

{518}up a cannonade, and early the next morning[[Oct 11.]] another
British vessel was set in flames by a fiery ball, and consumed.

[Illustration: 0528]

During the night of the eleventh, the besiegers commenced a second
parallel, between two and three hundred yards from the British works.
The three succeeding days were devoted to the completion of this line of
trenches, during which time the enemy opened new embrasures in positions
from which their fire was far more effective than at first. Two redoubts
(K and L) on the left of the besieged and advanced three hundred yards
in front of the British works, flanked the second parallel, and
greatly annoyed the men in the trenches. Preparations were made on the
fourteenth to carry them both by storm. To excite a spirit of emulation,
the reduction of one was committed to the American light infantry under
La Fayette; the other to a detachment of the French grenadiers and
chasseurs, commanded by Major-general the Baron De Viomenil, a brave and
experienced officer. Toward evening the two detachments marched to the
assault. Colonel Alexander Hamilton, who had commanded a battalion
of light infantry during this campaign, led the advanced corps of the
Americans, assisted by Colonel Gimat, La Fayette's aid; while Colonel
Laurens, with

* Note.--Explanation of the Map.--A, British outworks taken possession
of by the Americans on their arrival. B, first parallel. C, D, American
batteries. E, a bomb battery. G, French battery. H, French bomb battery.
I, second parallel. K, redoubt stormed by the Americans. L, redoubt
stormed by the French. M M M, French batteries. N, French bomb battery.
O, American batteries.

[[[Successful Assault upon two Redoubts.--Loss sustained by the
Combatants.--Bravery and Loss of the French Grenadiers.]]]

{519}eighty men, turned the redoubt, in order to intercept the retreat
of the garrison. At a given signal, the troops rushed furiously to the
charge without firing a gun, the van being led by Captain Aaron Ogden,
of New Jersey.

[Illustration: 9529]

Over the _abatis_ and palisades they leaped, and with such vehemence
and rapidity assaulted and entered the works, that their loss was
inconsiderable. One sergeant and eight privates were killed; and seven
officers, and twenty-five noncommissioned officers and privates were
wounded. Colonel Gimat received a slight wound in the foot, and Major
Gibbs, commander of Washington's Life-guard, was also slightly wounded.
Major Campbell, who commanded the redoubt, and some inferior officers,
with seventeen privates, were made prisoners. Eight privates of the
garrison were killed in the assault, but not one was injured after the
surrender. *

[Illustration: 8529]

This redoubt (K, on the map) was upon the high river bank, on the
extreme right of the American lines. When I visited the spot in 1848,
the remains of the embankments were quite prominent.

The redoubt (L) stormed by the French under Viomenil was garrisoned by
a greater force, and was not so easily overcome. It was defended by a
lieutenant colonel, and one hundred and twenty men. After a combat of
nearly half an hour, the redoubt was surrendered.

Eighteen of the garrison were killed, and forty-two were made prisoners.
The French lost in killed and wounded about one hundred men. *** In
this engagement Count Mathieu Dumas (see portrait, on next page), one
of Rochambeau's aids, bore a conspicuous part. He was in the advanced
corps, and was one of the first who entered the redoubt. **** In this
assault the Count De Deuxponts, who led the French grenadiers, was
slightly wounded. Count Charles De Lameth, the adjutant general, was
also wounded,

* Gordon (iii., 258) says that La Fayette, with the sanction of
Washington, ordered the assailants to remember Fort Griswold (see page
44), and put every man of the garrison to death after the redoubt should
be captured. There is no other than verbal evidence that such an
order was ever given, an order so repugnant to the character of both
Washington and La Fayette. Colonel Hamilton afterward publicly denied
the truth of the allegation; and so also did La Fayette. Stedman, an
officer under Cornwallis, and historian of the war, does not mention it.

** This view is from the mounds looking northwest, up the York River.
The first head-land on the right is Gloucester Point, and upon the high
bank on the left is situated the village of Yorktown. The dark spot in
the bank indicates the place of the so-called Cornwallis's Cave.

*** Doctor Thatcher says, the reason why the loss of the French was so
much greater than that of the Americans was the fact that they awaited
the removal of the _abatis_ before they made the assault, and all
that time were exposed to the galling fire of the enemy. Doctor Munson
informed me that while the assault upon these redoubts was progressing,
Washington, with Lincoln, Knox, and one or two other officers, were
standing in the grand battery (C) watching every movement, through the
embrasures, with great anxiety. When the last redoubt was captured,
Washington turned to Knox, and said, "The work is done, and _well_ done
and then called to his servant, "Billy, hand me my horse."

**** Rochambeau, in his Memoirs, mentions an interesting circumstance
connected with the attack upon this redoubt. The grenadiers of the
regiment of Gatenois, which had been formed out of that of Auvergne,
called Sans Tache, were led to the attack. When informed that they
were to be engaged in this perilous enterprise, they declared their
willingness "to be killed, even to the last man," if their original
name, which they so much revered, would be restored to them. Rochambeau
promised them it. should be done. They fought like tigers, and one third
of their number were killed. When Rochambeau reported this affair to
the king, Louis signed the order, restoring to the regiment the name of
Royal Auvergne. Dumas, in his Memoirs, vol. i., 52, also mentions this
circumstance.

[[[Desperate Situation of Cornwallis.--Sortie.--Attempt of Cornwallis to
Escape.--Providential Interposition.--Count Dumas.]]]

[[Oct. 15.]]{520}a musket ball passing through both knees. Washington
was highly gratified with the success of these assaults, and in general
orders the next day congratulated the armies on the result.

During the night of the fourteenth, these redoubts were included in a
second parallel, and by five o'clock the next after-noon[[Oct. 15]] some
howitzers, which had been placed in them, were opened upon the British
works.

[Illustration: 9530]

The situation of Cornwallis was now becoming desperate. Beleaguered
on all sides by a superior force, his strongest defenses crumbling
or passing into the possession of the besiegers, and no tidings from
General Clinton to encourage him, the British commander was filled with
the gloomiest apprehensions. Knowing that the town would be untenable
when the second parallel should be completed, he sent out a detachment
under Lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie, to make a sortie against two
almost completed batteries, guarded by French troops. They made a
furious assault at about four o'clock in the morning,[[Oct. 16]]
and were successful; but the guards from the trenches soon drove the
assailants back, and their enterprise was fruitless of advantage.

Cornwallis, confident that he could not maintain his position,
determined to make a desperate effort at flight. His plan was to leave
the sick and his baggage behind; cross over to Gloucester, and, with his
detachment there, cut up or disperse the troops of De Choise, Weeden,
and Lauzun; mount his infantry on horses taken from the duke's legion,
and others that might be seized in the neighborhood; by rapid marches
gain the forks of the Rappahannock and Potomac, and, forcing his way
through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, form a junction with the
army in New York. This was a most hazardous undertaking, but his only
alternative was flight or capture. Boats were accordingly prepared, and
at ten o'clock on the evening of the sixteenth a portion of his troops
were conveyed across to Gloucester. So secretly was the whole movement
performed, that the patriots did not perceive it; and had not a power
mightier than man's interposed an obstacle, Cornwallis's desperate plan
might have been successfully accomplished. The first body of troops had
scarcely reached Gloucester Point, when a storm of wind and rain, almost
as sudden and fierce as a summer tornado, made the passage of the river
too hazardous to be again attempted. The storm continued with unabated
violence until morning, and Cornwallis was obliged to abandon his
design. The troops were brought back without much loss, and now the last
ray of hope began to fade from the vision of the earl.

At daybreak, on the morning of the seventeenth, several new batteries in
the second parallel were opened, and a more terrible storm of shells and
round shot was poured upon the town than had yet been experienced by the
enemy. Governor Nelson, who was at the

* Count Mathieu Dumas, who, after his return from America, was made
a lieutenant general, was born in Montpellier, in 1753. At the age of
twenty he entered the army. He accompanied Rochambeau to America as his
aid, and served with distinction at the siege of Yorktown. On his return
to Europe, he entered into the French service. He was married to Julia
De La Rue in 1785. In 1789 he was elected a member of the Legislative
Assembly, and from that period until the close of Napoleon's career he
was continually engaged in the most active public duties. Yet he found
time to use his pen, which he wielded with power. At the beginning of
the "Reign of Terror," he fled with his family, in company with Count
Charles Lameth, who was wounded at Yorktown, to England. He soon
returned, but was obliged to flee into Switzerland. He acted with La
Fayette in the reorganization of the National Guard, and was at length
elevated to a place in the Chamber of Peers. He was with Bonaparte at
the battle of Waterloo, and with that event closed his military career.
The leisure which ensued he employed in writing historical essays, and
preparing Memoirs of his own times. These extend from 1773 to 1826, when
he was seventy-three years of age." From these Memoirs I have compiled
this brief notice of his public life. He took an active part in the
French Revolution in 1830, and co-operated with La Fayette in placing
Louis Philippe on the throne. He died at the house of his son (the
editor of his Memoirs), in 1837, at the age of almost eighty-five years.
He was thirty-five years of age when Trumbull painted the portrait here
given.

[[[Patriotism of Gov. Nelson.--Bombardment of his Mansion.--Cornwallis's
Proposition to Surrender.--Destruction in Yorktown.]]]

{521}head of the Virginia militia, commanded the first battery that
opened upon the British works that morning. His fine stone mansion, the
most commodious in the place, was a prominent object within the British
lines. He knew that Cornwallis and his staff occupied it, and was
probably in it when he began the cannonade.

[Illustration: 8531]

Regardless of the personal loss that must ensue, he pointed one of his
heaviest guns directly toward his house, and ordered the gunner, and
also a bombardier, to play upon it with the greatest vigor. * The
desired effect was accomplished. Upon the heights of Saratoga, Burgoyne
found no place secure from the cannon-balls of the besiegers; in
Yorktown there was like insecurity and before ten o'clock in the
morning, Cornwallis beat a parley, and proposed a cessation of
hostilities. The house of Governor Nelson, I have already mentioned,
still bears many scars received during the bombardment; and in the yard
attached to the dwelling, I saw a huge unexploded bomb-shell which was
cast there by order of the patriot owner.

Cornwallis, despairing of victory or escape, sent a flag to Washington
with a request that hostilities should be suspended for twenty-four
hours, and that commissioners should be appointed to meet at Mrs.
Moore's house on the right of the American lines, and just in the rear
of the first parallel, **** to arrange terms for the surrender of his
army. Washington was unwilling to waste precious time in negotiations,
for, in the mean while, the augmented British fleet might arrive, and
give the earl an opportunity to escape. (v) In his reply to

* Never did a man display more lofty patriotism than Governor Nelson on
this occasion. He was the chief magistrate of the state, and by virtue
of his office was commander-in-chief of its militia. At that time the
treasury of Virginia was empty, and there was great apprehension that
the militia would disband for want of pay. Governor Nelson applied to a
wealthy citizen to borrow money on the credit of the state. The security
was not considered safe, and the patriot pledged his private property
as collateral. The money was obtained and used for the public service.
Because Governor Nelson exercised his prerogative as chief magistrate of
the state in impressing men into the military service on the occasion
of the siege of Yorktown, many influential men were offended, and many
mortal enemies appeared. But he outlived all the wounds of malice, and
posterity does honor to his name.

** Dr. Thatcher says: "I have this day visited the town of York, to
witness the destructive effects of the siege. It contains about sixty
houses; some of them are elegant, many of them are greatly damaged,
and some totally ruined, being shot through in a thousand plaees, and
honey-combed, ready to crumble to pieces. Rich furniture and books were
scattered over the ground, and the carcasses of men and horses,
half covered with earth, exhibited a scene of ruin and horror beyond
description. The earth in many places is thrown up into mounds by the
force of our shells, and it is difficult to point to a spot where a man
could have resorted for safety.

*** This view is from the street looking northwest. A long wooden
building, with steep roof and dormer windows, a portion of which is seen
on the left, is also a relic of the Revolutionary era. It, too, was much
damaged by the bombardment. A few feet from the door of Mr. Nelson's
dwelling is a fine laurel-tree. On the occasion of La Fayette's visit to
Yorktown in 1824, a large concourse of people were assembled; branches
were taken from this laurel-tree, woven into a civic crown, and placed
upon the head of the venerable marquis. He took it from his brow, and
placing it upon that of Preserved Fish, who accompanied him, remarked
that none in all that company was better entitled to wear the mark of
honor than he.

**** See the map on page 518.

* (v) Delay on that occasion would, indeed, have been dangerous, perhaps
fatal to the hopes of the Americans. Admiral Digby hastened the repairs
of his vessels with all possible dispatch, and on the very day when the
capitulation was signed, Sir Henry Clinton, with seven thousand of his
best troops, sailed for the Chesapeake to aid Cornwallis, under a convoy
of twenty-five ships of the line. This armament appeared off the
Capes of Virginia on the twenty-fourth; but, receiving unquestionable
intelligence of the capitulation at Yorktown, the British general
returned to New York.

Thomas Anburey, a British officer in Burgoyne's army, and who served in
America until near the close of 1781, published two interesting volumes,
called Travels in America. Alluding to the capture ot Cornwallis, which
occurred three or four weeks previous to his sailing for Europe, he
says: "When the British fleet left Sandy Hook, General Washington had
certain intelligence of it, within forty-eight hours after it sailed,
although at such a considerable distance as near six hundred miles, by
means of signal guns and alarms. A very notorious rebel in New York,
from the top of his house, hung out the signal of a white flag the
moment the fleet got under way, which was immediately answered by the
firing of a gun at a small village about a mile from our post at Paulus'
Hook (now Jersey City); after that a continual firing of cannon was
heard on the opposite shore; and about two days after the fleet sailed,
was the period in which General Washington was so pressing for the
army to surrender."--Volume ii., page 481. There is no evidence that
Washington was informed of the departure of the fleet previous to the
surrender. Although Digby did not leave Sandy Hook until the nineteenth,
on account of unfavorable winds and other causes of delay, he left the
harbor of New York on the seventeenth.

[[[Terms of Capitulation proposed.--The Commissioners.--Synopsis of
Articles of Capitulation.]]]

{522}Cornwallis's letter, Washington desired him to transmit his
proposals in writing previous to the meeting of the commissioners, for
which purpose he would order a cessation of hostilities for two hours.
To this the earl consented, and within the stipulated time he sent
a rough draft of the general basis of his proposals. * Washington,
perceiving that there would probably be no serious disagreement finally,
also sent Cornwallis a general basis of terms upon which he should
expect him to surrender. ** Commissioners were appointed to meet in
conference at Moore's house, and hostilities were suspended for the
night. The American commissioners were Colonel Laurens, *** and Viscount
De Noailles, a relative of La Fayette's wife; the British commissioners
were Lieutenant-colonel Dundas and Major Ross.

The commissioners met early on the morning of the eighteenth;[[Oct.
1781]] but, being unable to adjust the terms of capitulation ****
definitively, only a rough draft of them could be

* He proposed that the garrisons at York and Gloucester should be
prisoners of war, with the customary honors; that the British soldiers
should be sent to Great Britain, and the Germans to Germany, under an
engagement not to serve against France, America, or their allies, until
released or regularly exchanged; that all arms and public stores
should be delivered to the conqueror, reserving the usual indulgence of
side-arms to officers, and of retaining private property by the officers
and soldiers; and that the interests of several individuals (Tories) in
civil capacities, and connected with the British, should be attended to,
and their persons respected.

** Washington declared that a general basis for a definitive treaty
should be the reception of the two garrisons as prisoners of war, with
the same honors as were granted to the American prisoners at Charleston;
but he would not agree to send the prisoners out of the country.
They were to be marched to some convenient place, where they could be
sustained and treated kindly. The shipping and boats in the harbor of
Yorktown and Gloucester, with all their guns, stores, tackling, apparel,
and furniture, to be delivered to a naval officer appointed to receive
them. The artillery, arms, munitions, and public stores to be delivered
up, and the sick and wounded to be supplied with the British hospital
stores, and attended by the hospital surgeons.

** Cornwallis, in reply, asked the privilege of retaining the Bonetta
sloop of war, and sufficient officers and men, to carry his dispatches
to Sir Henry Clinton, pledging her safe delivery to the conqueror
subsequently, if she escaped the dangers of the sea. This was granted.

*** At that very time, Colonel Laurens's father, who had been president
of Congress, was confined in the Tower of London on a charge of high
treason. He had been captured at sea while on his way to Holland to
solicit a loan. This circumstance will be more fully noticed hereafter.

**** The following is an abstract of the Articles of Capitulation: I.
The garrisons at York and Gloucester to surrender themselves prisoners
of war; the land troops to remain prisoners to the United States; the
naval forces to the naval army of the French king. II. The artillery,
munitions, stores, &c., to be delivered to proper officers appointed
to receive them. III. The two redoubts captured on the sixteenth to be
surrendered, one to the Americans, the other to the French troops. The
garrison at York to march out at two o'clock, with shouldered arms,
colors cased, * and drums beating; there to lay down their arms and
return to their encampment. The works on the Gloucester side to be
delivered to the Americans and French; the garrison to lay down their
arms at three o'clock. IV. The officers to retain their side-arms,
papers, and private property. Also, the property of Loyalists found in
the garrison to be retained. V. The soldiers to be kept in Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and to be subsisted by the Americans.
British, Anspach, and Hessian officers allowed to be quartered near
them, and supply them with clothing and necessities. VI. The officers
allowed to go on parole to Europe, or to any part of the American
confederacy; proper vessels to be granted by Count De Grasse to convey
them, under flags of truce, to New York, within ten days, if they
choose. Passports to be granted to those who go by land. VII. Officers
allowed to keep soldiers as servants, and servants, not soldiers, not
to be considered prisoners. VIII. The Bonetta to be under the entire
control of Cornwallis, to go to New York with dispatches, and then to
be delivered to Count De Grasse. * IX. Traders not considered close
prisoners of war but on parole, and allowed three months to dispose of
their property, or remove it. X. Loyalists not to be punished on account
of having joined the British army. Considering this matter to be of a
civil character, Washington would not assent to the article. XI. Proper
hospitals to be furnished for the sick and wounded, they to be attended
by the British surgeons. XII. Wagons to be furnished, if possible, for
carrying the baggage of officers attending the soldiers, and of the
hospital surgeons when traveling on account of the sick. XIII. The
shipping and boats in the two harbors, with all their appendages, arms,
and stores, to be delivered up, unimpaired, after the private property
was unloaded. * XIV. This article is given entire in the preceding fac
simile, which, with the signatures, I copied from the original document,
now in possession of Peter Force, Esq., of Washington City! These
articles were signed, on the part of the British, by Lord Cornwallis,
and by Thomas Sy-monds, the naval commander in York River; on the part
of the allied armies, by Washington, Rochambeau, Barras, and De Grasse.

* This disposition of colors is considered degrading. Lincoln was
obliged to submit to it at Charleston, where the British general
intended it as an insult. As Washington made the terms of surrender
"those of Charleston," Cornwallis was obliged to submit.

** As Washington refused to agree to any stipulations respecting the
Tories in the British camp, many of them sailed in the Bonetta for New
York, unwilling to brave the ire of their offended countrymen.

[[[Fac Simile of the Fourteenth Article of the Capitulation.]]]

{523}prepared, which was submitted to the consideration of Cornwallis.

[Illustration: 0533]

Washington would not permit the delay that might ensue by leaving these
open to further negotiation; he, therefore, had the rough articles
fairly transcribed, and sent them to his lordship early on the morning
of the nineteenth, with a letter expressing his expectation that they
would be signed by eleven o'clock, and that the

[[[Ceremonies at the Surrender of the British Army.--Delivery of the
Colors.--Conduct of Cornwallis in the Carolinas.]]]

{524}garrison would march out by two in the afternoon. Cornwallis was
obliged to submit, and at the appointed hour the garrisons at York and
Gloucester, the shipping in the harbor, and all the ammunition, stores,
&c., were surrendered, after a siege of thirteen days, to the land and
naval forces of America and France. The ceremony, on the occasion of the
surrender, was exceedingly imposing. The American army was drawn up on
the right side of the road leading from Yorktown to Hampton (see map),
and the French army on the left. Their lines extended more than a mile
in length. Washington, upon his white charger, was at the head of the
American column; and Rochambeau, upon a powerful bay horse, was at the
head of the French column. A vast concourse of people, equal in number,
according to eye-witnesses, to the military, was also assembled from the
surrounding country to participate in the joy of the event. Universal
silence prevailed as the vanquished troops slowly marched out of their
intrenchments, with their colors cased and their drums beating a British
tune, and passed between the columns of the combined armies. * All were
eager to look upon Cornwallis, the terror of the South, ** in the hour
of his adversity. They were disappointed; he had given himself up to
vexation and despair, and, feigning illness, he sent General O'Hara
with his sword, to lead the vanquished army to the field of humiliation.
Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara advanced toward
Washington, and, taking off his hat, apologized for the absence of Earl
Cornwallis. The commander-in-chief pointed him to General Lincoln for
directions. It must have been a proud moment for Lincoln, for only the
year before he was obliged to make a humiliating surrender of his army
to British conquerors at Charleston. Lincoln conducted the royal troops
to the field selected for laying down their arms, and there General
O'Hara delivered to him the sword of Cornwallis; Lincoln received it,
and then politely handed it back to O'Hara, to be returned to the earl.

The delivery of the colors of the several regiments, twenty-eight in
number, was next performed. For this purpose, twenty-eight British
captains, each bearing a flag in a case, were drawn up in line. Opposite
to them, at a distance of six paces, twenty-eight American sergeants
were placed in line to receive the colors. Ensign Wilson of Clinton's
brigade, the youngest commissioned officer in the army (being then only
eighteen years of age), was appointed by Colonel Hamilton, the officer
of the day, to conduct this interesting ceremony. ***

* The Abbé Robin, chaplain to the French army, wrote an interesting
account of this siege and surrender. He says, "We were all surprised at
the good condition of the English troops, as well as their cleanliness
of dress. To account for their good appearance, Cornwallis had opened
all the stores (about to be surrendered) to the soldiers before the
capitulation took place. Each had on a complete new suit, but all
their finery seemed to humble them the more, when contrasted with the
miserable appearance of the Americans."--New Travels in North America in
the year 1781, and Campaigns of the Army of Count De Rochambeau.

** The conduct of Lord Cornwallis during his march of over fifteen
hundred miles through the Southern States was often disgraceful to the
British name. He suffered dwelling-houses to be plundered of every thing
that could be Carried off; and it was well known that his lordship's
table was furnished with plate thus obtained from private families. His
march was more frequently that of a marauder than an honorable general.
It is estimated that Virginia alone lost, during Cornwallis's attempt to
reduce it, thirty thousand slaves. It was also estimated, at the time,
from the best information that could be obtained, that, during the six
months previous to the surrender at Yorktown, the whole devastations of
his army amounted in value to about fifteen millions of dollars.

*** Robert Wilson, the honored ensign on this occasion, was a native
of New York. He had been early trained in the duties and hardships of
military life, by his maternal uncle, the famous Captain Gregg well
known in the history of the Mohawk Valley. One of his exploits I have
related on page 252, volume i. Young Wilson became attached to the army
at the age of twelve years. His commission as ensign (which I have seen)
is dated June ninth, 1781, four months previous to the surrender at
Yorktown. At the close of the war, he became a member of the Society of
the Cincinnati, and from his certificate I made the copy printed on
page 128. He settled in Central New York when it was a wilderness; was
magistrate many years; and for some time was postmaster at Manlius, in
Onondago county. He died in the year 1811, leaving a widow, who still
survives him, and four children, all of whom are now dead. The late
James Gregg Wilson, one of the proprietors of the Brother Jonathan
newspaper, was his last surviving child. The statement in the text
respecting his participation in the surrender of the colors at Yorktown
I received from his relatives, and have no reason to doubt its truth.
It is also corroborated by an eye-witness who lived to the age of
ninety-eight, and knew Wilson from his boyhood until his death.

* Considerable private property of the loyal citizens had been placed
on board the vessels for security during the siege. This was included in
the terms of the article. {525}

[Illustration: 0535]


[[[Laying down of Arras.--Loss of both Armies.--Washington's expressed
Approbation of Officers.--Disposition of Prisoners.]]]

{526}When Wilson gave the order for the British captains to advance two
paces, to deliver up their colors, and the American sergeants to advance
two paces to receive them, the former hesitated, and gave as a reason
that they were unwilling to surrender their flags to noncommissioned
officers. Hamilton, who was at a distance, observed this hesitation, and
rode up to inquire the cause. On being informed, he willingly spared the
feelings of the British captains, and ordered Ensign Wilson to receive
them himself, and hand them to the American sergeants. This scene is
depicted in the engraving.

When the colors were surrendered, the whole royal army laid down their
arms. It was an exceedingly humiliating task for the captives, for they
had been for months enjoying victories under their able commander, and
had learned to look upon the _rebels_ with profound contempt. * After
grounding their arms and laying off their accoutrements, they were
conducted back to their lines, and guarded by a sufficient force until
they commenced their march for permanent quarters in the interior of
Virginia and Maryland. **

The loss of the British on this occasion was one hundred and fifty-six
killed, three hundred and twenty-six wounded, and seventy missing. The
whole number surrendered by capitulation was a little more than seven
thousand, *** according to the most reliable authorities, making the
total loss between seventy-five and seventy-eight hundred. The combined
army employed in the siege consisted of about seven thousand regular
American troops, more than five thousand French, and four thousand
militia; a total of over sixteen thousand men. Their loss during
the siege, of killed and wounded, was only about three hundred. The
artillery, and military stores and provisions surrendered, were very
considerable. There were seventy-five brass, and one hundred and sixty
iron cannons; seven thousand seven hundred and ninety-four muskets;
twenty-eight regimental standards (ten of them English, and eighteen
German); a large quantity of cannon and musket-balls, bombs, carriages,
&c., &c. The military chest contained nearly eleven thousand dollars in
specie. ****

On the day succeeding the surrender,[[Oct 20, 1781]] Washington, in
general orders, expressed his great approbation of the conduct of both
armies. Among the generals whom the commander-in-chief particularly
named were Count De Rochambeau, Du Portail, and other distinguished
French officers; and Generals Lincoln, Knox, La Fayette, and Steuben,
of the American army. (v) He also spoke warmly of Governor Nelson, and
expressed his gratitude to him for his essential aid. Joy pervaded all
hearts, and that there might be none

* Dr. Thatcher, who was present, says that he saw many of the soldiers,
with sullen countenances, throw down their guns on the pile with
violence, as if determined to render them unfit for further service. By
order of General Lincoln, this conduct was checked, and they were made
to lay them down in an orderly manner.

** The British prisoners were marched, some to Winchester, in Virginia,
and some to Fort Frederick, and Fredericktown, in Maryland. The latter
portion were guarded by militia, commanded by General Philip Van
Cortlandt, and many serious quarrels between them and their custodians
occurred. They were finally removed to Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, and
guarded by Continental troops. Cornwallis and other British officers
went by sea to New York on parole. Arrangements were finally made for
the exchange of most of them.

*** An estimate made soon after the surrender, made the total loss of
the British eleven thousand eight hundred. In that estimate was included
two thousand sailors, one thousand eight hundred negroes, and one
thousand five hundred Tories.

**** Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Stedman, Robin, Thacher, Botta, Sparks.

* (v) Brigadiers Du Portail and Knox were each promoted to the rank of
major general; and Colonel Govion, and Captain Rochefontain, of the
corps of engineers, were each advanced a grade, by brevet.

[[[A Jubilee for Prisoners.--Intelligence of the Surrender at
Philadelphia.--Proceedings of Congress.--Rochambeau.]]]

{527}excluded from a participation in the general thanksgiving, the
commander-in-chief ordered that all those who were under arrest or
confinement should be immediately set at liberty and as the next day
was the Sabbath, he closed his orders by directing divine service to be
performed in the several brigades on the morrow.

The surrender of Cornwallis with so large a portion of the British army
in America secured the Independence of the United States.

[Illustration: 9537]

The strong arm of military oppression, moved by governmental power,
was paralyzed, and the king and his ministers, from the hour when
intelligence of the event reached them, abandoned all hopes of subduing
the rebellion and preserving the integrity of the realm. The blow of
disseverance had fallen; war could no longer subserve a useful purpose;
humanity and sound policy counseled peace. Great was the exultation and
joy of the Americans as the intelligence went from lip to lip throughout
the confederation. Lieutenant-colonel Tilghman, one of Washington's
aids-de-camp, rode express to Philadelphia to carry the dispatches of
the chief announcing the joyful tidings to Congress. It was midnight
when he entered the city.[[Oct. 23, 1781]] Thomas M'Kean was then
president of the Continental Congress, and resided in High Street, near
Second. Tilghman knocked at his door so vehemently, that a watchman was
disposed to arrest him as a disturber of the peace. M'Kean arose, and
presently the glad tidings were made known. The watchmen throughout
the city proclaimed the hour, adding "_and Cornwallis is taken!_" That
annunciation, ringing out upon the frosty night air, aroused thousands
from their beds. Lights were seen moving in almost every house; and
soon the streets were thronged with men and women all eager to hear the
details. It was a night of great joy in Philadelphia, for the people had
anxiously awaited intelligence from Yorktown. The old State House hell
rang out its notes of gladness, and the first blush of morning was
greeted with the booming of cannons.

Congress assembled at an early hour, and the grave orators of that
august body could hardly repress huzzas while Secretary Thompson read
the letter from Washington announcing the capitulation of Cornwallis. On
motion of Edmund Randolph, Congress resolved to go in procession at two
o'clock the same day[[Oct 24]] to the Dutch Lutheran Church, "and return
thanks to Almighty God for crowning the allied armies of the United
States and France with success." A committee was appointed, *** to whom
were referred the letters of Washington, and who were instructed to
report resolutions of thanks to the armies and their officers, and
to recommend appropriate honors.4 The committee reported on the
twenty-ninth, and Congress resolved that their thanks should be
presented to Washington, Rochambeau, and De Grasse, and the officers and
soldiers under their respective commands; that a marble column should be
erected at Yorktown in commemoration of the

* Thatcher, 281.

** Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the Count De Rochambeau, was born
at Vendôme in 1725, and entered the army at the age of sixteen years. In
1746 he became aid-de-camp to Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, and was
afterward appointed to the command of the regiment of La Marche. He was
wounded at the battle of Lafeldt, where he distinguished himself. He
fought bravely at Creveldt, Minden, Corbach, and Clostercamp. He was
made lieutenant general in 1779, and in 1780 came to America with a
strong force. After assisting in the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown,
and remaining several months in America, he returned to France, and
was raised to the rank of field-marshal by Louis XVI. During the French
Revolution, he was appointed to the command of the army of the North. He
was superseded, and suffered the persecutions of calumny, but a decree
of approbation was passed in 1792. He then retired to his estate near
Vendôme. Under the tyranny of Robespierre, he was arrested, and narrowly
escaped death. In 1803 Bonaparte granted him a pension, and the cross
of grand officer of the Legion of Honor. He died in 1807, at the age of
sixty-one. His Memoirs were published in 1809.

*** The committee consisted of Edmund Randolph, Elias Boudinot, Joseph
Varnum, and Charles Carroll.

**** Journals of Congress, vii., 162. Awards of Congress to Officers.
General Rejoicings. Proceedings in Parliament. Lord North's Agitation.
{528}event; * that two stands of colors taken from Cornwallis should
be presented to Washington in the name of the United States; that two
pieces of the field ordnance captured at York should be presented to
each of the French commanders, Rochambeau and De Grasse; and that the
Board of War should present to Lieutenant-colonel Tilghman, in the
name of the United States, a horse properly caparisoned, and an elegant
sword.

{528}

[Illustration: 9538]

Congress also issued a proclamation appointing the thirteenth day
of December for a general thanksgiving and prayer throughout the
confederacy, on account of this signal mark of Divine favor. Legislative
bodies, executive councils, city corporations, and many private
societies, presented congratulatory addresses to the commanding generals
and their officers; and from almost every pulpit in the land arose
the voice of thanksgiving and praise, accompanied the alleluiahs of
thousands of worshipers at the altar of the Lord of Hosts.

The king and his ministers were sorely perplexed when the intelligence
reached them. *** Parliament assembled on the twenty-seventh of
November; its first business was a consideration of the news of the
disasters in America, which reached ministers officially on Sunday, the
twenty-fifth.[[ Nov. 1781]] Violent debates ensued, and Fox even went
so far as to intimate that Lord North was in the pay of the French. The
minister indignantly repelled the insinuation, and justified the war on
the ground of its justice, and the proper maintenance of British rights.
Upon this point he was violently assailed by Burke, who exclaimed, "Good
God! are we yet to be told of the rights for which we went to war! Oh,
excellent rights! Oh, valuable rights! Valuable you should be, for we
have paid dear at parting with you. Oh, valuable rights! that have cost
Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, **** one hundred thousand
men, and more than seventy millions [three hundred and fifty millions
of dollars] of money!" The younger Pitt distinguished himself in this
debate, and was a powerful aid to the opposition. On the thirtieth of
November, that party proposed the bold measure (last adopted during the
Revolution of 1688) of not granting supplies until the ministers should
give a pledge to the people that the war in America should cease.
This motion, however, was lost by a vote of nearly two to one. Several
conflicting propositions were made by both parties, but without any
definite result,

* The marble for this column, like many other monuments ordered by the
Continental Congress, is yet in the quarry. It was proposed to have it
"ornamented with emblems of the alliance between the United States and
his most Christian majesty, and inscribed with a succinct narrative of
the surrender of Earl Cornwallis," to Washington, Rochambeau, and De
Grasse.--Journals, vii., 166.

** This is a representation of one of the flags surrendered at Yorktown,
and presented to Washington. I made this sketch of the flag itself, then
in the Museum at Alexandria, in Virginia. It belonged to the seventh
regiment. The size of the flag is six feet long, and five feet four
inches wide. The ground is blue; the central stripe of the cross red;
the marginal ones white. In the center is a crown, and beneath it a
garter with its inscription, "Honi soit qui mal y pense," inclosing a
full-blown rose. These are neatly embroidered with silk. The fabric of
the flag is heavy twilled silk.

*** Sir N. W. Wraxall, in his Historical Memoirs of his Own Times (page
246), has left an interesting record of the effect of the news of the
surrender of Cornwallis upon the minds of Lord North and the king.
The intelligence reached the cabinet on Sunday, the twenty-fifth of
November, at noon. Wraxall asked Lord George Germain how North "took the
communication?" "As he would have taken a cannon-ball in his breast,"
replied Lord George; "for he opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he
paced up and down the apartment during a few minutes, 'Oh! God, it is
all over!' words which he repeated many times, under emotions of the
deepest consternation and distress." Lord George Germain sent off a
dispatch to the king, who was then at Kew. The king wrote a calm letter
in reply, but it was remarked, as evidence of unusual emotion, that he
had omitted to mark the hour and minute of his writing, which he was
always accustomed to do with scrupulous precision. Yet the handwriting
evinced composure of mind.

**** He referred to disasters in the West Indies, and the loss of
Minorca in the Mediterranean.


[[[Designs upon Southern British Ports.--St. Clair's
Success.--Washington's Journey to Philadelphia.--Localities at
Yorktown.]]]

{529}and on the twentieth of December, Parliament adjourned to the
twenty-first of January.[[1782]]

Although the British power in America was subdued, it still had
vitality. The enemy yet held important posts in the Southern States,
and Washington resolved to profit by the advantage he now possessed, by
capturing or dispersing the royal garrisons at Wilmington, Charleston,
and Savannah. For this purpose, he solicited the aid of Count De Grasse
in an expedition against Charleston. He repaired on board the _Ville de
Paris_, and held a personal conference with the admiral. To the urgent
solicitations of Washington, De Grasse replied that "the orders of
his court, ulterior projects, and his engagement with the Spaniards,
rendered it impossible for him to remain on the coast during the time
which would be required for the operation." He also declined conveying
troops to the South for re-enforcing General Greene, but he consented to
remain a few days in Chesapeake Bay, to cover the transportation of the
Eastern troops and of the ordnance, to the head of Elk. These, under the
command of General Lincoln, were embarked on the second of November,
and from the head of Elk proceeded by land to winter quarters in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and on the Hudson River. On the fourth, St.
Simon embarked his troops, and on that day the French fleet sailed out
of the Chesapeake for the West Indies. Before it sailed, Washington
presented Count De Grasse with two beautiful horses, as a token of his
personal esteem.

The French army remained in Virginia (Rochambeau having his
head-quarters at Williamsburg), ready to co-operate with the Americans
North or South. There they remained until the next summer,[[1782]] when
they joined the Continental army on the Hudson. * They proceeded to New
England in the autumn, and early in December embarked at Boston for
the West Indies. General St. Clair, with a body of troops, was sent to
reenforce General Greene at the South. He was directed to march by the
way of Wilmington, and dislodge the enemy there. This he effected,
and at the close of 1781 there was not a hostile foot except those of
resident Tories and prisoners of war, in all Virginia or North Carolina.

When Washington had completed all his arrangements, he left
Yorktown,[[Nov 5, 1781]] and hastened to Eltham, the seat of Colonel
Bassett, to the bedside of Mr. Custis, the only son of Mrs. Washington.
He arrived in time to see him die, and stayed there a few days to mingle
his grief with that of the afflicted widow. Mr. Custis was a member of
the Virginia Legislature, and was then only twenty-eight years of age.
** From Eltham, Washington proceeded to Philadelphia by way of Mount
Vernon, receiving and answering various public addresses on the way.
On the day after his arrival in Philadelphia,[[Nove 27]] he went to the
State House, and on being introduced into the hall of Congress by two
members, he was greeted by a congratulatory address by the president. He
remained some time in Philadelphia, and was regarded with reverence by
all classes.

We will here close the chronicle, visit the historical localities about
Yorktown, and then ride down to Hampton, near Old Point Comfort.

In company with Mr. Nelson, I rode to "Moore's House," where the
commissioners of the two armies met to agree upon terms of capitulation.
On our way we visited the site of the two redoubts (K and L, on the map)
captured respectively by the Americans and French. The visible lines of
the one assailed by the Freneh cross the road leading to Moore's house.
On each side of the way the embankments are quite prominent. The remains
of the other one, on the river bank, are noticed and delineated on
page 519. In the fields farther south, crossing the Hampton road, and
extending almost to the old Jamestown road along which the American
division of the allied armies approached Yorktown, might be seen a
ridge, the remains of the second parallel. In a southwesterly direction,
about a

* The order and discipline of the French army while on this march,
and the deputation of Quakers who met Rochambeau at Philadelphia, are
noticed on page 55.

** Mr. Custis left four infant children. Washington adopted the two
younger, a son and daughter. The son still survives; the respected
George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia.

[[[Moore's House and its Associations.--Place of Surrender.--Governor
Nelson's House.--Departure for Hampton.]]]

{530}mile and a half distant, is the low ground where the armies rested
before making a disposition of their forces for attacking Cornwallis.

Moore's house is very pleasantly situated in the midst of a level lawn
within a quarter of a mile of the banks of the York.

[Illustration: 9540]

Although so late in the season,[[Dec 21. 1848]] it was surrounded with
green shrubbery, and from a bush near the piazza I plucked a full-blown
rose growing in the open air. I was shown the room in which it is
asserted the capitulation was signed by Cornwallis and his conquerors.
This, however, is a mistake. There is no evidence that the earl was
beyond his lines until he departed for New York on parole. He signed
the capitulation at his quarters in the town; and above the signature of
Washington and the French officers is written, "Done _in the trenches_
before Yorktown," &c. Moore's house is famous only as being the place
where the commissioners held their conference.

We next visited the places designated by tradition as the spot where
the British laid down their arms. In a field, not more than half a
mile southward of the British intrench-ments, three tulip poplars were
pointed out for many years as indices of the exact place of surrender.
The old trees are now gone, but three small ones supply their places.
This is on the east side of the Hampton road. In Trumbull's picture of
the _Surrender_, the house of Governor Nelson is seen. Trumbull visited
Yorktown for the purpose of sketching the ground, in 1791, and doubtless
had the true location pointed out to him. From the field where the tulip
poplars are, however, the house can not be seen, but from a large field
on the west side of the Hampton road, sloping in the direction of the
"Pigeon Quarter," and about a mile from the British lines (the distance
mentioned in history), the house may be plainly seen. It is the opinion
of Mr. Nelson and other intelligent gentlemen at Yorktown, that the
large field, noted as the spot on the map printed on page 518, is the
locality where the captive soldiers laid down their arms, and where the
_marble column_, ordered by Congress, should be erected.

From the field of humiliation we rode back to the village, and after
visiting the remains of the elegant dwelling of President Nelson, which
was situated near that of the governor, within the British lines, I
passed an hour in the venerated mansion of Governor Nelson, printed on
page 521. It was erected by the first emigrant Nelson ("Scotch Tom"),
and is of imported bricks. Among other relics of the past, I saw upon
the walls the mutilated portraits of President Nelson and his lady, the
parents of the governor. They were thus injured by the British when
they rifled his house at Hanover, whither he had taken his family and
furniture for security.

I left Yorktown at two o'clock for Hampton, twenty-four miles distant.
Charley was invigorated by rest and abundance of oats, and the road
being generally quite level, and in excellent condition, I was only
about four hours on the way. The country is an inclined plane sloping
toward the ocean, and quite thickly settled. The forests are chiefly of
pine,

* This is a view from the lawn, looking south. It is a frame building
with a brick foundation. At the time of the siege it belonged in fee to
Governor Nelson, but its occupant, a widow Moore, had a life interest in
it, and it was known as Moore's house. The narrow piazza in front is a
modern addition. This house is upon the Temple Farm, so called from the
fact that vestiges of a small temple or church, and the remains of an
ancient settlement, are there seen, about a mile and a half south
of Yorktown. Around the temple was a wall, and within are several
tomb-stones. One of these bear the name of Major William Gooch, and the
date of his death, 1655.

[[[Arrival at Hampton.--Old Point Comfort.--Early History.--Hampton
Roads.--Dunmore's Attack.]]]

{531}interspersed with oaks, chestnuts, tulip poplars, gums, sycamores,
and occasionally an elm. The green holly with its blazing berries, and
the equally verdant laurel, every where enliven the forest scenery. I
crossed two considerable swamps, and at twilight reached the margin of
a third, within a few miles of Hampton. The branches of the tall trees
interlaced above, and the amber light in the west, failed to penetrate
and mark the pathway. Suddenly the bland air was filled with chilling
vapors, which came rolling up from the sea on the wings of a southeast
wind, and I was enveloped in absolute darkness in the midst of the broad
morass. As at Occaquan, I gave Charley a loose rein, and relied upon his
instinct and better sight for safety. His faculties proved trustworthy,
and at six o'clock in the evening I was at comfortable lodgings close
by the beach, in the old town of Hampton, ninety-six miles southeast of
Richmond. *

Early the next morning I rode to old Point Comfort, ** two and a half
miles distant, notwithstanding heavy masses of clouds were yet rolling
in from the ocean, and a chilling mist enveloped every thing as with
a shroud. Old Point Comfort is a sandy promontory, which, with Point
Willoughby opposite, forms the mouth of the James River. It is a place
of public resort in summer as an agreeable watering-place. The fine
sandy beach affords delightful bathing grounds, and the cool breezes
from the ocean deprives summer of half of its fervor. The extremity of
the point, eighty acres in extent, is covered by Fort Monroe, *** one of
the most extensive fortifications in the United States. Within the
area of the fort are the officers' quarters, with neat flower-gardens
attached; and over the surface are scattered beautiful live-oaks,
isolated and in groves, which give the place a summer aspect, even in
mid-winter. Between Point Comfort and the opposite Cape the water is
shallow, except in a narrow channel through the bar. Here the ocean
tides and the river currents meet, and produce a continual ripple. From
this circumstance the name of _Rip Raps_ was given to the spot. In
the midst of these, nineteen hundred yards from Fort Monroe, is
the half-finished Fort Calhoun, or Castle of the Rip Raps. It was
ascertained, while building it, that the ground was unstable, and the
heavy masonry began to sink. Immense masses of loose stones have since
been piled upon it, to sink it as deep as it will go before completing
the walls. In this condition it now remains, and it is to be hoped that
not another hour will be employed upon it, except to carry away the
stones for the more useful and more noble purpose of erecting an
iron-foundery or a cotton-mill. Henceforth our fortresses, and other
paraphernalia of war, will have no other useful service to perform than
to illustrate the history of a less enlightened age.

Within the bar of the Rip Raps is the spacious harbor called the Hampton
Roads, wherein vast navies might ride with safety. Twice, hostile fleets
have cleft those waters. The first was in October, 1775, when Lord
Dunmore, driven by his fears, as we have seen, from Williamsburg,
gratified his desire for revenge by destroying the property of the
patriots. The people of Hampton anticipated an attack by the British
fleet, **** and applied to the Committee of Safety for assistance.
Colonel Woodford, with one hundred Culpepper men, was sent to protect
them; but before their arrival, Captain Squires, of the British navy,
sent by Dunmore with six tenders, appeared in Hampton Creek.[[Oct 24,
1775]] He commenced a furious cannonade, and under that cover sent
armed men in boats to burn the town. Virginia riflemen, concealed in
the houses, soon sent so many death-shots that the boats were obliged to
return. The tenders were compelled to recede beyond the reach of their
rifles,

* Hampton, in Elizabeth City county, is one of the oldest towns in
Virginia. Its site was visited by Captain John Smith in 1607, while
exploring the mouth of the James River. The natives called the place
Ke-cough-lan. The English commenced a settlement there in 1610, and in
1705 it was erected into a town bylaw.

** This point was Smith's first landing-place, and because he found good
anchorage, a hospitable reception, and various other comforts, he gave
it the name it now bears.

*** In 1630 a small fort was erected on Point Comfort; and it was there
that Count De Grasse caused some fortifications to be thrown up to
cover the landing of the troops under St. Simon previous to the siege of
Yorktown in 1781.

**** Dunmore's force consisted of the Fowey, Mercury, Kingfisher, and
Otter; two companies from a West India regiment, and a motley rabble of
negroes and Tories.

[[[Repulse of Dunmore.--St. John's Church.--Attack on Hampton in
1813.--Voyage to Norfolk.]]]

{532}and wait for re-enforcements. Woodford arrived at daybreak on the
twenty-fifth, and, momentarily expecting an attack from the enemy, he
immediately disposed his men for action. At sunrise the hostile fleet
bore in for the shore, and, laying with springs on her cables, commenced
a heavy cannonade upon the town, and greatly damaged many of the houses.
Woodford commanded his men to fire with caution and sure aim, the
vessels being within rifle shot. Men were picked off in every part of
the ships, and great terror soon prevailed in the fleet.

[Illustration: 9542]

The cannons were deserted, for every gunner became a target for the
sharpshooters. Unable to withstand such a destructive fire, the British
commander ordered the cables to be slipped and the vessels to retreat.
The latter movement was difficult, for men seen at the helm or aloft
adjusting the sails were singled out and shot down. Many of them
retreated to the holds of the vessels, and refused obedience to their
commanders when ordered out on the perilous duty. Two of the sloops
drifted ashore. Before the fleet could escape, the inhabitants of
the town, with Woodford's corps, sunk five vessels. The victory was
complete. *

Among the buildings yet remaining, which suffered from this cannonading,
is St. John's (Protestant Episcopal) Church, said to be the third
oldest house of worship in the state. The earliest inscription in its
grave-yard is 1701. Before the Revolution, the royal arms, handsomely
carved, were upon the steeple. It is related that soon after the
Declaration of Independence was promulgated, the steeple was shattered
by lightning, and the insignia of royalty hurled to the ground.

In 1813,[[June 25]] Hampton was attacked by Admiral Cookburn, with his
fleet, and by a force of two thousand men under General Beckwith, who
landed at Old Point Comfort. The garrison of the slight fortification at
Hampton consisted of four hundred and fifty militia. They were too weak
to defend themselves, and retired. The town was given up to pillage at
the hands of a renegade corps of French prisoners, who had been promised
such a gratification. For two days they desolated Hampton without
restraint. Private property was plundered or destroyed; the leading
citizens were grossly insulted and abused; females were violated; and in
one instance an aged sick man was murdered in the arms of his wife. ***
When filled to satiety, the vultures left Hampton Roads to seek for prey
elsewhere.

The easterly wind ceased at noon; the clouds dispersed, and the sun
shone out with all the brilliancy and fervor of early June, when I rode
back to Hampton from Old Point Comfort. At three o'clock a strong breeze
from the west brought back the masses of vapor which had been borne
toward the Blue Ridge all night. They came in heavy cumulous clouds, and
when, a little before five o'clock, I embarked upon a steam-packet for
Norfolk, eighteen miles distant, rain fell copiously. We entered the
Elizabeth River at dusk, and arrived at Norfolk a little past six
o'clock. ****

* Jones, p. 63-64. Howison, ii., 95.

** This view is from the church-yard looking southeast. The edifice is
cruciform, and built of imported brick. It is near the head of the town,
on the east side of the York road. In a field about a mile from Hampton
are four black marble tablets, with arms and inscriptions upon two of
them. One there, over the grave of Vice-admiral Neville, bears the date
of 1697; the other, over the remains of Thomas Carle, has the date of
1700 upon it.

*** Perkins's History of the Late War. These outrages, so dishonorable
to the British-character, are facts well attested by a committee of
Congress appointed to investigate the matter.

**** Norfolk is situated on the north bank of the Elizabeth River, at
the head of steam-boat navigation. It was established by law as a town
in 1705, formed into a borough in 1736, and incorporated a city by the
Virginia Legislature in 1845.

[[[St. Paul's Church and its Associations.--Ride to the Great
Bridge.--Description of the Locality.]]]

{533}The morning of the twenty-third[[Dec. 1848]]was cold and
blustering, like a late November day at the North. Before breakfast, I
called upon the sexton of old St. Paul's Church, procured the key of the
strong inclosure which surrounds it and the ancient burial-ground, and
in the keen frosty air made the annexed sketch.

[Illustration: 8543]

This venerable edifice is almost the only survivor of the conflagration
of the town on the first of January, 1776, an event which will be
noticed presently. The church is cruciform, and built of imported
bricks, the ends of which are glazed, and gives the edifice a checkered
appearance like that of Carpenters' Hall, and several other buildings
in Philadelphia. On the street front of the church, near the southwest
corner, is a large cavity made by a cannon-ball hurled from the British
shipping during the attack just alluded to. It is an honorable scar, and
has been allowed to remain for the gratification of the curious, and as
a mute relator of the malice of the foes to liberty.

[Illustration: 0543]

The short battlemented tower, built of wood, is a recent addition to the
church. Originally there was a small tower with a spire at each corner,
on the other end of the main building. With these exceptions, the
exterior is the same as when Norfolk was destroyed; its interior has
been entirely changed, and adorned with fresco painting. Over the
principal side entrance to the church, the date of its erection (1739)
is given in large figures formed by projecting bricks. I worshiped in
the old fane on the Sabbath, but confess to wandering thoughts, for the
associations of the place often closed the sensorium to the voice of
the preacher.

At eight o'clock I started for the Great Bridge, and the verge of the
Dismal Swamp. The country is level most of the way; and the road crosses
two considerable swamps between Norfolk and the Great Bridge, wherein
the dark-green gall-bush, loaded with fruit resembling whortleberries,
abounds. Great Bridge is the name for a comparatively insignificant
structure, unless the causeways connected with it may be included in the
term.

The Great Bridge proper is about forty yards in length, and spans
the south bank of the Elizabeth Diver, about nine miles from Norfolk.
Extensive marshes, filled and drained alternately with the flow of the
tide, spread out on each side of the river, making the whole breadth
of morass and stream, at this point, about half a mile wide. The Great
Bridge' extends across the main stream from two islands of firm earth,
which are covered with trees and shrubbery. Each of these islands
are connected with the main by a causeway and smaller bridges. On the
western side of the river is the small scattered village of Great

* This view is from the western bank of the stream, near the tide-mill,
looking north. On the left of the bridge are seen piles of wood
and lumber, the chief articles of trade there. The causeway is seen
extending on the right, to the island on the Norfolk side, whereon is
a wind-mill constructed several years ago by a man whose acumen was
certainly not remarkable. Placed in the midst of a morass and surrounded
by trees, its sails never revolved, and it remains a monument of
folly. It stands upon the site of the southern extremities of the
fortifications thrown up by Dnnmore, and serves the useful purpose of a
guide to the remains of those works.

[[[Dunmore at Norfolk.--Seizure of Holt's Printing-office.--Holt's
Career.--Preparations for Battle.]]]

{534}Bridge, not much larger now than it was at the period of the
Revolution. On the island at the western end of the bridge are two or
three houses and a tide-mill, and upon the one at the Norfolk side,
where Dunmore cast up intrenchments, is a wind-mill, seen on the extreme
left in the preceding picture. The marsh is covered with osiers, and
tall coarse grass; and the whole scene, though picturesque, is rather
dreary in aspect. Let us observe what history has chronicled respecting
the Great Bridge and vicinity.

We have already considered the flight of Dunmore from Williamsburg,
and his attempt to destroy Hampton, and have alluded to his raising the
royal standard at Norfolk, and proclaiming martial law throughout the
colony, and freedom to the slaves.

[Illustration: 8544]

He made Norfolk harbor the rendezvous for the British fleet, and
determined there to establish the headquarters of ministerial power in
the Old Dominion. Previous to making an effort to take possession of the
town, he sent a few soldiers and sailors ashore, under cover of the guns
of the ships, to carry off John Holt's printing establishment, which was
doing good service for the patriot cause. Holt, though a high churchman,
was an ardent and uncompromising Whig. This outrage was committed, and
two of Holt's workmen were taken away prisoners, without resistance from
the people. The Tories were numerous, and the Whigs were overawed. The
corporation of Norfolk sent a letter of remonstrance to Dunmore; it was
answered by insult. * This insult was followed by violence. Hampton
was attacked, and depredations were committed upon the shores of the
Elizabeth and James Rivers. Repelled with spirit, Dunmore resolved to
strike a blow of terror. With his motley force he penetrated Princess
Anne county, to plunder and lay waste. He was successful, and emboldened
thereby, declared open war. All Lower Virginia was aroused, and the
government directed its whole attention to the portion of the state thus
menaced. It was at this time that Dunmore's attempt to bring the
Indians upon the colonists was made known. The people burned with fierce
indignation. Colonel Woodford, who afterward became a brigadier general
in the Continental army, was sent with a detachment of minute-men into
Norfolk county, and the militia of that section were called to arms.
Adjutant Bullit accompanied him. Perceiving these preparations, Dunmore
became alarmed. He constructed batteries and intrenchments at Norfolk,
armed the blacks and Tories, and ordered the country people to send
their cattle to the city for his use, under penalties for disobedience.

* The municipal authorities informed Dunmore that they could easily have
prevented the removal of the type, but preferred a peaceable course,
and asked for the immediate return of the persons and property illegally
carried away. Dunmore replied that he had done the people of Norfolk
good service by depriving them of the means of having their minds
poisoned by rebellious doctrines, and intimated that cowardice alone
prevented their interfering when the types were carried to the fleet.
Holt went to Williamsburg, where he had formerly resided and held the
office of mayor, and published a severe article against Dunmore. He then
went to New York, where, ten years before, he had published the New York
Gazette and Post Boy, in company with James Parker, and established a
newspaper. When the British took possession of the city, he left it, and
published his journal at Esopus and Poughkeepsie. While at the former
place, he published Burgoyne's pompous proclamation, noticed on page
133, volume i.; and while at the latter, he sent forth to the world the
dreadful account of the Wyoming massacre, which he received from, the
flying fugitives. Holt died January thirtieth, 1784, aged sixty-four
years. His widow printed a memorial of him on cards, which she
distributed among their friends.*--See Thomas's History of Printing,
ii., 105.

* The folio win a is a copy of the memorial preserved in Alden's
Collection of American Epitaphs, i., 271: "A due tribute to the memory
of John Holt, printer to this state, a native of Virginia, who patiently
obeyed Death's awful summons, on the thirtieth of January, 1784, in
the sixty-fourth year of his age. To say that his family lament him,
is needless; that his friends bewail him, useless; that all regret him,
unnecessary; for that he merited every esteem, is certain. The tongue
of slander can not say less, though justice might say more. In token of
sincere affection, his disconsolate widow hath caused this memorial to
be erected."

[[[Fortifications at the Great Bridge.--Attack on the American
Redoubt.--Death of Capt. Fordyce.--Stratagem of Maj. Marshall.]]]

{535}Apprised of the movement of Woodford, and the point from whence he
might expect the approach of the Virginians, Dunmore resolved to fortify
the passage of the Elizabeth River at Great Bridge. His force consisting
of only about two hundred regulars, and a corps of Norfolk volunteer
Loyalists, he beat up for recruits among the negroes and the vilest
portion of society. He cast up breast-works upon the island, on the
Norfolk side of the Great Bridge, and furnished them amply with cannons.
This presented a serious obstacle to the Virginians, who could approach
the batteries only upon a narrow causeway. With a motley force of
regulars and volunteers, negroes and vagrants, in number about six
hundred, Dunmore garrisoned his fortress. The Virginians constructed a
small fortification, of semicircular form, near, the western end of the
causeway, the remains of which were yet quite visible when I visited
the spot.[[Dec. 1848]] From the breast-work a street ascended about four.
hundred yards to a church, where the main body of the patriots were
encamped.

On Saturday morning, the ninth of December,[[1775]] before daylight,
Dunmore, who remained at Norfolk, ordered Captains Leslie and Fordyce to
attack the redoubt of the patriots. He had been informed that they were
few in number, and weak in skill and experience; he, therefore, felt
certain of success. * When the Virginians had beaten the reveille,
Captain Fordyce, with about sixty grenadiers and a corps of regulars,
was ordered to the attack. After firing one or two cannons and some
musketry, he pressed forward, crossed the Great Bridge, burned the
houses and some shingles upon the island, on which the tide-mill now
stands, and made an attack upon the guards in the breast-work. The
fire of the enemy was returned, and the assailants were thrown into
confusion. Fordyce rallied them, and having brought two pieces of cannon
over the bridge, and placed them on the island in such a position as to
command the breast-work, led his men (about one hundred and twenty in
number) steadily across the causeway, keeping up a constant and heavy
fire as they approached Woodford's redoubt. Lieutenant Travis, who
commanded in the redoubt, ordered his men to reserve their fire until
the enemy came within fifty yards, and then, with sure aim, pour volley
after volley upon the assailants as rapidly as possible. Believing the
redoubt to be deserted, Fordyce waved his hat over his head, shouted
"The day is our own!" and rushed forward toward the breast-work. The
order of Lieutenant Travis was obeyed with terrible effect. His men,
about ninety in number, rose to their feet and discharged a full volley
upon the enemy. The gallant Captain Fordyce, who was marked by the
riflemen, fell, pierced by fourteen bullets, within fifteen steps of the
breast-works. His followers, greatly terrified, retreated in confusion
across the causeway, and were dreadfully galled in their rear.

Captain Leslie, ** who, with about two hundred and thirty negroes and
Tories, had remained upon the island at the west end of the bridge, now
rallied the regulars, and kept up the firing of the two field-pieces.
Colonel Woodford, with the main body of the Virginians, left the church
at the same time, and advanced to the relief of the garrison in the
intrench-ments. Upon his approaching line the field pieces played
incessantly, but the Virginians pressed steadily forward. Colonel
Stevens, *** of the Culpepper battalion, went round to the

* Thomas Marshall, father of the late chief justice, and also the
latter, then a lieutenant in the minute battalion, were among the
Virginians at the Great Bridge. Thomas Marshall was major at that time
He had a shrewd servant with him, whom he caused to desert to Dunmore,
after being instructed in his duty. He reported to his lordship that
there were not more than three hundred shirtmen (as the British called
the Virginian riflemen, who wore their hunting shirts) at the bridge.
This emboldened Dunmore, and he sent Captains Leslie and Fordyce at once
to attack the redoubt.

** This officer, the son of the Earl of Levin, was mortally wounded at
Princeton, on the second of January, 1777. See page 332, volume i.

*** Edward Stevens, who afterward became a brigadier, was a very
efficient officer. His epitaph upon a monument in his family
burial-ground, half a mile north of the Culpepper Court House, tells
briefly the events of his public life:

[Illustration: 9545]

*** "This gallant officer and upright man served his country with
reputation in the field and Senate of his native state. He took an
active part and had a principal share in the war of the Revolution, and
acquired great distinction at the battles of Great Bridge, Brandywine.
Germantown, Camden, Guilford, and the siege of York; and although
zealous in the cause of American freedom, his conduct was not marked
with the least degree of malevolence or party spirit. Those who honestly
differed with him in opinion he always treated with singular tenderness.
In strict integrity, honest patriotism, and immovable courage, he was
surpassed by none, and had few equals." He died on the seventeenth of
August, 1820, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

[[[Close of the Battle.--Terror of the Captives.--Norfolk entered by the
Americans.--Dunmore's Threat.]]]

{536}left, and flanked the enemy with so much vigor that a route ensued
and the battle ended. The enemy left their two field-pieees behind, but
took care to spike them with nails, and fled in confusion to their fort
on the Norfolk side. The battle lasted only about twenty-five minutes,
but was very severe. The number of the enemy slain is not precisely
known. Thirty-one killed and wounded fell into the hands of the
patriots, and many were carried away by their friends. Gordon says their
whole loss was sixty-two. They fought desperately, for they preferred
death to captivity, Dunmore having assured them that, if they were
caught alive, the savage Virginians would scalp them. * It is a
remarkable fact that not a single Virginian was killed during the
engagement, and only one man was slightly wounded in the hand,
notwithstanding the two field-pieces upon the island hurled
double-headed shot as far as the church, and cannonaded them with
grape-shot as they approached their redoubt. The wounded who fell into
the hands of the Virginians were treated with the greatest tenderness,
except the Tories, who were made to feel some of the rigors of war.

The repulse of the British at Great Bridge greatly exasperated Dunmore,
who had remained in safety at Norfolk; and in his rage he swore he would
hang the boy that brought the tidings. The motley forces of his lordship
were dispirited by the event, and the Loyalists refused further service
in arms unless they could act with regulars. The Virginians, on the
other hand, were in high spirits, and Colonel Woodford determined
to push forward and take possession of the city. He issued a pacific
proclamation to the people of Princess Anne and Norfolk counties, and
many of the inhabitants repaired to his camp. Those who had joined
Dunmore on compulsion, were treated kindly; those who volunteered their
services were each hand-cuffed to a negro fellow-soldier and placed in
confinement.

On the fourteenth,[[Dec. 1775]] five days after the battle at the
bridge, Woodford entered the city in triumph, and the next morning,
Colonel (afterward General) Robert Howe, with a North Carolina regiment,
joined them, and assumed the command of all the patriot forees. Dunmore,
in the mean while, had caused the intrenchments at Norfolk to be
abandoned, the twenty pieces of cannon to be spiked, and invited the
Loyalists and their families to take refuge with him in the ships of the
fleet. The poor negroes who had joined his standard were left without
care or protection, and many starved.

Distress soon prevailed in the ships; famine menaced them with its keen
fangs. Parties sent on shore to procure provisions from the neighboring
country were eut off', or greatly annoyed by the Virginians, and
supplies for the multitude of mouths became daily more precarious.
The ships were galled by a desultory fire from the houses, and their
position became intolerable. At this juncture the Liverpool frigate,
from Great Britain, came into the harbor, and gave boldness to Governor
Dunmore. By the captain of the Liverpool, he immediately sent a flag to
Colonel Howe, commanding him to cease firing upon the ships and supply
the fleet with provisions, otherwise he should bombard the town. The
patriots answered by a flat refusal, and the governor prepared to
execute his barbarous threat. On the morning of the thirty-first of
December,[[1775]] Dunmore gave notice of his design, in order that women
and children, and the Loyalists still remaining, might retire to a
place of safety. At four o'clock on the morning of the first of
January,[[1776]] the Liverpool, ** Dunmore, and two sloops of war,
opened a heavy cannonade upon the town,

* "The prisoners expected to be scalped," wrote a correspondent of the
Virginia Gazette, and cried out, "For God's sake, do not murder us /"
One of them, unable to walk, cried out in this manner to one of our men,
and was answered by him, "Put your arm around my neck, and I will show
what I intend to do." Then taking him, with his arm over his neck,
he walked slowly along, bearing him with great tenderness, to the
breast-work."--Virginia Gazette, December 14, 1775; Gordon, Ramsay,
Botta, Girardin, Howison.

** It was a shot from this vessel which struck the corner of St. Paul's
Church, referred to on a preceding page.

[[[Destruction of Norfolk.--Distress.--Disposition of the American
Troops.--Dunmore at Gwyn's Island.--General Lewis.]]]

{537}and parties of marines and sailors went on shore and set fire to
the warehouses. The wind was blowing' from the water, and the buildings
being chiefly of wood and filled with pitch and turpentine, the greater
part of the compact portion of the city was in flames before midnight.
The conflagration raged for fifty hours, and the wretched inhabitants,
Whigs and Tories, saw their property and homes licked up by the
consumer, and their heads made shelterless in the cold winter air,
without the power of staying the fury of the destroyer or saving the
necessaries of life. Not content with laying the town in ashes, the
petty Nero heightened the terror of the scene and the anguish of the
people by a cannonade from the ships during the conflagration. Parties
of musketeers, also, went to places where people were collected and
attacked them. Horror reigned supreme, and destitution in its worst
features there bore rule. Yet a kind Providence guarded the lives of the
smitten inhabitants; and during the three days of terror while the fire
raged, and cannon-balls were hurled into the town in abundance, not
one of the patriot troops were killed, and only three or four women and
children were slain in the streets. Seven persons were wounded. * The
invading parties were uniformly driven back to their ships with loss. In
these repulses the intrepid Stevens was conspicuous, and displayed all
the courage of a veteran soldier.

Colonel Stevens and his little band remained upon the site of Norfolk,
until February,[[1776]] when, having removed the families and appraised
the dwellings which remained, he caused them to be destroyed, that the
enemy might have no shelter. Thus the most flourishing town in Virginia
was made an utter desolation; ** but its eligible location insured its
phonix-like resurrection, and again, when peace returned, "beauty for
ashes" soon characterized the spot. Howe divided his troops; some were
stationed at Kemp's Landing, some at the Great Bridge, and others in
Suffolk, whither most of the fugitives from the city fled, and found
open-handed hospitality in the interior.

Dunmore's movements on the coast compelled the Virginians to exercise
the most active vigilance. After Howe abandoned the site of Norfolk,
the fugitive governor erected barracks there, but being prevented from
obtaining supplies from the neighboring country, he destroyed them,
sailed down the Elizabeth River, and after maneuvering for a while in
Hampton Roads,[[May, 1776]] he finally landed upon Gwyn's Island, in
Chesapeake Bay, on the east side of Matthew's county, near the mouth of
the Piankatank River. This island contains about two thousand acres, and
was remarkable for its fertility and beauty. Dunmore's force
consisted of about five hundred men, white and black. He cast up some
intrenchments, and built a stockade fort, with the evident intention of
making that his place of rendezvous while plundering and desolating the
plantations on the neighboring coast.

General Andrew Lewis, *** then in command of a brigade of Virginia
troops, was sent by the Committee of Safety to dislodge Dunmore. On
the eighth of July, he erected two batteries (one mounting two eighteen
pounders, and the other bearing lighter guns), nearly opposite the point
on the island where the enemy was encamped. The next morning,[[July 9,
1776]] at eight o'clock, Lewis gave the signal for attack, by applying a
match, himself, to

* Virginia Gazette, January, 1776. Burk, iii., 451. Howison, ii., 109.

** When Dunmore destroyed Norfolk, its population was six thousand, and
so rapidly was it increasing in business and wealth, that in the two
years from 1773 to 1775, the rents in the city increased from forty
thousand to fifty thousand dollars a year. The actual loss by the
cannonade and conflagration was estimated at fifteen hundred thousand
dollars; the personal suffering was inconceivable.

[Illustration: 9547]

*** Andrew Lewis was a native of Augusta county, in Virginia. With five
brothers, he was in the battle when Braddock was defeated, and continued
active during ihe war. He was a major in Washington's Virginia regiment,
and was highly esteemed by him for his courage and skill. He was the
commander, as already noticed on page 487, at the battle of Point
Pleasant, in 1774. When Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of
the Continental army, he recommended Lewis as one of the major generals,
but he was overlooked. He accepted the office of a brigadier general,
and commanded a detachment of the army stationed near Williamsburg. He
drove Dunmore from Gwyn's Island in 1776, and resigned his command on
account of illness in 1780. He died in Bedford county, forty miles from
his home, on the Roanoke, while on his way thither. General Lewis was
more than six feet in height, and possessed great personal dignity.

[[[Attack upon Dunmore.--His Flight.--Distress upon Gwyn's
Island.--Destruction of Properly by Collier and Matthews.]]]

an eighteen pounder. The ball passed through the hull of the Dunmore,
which was lying five hundred yards distant; a second shot cut her
boatswain in twain, and a third shivered one of her timbers, a splinter
from which struck Lord Dunmore, wounded his leg, and smashed his china.
Both batteries then opened upon the governor's fleet, camp, and works.
Terror now prevailed in the fleet, and confusion in the camp. Almost
every ship slipped its cables, and endeavored to escape. Dunmore's
batteries were silenced; the tents of his camp were knocked down, and
terrible breaches were made in his stockade. The assailants ceased
firing at nine o'clock, but no signal of surrender being given, it was
renewed at meridian.

Early on the following morning, having collected some small craft in the
neighborhood, Lewis ordered Colonel M'Clanahan, with two hundred men, to
cross to the island. The enemy evacuated before the Virginian's landed,
and fled to the ships, leaving their dead and many wounded behind them.
A horrible scene was there presented. Half-putrefied bodies lay in
almost uncovered shallow graves, and the dying, scattered in various
directions, were filling the air with their groans. The island was
dotted with graves, for the small-pox and fevers had raged with great
violence in the fleet and in the camp for some time. Some were burned
in the brush huts, which took fire; and others, abandoned to their fate,
had crawled to the sandy beach and were perishing. Only one man of the
assailants was killed; Captain Arundel, who was slain by the bursting
of a mortar of his own invention. The loss of the enemy could not be
ascertained, but it must have been considerable.

On leaving the island, Dunmore caused several of his vessels, which were
aground, to be burned, and with the remnants of his fleet he sailed
out of the Chesapeake, entered the Potomac, and, after plundering and
desolating several plantations on that river, above Aquia Creek, * he
returned to Lynn Haven Bay, where he dismissed some of the ships for
the Bermudas, some to the West Indies, and some to St. Augustine, with
booty, among which was almost a thousand slaves. He soon joined the
naval force in New York, and toward the close of the year sailed for
England. **

After the departure of Dunmore, the Virginia coast enjoyed comparative
quiet until 1779,[[May 9]]when a British fleet, under Admiral Sir George
Collier, entered Hampton Roads. He sailed up the Elizabeth River and
attacked Fort Nelson, which had been erected by the Virginians a little
below Portsmouth to secure that place, Norfolk, and the navy-yard at
Gosport from attack. The fort was garrisoned by about one hundred and
fifty men under Major Thomas Matthews, who, on the approach of Collier,
and General Matthews, who commanded the British land forces, abandoned
it, and retreated to the Dismal Swamp, leaving the American flag flying
from the ramparts. The British took possession of Portsmouth, Norfolk,
Gosport, and Suffolk, on the eleventh, all being abandoned by the
Virginians. Great quantities of stores, ammunition and cannons, fell
into the hands of the invaders. A large quantity of naval stores were
carried away; the residue, and a great quantity of tobacco, were burned
or otherwise destroyed. *** After pillaging Portsmouth and destroying
Suffolk, the fleet, with General Matthews and his land forces, went
to sea, returned to New York, and assisted Sir Henry Clinton in taking
possession of the fortresses on Stony and Verplanck's Points, on the
Hudson.

* Sec page 419.

** Dunmore never returned to the United States. He went to Europe,
and two years afterward was appointed governor of Bermuda. He was very
unpopular, and did not long remain there. He died in England in 1809.
His wife was Lady Charlotte Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Galloway.

*** The amount of property destroyed in this expedition up the Elizabeth
River was very great. Previous to the abandonment of Portsmouth and
Gosport, the Americans burned a ship-of-war of twenty-eight guns, then
on the stocks, and two heavily-laden French merchantmen. One of these
contained a thousand hogsheads of tobacco. Several vessels of war were
taken on the stocks, and also several merchantmen. The whole number
of vessels taken, burned, and destroyed amounted to one hundred and
thirty-seven. They were laden with tobacco, tar, and turpentine. Many
privateers were captured or destroyed. At Suffolk, nine thousand barrels
of salted pork, eight thousand barrels of tar, pitch, and turpentine,
and a vast quantity of stores and merchandise, were burned.

[[[Leslie's Expedition.--Deep Creek and Dismal Swamp.--Drummond's
Lake.--Moore's Poem.]]]

{539}Again, in 1780, hostile vessels were in the Elizabeth River.
Brigadier-general Leslie, with about three thousand troops from New
York, landed at Portsmouth,[[Oct.]] and took possession of every kind of
public property there and in the vicinity. Leslie was to co-operate with
Cornwallis, who proposed to enter Virginia from the south. He did not
remain long, for Cornwallis, hearing of the defeat of Ferguson at King's
Mountain, hastily retreated; and Leslie, on being advised of this, left
for Charleston,[[Nov. 22, 1780]] for the purpose (b) of joining the earl
in the Carolinas. Again, in 1781, hostile troops, under Arnold, were on
the shores of the Elizabeth. That expedition we will consider presently.

I left the Great Bridge at noon, and rode to Deep Creek, a small village
on the northern verge of the Dismal Swamp, nine miles distant. * There
the Dismal Swamp Canal terminates, and far into the gloomy recesses
this work opens an avenue for the vision. I ardently desired to go to
Drummond's Lake, lying in the center of the swamp, around which clusters
so much that is romantic and mysterious; but want of time obliged me to
be content to stand on the rough selvedge of the morass and contemplate
with wonder the magnificent cypresses, junipers, oaks, gums, and pines
which form the stately columns of the grand and solemn aisles in this
mysterious temple of nature. ** Below waved the tall reeds, and the
tangled shrubbery of the gall-bush and laurel; and up the massive trunks
and spreading branches of the forest-monarchs crept the woodbine, the
ivy, and the muscadine, covering with fretwork and gorgeous tracery the
broad arches from which hung the sombre moss, like trophy banners in
ancient halls. A deep silence prevailed, for it was winter-time, and
buzzing insects and warbling birds were absent or mute. No life appeared
in the vast solitude, except occasionally a gray squirrel, a partridge,
or a scarlet taniger, the red plumage of the latter flashing like a
fire-brand as it flitted by.=

```"'Tis a wild spot, and hath a gloomy look;

```The bird sings never merrily in the trees,

```And the young leaves seem blighted. A rank growth

```Spreads poisonously 'round, with power to taint

```With blustering dews the thoughtless hand that dares

```To penetrate the covert."

`````--W. Gillmore Simms.=

I returned to Norfolk toward evening. It was Saturday night, and as
Monday would be the opening of the Christmas holidays, I met great
numbers of negroes on the road, going to the country to spend their week
of leisure with their friends on the plantations of their masters. They
all appeared to be happy and musical as larks, and made the forest ring
with their joyous laugh and melodious songs. All carried a bundle, or
a basket filled with presents for their friends. Some had new hats,
and others garments; others were carrying various knickknacks and
fire-crackers, and a few of the men were "toting" a little too much
"fire-water." From the youngest, to the oldest who rode in mule-carts,
all faces beamed with the joy of the hour.

* The Dismal Swamp lies partly in Virginia and partly in North Carolina.
Its extent from north to south is about thirty miles, and from east to
west about ten miles. No less than five navigable streams and several
creeks have their rise in it. It is made subservient to the wants of
commerce, by furnishing the raw material for an immense quantity of
shingles and other juniper lumber. The Dismal Swamp Canal runs through
it from north to south, and the Portsmouth and Roanoke railway passes
aeross five miles of its northern border. The canal has a stage-road
running parallel with it. extending from Deep Creek to Elizabeth.

** Drummond's Lake, so called after a hunter of that name who discovered
it, is near the center of the swamp. A hotel has been ereeted upon its
shore, and is a place of considerable resort. Being on the line
between Virginia and North Carolina, it is a sort of Gretna Green where
"runaway matches" are consummated. Tradition tells of a young man
who, on the death of the girl he loved, lost his reason. He suddenly
disappeared, and his friends never heard of him afterward. In his
ravings he often said she was not dead, but gone to the Dismal Swamp,
and it is supposed he wandered into its gloomy morasses and perished.
Moore, who visited Norfolk in 1804, on hearing this tradition, wrote his
touching ballad, commencing,

     "They made her a grave too cold and damp
     And her fire-fly lamp I soon shall see,
     For a soul so warm and true;
     And her paddle I soon shall hear;
     And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,
     Long and loving our life shall be,
     Where all night long, by her fire-fly lamp,
     And I'll hide lhe maid in a cypress.-tree
     She paddles her white canoe.
     When the footsteps of Death are near."

[[[Return to Norfolk.--Portsmouth and Gosport.--French and English
Fleets.--Attempt to capture Arnold.]]]

{540}I arrived at Norfolk in time to cross the river to Portsmouth * and
walk to the government navy-yard at Gosport, a short distance above. It
is reached by a causeway from Portsmouth, and is well worthy of a visit
from the traveler.

[Illustration: 9550]

There lay the Pennsylvania, the largest ship-of-war in the world--a
colossal monument of government folly and extravagance. She was full
rigged, and near her were the frigates Constitution and Constellation,
dismantled. Her timber and iron might make many comfortable dwellings,
but they are allowed to rot and rust in utter uselessness. I tarried
but a moment there, for the sun was going down, and I wished to sketch
Arnold's head-quarters, at Portsmouth, before returning to Norfolk,
for I expected to ascend the James River on Monday. Arnold's quarters,
represented in the engraving, is a building of stone, and stands on the
corner of High and Crawford Streets, a short distance from the ferry.
Let us note the events connected with Arnold's residence here.

We have mentioned on page 436 the retreat of Arnold down the James River
after his depredations at Richmond. He proceeded to Portsmouth, where
he took post, and began to fortify on the twentieth of January.[[1781]]
Generals Steuben, Nelson, Weedon, and Muhlenberg were actively engaged
in collecting the militia to defend the country and drive out the
invaders, and Washington devised a plan for capturing the traitor.
Having learned that four British ships, whieh had been lying in
Gardiner's Bay, off the east end of Long Island, had gone eastward, and
that two of them were disabled in a storm, he requested Rochambcau to
send the French fleet (then commanded by D'Estouches, the successor of
Admiral Ternay) and a detachment of his land forces to the Chesapeake.
At the same time, he sent La Fayette thither with a detachment of twelve
hundred infantry. The plan was to attack the traitor by sea and land
simultaneously, so that he could not escape from the Elizabeth River.
A part, only, of the French fleet was sent, under De Tilley,[[Feb 9,
1781]] with orders to attempt the destruction of the British fleet
there. They took or destroyed ten small vessels. They also captured
the Romulus, of one hundred and fourteen guns, at the entrance of
Narraganset Bay, and carried her into Newport harbor. This expedition
accomplished nothing respecting Arnold; and Washington, anxious to
have co-operation with La Fayette and the Virginia militia against the
recreant, went to Newport and held an interview with Rochambeau.

The result was that the French fleet left Newport on the eighth of
March. They were followed by the British fleet, then in Gardiner's Bay,
under Admiral Arbuthnot, who intercepted the French at the entrance of
the Chesapeake.[[Feb 16]]

They drew up in battle order, eight ships on a side, and a partial
engagement ensued. Neither party could justly claim a victory. The
French abandoned their design of co-operating with the marquis,
and returned to Newport. The plan, so well arranged and so nearly
accomplished, was defeated. La Fayette marched back to the head of Elk,
and Arnold was left to the skill and bravery of the Virginia troops
near him. ** These were inadequate to drive him from Portsmouth, and he
remained there until about the middle of April, when he was joined by
a detachment under Major-general Phillips. The two commanders now
determined to overrun all the fertile portion of Virginia lying near the
James River, and on the twenty-fourth of April they reached City Point
with twenty-five hundred troops Thither we will follow them presently.

* Portsmouth is a considerable town on the west side of the Elizabeth
River, opposite Norfolk. It lies upon lower ground than the latter. It
was established as a town in 1752, on lands owned by William Crawford,
in whose honor one of its finest streets was named. The Gosport
navy-yard is within half a mile of the center of Portsmouth, and around
it a little village has grown up.

** Governor Jefferson was eager to capture Arnold, and offered five
thousand guineas to any of the men of General Muhlenberg's Western corps
who would accomplish it.--See Jefferson's Letter to Muhlenberg, 1781.

[[[Departure from Norfolk.--Misfortunes of an Hostler.--Forts Nelson and
Norfolk.--Craney Island.]]]





CHAPTER XXI.


```"With evil omens from the harbor sails

````The ill-fated bark that worthless Arnold bears--

```God of the southern winds call up the gales

````And whistle in rude fury round his ears!

```With horrid waves insult his vessel's sides,

````And may the cast wind on a leeward shore

```Her cables part, while she in tumult rides,

````And shatters into shivers every oar."--Freneau.=


```"They came, as the ocean-wave comes in its wrath,

````When the storm spirit frowns on the deep;

```They came as the mountain-wind comes on its path

````When the tempest hath roused it from sleep;

```They were met, as the rock meets the wave,

````And dashes its fury to air;

```They were met, as the foe should be met by the brave,

````With courage, and not with despair."--Prosper M. Wetmore.=

[Illustration: 9551]

AWOKE at four o'clock on Christmas morning, and my first waking thought
was of the dawn of a fourth of July in a Northern city. Guns, pistols,
and squibs were already heralding the holiday; indeed the revelry
commenced at dark the previous evening, notwithstanding it was the night
of the Sabbath. Expecting to depart in the steam-boat for City Point at
six o'clock in the morning, I had directed the hostler, a funny little
negro, who was as full of promises as a bank-teller's drawer, to feed
my horse at half past four. I showed him a bright coin, and promised him
its possession if he would be punctual. Of course he would "be up before
dat time, rely upon it;" but experience had taught me to be distrustful.
At the appointed hour I went to the stable dormitory, and rapped several
times before the hostler stirred. "Yes, massa," he exclaimed, "I'se jis
turnin' over as you cum up de stair and striking a light with flint and
tinder, he went down to the stable with his lantern. I stood in the door
watching the breaking of the clouds and the peeping forth of the
stars after a stormy night, when a clatter in the stall attracted my
attention. Upon looking in, I discovered the little hostler under the
manger, with his tin lantern crushed beneath him, but the candle still
burning. "Ki!" he exclaimed, scrambling to regain his feet, "Ki! how
like de debble he butt! Mos knock my brains out!" I soon perceived the
cause of the trouble. A large black goat, with a beard like a Turk,
which I had seen in the stable the previous evening, observing the
negro's motions while rubbing Charley's legs, and interpreting them as
a challenge, had played the battering-ram with the hostler, and laid
him sprawling under the manger. "Did he hit you?" I inquired, gravely,
trying to suppress laughter. "Hit me, massa!" he exclaimed; "why he
most ruin me, I reckons. See dar!" and with all the dramatic gravity of
Anthony when he held up the robe of Cæsar, and exclaimed, "See what
a rent the envious Casea made!" the hostler exhibited a "rent" in his
nether garment at least an ell in length. Notwithstanding his mishap,
Billy insisted that "de goat is healthy for de hosses, and musn't be
turned out any how but he promised to give him a "licken de fus time he
ketch him asleep." Charley had his oats in time, and at six o'clock we
embarked on the _Alice_ for James River and City Point.

Going out of the harbor at Norfolk we passed the United States Marine
Hospital, on the western bank of the river, a spacious building standing
upon the site of Fort Nelson of the Revolution. On the opposite side I
perceived the ruins of Fort Norfolk, erected in 1812. We passed Craney
Island * before sunrise, and leaving Hampton and its noble harbor on the

* Craney Island is at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. The Americans
erected fortifications there in 1812, which commanded the entrance to
Norfolk harbor. On the twenty-second of June, 1813, a powerful British
fleet made an attack upon these works. A part of the hostile force
landed on Nansemond Point,

     Lone relic of the past, old moldering pile,
     Where twines the ivy round thy ruins gray,
     Where the lone toad sits brooding in the aisle,
     Once trod by "ladye fayre" and gallant gay!
     Before my gaze altar and chancel rise,
     The surpliced priest, the mourner bowed in prayer
     Fair worshipers, with heaven-directed eyes,
     And manhood's piety, and pride are there!
     Knights of the olden time perchance are kneeling,
     And choristers pour forth the hallowed hymn;
     And hark! the organ's solemn strains are pealing.
     Like songs of seraphs, or rapt cherubim!
     But no! 'tis but my fancy, and I gaze
     On ruined walls, where creeps the lizard cold;
     Or dusky bats beneath the pale moon's rays
     Their solemn, lonely midnight vigils hold.
     Yet they are here! the learned and the proud,
     Genius, and worth, and beauty--they are here!
     I stand rebuked amid the slumbering crowd,
     While time-past voices touch the spirit's ear."

     John C. M'Cabe.

and a part attempted to reach the island in barges. The former were
driven off by the Virginia militia, and the latter were so galled by the
guns of a battery, that those who were not destroyed retreated to the
ships. The repulse was decisive. More than two hundred of the enemy were
killed and wounded. Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Gosport were saved.

[[[Voyage up the James River.--City Point.--Petersburg.--Blandford
Church.--Founding of Petersburg.]]]

{542}right entered the broad mouth of the James River. A strong breeze,
warm as the breath of May, came from the southwest and dispersed the
moving clouds. I have seldom experienced a more delightful voyage than
on that genial Christmas day upon the ancient Powhatan, whose shores
are so thickly clustered with historical associations. Jamestown, the
Chickahominy, Charles City, Westover, and Berkley, were all passed
before noon; and at one o'clock we landed at City Point, at the junction
of the James and Appomattox Rivers, about forty miles below Richmond. *

[Illustration: 9552]

Here the British army, under Phillips and Arnold, debarked on the
twenty-fourth of April, 1781, and proceeded to Petersburg.

An intelligent mulatto, enjoying his holiday freedom, took a seat with
me for Petersburg. He was a guide on the way, and gave me considerable
information respecting localities around that town, where his master
resided. We passed through Blandford, an old town separated from
Petersburg ** only by a deep ravine and a small stream, and at a
little after three o'clock I was dining at the Bollingbrook. At four,
accompanied by a young man acquainted with the way, I went up to the old
Blandford Church, one of the most picturesque and attractive ruins in
Virginia. It stands in the midst of a burial-ground upon an eminence
overlooking the ancient village of Blandford and its younger sister at
the falls of the Appomattox, with an extensive and diversified landscape
for scores of miles around. The edifice is cruciform, and was built
of imported bricks about one hundred and fifty years ago. Some of the
noblest and wealthiest of Virginia's aristocracy worshiped within its
walls; for Blandford was the focus of fashion and refinement, while
Petersburg was rudely struggling for its present pre-eminence. But
the glory of the town and its church departed; Blandford is now only
a suburban hamlet of Petersburg, and the old temple, dismantled of its
interior decorations, is left to the occupancy of the bats and the owls.

* City Point is in Prince George county. It is a post village and a port
of entry. A rail-way connects it with Petersburg.

** Fort Henry, erected for a defense of the people south of the James
River, was built on the site of Petersburg in, 1646. Colonel Bolling, a
gentleman of taste and fortune, settled there early in the last century.
Colonel Byrd, of Westover, mentions him as living in fine style there
in 1728. Peter Jones was the first settler, having established a
trading-house there soon after the erection of Fort Henry. The locality
was first called Peter's Point, and afterward Petersburg. Jones was a
friend of Colonel Byrd, and accompanied that gentleman to the Roanoke in
1733. He says in his journal, "When we got home we laid the foundation
of two large cities; one at Shacco's, to be called Richmond; and the
other at the point of Appomattox, to be called Petersburg. The latter
and Blandford were established towns in 1748. Blandford was then the
most flourishing settlement of the two.

*** This view is from the outside of the old inclosure, looking south.

[[[Sudden Storm.--Services of Steuben.--Military Operations between City
Point and Williamsburg.]]]

{543}While sketching the venerable ruin, a heavy black cloud, like the
chariot of a summer tempest, came up from the southwest. I tarried a
moment at the reputed grave of General Phillips, and then hurried across
the ravine to Petersburg; but I was too late to escape the shower, and
was so thoroughly drenched that I was obliged to exchange every garment
for a dry one. A cool drizzle continued throughout the evening, and
gave a deeper coloring to the disappointment I felt on being denied
the privilege of passing an hour with Charles Campbell, Esq., one
of Virginia's best local historians. He was twenty miles away; so I
employed that hour in jotting down the incidents of the day, and in
turning over the leaves of the old chronicle. Petersburg is a central
point of view, and here, before we cross the Roanoke, we will consider
the remainder of the Revolutionary annals of the "Old Dominion."

We have already noticed the invasion under Arnold; the destruction of
Richmond, and the founderies and magazines at Westham, at the head ot
the falls of the James River; and at Yorktown observed the concluding
scenes of Cornwallis's operations in Virginia. It was a fortunate
circumstance for that state, that the Baron Steuben, the veteran
disciplinarian from the armies of Frederick the Great, was detained in
Virginia, while on his way southward with General Greene. His services
in disciplining the militia, and organizing them in such order as to
give them strength to beat back the invaders at various points, were of
incalculable value. During Arnold's invasion, they were led against
his disciplined parties on several occasions, and with success. On
one occasion, General Smallwood, with three hundred militia, drove the
traitor's boots out of the Appomattox, and sent them in confusion far
below City Point; and Steuben himself, with George Rogers Clarke, the
hero of the Ohio Valley, led a considerable force to strike the enemy
between Westover and the Chickahominy.

It being evident that the entire subjugation of Virginia was a part of
the plan of the British for the campaign of 1781, * Washington early
turned his attention to that point, and concerted measures to avert
the blow. La Fayette sought and obtained the honor of commanding the
Continental forces destined for that theater of action. Washington gave
him his instructions on the twentieth of February,[[1781]] and with
about twelve hundred troops, detached from the forces then at New
Windsor and Morristown, he marched southward. The first object of this
expedition, as we have seen, was to co-operate with the French fleet
against Arnold. That portion of the general plan failed, and the
marquis, as we have observed, returned to the head of Elk. **

General Phillips, in command of the united forces under Arnold and
himself, landed at City Point on the twenty-fourth of April,[[1781]]
where he remained until the next morning, when they marched
directly upon Petersburg. On his way up the James River, he sent
Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with the Queen's Rangers, to attack a body of
Virginia militia at Williamsburg, and to get possession of Yorktown. The
expedition landed near Burwell's Ferry, a little below Williamsburg, on
the nineteenth,[[April 1781]] at which place the Americans had thrown up
some intrenchments. The Virginians fled at the approach of Simcoe,
and General Phillips, with the army, landed. Simcoe marched that night
toward Williamsburg. It was a night of tempest and intense darkness, and
it was not until the morning of the twentieth when he entered the town.
The militia also fled from Williamsburg, and the enemy took possession
of the place. It being ascertained that a large garrison would be
necessary for Yorktown, if taken, the project of its capture was
abandoned, and the troops proceeded up the river. ***

Baron Steuben, with one thousand militia, had taken post near Blandford
Church, and

* Cornwallis had overrun the Carolinas, and the security of his
conquests depended, in a measure, upon the subjugation of Virginia, and
the establishment of royal power upon the shores of the Chesapeake from
the Capes to the Elk. Cornwallis expressed to Sir Henry Clinton a hope
that the Chesapeake might become the seat of war for that campaign, even
at the expense of abandoning New York, if necessary. "Until Virginia
is in a manner subdued," he said, "our hold upon the Carolinas must be
difficult, if not precarious."

** See page 540.

*** Simcoe's Journal, 189-192

[[[Skirmish near Petersburg.--Retreat of the Americans.--British
Occupation of the Town.--Mrs. Bolling.]]]

{544}was ready to receive the British. Notwithstanding his force
consisted of less than one third of the number of the enemy, he
determined to dispute the ground. The British came in sight toward noon,
and formed, with their line extended to the left, upon the plain near
Blandford. Phillips and Simcoe reconnoitered, and having satisfied
themselves that Steuben's force was not very large, prepared to attack
him.

[Illustration: 9554]

The ground was broken where the Americans were posted. A party of yagers
passing through a gully behind an orchard, got upon the flank of the
patrols, and fired with such effect as to cause their retreat to
an eminence in their rear. Phillips now ordered his artillery to
be secretly drawn up. As soon as it opened upon the Virginians,
Lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie advanced in front, while Simcoe with his
rangers, and Captain Boyd with light infantry, passed through the wood
to turn their left flank. Steuben perceived this movement, and ordered
his troops to fall back. It was now between three and four o'clock in
the afternoon. Inch by inch the British made their way, the Virginians
disputing their progress with pertinacity. The enemy were two hours
advancing one mile, and when they reached the heights near Blandford
Church, the Americans opened a fire upon them from their cannon on
Archer's Hill, on the north side of the Appomattox. Overmatched both by
skill and numbers, Steuben retreated across the Appomattox, destroyed
the bridge, and took post on Baker's Hill, from whence he soon retired
with his arms, baggage, and stores, to Chesterfield Court House,
ten miles distant. The bridge was soon repaired, and the next day
Abercrombie, with the light infantry and rangers, crossed over and
occupied the heights where Steuben had been posted. Four hundred
hogsheads of tobacco and the vessels in the river were burned, and other
property was destroyed. The loss of the Americans in killed, wounded,
and taken in this skirmish of nearly three hours, was between sixty and
seventy; that of the enemy was probably about the same. *

The British now prepared for offensive operations in the vicinity.
Phillips and Arnold quartered at the spacious mansion of Mrs. Bolling,
known as Bollingbrook, and yet standing upon East Hill, in the south
part of the town. ** Other officers also occupied the two man-

* Note.--Explanation of the Plan.--1, Yagers; 2, four pieces of cannon;
3, British Light Infantry; 4, Queen's Rangers; 5, Riflemen; 6, first
position of the Americans; 7, second position; 8, third position, across
the Appomattox; 9,.second position of the Queen's Rangers; 10, their
third position. This plan is copied from Simcoe's Journal.

* Jefferson's letter to Washington.

** There are here three eminences which overlook the town, East Hill,
Center Hill, and West Hill. Mrs. Bolling was a widow, and one of the
largest land-holders in Virginia. She owned the tobacco warehouses at
Petersburg, and nearly one half of the town. These were probably
spared because Mrs. Bolling treated Phillips and Arnold courteously. De
Chastellux, who afterward visited Petersburg, has the following notice
of the building seen in the engraving upon the next page. "Her house, or
rather houses--for she has two on the same line resembling each other,
which she proposes to join together--are situated on the summit of a
considerable slope which rises from the level of the town of Petersburg,
and corresponds so exactly with the course of the river, that there is
no doubt of its having formerly formed one of its banks. This slope and
the vast platform on which the house is built are covered with grass,
which affords excellent pasturage, and are also her property." Speaking
of the family, he continues: "On our arrival, we were saluted by Miss
Bowling [Bolling], a young lady of fifteen, possessing all the freshness
of her age; she was followed by her mother, brother, and sister-in-law.
The mother, a lady of fifty, has but little resemblance to her
countrywomen; she is lively, active, and intelligent; knows perfectly
well how to manage her immense fortune, and what is yet more rare, knows
how to make good use of it. Her son and daughter-inlaw I had already
seen at Williamsburg. The young gentleman appears mild and polite;
but his wife, of only seventeen years of age, is a most interesting
acquaintance, not only from the face and form, which are exquisitely
delicate, and quite European, but from her being also descended from
Pocahunta [Pocahontas], daughter of King Powhatan." The engraving
presents a view of Mrs. Bolling's houses, looking southwest.

[[[British Occupation of Bollingbrook.--Skirmish at
Osborne's.--Destruction of the American Flotilla]]]

{545}sions; and Mrs. Bolling was allowed the use of only the room in
the rear of the east building. The soldiery often set fire to the fences
which surrounded Bollingbrook, and the amiable lady was kept in a
state of continual alarm, notwithstanding the efforts of the usually
discourteous Phillips to soothe her.

[Illustration: 8555]

Arnold had apprised her of the irritability of that officer's temper,
and by her mildness she secured his esteem and favor. *

On the morning of the twenty-seventh,[[April 1781]] Arnold, with one
division of the army, consisting of the eightieth and seventy-sixth
regiments and the Rangers, proceeded to a place called Osborne's, a
short distance from Petersburg, where, rumor asserted, the Americans
had considerable stores, and near which was anchored a marine force to
oppose the further progress of vessels coming up the James River. At
the same time, General Phillips, with the other division, marched to
Chesterfield Court House.

[Illustration: 6555]

The patriots at Osborne's were not advised of the approach of the enemy
until they appeared in force. Arnold sent a flag to treat with the
commander of the fleet for a surrender, but he boldly refused a
conference. "I am determined and ready to defend the fleet, and will
sink in the vessels rather than surrender them." He then caused the drum
to beat to arms, and the militia on the opposite side of the river drew
up in battle order. Arnold immediately advanced with some artillery,
routed the patriots, and drove the seamen to their shipping. The latter
scuttled several of the vessels and or's hands. One of the vessels
returned the fire from the enemy's artillery with much spirit, but was
finally disabled. The militia were driven from the opposite shore, and
the whole fleet was either captured or destroyed. Two ships and ten
smaller craft were captured, and four ships, five brigantines, and a
number of small vessels, were either burned or sunk. ** The quantity of
tobacco taken or destroyed, exceeded two thousand hogsheads.

* Campbell's Reminiscences of Bollingbrook, in the Southern Literary
Messenger, January, 1840.

* Note.--Explanation of the Plan.--A, B, the Queen's Rangers; C, the
eightieth and seventy-sixth regiments; D, E, the British artillery, two
six and two three pounders; F, Yagers; G, the American vessels; H, the
American militia.

** It was to one of the prisoners, taken at this time, that Arnold put
the question, "If the Americans should catch me, what would they do with
me?" The soldier promptly replied, "They would bury with military honors
the leg which was wounded at Saratoga, and hang the remainder of you
upon a gibbet."

[[[Troops of Arnold and Phillips.--Depredations at Manchester and
Warwick.--La Fayette at Petersburg.--Death of Phillips.]]]

{546}Phillips and Arnold joined their divisions on the thirtieth, after
having burned the barracks and a quantity of flour at Chesterfield Court
House, and then pushed forward toward Richmond, where a large quantity
of military stores were collected. At Manchester, opposite Richmond,
they burned twelve hundred hogsheads of tobacco and other property, and
were preparing to cross the river, when information reached them that
La Fayette, with a body of Continental troops, had arrived the evening
previous. The marquis had received orders at the head of Elk to go to
Virginia and oppose Phillips and Arnold, and had made a forced march
of two hundred miles in order to save the stores at Richmond. The
depredators knew too well the spirit of the marquis to venture another
marauding visit to Richmond while he was there, and, wheeling their
columns, they proceeded down the river to Bermuda Hundred, at the mouth
of the Appomattox, opposite City Point, and embarked. On their way,
they passed through Warwick, a town on the James River, then larger
than Richmond, where they destroyed ships on the stocks, a range of
rope-walks, a magazine of flour, warehouses filled with tobacco and
other merchandise, tan-houses filled with hides, and some flouring mills
belonging to Colonel Carey, whose splendid mansion was near. * In
one general conflagration, the thriving town, with all its industrial
appurtenances, was destroyed. **

The British fleet with the land forces then sailed down the James River,
when, a little below Burwell's Ferry, they were met[[May 6]] by a
boat from Portsmouth, bearing a mes sage with intelligence for General
Phillips that Cornwallis was on his way north, and wished to form a
junction with him at Petersburg. The whole fleet was immediately
ordered to return up the James Elver, and late at night, on the
ninth,[[May 1781]] the British army again entered Petersburg. So secret
was their entrance, that ten American officers who were there to prepare
boats for La Fayette to cross the river, were captured. Phillips was
very sick of a fever on his arrival, and was carried to the house of
Mrs. Bolling, where he died four days afterward. ***

The presence of La Fayette inspired the militia of Virginia with high
hopes, and they flocked to his standard in considerable numbers. When
informed of the return of the British fleet, he suspected the object to
be a junction with Cornwallis at Petersburg. It was known that the
earl had left Wilmington, and was on his way to Virginia. The marquis
immediately pressed forward to take possession of the town before the
arrival of Phillips and Arnold. He was too late, and after cannonading
the British quarters, particularly Bollingbrook, **** from Archer's
Hill, and thoroughly reconnoitering the place, he returned to Osborne's,

* Anburey, one of the officers who surrendered to Gates at Saratoga,
in his Travels in America (ii., 312), speaks highly of Colonel Carey's
hospitality.

** Gordon, iii., 205; Girardin, 460; Jefferson, i., 420.

[Illustration: 9556]

*** William Phillips, it will be remembered, was one of Burgoyne's
general officers, who was made prisoner at Saratoga. He commanded the
"Convention Troops," as those captives were called, while on their march
to Virginia. On being exchanged, he was actively engaged at the South
until his death. He was possessed of an exceedingly irritable temper,
which often led him into difficulty. He was very haughty in his
demeanor, especially toward the Americans, whom he affected to hold in
great contempt. While lying sick at Petersburg, he dictated a letter
to Governor Jefferson, and addressed it to "Thomas Jefferson, Esq.,
American governor of Virginia and when speaking of the American
commander-in-chief, he called him "Mr. Washington." General Phillips was
buried in the old Blandford church-yard, where his remains yet repose.
His disease was bilious fever.

**** La Fayette was probably not aware that General Phillips was dying
at Bollingbrook, or he would not have cannonaded it. British writers
have charged La Fayette with inhumanity. Anburey (ii., 446) says, "A
circumstance attended Phillip's death, similar to the inhumanity that
the Americans displayed at the interment of General Frazer." He further
asserts, that a flag was sent to the marquis, acquainting him with
the condition of Phillips, but that he paid no attention to it, and
continued the firing. He said a ball went through the house, just as
Phillips was expiring, when the dying man exclaimed, "My God! 'tis
cruel they will not let me die in peaee." This assertion proves its own
inconsistency. The cannonade occurred on the tenth, and General Phillips
did not die until the thirteenth. *

* Campbell says that, according to tradition, Arnold was crossing the
yard when the cannonade commenced. He hastened into the house, and
directed the inmates to go to the cellar for safety. General Phillips
was taken there, followed by Mrs. Bolling and her family. An old negro
woman, who was standing in the kitchen door, was killed by one of the
balls.

[[[Entrance of Cornwallis into Virginia.--The State in
Danger.--Retirement of Governor Jefferson.--Monticello.]]]

{547}and there crossed the James River to the easterly side. Arnold took
the chief command, on the death of General Phillips, and just one
week after that event,[[May 20, 1781]] Cornwallis, with a large force,
entered Petersburg. That officer, after fighting the battle with

General Greene at Guilford Court House, had retired to Wilmington, on
the Cape Fear River. Perceiving the advantages to be derived by invading
Virginia at separate points, he ordered General Phillips, as we have
seen, to return up the James River, while he hastened to enter the state
from the south and form a junction with him at Petersburg. He marched
directly north, nearly on a line with the present rail-road from
Wilmington, and reached the Roanoke at Halifax, seven miles below the
Great Falls, where he crossed, and entered Virginia. Lieutenant-colonel
Tarleton, with a corps of one hundred and eighty cavalry and sixty
mounted infantry, was sent forward as an advance guard to disperse the
militia and overawe the inhabitants. The outrages committed by some
of these marauding troops were pronounced by Stedman, an officer of
Cornwallis's army, "a disgrace to the name of man." * Simcoe had been
sent by Arnold to take possession of the fords on the Nottaway and
Meherrin Rivers, the only considerable streams that intervened, and
the two armies, unopposed, effected a junction at Petersburg, where
Cornwallis assumed the command of the whole.

[Illustration: 8557]

Virginia now seemed doomed to the alternative of submission or
desolation. On the seventh of May, the Legislature, uneasy at the
proximity of General Phillips and his army, adjourned to meet at
Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, on the twenty-fourth. There,
eighty-five miles from Richmond, in the bosom of a fertile and
sheltered valley, on the banks of the Rivanna, they hoped to legislate
undisturbed. Mr. Jefferson, the governor, feeling his incompetency, on
account of his lack of military knowledge, to administer the affairs of
the state with energy, declined a re-election on the first of June, and
indicated General Nelson, of Yorktown, as a proper successor. At his
elegant seat, called Monticello (Little Mountain), situated three miles
southeast of Charlottesville, far from the din of actual hostilities,
Jefferson sought repose for a season in the bosom of his family. His
dream of quiet was soon broken, as we shall presently perceive.

Cornwallis, unlike most of the other British generals, was seldom inert.
Although, from the western part of the Carolinas to Wilmington, and from
thence to Petersburg, he had journeyed nearly fifteen hundred miles in
his marches and counter-marches, he did not halt long. Four days after
his av-

* American War, ii., 385. It is just to the memory of Cornwallis to
say, that the enormities committed were without his sanction. Near the
Roanoke, a sergeant and private of Tarleton's legion violated the person
of a young girl, and robbed the house where she lived. The next morning
Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to draw up his men in line. Some country
people pointed out the miscreants. They were tried by a court-martial,
found guilty, and hung on the spot. This example had a good effect.

** This venerated mansion is yet standing, though somewhat dilapidated
and deprived of its former beauty by neglect. The furniture of its
distinguished owner is nearly all gone, except a few pictures and
mirrors, otherwise the interior of the house is the same as when
Jefferson died. It is upon an eminence, with many aspen-trees around it,
and commands a view of the Blue Ridge for one hundred and fifty miles
on one side, and on the other one of the most beautiful and extensive
landscapes in the world. Wirt, writing of the interior arrangements
of the house during Mr. Jefferson's life time, records that, in the
spacious and lofty hall which opens to the visitor on entering, "he
marks no tawdry and unmeaning ornaments; but before, on the right, on
the left, all around, the eye is struck and gratified by objects of
science and taste, so classed and arranged as to produce their finest
effect. On one side, specimens of sculpture, set out in such order as
to exhibit at a coup d'oil the historié progress of that art, from
the first rude attempts of the aborigines of our country, up to that
exquisite and finished bust of the great patriot himself, from the
master-hand of Carracei. On the other side, the visitor sees displayed
a vast collection of specimens of the Indian art, their paintings,
weapons, ornaments, and manufactures; on another, an array of fossil
productions of our country, mineral and animal; the polished remains of
those colossal monsters that once trod our forests, and are no more; and
a variegated display of the branching honors of 'those monarchs of the
waste' that still people the wilds of the American Continent." In a
large saloon were exquisite productions of the painter's art, and from
its windows opened a view of the surrounding country, such as no painter
could imitate. There, too, were medallions and engravings in great
profusion. Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was found, after his death, a
very perfect impression in wax, of his famous seal, bearing his monogram
and the motto, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.

[Illustration: 9558]

* That impression is in the present possession of Mr. Bancroft, the
historian, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the privilege of making
the annexed representation. I have endeavored to produce a perfect fac
simile, so far as the pictorial art will allow, even to the fractures in
the Wax.

* Montieello was a point of great attraction to the learned of all
lands, when traveling in this country, while Jefferson lived. His
writings made him favorably known as a scholar, and his public position
made him honored by the nations. The remains of Mr. Jefferson lie in
a small family cemetery, by the side of the winding road leading to
Montieello. Over them is a granite obelisk eight feet high, and on
a tablet of marble inserted in its southern face is the following
inscription, whieh was found among Mr. Jefferson's papers after his
death:

          "Here lies buried THOMAS JEFFERSON,

          Author of the Declaration of Independence;

          Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom;

          And Father of the University of Virginia."

          Monticello.

[[[Cornwallis's unsuccessful Pursuit of La Fayette.--Expeditions
Westward.--Jefferson's Seal and Monument, and Inscriptions]]]

{548}rival, he marched down the James River to Westover, where he was
joined by a regiment from New York. * He crossed,[[May 24, 1781]]
and pushed on toward Richmond. La Fayette, with nearly three thousand
troops, continental and militia, lay about half way between Richmond and
Wilton. Cornwallis knew the inferiority of the marquis's force to his
own, and felt so sure of success that he wrote to the British secretary,
from Petersburg, saying, "The boy can not escape me." La Fayette had
wisdom as well as zeal, and instead of risking a battle at that time, he
cautiously retreated northward, pursued by the earl. A retreat to avoid
the engagement was not the only object to be obtained by La Fayette.
Wayne was on his march through Maryland with a re-enforcement of eight
hundred men, and a junction was important. Cornwallis was advised of the
approach of these troops, and sought, by rapid marches, to outstrip La
Fayette and prevent the union. But the marquis was too agile; and after
pursuing him to the North Anna, beyond Hanover Court House, plundering
and destroying a vast amount of property on the way, the earl halted and
encamped. La Fayette passed through Spottsylvania county to the Raccoon
Ford, on the Rappahannock, in Culpepper, where he was joined by General
Wayne.[[June 10]] Unsuccessful in his pursuit, Cornwallis now directed
his attention to other points. In the southern part of Fluvanna county,
at a place called Point of Fork, ** on the James River, the Americans
had an arsenal and a large quantity of military stores. Baron Steuben,
with six hundred raw militia, had charge of this post. The dispersion of
the Americans and the capture of the stores were objects of importance
to Cornwallis, and for that purpose he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe
with his rangers, and other troops under Captain Hutchinson, to surprise
the baron. At the same time, the earl dispatched Tarleton, with one
hundred and eighty cavalry, and seventy mounted infantry under Captain
Champagne, *** to attempt the capture of Jefferson and the members of
the Legislature at Charlottesville,

* This was the forty-third regiment. The convoy also brought another
regiment, and two battalions of Anspachers, to strengthen the garrison
at Portsmouth. Arnold, despised by Cornwallis, who no longer needed his
services, was sent to New York on the first of June.

** This locality is at the confluence of the Fluvanna and Rivanna
rivers, two great branches of the James River.

*** From the stables of the planters Cornwallis procured excellent
horses, on whieh these and other troops were mounted.

[[[Expedition of Simcoe against Steuben.---Attempt to Capture Jefferson
and the Legislators.---Destruction of Property.]]]

{549}Steuben was advised of the approach of Tarleton, and believing his
post to be the object of the expedition, he conveyed his stores to the
south side of the Fluvanna and prepared to withdraw his troops thither.
Simcoe's march was unknown, but when he arrived at the Point of Fork,
he had nothing to surprise or capture, except about thirty Americans
who were waiting the return of boats to cross the river. Simcoe, by an
advantageous display of his force, and lighting numerous fires at night
upon the hills along the Rivanna, deceived Steuben with the belief that
the main army of Cornwallis was close upon him. Influenced by this idea,
the baron hastily retreated during the night, leaving such stores behind
as could not readily be removed. In the morning, Simcoe sent Captain
Stephenson to destroy them, and also ordered Captain Wolsey to make a
feigned pursuit upon the track of the retreating Americans.

In the mean while, Tarleton and his legion pushed forward with their
accustomed speed, to catch the Virginia law-makers at Charlottesville.
On their way toward the Rivanna, they destroyed twelve wagon-loads of
clothing, destined for Green's army in North Carolina. On reaching that
stream, they dashed into its current, and before seven o'clock in the
morning[[Jan 4, 1781]] they were within ten miles of Charlottesville.
There Tarleton detached

Captain M'Leod, with a party of horsemen, to capture Governor Jefferson,
at Monticello, while himself and the remainder of his forces pushed on
to the residence of two brothers, named Walker, where he understood many
influential Virginians were assembled. Several of these were captured,
among whom was Colonel John Simms, a member of the Legislature, and
William and Robert, brothers of General Nelson. After partaking of a
tardily prepared breakfast at Dr. Walker's, * Tarleton pursued his rapid
march, and rode up the hill into the village of Charlotte, under
full gallop, expecting to take the legislators by surprise. He was
disappointed. While passing through Louisa county, a Mr. Jouitte,
suspecting Tarleton's design, mounted a fleet horse, and reached
Charlottesville in time to give the alarm. The delay for breakfast at
Dr. Walker's was sufficient to allow most of the members to mount fresh
horses and escape. Only seven fell into the hands of the British.

M'Leod's expedition to Monticello was quite as unsuccessful. The
governor was entertaining several members of the Legislature, including
the speakers of both Houses, and was not aware of the proximity of an
enemy, until the invaders were seen coming up the winding road leading
to his mansion. His wife and children were hurried off to Colonel
Carter's, six miles southward, whither Mr. Jefferson followed on
horseback, making his way among the dark recesses of Carter's Mountain.
The speaker hurried to Charlottesville to adjourn the Legislature,
to meet at Staunton on the seventh, ** and then, with several others,
mounted fleet horses and escaped. Mr. Jefferson had not been gone
ten minutes when M'Leod and his party rode up and found the mansion
deserted. Books, papers, and furniture were untouched by the enemy, and
not a particle of the governor's property was destroyed, except a large
quantity of wine in his cellar, drank and wasted by a few soldiers,
without the knowledge of their commander.

After destroying one thousand new muskets, four hundred barrels of
powder, several hogsheads of tobacco, and a quantity of soldier's
clothing, Tarleton, with his prisoners, rejoined Cornwallis, who had
advanced to Elk Hill, a plantation belonging to Governor Jefferson,
near the Point of Fork. There the most wanton destruction of property
occurred. They cut the throats of the young horses, carried off the
older ones fit for service, slaughtered the

* Observing a delay in the preparation of breakfast, Tarleton
impatiently demanded the reason. He was informed by the cook that his
subalterns had already devoured two breakfasts. A guard was placed at
the kitchen door, and it was not until a third breakfast was cooked that
Tarleton was able to obtain his meal.

** The members of the Legislature were terribly frightened, and were
not at ease even at Staunton. On the morning when they convened, Colonel
Brookes, with a small company of mounted Virginians, rode into Staunton
at a rapid pace, bearing a message from Baron Steuben. The members,
believing them to be a part of Tarleton's legion, took to their heels,
and it was some time before they could be coaxed back to their duties.
On the twelfth they elected General Nelson governor of the state.

[[[Cornwallis baffled by La Fayette.--His Retreat toward the
Coast.--Detention of the Convention Troops.--Their Parole.]]]

{550}cattle, burned the barns with the crops of the previous year, with
all the fences on the plantations near, and captured many negroes. *

One more prize attracted the attention of Cornwallis. At Albemarle Old
Court House, above the Point of Pork, the Virginians had collected a
large quantity of valuable stores, most of which had been sent from
Richmond. The earl determined to capture or destroy them; La Fayette,
who, after his junction with Wayne, had moved cautiously through Orange
and the upper part of Louisa to Boswell's tavern, near the Albemarle
line, resolved to protect them. Tarleton was sent to force La Fayette
either to hazard a battle with the whole British army, or abandon the
stores. The marquis did neither. He had discovered a rough, unused road,
leading directly to the Court House. Early in the evening he set his
pioneers at work, and before morning his whole force had traversed the
opened way, and, to the astonishment of Cornwallis, were strongly posted
upon high ground, between the British forces and the American stores.
Again baffled, the earl wheeled his army, and moved toward the eastern
coast, closely watched and followed by the vigilant marquis. He entered
Richmond on the seventeenth, and evacuated it on the twentieth. Steuben
had now joined La Fayette, and Cornwallis, believing the strength of
the Americans to be much greater than it really was, hastened to
Williamsburg, where, under the protection of his shipping, and
re-enforced by troops from Portsmouth, he encamped. ** His subsequent
movements, until his surrender at Yorktown, have been noticed in
preceding chapters.

Before leaving Virginia, let us consider that important event in the
history of the Revolution, the residence of the "Convention Troops"
(as Burgoyne's captured army were called), in the vicinity of
Charlottesville.

In a note on page 82 of the first volume of this work, I have given
briefly the principal reasons why the captive army of Burgoyne was
not allowed to go to England on parole. The action of Congress on the
subject was technically dishonorable, and not in accordance with the
letter and spirit of the _convention_ signed by Gates and Burgoyne.
So General Washington evidently thought when he wrote to General Heath
respecting the detention of that body, and said, "By this step General
Burgoyne will, it is more than probable, look upon himself as released
from all former ties, and consequently at liberty to make use of any
means to effect an escape." *** The suspected perfidy of the British
commander, the fact that the enemy often acted upon the principle that
"faith was not to be kept with rebels," and the consideration that
these troops, though they might not again "serve against America," would
supply the places of soldiers at home who would, partially justified
the bad faith of Congress. Having resolved to keep them here, the next
consideration was their maintenance. The difficulty of procuring an
ample supply of food in New England, and the facilities of a sea-coast
for their escape, induced Congress to order them to be sent into the
interior of Virginia. Sir Henry Clinton had been applied to[[Sept.
1778]] for passports for American vessels to transport fuel and
provisions to Boston for the use of the prisoners, but refused.
Congress, therefore, directed[[Oct 15]] them to be removed to
Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, Virginia. Pursuant to this
direction, the whole body of captives, English and Germans, after the
officers had signed a parole of honor **** respecting

* It is estimated that, during the invasion of the state which we have
been considering, thirty thousand slaves were carried off, of whom
twenty-seven thousand are supposed to have died of small-pox or
camp-fever in the course of six months.--Howison, ii., 270.

** Gordon, Ramsay, Jefferson's Letters, Tucker's Life of Jefferson,
Girardin, Howison, &c

*** Sparks's Washington, v., 221.

**** The following is the form of the parole: "We whose names are
hereunto subscribed being under the restrictions of the convention of
Saratoga, and ordered, by a resolution of Congress of the
fifteenth ultimo, to remove from the State of Massachusetts Bay, to
Charlottesville, in the State of Virginia, do severally promise and
engage on our word and honor, and on the faith of gentlemen, that on our
march from this place to Charlottesville, we, or either of us, will not
say or do any thing injurious to the United States of America, or either
of them, nor at any time exceed such limits or distances from the troops
as may be assigned us by the commanding officer who may have the charge
and escort of the troops of convention to Virginia, or on any other part
of the route.

Given under our hands in the State of Massachusetts Bay, this day of
November, A.D. 1778."

[[[March of the Convention Troops to Virginia.--Their Route to
Charlottesville.--Sufferings.--Riedesel and his Family.]]]

{551}their conduct on the way, took up their line of march from
Cambridge and Rutland * on the tenth of November. Burgoyne having been
permitted to return to England in May, the command of the convention
troops devolved upon Major-general Phillips. Colonel Theodorick Bland,
of the first regiment of light dragoons, was appointed by Washington
to superintend the march of the captives; and Colonel James Wood was
appointed to command at Charlottesville.

[Illustration: 9561]

It was a dreary winter's journey of seven hundred miles, and occupied
about three months in its accomplishment. ** The Baroness Riedesel, in
her charming _Letters and Memoirs_, gives graphic pictures of events on
the way, and of her residence in and departure from Virginia. Anburey, a
captive officer, also records many incidents of interest connected with
the journey; and in his _Travels_, publishes a map of the Eastern and
Middle States, on which is denoted, by colored lines, the direction
of the march, and the extent of the paroles of the English and German
prisoners after their arrival in Virginia. ***

The troops were, at first, all stationed at Charlottesville. That town
then contained only a court-house, one tavern, and about a dozen houses.
These were crowded with the English officers, and many sought quarters
on neighboring plantations. The soldiers suffered dreadfully. Not
expecting the captives before spring, barracks were not erected, and
the only shelter that was vouchsafed them, after their fatiguing march
through mud and snow, were a few half-finished huts in the woods. These,
not half covered, were full of snow, and it was three days before they
were made habitable. No provisions had arrived for the troops, and for
a week they subsisted upon corn meal made into cakes. The officers, by
signing a parole, were allowed to go as far as Richmond for quarters,
and in a short time both officers and soldiers were rendered quite
comfortable. General Phillips made his quarters at the plantation of
Colonel Carter, **** and General Riedesel and his family resided upon
the estate of Mr. Mazzei, an Italian gentleman at Colie, a few miles
distant from Charlottesville. (v)Mr. Jefferson, who was then at
Monticello, did every thing in his power to render

* I have before me the original parole ol the Germans, with the
autographs of the ninety-five officers who signed it. It is headed by
the names of Baron Riedesel, the commander of the Brunswick forces, and
of those of his military family, Gerlach, Edmonstone, and Cleve. The
first was deputy quarter-master general; the last two were aids-de-camp.
Edmonstone, who was a Scotchman, was General Riedesel's secretary, and
wrote all his English letters.

* During the summer and autumn of 1778, the English captives were
quartered at Rutland, in Worcester county, fifty-five miles northwest
of Boston. A portion of them were marched thither on the fifteenth of
April.

** Anburey expressed his belief that the chief advantage which the
Congress sought to obtain by this journey in the winter, was the
desertion of troops, believing that the privations on the march would
drive hundreds to that step. There were a great many desertions during
the march.

*** The principal places through whieh the troops passed, were as
follows: Weston, Marlborough, Worcester, Leicester, and Enfield, in
Massachusetts; Suffield, Sunbury, New Hartford, Norfolk, and Sharon,
in Connecticut; Nine Partners, Hopewell, Fishkill, Newburgh, Little
Britain, and Goshen, in New York; Wallins, Sussex Court House,
Hacketstown, and Sherwood's Ferry, in New Jersey; Tinieum, Hilltown,
North Wales, Valley Forge, Lancaster, and York, in Pennsylvania;
Hanover, Tawneytown, and Frederickstown, in Maryland; Little London,
Neville Plantation, Farquier Court House, Carter's Plantation, Orange,
Walker's Plantation to Charlottesville, in Virginia.

**** Anburey says, "the house and plantation where General Phillips
resides is called Blenheim. The house was erected shortly after that
memorable battle in Germany, by a Mr. Carter, who was secretary to the
colony." He mentions the fact that Colonel Carter possessed fifteen
hundred slaves.--Travels, ii., 327.

* (v) Madame Riedesel says, "the house where we were lodged, and indeed
the whole estate, belonged to an Italian, who hired it to us, as he was
about setting out on a journey. We looked impatiently forward to the
time of his departure, and that of his wife and daughter, on account of
the smallness of the house and the scarcity of provisions. In respect
to the latter, our landlord voluntarily assumed a kind of tutorship over
us. Thus, when he killed a calf, he gave us on the first day only the
head and the tripe, though we represented that this was not enough for
twenty persons. He replied that we could make a very good soup of it. He
then added to the meat two cabbages and some stale ham; and this was all
we could obtain from him.

[[[Jefferson's Hospitality.--Erection of Barracks.--Extensive
Gardening.--General Condition of the Troops.]]]

{552}the situation of the officers and troops as pleasant as possible.
To the former, the hospitalities of his mansion and the use of his
choice library were freely proffered; and when, in the spring of 1779,
it was proposed to remove the troops to some other locality, he pleaded
earnestly and forcibly, in a letter to Governor Henry[[March 27]]
against the measure, on the grounds of its inhumanity, expense, and
general inexpediency. For these attentions, the officers and troops
often expressed their warmest gratitude toward Mr. Jefferson. The
kindness of Colonel Bland, on their march, also excited their affection,
and made him a favorite.

[Illustration: 0562]

Early in the spring, comfortable barracks for the troops were erected,
under the direction of Colonel Harvey. They were upon the brow and
slopes of a high hill, on Colonel Harvey's estate, five miles from
Charlottesville. They cost the government about twenty-five thousand
dollars. A large portion of the land was laid out into gardens, fenced
in and planted. General Riedesel spent more than five hundred dollars
for garden seeds for the German troops, and when autumn advanced there
was no scarcity of provisions. According to Mr. Jefferson, the location
was extremely healthy. * It being the universal opinion that they would
remain prisoners there until the close of the war, the officers spent a
great deal of money in the erection of more suitable dwellings, and in
preparing rough land for cultivation. They settled their families
there, built a theatre, a coffee-house, and a cold bath; and in general
intercourse with the families of neighboring gentlemen, and the pursuits
of music and literature, their captivity was made agreeable to them, and
profitable to the province. ** Notwithstanding this apparent quiet
on the surface, there was turbulence below. Captivity under the most
favorable circumstances is galling. A large number deserted, and made
their way to British posts at the North. On one occasion nearly four
hundred eluded the vigilance of their guards, and escaped. When, in
October, 1780, General Leslie with a strong force took possession of
Portsmouth, great uneasiness was observed

* "Of four thousand people (the number of the captives) it should be
expected, according to ordinary calculations, that one should die every
day; yet in the space of near three months there have been but four
deaths among them; two infants under three weeks old, and two others by
apoplexy. The officers tell me the troops were never before so healthy
since they were imbodied."--Letter to Governor Patrick Henry.

** It can not be wondered at, that Mr. Jefferson and other
agriculturists should have been opposed to their removal, when it was
estimated that forty-five thousand bushels of grain from the harvest
fields of Virginia were consumed by them in a year, and that thirty
thousand dollars were circulated weekly in consequence of their
presence.--See Jefferson's Letter to Governor Henry. Anburey, noticing
their departure from the barracks, says, "I am apt to think that Colonel
Harvey, the proprietor of the estate, will reap great advantage, if the
province should not, as the army entirely cleared a space of six miles
in circumference round the barracks."--Travels, ii., 414.

[[[Removal of Troops from Charlottesville.--Their Final Dispersion.--The
Germans.--Departure from Petersburg]]]

{553}among the British troops, and just fears were entertained that they
might rise upon and overpower their guard, and join their countrymen
on the Elizabeth River. The Germans were less impatient, for they were
enjoying life better than at home; * yet it was thought expedient to
remove the whole body of prisoners to a place of greater security.
Accordingly, the British were marched across the Blue Ridge,[[Nov. 29,
1780]] at Wood's Gap, and through the Great Valley to Fort Frederick, in
Maryland; ** the Germans followed soon afterward, and were quartered at
Winchester (then containing between three and four hundred houses), in
the northern part of Virginia. Deaths, desertion, and partial exchanges
had now reduced their numbers to about twenty-one hundred. Afterward
they were removed to Lancaster, and some to East Windsor, in
Connecticut. In the course of 1782, they were all dispersed, either by
exchange or desertion. A large number of the Germans, remembering
the perfidy of their rulers at home, and pleased with their national
brethren who were residents here, remained at the close of the war, and
many became useful citizens.

[Illustration: 9563]

Let us resume our journey.

I arose at daybreak, on the morning after my arrival in Petersburg.[[Dec
26, 1848]] The clouds were broken, and a keen breeze from the north
reminded me of the presence of winter. Accompanied by one of the early
risers of the town, I crossed the fine bridge over the Appomattox, and
strolled over Archer's Hill, whereon the Americans planted their cannon
and disturbed the inmates of Bollingbrook. The little village on that
side retains its original name of Pocahunta or Pocahontas, and presents
a natural curiosity which tradition has connected with the memory of
that princess. It is a large stone, hollowed like a bowl by the hand
of Nature, and is never without water in it, except in times of extreme
drought. It is called _Pocahontas' s Wash-basin_; and the vulgar believe
that the "dearest daughter" of Powhatan actually laved her limbs in its
concavity. It was formerly several rods from its present position at the
northwest corner of the bridge, and was broken in its removal. Strong
cement keeps it whole, and it is regarded with considerable interest by
the curious visitor.

Returning to Petersburg, we ascended to Bollingbrook, and just as the
sun came up from the distant hills, I sketched the view on page 545.
At nine o'clock, after receiving minute directions respecting my future
route for a hundred miles, I took the reins and started for the Roanoke.
For the first sixteen miles, to the banks of Stony Brook, the country is
sandy and quite level, and the roads were fine. I crossed that stream at
Dinwiddie Court House, the capitol of the county of that name, where, a
few days before, Society, by the use of a sheriff and strong cord, had
strangled William Dandridge Eppes, for the murder of a

* I have mentioned, on page 21, the bargain entered into by the British
ministry and some German princess for the furnishing of troops, by the
latter, to fight the Americans. That bargain was rendered more heinous
by the methods used to obtain the requisite number of men. Laborers were
seized in the fields and work-shops, and large numbers were taken
from the churches while engaged in their devotions, and hurried to the
barracks without being allowed a parting embrace with their families.
That this was the method to be employed was evidently known to the
British government several months before the bargain was consummated;
"for on the fourteenth of November, 1775, the honest-hearted king wrote
as follows to Lord North: "The giving commissions to German officers to
get men I can by no means consent to, for it in plain English amounts
to making me a kidnapper, which I can not think a very honorable
occupation." * Throughout Europe the whole transaction was viewed with
horror as a great crime against humanity. Frederick the Great took every
occasion to express his contempt for the "scandalous man-traffic of his
neighbors." It is said that whenever any of those hired Brunswickers and
Hessians had to pass through any portion of his territory, he claimed to
levy on them the usual toll for so many head of cattle, since, he said,
they had been sold as such **

** Fort Frederick is yet a well-preserved relie of colonial times. It
is upon the north bank of the Potomac, in Washington county, Maryland,
about fifty miles below Cumberland. It was built in 1755-6, under the
direction of Governor Sharpe. The material is stone, and cost about
thirty thousand dollars. The fort is quadrangular, and contained
barracks sufficient for seven hundred men. This was one of the six forts
built as frontier defenses against the encroachments of the Freneh and
Indians.

[[[Capital Punishment.--Husbandry in Lower Virginia.--Fruits of the
Social System.]]]

{554}young man. The first murder was sufficiently horrid; the second was
doubly so, because Christian men and women and innocent children saw
it done in cool blood, and uttered not a word of remonstrance or
reprobation! It had evidently been a holiday for the people; and all
the way from Petersburg to the Meherrin, it was a stock subject for
conversation. A dozen times I was asked if I saw "the hanging;" and a
dozen times I shuddered at the evidence of the prevailing savagism
In the nineteenth century, even in the heart of our republic. But
the gallows is toppling, and another generation will be amazed at the
cruelty of their fathers.

From Stony Brook to the Nottaway River, a distance of fifteen miles,
the country is broken, and patches of sandy soil with pine forests,
alternated with red clay, bearing oaks, chestnuts, and gum-trees. Worse
roads I never expect to travel, for they would be impassable. Oftentimes
Charley would sink to his knees in the soft earth, which was almost as
adhesive as tar. The country is sparsely populated, and the plantations
generally bore evidences of unskillful culture. Although most of the
soil is fertile, and might be made very productive, yet so wretchedly is
it frequently managed that twenty bushels of wheat is considered a
good yield for an acre, and corn in like proportion. A large number of
negroes are raised in that section, and constitute the chief wealth of
the inhabitants; for the land, within thirty miles of the fine markets
of Petersburg and City Point, averages in value only about five dollars
an acre. Good roads would increase its value, but the spirit of internal
improvement is very weak there. I was informed by a gentleman with
whom I passed the night within a mile of the Nottaway, that several
plantations in his neighborhood did not yield corn and bacon sufficient
for the negroes, and that one or two men or women were sold annually
from each to buy food for the others. "Thus," as he expressively
observed, "they eat each other up!" Tobacco is the staple product,
yielding from five hundred to one thousand pounds per acre; but, in the
absence of manure, it destroys the vitality of the soil. During a ride
of seventy or eighty miles toward the Roanoke, I saw hundreds of acres
thus deadened and yellow with "poverty grass," or green with shrub
pines. Many proprietors are careless or indolent, and leave the
management of their estates to overseers. These, in turn, lacking the
stimulus of interest, seem to leave affairs in the hands of the
negroes, and the negroes are always willing to trust to Providence.
The consequence is, fitful labor, unskillfully applied; and the fertile
acres remain half barren from year to year. To a Northern man accustomed
to pictures of industry and thrift, directed and enjoyed by enlightened
workers, these things appear big with evil consequences. They are the
fruits of the social system in the Southern States, which has grown
reverend with years; a system deprecated by all sound thinkers there,
particularly in the agricultural districts, as a barrier to progress,
and inimical to genuine prosperity. This subject involves questions
proper for the statesman, the political economist, and the moralist to
discuss. They are irrelevant to my theme, and I pass them by with this
brief allusion, while resting firmly upon the hope that, through equity
and wisdom, a brighter day is about to dawn upon the rich valleys and
fertile uplands of Virginia and the Carolinas.

I crossed the Nottaway into Brunswick county, at Jones's Bridge. The
river is narrow, and lying in a deep bed, its current is often made
swift by rains. Such was its condition when I passed over; for rain
had been falling since midnight, and when I resumed my journey, it was
mingled with snow and hail, accompanied by a strong northwest wind All
day the storm continued, but happily for me I was riding with the
wind, and kept dry beneath my spacious wagon top. The red clay roads
prevailed, occasionally relieved by a sandy district covered with pines,
beautified by an undergrowth of holly and laurel. * My

* In many places between Petersburg and Hillsborough, in North Carolina,
I observed dead trees covering several acres in patches throughout
the pine forests. From one eminence I counted six of these patches in
different directions, made visible by their yellow foliage in the midst
of the surrounding dark green forest. I was told that they were killed
by a worm, which perforates and traverses the bark in every direction.
I observed these perforations, appearing like the wounds of buck shot in
the bark four or five inches apart. From these, turpentine offer oozed
in profusion. These worms are very fatal to the trees. A tree that has
been girdled, though its leaves fall, is good timber for three or four
years; but a tree attacked by these worms loses all vitality at once,
and in twelve or fourteen months is useless for timber purposes. It
rapidly decays, and falls to the ground. I was informed that in some
instances, where pines constituted the chief value of plantations, this
blight had caused the owners to abandon them.


[[[Gee's Bridge.--Capture of Colonel Gee.--A Yankee Overseer.--Passage
of the Roanoke into Carolina.--]]]

Gee's Bridge. {555}goal was Gee's Bridge over the Meherrin River, which
I expected to reach by three o'clock in the afternoon, but a divergence
into a wrong road for the space of three or four miles, delayed my
arrival there until sunset. Nor was delay the only vexation, for, to
regain the right road, I had to wheel and face the driving storm until I
was thoroughly drenched. In this condition I was obliged to travel a red
clay road four miles after crossing the Meherrin, to obtain lodging for
the night.

Gee's Bridge was a rickety affair, and was used only when the Meherrin,
which is similar in volume and current to the Nottaway, was too much
swollen to allow travelers to ford it.

[Illustration: 8565]

On its southern side, the road ascends at an angle of forty-five
degrees, and, to make it passable, is filled with small bowlders near
the bridge, and logs laid transversely up the steeper portion.

For the use of this bridge, the stones and logs, the traveler is taxed a
"levy" at the top of the hill by the overseer of Gee's plantation. * At
dark I reached the house of Dr. Gregory, who entertains strangers, and
under his comfortable roof I rested, after a most wearisome day's travel
for man and horse. The doctor was absent, and I passed an hour after
supper with his overseer, an intelligent young man from New London,
Connecticut. He had peddled wooden clocks through that region, and
having sold many on credit, he settled there eight years before to
collect his dues. He hired himself as an overseer, and there he yet
remained, full of faith that he would ultimately collect all that was
due to him. From him I obtained a good deal of information respecting
the husbandry of Lower Virginia; the sum of his testimony was, "The
people seem to try how soon they can wear out the soil, and then abandon
it."

The storm was over in the morning,[[Dec 28, 1848]] and a cold, bracing
air came from the north. Ice skimmed the surface of the pools by the
road side, and all over the red earth the exhalations were congealed
into the most beautiful creations of frost-work I ever beheld. There
were tiny columns an inch in height, with gorgeous capitals like
tree-tops, their branches closely intertwined. These gave the surface
the appearance of a crust of snow. Art, in its most delicate operations,
never wrought any thing half so wonderful as that little forest, created
within the space of an hour, and covering tens of thousands of acres.
The road was wretched, and it was almost two hours past meridian when I
reached St. Tammany, on the Roanoke, a small post station in Mecklenburg
county, about eighty miles from Petersburg, and about thirty below the
confluence of the Dan and Staunton. The Roanoke is here almost four
hundred yards wide, with an average depth of about thirteen feet, and a
strong current. ** I crossed upon a bateau, propelled by means of a pole
worked by a single stout negro. When the stream is much swollen, three
or four men are necessary to manage the craft, and even then there is
danger. After ascending the southern bank, the road passes over a marsh
of nearly half a mile, and then traverses among gentle hills. Two

* Mr. Gee. I was informed, is a descendant of Colonel Gee, who commanded
a militia regiment when the British invaded Virginia. He resided further
down, between the Meherrin and the Nottaway, and was captured by Colonel
Simcoe's cavalry while that officer was securing the fords of the river
for the passage of Cornwallis's army. "We proceeded," says Simcoe, "with
the utmost expedition, to the Nottaway River, twenty-seven miles from
Petersburg, where we arrived early the next morning. The bridge had been
destroyed, which was easily repaired, and Major Armstrong was left with
the infantry. The cavalry went on to Colonel Gee's, a rebel militia
offieer. He attempted to escape, but was secured, and, refusing to give
his parole, was sent prisoner to Major Armstrong."--Journal, page 207.

** The Roanoke is formed by the junction of the Dan and Staunton
Rivers, near the south boundary of Virginia, and flows into the head of
Albemarle Sound. It is navigable to the falls, at Halifax, seventy-five
miles, for small vessels.

[[[Cotton Fields.--Route of Greene's Retreat.--Journey toward
Hillsborough.--Tobacco Culture.]]]

{556}miles from the river I passed some fields of cotton not yet
garnered, and the wool, escaped from the bolls, looked like patches
of snow upon the shrubs. These were the first cotton plantations I had
seen. I was surprised to learn that the cotton harvest may begin in
September, and yet, at the close of December, much, here and elsewhere
at the South, was in the fields, and injured by exposure to the taints
produced by rains. Better husbandry seemed to prevail on this side of
the Roanoke, and neat farm-houses gave the country a pleasing appearance
of thrift. I was now on one of the great routes of travel from Central
Virginia to Hillsborough, the seat of the Provincial Congress at the
opening of the war of the Revolution. It was also the great route of
emigration from Virginia when the wilderness upon the Yadkin was first
peopled by white men. I had intended to follow the track of Greene and
his army while retreating before Cornwallis in the spring of 1781, but
in so doing I should omit other places of paramount interest. That track
lay between forty and fifty miles northwest of my route to Hillsborough.

The pine forests now became rare, and the broken country was diversified
by well-cultivated plantations, and forests of oaks, chestnuts, gum,
and a few catalpas. Toward evening I arrived at Nut Bush Post Office, in
Warren county (formerly a part of Granville), a locality famous in
the annals of that state as the first place in the interior where a
revolutionary document was put forth to arouse the people to resist the
government. * The postmaster (John H. Bullock, Esq.) owned a store
and an extensive tobacco plantation there. Under his roof I passed the
night, in the enjoyment of the most cordial hospitality, and was warmly
pressed to spend several days with him, and join in the seasonable
sports of turkey and deer hunting in the neighboring forests. But,
eager to complete my journey, I declined, and the next morning,
notwithstanding another strong northeast gale was driving a chilling
sleet over the land, I left Nut Bush, and pushed on toward Oxford.
The staple production of this region appears to be tobacco; and
drying-houses and presses composed the principal portion of the
outbuildings of the plantations. **

* On the sixth of June, 1705, when the nows of the passage of the Stamp
Act reached the interior of the province, a paper was circulated at Nut
Bush, entitled, "A Serious Address to the Inhabitants of the County of
Granville, containing a brief Narrative of our Deplorable Situation
and the Wrongs we suffer, and some necessary Hints with respect to a
Reformation." This paper had for its epigraph the following line: "Save
my country, heavens, shall be my last." The paper was prepared by an
illiterate man, but it was so forcibly and clearly expressed that it had
a powerful effect on the people.--Martin, ii., 197; Caruthers's Life of
Caldwell, 107.

[Illustration: 8566]

** To the Northern reader a brief general description of the tobacco
culture may not be uninteresting. The ground for germinating the seed is
prepared by first burning a quantity of wood over the space to be sown.
This process is to destroy all the roots of plants that may be in the
soil. The ashes are then removed, and the earth is thoroughly digged
and raked until it is like a bed in a garden prepared for seed. The
tobacco-seed (which appears like mustard-seed) is then mixed with
wood-ashes and strown in drills a few inches apart. This is generally
done in February. When the plants are grown two or three inches in
height, they are taken up and transplanted into little hillocks in the
fields. This is done at about the first of May. From that time the crop
demands unceasing attention. These plants will grow about a foot high
within a month after the transplanting. They are then topped; the
suckers and lower leaves are pruned off, and about twice a week they
are cleaned from weeds and the large and destructive worms which infest
them. They attain their full growth in about six weeks after the first
pruning, and begin to turn brown--an evidence of ripening. As fast as
they ripen they are cut and gathered into the barns or drying-houses.
This operation commences about the first of September. The plants, after
being cut, are left upon the ground to sweat for a night, and then taken
to cover. There they are hung up separately to dry for four or five
weeks. The tobacco-houses are made as open as possible, for the
circulation of air, but so as to avoid the rain. When sufficiently dry,
the plants are taken down and dampened with water, to prevent their
crumbling. They are then laid upon sticks, and covered up close to sweat
for a week or two longer. The top part of the plant is the best, the
bottom the poorest for commerce. When thus prepared, the leaves are
stripped from the stalk, and pressed hard into boxes or hogsheads for
market. The presses used in the tobacco districts are of two kinds; one
is a lever, the fulcrum being two rude upright posts. The hogshead or
box is placed near the posts. The smaller end of the lever is forked, or
has a slot, through which passes another upright stick with a series of
holes. Weights are attached to that end, and as it is gradually brought
down it is secured by a strong pin to the upright post. The other and
more efficient presses have a wooden or iron screw for leverage, like
the cider presses of the North, or the common standing presses
in manufactories. These are more expensive, and are used only on
plantations of considerable extent. The tobacco plant, when full grown,
is four or five feet in height. The stalk is straight, hairy, and very
clumsy. The leaves grow alternately, are of a faded yellowish green, and
are very large toward the lower part of the plant. There is scarcely a
vegetable on the face of the earth more really nauseous and filthy
in taste and the effects of use, than tobacco, and yet hundreds and
thousands of the most fertile acres of our country are devoted to the
cultivation of this noxious weed, which is good for none, but injurious
to many, where millions of bushels of nutritive grain might be raised.

[[[Williamsburg and Oxford.--Tar River.--Fording Streams.--The Princely
Domain of Mr. Cameron.]]]

{557}I passed through the little village of Williamsborough, at two
o'clock in the afternoon, and arrived at Oxford at dark. The latter is
a pleasant village of some five hundred inhabitants, situated near the
center of Granville county, and its seat of justice. It is a place of
considerable business for an inland town; but my favorable impressions,
after an hour's inspection before breakfast on the morning after my
arrival, were marred by the discovery of relics of a more barbarous
age, standing upon the green near the jail. They were a _pillory_ and
a _whipping-post_, the first and only ones I ever saw. I was told by a
resident that the more enlightened people of the town were determined
to have them removed, and it is to be hoped that those instruments for
degradation no longer disfigure the pretty little village of Oxford.

The morning of the thirtieth[[Dec. 1848]] was clear and warm, after a
night of heavy rain.

I left Oxford early, resolved to reach Hillsborough, thirty-six miles
distant, at evening.

But the red clay roads, made doubly bad by the rain, impeded my
progress, and I was obliged to stop at the house of a Yankee planter,
four miles short of Hillsborough. In the course of the day, I forded
several considerable streams, all of them much swollen, and difficult
of passage, for a stranger. The Flat Creek, near Oxford, a broad
and shallow stream, was hub-deep, and gave me the first unpleasant
experience of fording. A few miles further on, I crossed the Tar River,
over a long and substantial bridge. This is a rapid stream, and now its
muddy and turbulent waters came rushing like a mountain-torrent, bearing
large quantities of drift-wood in the midst of its foam. * Soon after
crossing the Tar, I forded a small tributary called the Cat Tail Creek.
It was not more than two rods wide, but was so deep that the water
dashed into my wagon, and the current lifted it from the ground, for a
moment. The Knapp-of-Reeds was broader, and but a little less rapid and
dangerous; and when, at three o'clock, I crossed the Flat River, I came
very near being "swamped." A bridge spanned the stream, but the ground
on either side is so flat that, during floods, the river overflows its
banks and expands into a lake. I reached the bridge without difficulty,
but, when leaving it, found the way much impeded by drift-wood and other
substances that came flowing over the banks. Charley was not at all
pleased with these frequent fordings, and the masses of drift alarmed
him. While my wagon-hubs were under water, and he was picking his way
carefully over the submerged stones, a dark mass of weeds and bushes
came floating toward him. He sheered suddenly, and for a moment the
wagon was poised upon two wheels. I was saved from a cold bath
by springing to the opposite side, where my weight prevented its
overturning, and we were soon safe upon firm land. This was the last
contest with the waters for the day, for the next stream (the Little
River) was crossed by a bridge, a good distance above the less rapid
current. Between the Flat and the Little Rivers, and filling the whole
extent of four miles, was the immense plantation of Mr. Cameron, a
Scotch gentleman. This plantation extends parallel with the rivers,
a distance of fifteen miles, and covers an area of about sixty square
miles. It is well managed, and yields abundant crops of wheat, corn,
oats, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, and other products of the Northern and
Middle States. One thousand negroes were upon it, under the direction
of several overseers. Its hills are crowned with fine timber, and I
observed several large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle upon the
slopes. It is probably the largest landed estate in the Carolinas,
perhaps in the Union.

* The Tar is about one hundred and eighty miles long. At the town of
Washington, toward the coast, it expands, and is called Pamlico River,
and flows into Pamlico Sound.

[[[Night at a Yankee's Farm house.--Arrival at Hillsborough.--Early
Settlements in North Carolina.]]]

{558}It was very dark when I reached the dwelling of Mr. Bacon (a farmer
from Connecticut), four miles from Hillsborough, a small, neat, and
comfortable log-house. Furniture and food were of the most humble kind,
but cheerful contentment made the inmates rich. The thankful _grace_ at
table, and the prayer and praise of family worship afterward, gave light
to that dwelling, where deep affliction was coming on apace. A daughter
of fourteen years (one of nine children), who sat wrapped in a blanket
in the corner of the huge fire-place, was wasting with consumption.
She was a beautiful child, and her mother spoke of her piety, her
tenderness, and sweet affection, until emotion pressed her lips into
silence. She was the picture of patient suffering.=

```"Around her brow, as snow drop fair,

````The glossy tresses cluster,

```Nor pearl nor ornament was there,

````Save the meek spirit's luster;

```And faith and hope beamed in her eye;

````And angels bowed as she passed by."

`````Sakah Josepha Hale.=

Ere this her body doubtless reposes in the orchard, by the side of that
of her little brother who had gone before.

The next day was the Sabbath. Leaving Mr. Bacon's at dawn, I rode into
Hillsborough * in time for breakfast and comfortable quarters at the
Union Hotel, where I spent the day before a glowing wood fire. On Monday
morning I called upon the Reverend James Wilson, D.D., with a letter
of introduction, and to his kind courtesy I am much indebted. He
accompanied me to places of interest in the town, and gave me all the
information I desired concerning the history of the vicinity. Before
noticing these strictly local matters, let us open the records of North
Carolina, and take a brief general view of the history of the state,
from its settlement until the war of the Revolution commenced.

The principal discoveries on the coast of the Carolinas have already
been noticed in the introduction to this work and in the account of the
first efforts at settlement in Virginia, by which it appears that
to North Carolina belongs the honor of having had the first English
settlement in America, within its domain. We will now consider, briefly,
the progress of settlement below the Nansemond and Roanoke.

We have seen the difficulties which attended the first explorations of
the Roanoke, and the abandonment of the Carolina coast after the failure
of Raleigh's expeditions Notwithstanding a fertile region was here open
for the labor and enterprise of the English, who were rapidly populating
Virginia along the banks of the Powhatan and other large streams, yet no
permanent settlement appears to have been attempted south of the Dismal
Swamp, until nearly fifty years after the building of Jamestown. As
early as 1609, the country on Nansemond River, on the southern frontier
of Virginia, had been settled; and in 1622, Porey, then Secretary of
Virginia, and a man of great courage and perseverance, penetrated the
country southward to the Chowan River. ** The kindness of the natives,
and the fertility and beauty of the country, were highly extolled
by Porey, and new desires for extending settlements southward were
awakened. The vigilance with which the Spaniards watched the coast below
Cape Fear, and the remembrance of their cruelty in exercising their
power at an earlier day against the French in Florida, doubtless caused
hesitation on the part of the English. But persecution during the
administration of Berkeley, at length drove some of Virginia's best
children from her household, and they, with others who were influenced
by lower motives than a desire for religious liberty, began the work
of founding a new state. New England, also, where persecution was not a
stranger, contributed essential aid in the work.

* Hillsborough was laid out in 1709 by W. Childs, and was first called
Childsburg, in honor of the then Attorney Genera! of the province. Its
name was afterward changed to Hillsborough, in compliment, according to
Martin (ii., 104), to the Earl of Hillsborough, the Secretary of Slate
for the colonies.

** The Chowan is formed bv the union of Nottaway, Meherrin, and
Blackwater Rivers, which flow from Virginia into Albemarle Sound, a
little north of the mouth of the Roanoke.

[[[First Charier of North Carolina.--Early Settlements on the Chowan and
Cape Fear.--Planters from Barbadoes.]]]

{559}In 1630, a patent was granted to Sir Robert Heath for the whole
of the country extending from Virginia, southward, over six degrees
of latitude, to the rather indefinite boundary of Florida, then in
possession of the Spaniards. The region was named Carolina in honor
of the sister of Charles the First, of that name. Heath was unable to
fulfill the conditions of his charter, and it was forfeited before any
settlements were made. In l663,[[March 24]] Charles the Second granted
a charter to a company, among whom were General George Monk (the Duke
of Albemarle), Lord Clarendon, Sir George Carteret, Lord Ashley Cooper
(afterward Earl of Shaftesbury), Lord Berkeley, and his brother Sir
William, the governor of Virginia. The region under this grant extended
from the thirty-sixth degree to the River San Matheo in Florida, now the
St. John's. Ten years earlier than this, a permanent settlement had been
formed upon the northern banks of the Chowan. Roger Green, an energetic
man, led a company across the wilderness from the Nansemond to the
Chowan, and settled near the present village of Edenton[[1653]] There
they flourished; and in the same year, when the charter was granted to
Clarendon and his associates, a government, under William Drummond,
a Scotch Presbyterian, was established over that little territory. In
honor of the Duke of Albemarle, it was called Albemarle County Colony.
In 1662, George Durant purchased from the Indians the Neck, which still
bears his name and the following year George Cathmaid received a large
grant of land, for having settled sixty-seven persons south of the
Roanoke. Two years later, it being discovered that the settlement on the
Chowan was not within the limits of the charter, Charles extended the
boundaries of that instrument, so as to include northward the region to
the present Virginia line, southward the whole of the present Carolines
and Georgia, and extending westward, like all of that monarch's
charters, to the Pacific Ocean. These charters were liberal in the
concession of civil privileges, and the proprietors were _permitted_ to
exercise toleration toward non-conformists to the Church of England,
if it should be thought expedient. Great encouragement was offered
to immigrants, from home, or from the other colonies, and settlements
steadily increased.

In 1661 some New England adventurers entered Cape Fear River, **
purchased a tract of land from the Indians on Old Town Creek, about half
way between Wilmington and Brunswick, and planted a settlement there.
The Virginians looked upon them as rivals, for the latter claimed a
right to the soil, having settled prior to the grant to Clarendon and
his associates. Difficulties arose. A compromise was proposed, but
the New Englanders were dissatisfied. The colony did not prosper; the
Indians lifted the hatchet against them, and in less than three years
the settlement was abandoned. Two years later,[[1665]] several planters
from Barbadoes purchased of the Indians a tract of land, thirty-two
miles square, near the abandoned settlement. They asked ol the
proprietaries a confirmation of their purchase, and a separate charter
of government. All was not granted, yet liberal concessions were made.
Sir John Yeamans, the son of a cavalier, and then a Barbadoes planter,
was, at the solicitation of the purchasers, appointed their governor.
His jurisdiction was from Cape Fear to the San Matheo (the territory
now included in South Carolina and Georgia), and was called _Clarendon
county_. The same year the Barbadoes people laid the foundation of a
town on the south bank of the Cape Fear River. It did not flourish, and
its site is now a subject for dispute.

Settlements now began to increase south of the Roanoke; and as the
proprietors of _Albemarle county_ saw, in anticipation, a powerful state
within the limits of their fertile ter-

* It is said that Durant's Neck has the honor of having furnished the
first seed for the Timothy Grass which is in such high repute among
farmers. Among the first settlers was a Quaker named Timothy somebody,
who observed the grass growing wild, and supposed it would be good for
cultivation. He sent some of the seed to his friends in England, who,
having found the grass to be valuable, called it Timothy Grass, in honor
of his friend in Carolina.--Caruthers's Life of Caldu-ell, page 52. A
Bible brought from England by Durant (and probably the first brought
into North Carolina), is now in the library of the Historical Society of
North Carolina, at Chapel Hill.

** The Cape Fear is formed by a union of the Haw and Deep Rivers, about
one hundred and twenty-five miles northwest from Wilmington, and enters
the Atlantic a little more than twenty miles below that city.

[[[The absurd "Fundamental Constitutions" of Shaftesbury and
Locke.--Sketch of the Authors.--Extent of the Province.]]]

{560}ritory, and dreamed of a grand American empire, they took measures
to establish a government with adequate functions, and to transport
into the New World the varied ranks and aristocratic establishments of
Europe. The Earl of Shaftesbury, * the ablest statesman of his time,
and John Locke, ** the illustrious philosopher, were employed to frame a
Constitution. ***

[Illustration: 9570]

They completed their labor in the spring of 1669,[[March]] after
exercising great care. The instrument was composed of one hundred and
twenty articles, and was called the _Fundamental Constitutions._ These
were in the highest degree monarchical in character and design. Indeed,
the proprietors avowed their design to "avoid making too numerous a
Democracy." Two orders of nobility were to be instituted; the higher
to consist of landgraves or earls, the lower of caciques or barons. The
territory **** was to be divided into counties, each county containing
four hundred and eighty thousand acres, with one landgrave and two
caciques, a number never to be increased or diminished. There were also
to be lords of manors, who like the nobles were entitled to hold courts
and exercise judicial functions. Persons holding fifty acres were to be
freeholders; the tenants held no political franchise, and could never
attain any higher rank. The four Estates of Proprietors, Earls, Barons,
and Commons were to sit in one legislative chamber. The proprietors were
always to be eight in number; to possess the whole judicial power, and
have the supreme direction of all tribunals. None but large property
holders were eligible for a seat in the Legislature, where the
commons were to have four members for every three of the nobility. An
aristocratic majority was thus always secured. In trials by jury, the
oppressed had but little hope, for the majority were to decide. Every
religion was professedly tolerated, (v) yet the Church of England only
was declared to be orthodox, and the national religion of Carolina.
(vi) Such is an outline of the principal features of the Constitution by
which the proprietaries proposed to govern free colonists in America. It
seems very strange that minds like those of Locke and Shaftesbury should
have committed such an egregious blunder;

* Anthony Ashley Cooper was born at Winborne in Dorsetshire, in 1621.
He was educated at Oxford, studied law, and when in his nineteenth year,
he was chosen representative for Tewksbury. He was hostile to Cromwell,
and took an aetive part in the restoration of Charles the Second. For
his services Charles made him Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord of
the Treasury, and created him Lord Ashley. In 1672 he was made Earl
of Shaftesbury, and appointed Lord Chancellor. He resigned his office
within a year, but held it again in 1679. During that year he conferred
on his country the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act. He afterward
opposed the unconstitutional measures of the king, and was twice
committed to the Tower. He finally withdrew to Holland, where he died,
January 22, 1683.

** John Locke was born at Wrington, near Bristol, England, in 1632. He
was educated at Westminster school. He studied the science of medicine
and became eminent, but he was more noted for his proficiency in polite
literature. His health would not allow him to practice the medical art,
and in 1664 he accepted the secretaryship to Sir William Swan, who was
sent envoy to the Elector of Brandenburg. He turned his attention to
politics and jurisprudence, and because of his skill and knowledge on
sueh subjects, Shaftesbury employed him to assist him in drawing up a
charter for North Carolina. While at Montpelier, for the benefit of his
health, he commenced his celebrated Essay on the Human Understanding.
When Shaftesbury went to Holland, Locke accompanied him. There, on the
death of the earl, envy and malice persecuted him. He was accused of
treason, and for twelve months he kept himself concealed. He returned
to England after the Revolution in 1688, and was honored by government
appointments. He was a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations for five
years, when declining health made him resign the office in 1700. He died
on the twenty-eighth of October, 1704, in the seventy-third year of his
age.

*** This document is supposed to be chiefly the work of Shaftesbury.

**** The territory comprising more than seven degrees of latitude from
the Nansemond, south, included the whole of the present North and South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, a good portion of
Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, a large portion of Mexico, and the
whole of Upper and Lower California.

* (v) There were some Quakers in the Albemarle colony, and when, in
1672, William Edmunson and George Fox visited that settlement, many were
added to that persuasion. Near the Roanoke, in that region, and in the
counties of Orange, Guilford, and Randolph, are the only settlements
of that sect in North Carolina The Quakers were the first to organize a
religious government in that state.

* (vi) Bancroft, ii., 136-150. Chalmers, 517-526. Locke's Works, x.,
194. Martin, i., 148-150. This instrument is published at length in the
Appendix to the first volume of Martin's History of North Carolina

[[[Abrogation of the Constitutions.--Government Officers
imprisoned.--Governor Sothel banished.--John Archdale.]]]

{561}that men so wise and sagacious should have attempted such a solemn
farce. Albemarle, the chief settlement, had only about fourteen hundred
"working hands," and the habitations in Carolina were chiefly log huts.
The whole population was hardly four thousand in number. Where were the
landgraves, and caciquies, and lords of manors to be found among them?
and where were mansions for the nobility and aristocracy? The error
was soon perceived, yet the proprietaries insisted upon commencing the
system with a view to its further accomplishment. But the spirit of
the whole thing was adverse to the feelings of the people; and, after a
contest of twenty years, these _Constitutions_ were abrogated, and the
people were allowed to be governed by their earlier and more simple and
appropriate code under Stevens, the successor of Drummond--a governor
with his council of twelve, six appointed by the proprietaries, and
six chosen by the Assembly; and a House of Delegates chosen by the
freeholders.

While the contest was going on between the proprietaries and the people,
temporary laws were established. The harmony which prevailed before the
magnificent scheme of government was proposed, was disturbed, and both
counties were shaken by internal commotions. Disorders prevailed most
extensively in the Albemarle or Northern colony, the population of which
was far more numerous than the Clarendon or Southern colony. Excessive
taxation and commercial restrictions occasioned discontent, while
the influence of refugees from Virginia, the participators in Bacon's
rebellion there, who were sheltered in Carolina, ripened the people for
resistance to monarchical schemes to enslave or oppress them. A year
after the death of Bacon, a revolt occurred in Albemarle. Miller, the
secretary of the colony, acting governor before Eastchurch arrived, and
the collector of customs, attempted to enforce the revenue laws against
a vessel from New England. Led by John Culpepper, a refugee from
Clarendon, the people seized Miller and the public funds, imprisoned him
and six of his council, appointed new magistrates and judges, called
a Parliament, and took all the functions of government into their own
hands. Thus matters remained for two years. * Culpepper went to England
to plead the cause of the people. He was arrested for treason,[[1680]]
but, through Shaftesbury, he was acquitted, that statesman justly
pleading that in Albemarle there had been no regular government; that
the disorders were but feuds among the people. Thus early, that feeble
colony of North Carolina asserted the same political rights for which
our fathers so successfully contended a hundred years later.

Seth Sothel, one of the corporators, an avaricious and dishonest man,
arrived in the Albemarle province in 1683, as governor. He plundered
the people, and prostituted his office to purposes of private gain.
According to Chalmers, "the annals of delegated authority include no
name so infamous" as Sothel. The people, after enduring him for six
years, seized him, and were about sending him to England[[1689]] to
answer their accusations before the proprietors, when he asked to be
tried by the Colonial Assembly. Such trial was granted, and he was
sentenced to banishment for one year, and was forever deprived of
the privilege of holding the office of governor. He withdrew to South
Carolina, where we shall meet him again. The proprietors acquiesced in
the proceedings of the colonists, and sent over Philip Ludwell as their
representative,[[1693]] who, by wisdom and justice, soon restored
order. He was succeeded by Thomas Harvey in 1692, and, two years later,
Henderson Walker succeeded Harvey.

In 1695, two years after the splendid Fundamental Constitutions of Locke
and Shaftesbury were abrogated, and landgraves and caciques, and lords
of manors, were scattered to the winds, John Archdale, a Quaker, and
one of the proprietors, arrived as governor of both Carolinas. From that
period until the partition of the provinces in 1729, it is difficult to
separate their histories, although governed by distinct magistrates.
In 1698 the first settlement was made on the Pamlico or Tar River, the
Pamlico Indians having been nearly all destroyed two years previously
by a pestilence. Population rapidly increased under the liberal
administration of Archdale. The first church in Carolina was built in
Chowan county in 1705, and religion began to be respected.

* Williamson, i.. 132.

[[[Settlements in the Interior.--Indian Hostilities.--Flight of the
Tuscaroras.--Pirates.--First Royal Governor.]]]

{562}The colonists now began to turn their attention to the interior. In
1707, a company of French Protestants came from Virginia and settled in
Carolina; and in 1709, one hundred German families, driven from their
home on the Rhine by fierce persecutions and devastating war, sought
a refuge in the free, tolerant, and peaceful soil of North Carolina.
Already the Huguenots were settling in South Carolina, and were planting
the principles of civil liberty there. The French immigrants were not
favorably received by the English, and disputes occurred. Archdale
managed with prudence for a year, and then left affairs in the hands
of Joseph Blake, afterward governor of South Carolina. The difficulties
between the English and French were settled, and the latter were
admitted to all the rights of citizenship. The Indians along the
sea-coast were melting away like frost in the sunbeams. The powerful
tribe of the Hatteras, which numbered three thousand warriors in
Raleigh's time, were reduced to fifteen bowmen; another tribe had
entirely disappeared; and of all the aborigines, but a small remnant
remained. They had sold their lands, or had been cheated out of them,
and were driven back to the deep wildnerness. Strong drink and other
vices of civilization had decimated them, and their beautiful land, all
the way to the Yadkin and Catawba, was speedily opened to the almost
unopposed encroachments of the white man. Yet, before their power was
utterly broken, the Indians made an effort to redeem their losses. The
Tuscaroras of the inland region, and the Corees southward, upon whom
their countrymen of the coasts had retreated, resolved to strike a
blow that should exterminate the intruders. Upon the scattered German
settlements along the Roanoke and Pamlico Sound, they fell like
lightning from the clouds. In one night one hundred and thirty persons
perished by the hatchet.[[Sept. 22, 1711]] The savages also scoured
the country on Albemarle Sound, burning dwellings and massacring the
inhabitants for three days, until disabled by drunkenness and fatigue.
To the Southern colony the people of Albemarle looked for aid. Nor was
it withheld. Captain Barnwell, with six hundred white men, and three
hundred and sixty Indians of the tribes of the Cherokees,
Creeks, Catawbas, and Yamasees, * as allies, marched against the
Tuscaroras,[[1712]] and, driving them back to their fortified town near
the Neuse, a little above Edenton, in the upper part of Craven county,
forced them to make a treaty of peaee. Both parties soon violated this
treaty, and the Indians commenced hostilities. Colonel Moore, of South
Carolina, with forty white men, and eight hundred friendly Indians,
arrived in December, 1713, besieged the savages in their fort, and took
eight hundred of them prisoners. The hostile Tuscaroras soon afterward
migrated northward, and joining the Five Nations on the southern shore
of Lake Ontario, formed a part of the powerful confederacy of the _Six
Nations_ in New York. In 1715 peaee was concluded with the Corees, and
Indian wars ceased.

From this period until 1729, when the two provinces were surrendered
to the crown, and were permanently separated, the colonists enjoyed
comparative prosperity. The people had some difficulties with the
Indians; were troubled with a swarm of pirates on the coast, under
_Teach_, the famous "Black Beard;" and disputed, with the vehemence
of men determined to remain free, with all unwise and aristocratic
governors sent to rule them. Perceiving that the expenses which had
attended the settlement of the Carolinas were hardly productive of any
advantage, the lords proprietors offered to surrender the provinces
to the crown. This was effected,[[1729]] and each proprietor received
twelve thousand five hundred dollars, as the consideration of the
surrender. Their charter had been in existence sixty-six years.
The population of both provinces, including negroes, did not exceed
twenty-five thousand persons, ten thousand in North Carolina, and
fifteen thousand in South Carolina. The last proprietary governor was
Sir Richard Everard, successor to Charles Eden.

George Burrington was the first royal governor of North Carolina, and
took his seat without difficulty, in February, 1730. *** His first
important act was to announce a remission of

* These tribes, and others from Cape Fear to the Gulf of Mexico,
numbering about six thousand warriors, soon afterward confederated, with
the design of exterminating the white people on the Atlantic coast. This
event will be noticed hereafter.

** The general form of the Colonial government was not materially
changed. The governor could do nothing legally without the assent of his
council. With them, he was authorized to establish courts of justice,
and to hold a Court of Error. The governor, members of the council,
commander of the king's ships in the province, chief-justices, judges of
the Vice-admiralty, secretary, and receiver-general, were constituted a
court for the trial of pirates.

[[[First Legislative Assembly.--The Governor and People at
Variance.--Removal of the Seat of Government to Wilmington.]]]

{563}arrears of quit-rent. This was highly satisfactory. His second,
under instructions, was to send a deputation into the interior
to conciliate the Indians, particularly the Cherokees. The first
Legislative Assembly was convened at Edenton in April, 1731,[[April
13]] where the future policy of the royal government was unfolded by
Burrington. The representatives of the people were dissatisfied with its
aspeet, and when, in the king's name, the governor demanded of them a
sufficient revenue for defraying the expenses of the local government,
and a sufficient salary for the governor, his council, and the officers
employed in the administration of justice, they murmured. In these
requisitions they could not recognize the promised advantages of a
change in ownership, and they early showed a disposition to pay very
little attention to these demands of the chief magistrate. Three years
afterward, commercial restrictions, hitherto unknown, increased the
discontents of the people,1 and the seeds of revolution were planted in
a generous soil. The Assembly uttered the old complaint of exorbitant
fees on the part of public officers; the governor rejected their
remonstrance with contempt. The former refused to vote a revenue or to
pass any acts, and sent a complaint to England of Burrington's "violence
and tyranny in the administration of government." The Board of Trade
reprimanded and deposed him, and then appointed in his place Gabriel
Johnston,[[Nove 1734]] late steward of Lord Wilmington, a prudent and
cunning Scotchman.

The new governor encountered quite as much trouble as his predecessor.
The Assembly were refractory, and Johnston attempted to collect the
rents ** on his own authority. Payment was resisted, and the Assembly
not only denied the legality of the governor's proceedings,[[March
1737]] but imprisoned the officers who had distrained for quit-rents.
Johnston made concessions to the people, but his arrangements were
rejected by the home government, as yielding too much to the popular
will. For nearly ten years the quarrel concerning rents continued
between the governor and the Assembly, and, in the mean while, the
salaries of government officials remained in arrears, for the rents,
which produced the sole fund for the payment of the royal officers, were
inadequate. The governor now resorted to cunning management as a last
effort to sustain his authority. The province had been divided into
several counties. The southern counties, lately settled, were more
tractable than the northern ones, but they had only two members each in
the Assembly, while the others had five. The governor, at a time when
several of the northern members were absent, procured the passage of
an act, placing all the counties upon an equal footing as to
representation, and also for the removal of the seat of government from
Edenton to Wilmington, a new town, lately established at the head of
ship navigation, on the Cape Fear River, and named in honor of Lord
Wilmington, Johnston's patron. The six northern counties refused to
acknowledge the newly-organized Assembly as legal, and carried their
complaint to England. They were obliged to submit, and at last the
governor procured the passage of an aet,[[1748]] by which the expenses
of government were provided for.

It was during the administration of Governor Johnston that two important
occurrences

* The settlers procured furs from the Indians with great facility, and
the manufacture of hats from this material was becoming a source of
considerable revenue to several of the colonists. They exported hats to
the West India Islands, Spain, and Portugal. The jealousy of England
was awakened, and to secure those markets for her home manufactures,
Parliament forbade the exportation of hats from the American colonies.
They were not allowed to send them from one colony to another. None
but persons who had served seven years apprenticeship to the trade were
allowed to make hats, and no master was permitted to have more than
two apprentices at a time. The business was soon confined within narrow
limits, for severe penalties accompanied these enactments. Obstacles
were also thrown in the way of the manufacture of ropes and cordage in
America, and other kinds of business soon felt the cheeks of a narrow
and unjust commercial policy.

** The whole soil belonged to the crown. The people were required, by
the governor, to pay the expenses of the government, in addition to the
stipulated rents.

[[[Immigration of Scotch Highlanders.--The Rebellion of '45.--Peril and
Flight of 'The Pretender.--Extinction of his Family.]]]

{564}took place, which, though separate and dissimilar, tended, in a
remarkable degree, toward a union of the provinces in political and
social interest, and in fostering that spirit of civil and religious
freedom which prevailed in the South, and particularly in North
Carolina, where the oppressive measures of the first ten years of the
reign of George the Third produced rebellion in America. I allude to the
commencement of hostilities between France and England in 1745; and the
immigration hither of a large number of Presbyterians from Scotland and
the north of Ireland, the former on account of their participation in
the famous rebellion of that year. *

* The Scottish insurrection, known as The Rebellion of 45, was in favor
of Charles Edward, the son of James II. who shared his father's exile
in France. Claiming the throne of England as his right, and regarding
George of Hanover as a usurper, he determined to make an effort for the
crown. In June, 1745, he embarked in an eighteen-gun frigate, and landed
at Borodale, in the southwest part of Scotland, with a few Scotch and
Irish followers. His arms were chiefly on board another vessel, which
had been obliged to put back to France. The Highlanders in the vicinity
arose in his favor, and in a few days fifteen hundred strong men
surrounded his standard--a piece of taffeta which he brought from
France. The Pretender (as he was called) marched to Perth, where he was
joined by some Scotch lords and their retainers. With his increasing
army, he entered Edinburgh in triumph, though the castle held out for
King George. All England trembled with alarm. The premier (the king
was in Hanover) offered a reward of $750,000 for the person of the
Pretender. From Edinburgh the insurgents marched toward the border,
and were every where successful, until encountered by the Duke of
Cumberland, at Culloden, where, on the sixteenth of April, 1745, they
were defeated and dispersed. The jails of England were soon filled with
the prisoners. Lords Balmerino and Lovat, and Mr. Radcliffe, a brother
of the Earl of Derwentwater * were beheaded, the last who suffered death,
in that way, in England. Many others were executed, and a large number
of the Highlanders were transported to America, and became settlers
in North Carolina. The Pretender was the last to leave the field at
Culloden. For almost five months he was a fugitive among the
Highlands, closely scented by the officers of government. After various
concealments by the people, he escaped to the Isle of Skye, in the
character and disguise of Betty Bourke, an Irish servant to Miss Flora
M'Donald, daughter of a Highlander. After several perilous adventures,
he reached the Continent in September, 1746. He died at Rome in 1784.
His brother, Cardinal York, the last representative of the house of
Stuart, died in 1807 and the family became extinct.

[[[The Scotch-Irish and their Principles.--Their Emigration to
Carolina.--Moravian Settlements.]]]

{565}




CHAPTER XXII.


```Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her;

```While we live we will cherish, and love, and defend her;

```Though the scorner may sneer at, the witlings defame her,

```Our hearts swell with gladness whenever wc name her.=

```Though she envies not others this merited glory,

```Say, whose name stands the foremost in Liberty's story?

```Though too true to herself, e'er to crouch to oppression,

```Who can yield to just rule more loyal submission?

````Hurrah! hurrah! the Old North State forever!

````Hurrah! hurrah! the good old North State!"

`````William Gaston.=

[Illustration: 9575]

HE settlement of the Scotch refugees at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville),
at the head of navigation on the Cape Fear Rivcr, is an important point
to be observed, in considering the history of the progress of free
principles in North Carolina. These settlers formed a nucleus of more
extensive immigrations subsequently. They brought with them the sturdy
sentiments of the Covenanters, and planted deeply in the interior of
that province the acorns of civil freedom, which had grown to unyielding
oaks, strong and defiant, when the Revolution broke out. The sentiment
of loyalty, kindred to that of patriotism, was an inherent principle
in their character, and this was first displayed when Donald M'Donald
called upon his countrymen to remember their oath of allegiance to King
George and his successors, and to assist the royal governor in quelling
rebellion.[[1776]] But as that rebellion assumed the phase of righteous
resistance to tyranny, many of those who followed their chief to Moore's
Creek, under the banner of the house of Hanover, afterward fought nobly
in defense of the principles of the Covenanters under the stars and
stripes of the Continental Congress. Other immigrants, allied to them
by ties of consanguinity and religious faith, had already planted
settlements along the Cape Fear and its tributaries, and in the fertile
domain between the Yadkin and Catawba; and in those isolated regions,
far removed from the petty tyrannies of royal instruments, they inhaled
the life of freedom from the pure mountain air, and learned lessons of
independence from the works and creatures of God around them. These
were chiefly Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, commonly called
Scotch-Irish, or the descendants of that people already in Virginia.
Their principles bore the same fruit in Carolina, as in Ulster two
centuries earlier; and long before the Stamp Act aroused the Northern
colonies to resistance, the people of Granville, Orange, Mecklenburg and
vicinity, had boldly told the governor upon the coast that he must not
expect subservience to unjust laws upon the banks of the rivers in the
upper country. There was another class of emigrants whose religious
principles tended to civil freedom. These were the _Unitas Fratrum_--the
Moravians--who planted settlements in North Carolina in the middle of
the last century.[[1749]] These, with other German Protestants, were
firmly attached, from the commencement, to the principles which gave
vitality to our

* In the upper part of the state, in the vicinity of the route traversed
by the armies of Cornwallis and Greene during the memorable retreat
of the latter, there were above twenty organized churches, with
large congregations, and a great many preaching places. All of these
congregations, where the principles of the Gospel independence had
been faithfully preached by M'Aden, Patillo, Caldwell, M Corkle, Hall,
Craighead, Balch, M'Caule, Alexander, and Richardson, were famous
during the struggle of the Revolution, for skirmishes, battles, loss of
libraries, personal prowess, individual courage, and heroic women. In no
part of our republic was purer patriotism displayed, than there.

[[[The Religious Element in our Government.--Origin of the
Scotch-Irish.--First Printing presses in North Carolina.]]]

{566}Declaration of Independence a quarter of a century afterward. * We
will not stop to examine the philosophy of religious influence in the
formation of our civil government. It is a broad and interesting field
of inquiry, but not within the scope of this work; yet so deeply are
the principles of the various phases of Protestantism--the Puritans, the
Scotch-Irish, ** and the Huguenots--impressed upon the Constitutions of
every state in our union, that we must not, we can not, lose sight of
the fact that the whole superstructure of our laws and government has
for its basis the broad postulate of religious freedom asserted by
the Puritans and the Covenanters--_FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE IN MATTERS OF
BELIEF--FREEDOM OF ACTION ACCORDING TO FAITH--FREEDOM TO CHOOSE TEACHERS
AND RULERS IN CHURCH AND STATE._

Two years after the settlement of the Highlanders under the general
direction of Neil M'Neil, the first printing-press was brought into the
province, from Virginia, by James Davis, and set up at Newbern.[[1749]]
This was an important event in the political history of the province.
Hitherto the laws had been in manuscript, and it was difficult for the
people to obtain knowledge, even of the most essential enactments. In
the course of 1751, the printing of the first revisal of the acts of
the Assembly was accomplished, and by the multiplication of copies,
the people generally became acquainted with the laws, and learned their
rights and duties. It was not until 1761 that a periodical paper
was published in North Carolina, and then the want of good postal
arrangements, and, indeed, the character of the paper itself, made it of
little service as a messenger with news. The same year another paper
was commenced, much superior in its character, and from that time the
influence of the press and popular education began to be felt in that
state. ***

In expectation of hostilities between the French and English in America,
all of the colonies turned their attention to the subject of defenses,
and pecuniary resources. Magazines were established in the different
counties of North Carolina, two or three forts were erected, and
emissions of bills of credit were authorized by the Legislature. When
hostilities commenced, and Governor Dinwiddie asked the other colonies
to assist in driving the French from Ohio, North Carolina was the only
one that responded promptly, by voting a regiment of four hundred and
fifty men,[[March 1794]] and an emission of paper money where-

* The Moravians purchased a tract of one hundred thousand acres between
the Dan and the Yadkin Rivers, about ten miles eastward of the Gold
Mountain. They gave to their domain the name of Wachovia, the title of
an estate belonging to Count Zinzendorf in Austria.--See Martin, ii.,
57. Much earlier than this (1709), a colony of Swiss and Germans, under
Baron De Graflenreidt, settled on the Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers. They
founded a city, and called it New Berne (at present Newbern), after
Berne, in Switzerland.

** Henry the Eighth of England forced the people of Ireland to accept
the rituals of the Reformed Church. Elizabeth, his daughter, pursued the
same policy, and reaped the abundant fruit of trouble brought forth by
the discontents of the Irish people. In consequence of the failure of a
rebellion against the authority of James the First, in the province
of Ulster, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, nearly six
counties, embracing half a million of acres, became the property of
the king, by confiscation. Thither James sent Protestant colonies from
England and Scotland (chiefly from the latter), hoping thereby to
fix the principles of the reformation there, and thus to subdue
the turbulence of the people. The Scotch settlers retained the
characteristic traits of their native stock, but were somewhat molded by
surrounding influences. They continued to call themselves Scotch, and,
to distinguish them from the natives of Scotland, they received the
name of Scotch-Irish. From the beginning they were Republicans. They
demanded, and exercised the privilege of choosing their own ministers
and spiritual directors, in opposition to all efforts of the hierarchy
of England to make the choice and support of their clergy a state
concern. From the descendants of these early Republicans came
the Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in the interior of Forth
Carolina.--See History of Religious Principles and Events in Ulster
Province.

*** The first periodical paper, called The North Carolina Magazine, or
Universal Intelligencer, was published bv Davis, at Newbern, on a demi
sheet, in quarto pages. It was filled with long extracts from the works
of theological writers, or selections from British magazines. The second
newspaper was called the North Carolina Gazette and Weekly Post Boy. It
was printed at Wilmington, by Andrew Stewart, a Scotchman, and contained
intelligence of current events. The first number was published in
September, 1764. The Assembly that year passed an act for the erection
of a school-house at Newbern; the first legislative movement in the
province in favor of popular education. The Cape Fear Mercury was
established by Adam Boyd, in October, 1767. Boyd was a zealous patriot,
and was an active member of the Committee of Safety, of Wilmington.

[[[Carolina Troops in Virginia.--Governors Dobbs and Tryon.--Opposition
to the Stamp Act.--The Enfield Riot]]]

{567}with to pay them. This movement was made at the instigation of
Governor Rowan. These troops marched to Virginia under Colonel James
Jones, of Hanover; but by the time they reached Winchester, the
appropriation for their pay being exhausted, they were disbanded, and
only a few of them followed Washington toward the Monongahela.

The following year,[[1755]] North Carolina voted forty thousand dollars
as further aid toward "repelling the encroachments of the French."
Arthur Dobbs, an aged Irishman of "eminent abilities," was then
governor, but his usefulness was impaired by attempting to exercise
undue authority, and in too freely bestowing offices upon his relatives
and countrymen. He was a thorough aristocrat, but his feelings became
much softened by surrounding democratic influences, and he held the
office until succeeded by William Tryon, in 1766. Dobbs attended the
meeting of colonial governors convened at Alexandria by Braddock, in
April, 1755.

[Illustration: 9577]

Impressed with the importance of frontier defenses against the Indians,
he recommended the erection of forts on the Yadkin. Governor Glenn,
of South Carolina, at the same time caused forts to be erected on the
borders of the Cherokee country along the Savannah River. With the
exception of occasional Indian hostilities, and a sort of "anti-rent"
outbreak, * nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the province from
that period, until two or three years after the signing of the treaty of
peace at Paris, in 1763.

The passage of the Stamp Act produced great uneasiness in the public
mind in North Carolina, as well as in the other provinces. Already the
extortions of public officers in the exaction of fees for legal services
had greatly irritated the people, and they regarded the requirements
of the Stamp Act as a more gigantic scheme for legal plunder. The first
published murmurs, as we have seen, was at Nut Bush[[June 1765]]
(see page 556) then in Granville county. At about the same time, the
inhabitants of Edenton, Newbern, and Wilmington, assembled in their
respective towns, and asserted their hearty concurrence in the
sentiments expressed by the people of the Northern colonies unfavorable
to the Stamp Act. During the summer and autumn, denunciations of the
measure were boldly expressed at public meetings, notwithstanding
the presence of Tryon, the lieutenant governor. Tryon had been acting
governor and commander-in-chief of the province from the death of
Governor Dobbs, on the first of April of that year, and now began his
career of misrule in America. He was appointed governor toward the close
of the year. This was the same Tryon, afterward governor of

* The outbreak alluded to is known as the Enfield Riot. It occurred
in 1759. Extortion had become rife in every department of government.
Deputy-surveyors, entry-takers, and other officers of inferior grade,
became adepts in the chicanery of their superiors. The people finding
their complaints unavailing, and that Corbin, who had the chief
direction of the land-office, was increasing his fees without authority,
resolved to redress their grievances themselves. Fourteen well-mounted
men crossed the Chowan, a few miles above Edenton, by night, seized
Corbin, took him to Enfield, and kept him there until he gave a bond in
forty thousand dollars, with eight sureties, that he would produce his
books within three weeks and return all his illegal fees. As soon as
released, he commenced suits against four of the men who seized him,
and they were committed to Enfield jail. The next day an armed posse
cut down the prison doors, and released them. Corbin was obliged to
discontinue his suits and pay the costs. In Mecklenburg county, in May,
1765, a number of people, with their faces blackened, forcibly compelled
John Frohock, a surveyor, to leave the lands of George A. Selwyn, who
possessed large tracts in that county, and who had sent him there to
survey them.

** William Tryon was a native of Ireland, and was educated to the
profession of a soldier. He was an officer in the British service. He
married Miss Wake, a relative of the Earl of Hillsborough, secretary fur
the colonies. Thus connected, he was a favorite of government, and was
appointed lientenant governor of North Carolina, in 1765. On the death
of Governor Dobbs, lie succeeded him in office, and exercised its
functions until called to fill the same office in New York, in 1771.
The history of his administration in North Carolina is a record of
extortion, folly, and crime. During his administration in New York, the
Revolution broke out, and he was the last royal governor of that state,
though nominally succeeded in office in 1780 by General Robertson, when
he returned to England. His property in North Carolina and in New York
was confiscated. The public acts of Governor Tryon, while in Ameriea,
are recorded upon various pages of these volumes. The seal and signature
on the preceding pane are referred to on page 570.

[[[Revolutionary Proceedings at Wilmington.--Ruins of St. Philip's
Church at Brunswick.]]]

{568}New York, whom we have already met at the conflagrations of
Danbury, Continental Village, and other places. Haughty, innately
cruel, fond of show, obsequious when wishing favors, and tyrannical when
independent, he was entirely incompetent to govern a people like the
free, outspoken colonists of the Upper Carolinas. Fearing a
general expression of the sentiments of the people, through their
representatives, on the subject of the odious act, Tryon issued a
proclamation in October[[Oct 25]] proroguing the Assembly, which was to
meet on the thirtieth of November, until the following March.

[Illustration: 9578]

This act incurred the indignation of the people; and when, early in
January, the sloop of war Diligence arrived in Cape Fear River, having
stamps on board for the use of the province, the militia of New Hanover
and Brunswick, under Colonels Ashe and Waddell, marched to the village
of Brunswick, * and notified the commander of their determination to
resist the landing of the stamps. Earlier than this, Colonel Ashe, who
was the speaker of the Lower House, had informed Tryon that the law
would be resisted to the last. Tryon had issued his proclamation,[[Jan.
6, 1766]] directing the stamp distributors to make application for them,
but the people were too vigilant to allow these officials to approach
the vessel. Taking one of the boats of the Diligence, and leaving a
small party to watch the movements of the duty sloop, the remainder of
the little army of volunteers proceeded to

[Illustration: 7578]

Wilmington. Having placed a flag in the boat, they hoisted it upon a
cart, and with the mayor (Moses John De Rosset, Esq.) and principal
inhabitants, paraded it through the streets. At night the town was
illuminated, and the next day a great concourse of people, headed by
Colonel

* The village of Brunswick, once a flourishing town, but now a
desolation, was situated upon a sandy plain on the western side of the
Cape Fear, on New Inlet, in full view of the sea, fifteen miles below
Wilmington. It enjoyed considerable commerce; but Wilmington, more
eligibly situated, became first its rival. Little now remains to denote
the former existence of population there, but the grand old walls of
"St. Philip's Church, of Brunswick," which was doubtless the finest
sacred edifice in the province at the time of its erection, about one
hundred years ago. I am indebted to Frederick Kidder, Esq., of Boston,
who visited the ruins in 1851, for the accompanying drawing and general
description of the present appearance of the church. It is situated
within a thick grove of trees, chiefly pines, about an eighth of a
mile from the river bank, and its massive walls, built of large English
bricks, seem to have been but little effected by time. They exhibit
"honorable sears" made by cannon-balls hurled from British ships in the
Cape Fear to cover the landing of Cornwallis, when, in the spring of
1776, he desolated the plantation of Colonel Robert Howe, and other
Whigs in the neighborhood of that patriot's estate. The edifice is
seventy-five feet in length from east to west, and fifty-four feet in
width. The walls are about three feet in thickness, and average about
twenty-eight feet in height. The roof, floor, and windows have long
sinee perished; and where the pulpit stood, upon its eastern end, a
vigorous cedar spreads its branches. Nine of these green trees are
within its walls, and give peculiar picturesqueness to the scene. On the
top of the walls is flourishing shrubbery, the product of seeds planted
by the winds and the birds. Around the church are strewn the graves of
many of the early settlers, the names of some of whom live in the annals
of the state. The view here given is from the east. About a quarter of a
mile northeast from the church, are remains of the residence of Governor
Tryon at the time of the Stamp Act excitement.

[[[Resignation of the Wilmington Stamp Master.--Unpopularity of
Tryon.--Discontents in the Interior.--"Regulators."]]]

{369}Ashe, proceeded to the governor's house and demanded James Houston,
the stamp master. Houston appeared, and going to the market-place, he
voluntarily took a solemn oath not to perform the duties of his office.
The populace, satisfied with their triumph, gave three cheers, conducted
him back to the governor's house, and then dispersed.

Tryon was alarmed at this demonstration of the popular temper, and
endeavored to conciliate the militia of New Hanover, at a general
muster, by treating them to a barbacued ox and a few barrels of
beer.[[Feb., 1766]] The insulted people cast the ox into the river,
poured the beer upon the ground, and mocked the governor. The officers
of the Diligence espoused the cause of the chief magistrate, and a
general fight ensued. The riot continued several days, and during the
excitement one man was killed. * The Stamp Act was repealed shortly
afterward, and the province became comparatively tranquil.

For several years previous to the Stamp Act excitement rebellion had
been ripening among the people in the western counties. The rapacity
of public officers, and the corrupt character of ministers of justice,
weighed heavily upon the property and spirits of the people. The most
prominent evils complained of were the exorbitant charges of the clerks
of the Superior Courts, whereby those courts had become instruments
of oppression; and oppressive taxes exacted by the sheriffs, and the
outrages committed by those officers when their authority was questioned
in the least. These evils every where existed, and every petition of the
people (who began to assemble for consultation) for redress appeared to
be answered by increased extortions. At length the inhabitants resolved
to form a league, take power into their own hands, and regulate matters.
** Herman Husband, "one of those independent Quakers who was taught in
the honest school of William Penn, and refused to pull off his hat and
bow before the minions of despotism," *** a man of grave deportment,
superior mind, and of great influence, **** but evidently without
education, (v) drew up a written complaint. It was carried to
Hillsborough, during the sitting of the court,[[Oct. 1776]] by a number
of firm men, who requested the clerk to read it aloud. The preamble
asserted that "The Sons of Liberty would withstand the Lords in
Parliament," and it set forth that evils of great magnitude existed. It
recommended a general meeting of delegates, appointed by each militia
company in Orange county, to be held at some suitable place, _where
there was no liquor_, to "judiciously inquire whether the freemen of
this county labor under any abuse of power," &c., &c. The proposition
being considered reasonable, a meeting was appointed to be held at
Haddock's Mills, on the Eno, two or three miles west of Hillsborough.
The meeting was held on the tenth,[[October]] but not many delegates
attended. They discussed various topics fairly and dispassionately.
Another meeting was held on the fourth of April following,[[1767]] at
the same place, and the resolutions passed at that time were almost
equivalent to a declaration of independence of the civil power of the
state. From that time The Regulation was a permanent and powerful body.
(vi)

* Martin, 210-12. The man who was killed was Thomas Whitehurst, a
relative of Mrs. Tryon. He fell in a duel with Simpson, master of the
sloop of war Viper, who took the side of the colonists. Simpson was
tried for murder and acquitted. Tryon charged Chief-justice Berry with
partiality, and severely reprimanded him. The judge was very sensitive,
and, under the impression that he was to be suspended from office,
committed suicide in the most horrible manner.

** Those who associated for the purpose assumed the name of Regulators,
and the confederacy was called The Regulation.

*** North Carolina Weekly Times.

**** Caruthers, 120.

* (v) The deficiency in Husband's education, and his ignorance of the
proper construction of language, is evinced in a pamphlet prepared
chiefly by himself, entitled "An Impartial Relation of the first Rise
and Cause of recent differences in Public Affairs," which was printed
for the "compiler" in 1770. The onlv copy of this rare and curious
pamphlet which I have seen is in the possession of the Reverend Francis
Hawks, D.D., of New York City.

* (vi) These resolutions were drawn by Herman Husband. The signers
agreed to form an association to regulate public affairs in Orange
county. They resolved to pay no more taxes until satisfied that they
were legal; to pay officers no more fees than the strict letter of the
law required, unless forced to, and then to show open resentment; to
be cautious in the selection of representatives, and to petition the
governor, council, king, and Parliament for a redress of grievances;
to keep up a continual correspondence with each other; to defray all
necessary expenses; all differences in judgment to be submitted to the
whole Regulation, the judgment of the majority to be final; and closed
by a solemn oath or affirmation to "stand true and faithful to this
cause, until we bring things to a true regulation." These Regulators
were also styled "Sons of Liberty."

[[[Tryon's Request for a Palace.--Maneuvers of his Family.--Heavy
Appropriation.--View and Description of the Palace.]]]

{570}It was at about this time that the pride and folly of Governor
Tryon led him to make a demand upon the Assembly for an appropriation
of twenty-five thousand dollars for the purpose of building a palace at
Newbern "suitable for the residence of a royal governor." To obtain this
appropriation, Lady Tryon, and her sister Esther Wake, * both beautiful
and accomplished women, used all the blandishments of their charms
and society to influence the minds of the burgesses. Lady Tryon gave
princely dinners and balls, and the governor finally succeeded in
obtaining, not only the first appropriation asked, but another of fifty
thousand dollars, to complete the edifice.

[Illustration: 0580]

It was pronounced the most magnificent struc-

* Wake county was so named in honor of this accomplished lady.
Afterward, when party zeal changed the name of Tryon county, and it
was proposed to alter that of Wake also, the gallantry of the Assembly
overruled their feelings of hostility to the governor and his family,
and the name was retained.

** This picture of the palace I made from the original drawings of the
plan and elevation, by John Hawks, Esq., the architect. These drawings,
with others of minor details, such as sections of the drawing-room,
chimney-breasts for the council-chamber and dining-hall, sewers, &e.,
are in the present possession of a grandson of the architect, the
Reverend Francis L. Hawks, D.D., L.L.D., rector of Calvary Church, in
the city of New York, to whose courtesy I am indebted for their use.
With the drawings is the preliminary contract entered into by the
governor and the architect, which bears the private seal of Tryon and
the signatures of the parties, from which I made the fac simile printed
upon page 567. The contract is dated January 9th, 1767, and specifies
that the main building should be of brick, eighty-seven feet front,
fifty-nine feet deep, and two stories in height, with suitable buildings
for offices, &e., and was to be completed by the first day of October,
1770. For his services, Mr. Hawks was to receive an annual salary of
"three hundred pounds proclamation money."

** The view here given was the north front, toward the town. The center
edifice was the palace. The building on the right was the secretary's
office and the laundry; that upon the left was the kitchen and servant's
hall. These were connected with the palace by a curviform colonnade, of
five columns each, and covered. Between these buildings, in front of the
palace, was a handsome court. The rear of the building was finished in
the style of the Mansion-House in London. The interior of the palace
was elegantly finished. "Upon entering the street door," says Ebenezer
Hazzard, in his journal for 1777, when he visited it, "you enter a
hall in which are four niches for statues." The chimney-breasts for
the council-chamber, dining-hall, and drawing-room, and the cornices
of these rooms, were of white marble. The chimney-breast of the
council-chamber was the most elaborate, being ornamented by two Ionic
columns below, and four columns, with composite capitals, above, with
beautiful entablature, architrave, and friese.* Over the inner door
of the entrance-hall or ante-chamber was a tablet, with a Latin
inscription, showing that the palace was dedicated to Sir William
Draper,* "the Conqueror of Manilla and also the following lines, in
Latin, which were written by Draper, who was then on a visit to Governor
Tryon:

     "In the reign of a monarch, who goodness disclos'd,
     A free, happy people, to dread tyrants oppos'd,
     Have to virtue and merit erected this dome;
     May the owner and household make this their loved home--
     Where religion, the arts, and ihe laws may invite
     Future ages to live in sweet peace and delight."

** The above translation was made by Judge Marlin, the historian of
North Carolina, who visited the edifice in 1783, in company with the
unfortunate Don Francisco de Miranda. That gentleman assured Martin that
the structure had no equal in South America. The palace was destroyed
by fire about fifty years ago, and the two smaller buildings, only,
remain.

* Among the colonial documents at Raleigh is an account of this
chimney-piece. The paper bears the date of December 6, 1769. It is one
of several manuscripts deposited there by Dr. Hawks, which he found
among his grandfather's papers.

[[[Excessive Taxation.--Tryon's Proclamation against the
Regulators.--His bad Faith.--Extortions of Officers.]]]

{571}ture in America. The pride of the governor and his family was
gratified; the people, upon whom the expense was laid, were highly
indignant.

The inhabitants of North Carolina were now thoroughly awakened to
the conviction that both the local and the imperial government, were
practically hostile to the best interests of the colonists. The taxes
hitherto were very burdensome; now the cost of the palace, and an
appropriation to defray the expenses of running the dividing line
between their province and the hunting-grounds of the Cherokees, made
them insupportable. * The rapacity of public officers appeared to
increase, and the people saw no prospect of relief. Current history
reports that, among the most obnoxious men, who, it was alleged, had
grown rich by extortionate fees, ** was Edmund Fanning, a lawyer of
ability. He was regarded as a co-worker with the government; haughty
in demeanor, and if common report spoke truth, was immoral. The people,
excited by their leaders, detested him, and avoided no occasion to
express their displeasure. His first open rupture with the Regulators
was in the spring of 176 8.[[April 27]] Tryon issued a proclamation,
half menacing and half persuasive, evidently intended to awe the
_Regulation_ and persuade the other inhabitants to avoid that
association. He sent his secretary, David Edwards, to co-operate with
Fanning in giving force to the proclamation among the people. They
directed the sheriff to appoint a meeting of the vestry-men of the
parishes and the leading Regulators, to consult upon the public good and
settle all differences. Fair promises dispelled the suspicions of the
Regulators, and their vigilance slumbered while awaiting the day of
meeting.[[May 28,1768]]

They were not yet fully acquainted with the falsity of their governor,
or they would never have heeded the fair words of his proclamation. They
were soon assured of the hollowness of his professions; for, while they
were preparing, in good faith, to meet government officers in friendly
convention, the sheriff, at the instigation of Fanning, proceeded, with
thirty horse-

* The appropriations made by the province on account of the French and
Indian war had founded a heavy public debt. These, with the palace debt
and the appropriation for the boundary commission, together with the
unredeemed bills and treasury-notes, amounted to almost half a million
of dollars. This burden upon the common industry became greater in
consequence of the depreciation of the paper money of the colony in the
hands of the people, at least fifty per cent, at the period in question.
To sink this public debt, a poll tax of about a dollar and a half was
levied upon every male, white and black, between the ages of sixteen
and sixty years. This bore heavily upon the poor, and awakened universal
discontent. The running of the western boundary line was an unnecessary
measure, and the people were convinced that Tryon projected it for the
purpose of gratifying his love of personal display. Commissioners were
appointed, and at a time of profound peace with the Indians on the
frontier, Tryon marched at the head of a military force, "ostensibly
to protect the surveyors." He made such a display of himself before
the grave sachems and warriors of the Cherokees, that they gave him the
just, though unenviable title of "The great wolf of North Carolina!"

** The legal fee for drawing a deed was one dollar. Many lawyers charged
five dollars. This is a single example of their extortion. Thomas
Frohock, who held the office of clerk of the Superior Court in
Salisbury, was another extortioner, who was detested by the people.
He frequently charged fifteen dollars for a marriage license. When we
consider the relative value of money at that time, it was equal to forty
or fifty dollars at the present day. Many inhabitants along the Yadkin
dispensed with the license, took each other "for better, or for worse,"
unofficially, and considered themselves as married, without further
ceremony.

* Sir William was an excessively vain man. Upon a cenotaph, at his seat
at Clifton Down, near Bristol, England, he had this inscription placed:
"Here lies the mother of Sir William Draper."

** History of North Carolina, ii., 226.

[[[Arrest of Regulators.--Hillsborough menaced.--Forbearance of the
People.--Legal Trials]]]

{572}men, to arrest Herman Husband and William Hunter, on a charge of
riotous conduct. These, the most prominent men among the Regulators,
were seized and cast into Hillsborough jail.[[May 1, 1768]] The whole
country was aroused by this treachery, and a large body of the
people, led by Ninian Bell Hamilton, a brave old Scotchman of
three-score-and-ten years, marched toward Hillsborough to rescue the
prisoners.

Fanning and Edwards, apprised of the approach of Hamilton, were alarmed,
and released the prisoners just as the people reached the banks of the
Eno, opposite Hillsborough. Fanning, with a bottle of rum in one hand,
and a bottle of wine in the other, went down to the brink of the stream,
urged Hamilton not to march into the town, and asked him to send a
horse over that he might cross, give the people refreshments, and have
a friendly talk. Hamilton was not to be cajoled by the wolf in sheep's
clothing. "Ye're nane too gude to wade, and wade ye shall, if ye come
over!" shouted Hamilton. Fanning did wade the stream, but his words and
his liquor were alike rejected. * Edwards then rode over, and solemnly
assured the people that if they would quietly disperse, all their
grievances should be redressed. The confiding people cried out, "Agreed!
agreed!" and, marching back toward haddock's Mills, they held a meeting
at George Sally's the next day.[[May 21, 1768]] to consult upon the
public good. They drew up a petition, and sent Rednap Howell and
James Hunter to lay it before the governor, at Brunswick. It was most
respectful, yet Tryon, in imitation of his royal master, haughtily
spurned it. He commanded the deputies to return to their houses,
warn their associates to desist from holding meetings, disband the
association, and be content to pay the taxes! He then graciously
promised them to visit Hillsborough within a month, and listen to the
complaints of the people.

Tryon and some of his council met at Hillsborough early in July. He
issued a proclamation, which, for a moment, deceived the people into a
belief that justice was about to bear rule, and that the infamous system
of extortion was to be repressed. They were again deceived. Instead of
mediator, the governor appeared as a judge; instead of defending the
oppressed, he encouraged the oppressors. He went into Mecklenburg,
raised a large body of troops, and marched from Salisbury to
Hillsborough with the parade of a conqueror. But this display did not
frighten the people. He sent the sheriff to collect the taxes; that
officer was driven back to Hillsborough by the excited populace. The
governor was execrated for his false and temporizing conduct, and a
general rising of the Regulators was apprehended. From the eleventh of
August until the twenty-second of September, when Husband and others
would be tried before the Superior Court, the militia were held in
readiness to oppose any insurgents, and Tryon remained until the trials
were over. On the opening of the court, three thousand people from the
surrounding country encamped within half a mile of the town, but, true
to a promise they had made *** not to obstruct the course of justice,
they were quiet. Husband was acquitted; Hunter and two others were
heavily fined and imprisoned; while Fanning, who was tried under seven
indictments for extortion, and was found guilty, was fined one penny on
each! ***

[Illustration: 9582]

The judges upon the bench, on this occasion, were Martin Howard, chief
justice, and Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, associates. The
governor, perceiving the indignation of the populace at this mockery of
justice, speedily issued a proclamation of a general pardon to all the
Regulators except thirteen whom he consid-

* Dr. Caruthers, in his Life of Caldu-ell, has preserved the two
following verses of a doggerel poem of eight stanzas, composed on the
occasion:

     "At length their head man they sent out
     With hat in hand, at our command,
     To save their town from fire:
     To salute us every one, sir.
     To see Ned Fanning wade Eno,
     And alter that, kept off his hat,
     Brave boys, you'd all admire.
     To salute old Hamilton, sir."

** The governor had demanded that twelve wealthy men should meet him
at Salisbury, on the twenty-fifth of August, and execute a bond, in the
penalty of $5000, as security that the Regulators should keep the peace
during the trials. This request was refused, but a promise to abstain
from violence was made and faithfully kept.

*** Statement of Herman Husband. Record of the Superior Court at
Hillsborough

[[[Tryon's Return to Newbern.--Prevalence of Quiet.--New
Outbreaks.--Riots at Hillsborough.]]]

{573}ered as the principal leaders. * By this act of apparent clemency
he hoped to pacify the disturbed public mind. Satisfying himself that
quiet would now prevail, he returned to his palace at Newbern, neither a
wiser nor a better man.

For almost two years comparative quiet prevailed; not the quiet of
abject submission on the part of the people, but the quiet of inactive
anarchy. The sheriffs dared not enforce their claims, and the evident
impuissance of government made the Regulators bold. Finally, many
unprincipled men, who espoused their cause in order to benefit by
change, committed acts of violence which all good patriots deplored.

[Illustration: 9583]

The records of the Superior Court at Hillsborough show evidence of a
lawlessness, in 1770, quite incompatible with order and justice; and
yet, from the character of some of the men engaged in breaking up the
court at the September term of that year, it must be inferred that
sufficient cause existed to warrant, in a great degree, their rebellious
proceedings.5 An excited populace gathered there at the opening of
the court, and committed acts which Husband and Howell, and their
compatriots, would doubtless have prevented, if in their power. But
reason and prudence are alike strangers to a mob. Not content with
impeding the course of justice by driving the judge from the bench and
the advocates from the forum, the Regulators severely beat a lawyer
in the street, named John Williams, and dragged Fanning out of
the court-house by his heels, beat him with rods, and kept him in
confinement dur-

* The names of these "outlaws" were James Hunter, Ninian Bell Hamilton,
Peter Craven, Isaack Jackson, Herman Husband, Matthew Hamilton. William
Payne, Malichi Tyke, William Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff,
and John O'Neil. These were some of the "Sons of Liberty" of western
North Carolina.

** While in Hillsborough, in January, 1849, 1 was permitted by the
Clerk of the Superior Court, to make the Blowing extracts from the
old records: "Monday, September 24th, 1770. Several persons styling
themselves Regulators, assembled together in the court-yard, under the
conduct of Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler,
Samuel Divinny, and many others, insulted some of the gentlemen of the
bar, and in a riotous manner went into the court-house and forcibly
carried out some of the attorneys, and in a cruel manner beat them. They
then insisted that the judge (Richard Henderson being the only one on
the bench) should proceed to the trial of their leaders, who had been
indicted at a former court, and that the jury should be taken out of
their party. Therefore, the judge finding it impossible to proceed with
honor to himself, and justice to his country, adjourned the court till
to-morrow at ten o'clock, and took advantage of the night, and made
his escape." The court, of course, did not convene on the next day,
and instead of a record of judicial proceedings, I found the following
entry: "March term, 1771. The persons styling themselves Regulators,
under the conduct of Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell,*..
William Butler, and Samuel Divinny, still continuing their riotous
meetings, and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, and other
officers of the court, prevented any of the judges or lawyers attending.
Therefore, the court continues adjourned until the next September term."
These entries are in the handwriting of Fanning.

* Rednap Howell was from New Jersey, and was a brother of Richard
Howell a patriot of the Revolution, and governor of that state. Like
his brother (who wrote the ode of welcome to Washington printed on page
245), he was endowed with poetic genius, and composed about forty songs
during the Regulator movements. He taught school somewhere on the Deep
River, and was a man of quite extensive influence. Like Freneau, at a
later day, he gave obnoxious officials many severe thrusts, he thus hits
Frohock and Fanning:

     ...Says Frohock to Fanning, to tell the plain truth,
     Says Fanning to Frohock, 'tis a folly to lie;
     When I came to this country I was but a youth;
     I rode an old mare that was blind ol an eye;
     My father sent for me; I wa'nt worth a cross,
     Five shillings in money I had in my purse.
     And then my first study was to steal for a horse.
     My coat it was patched, but not much the worse;
     I quickly got credit, and then ran away,
     But now we've got rich, and 'tis very well known
     And hav'n't paid for him to this very day
     That we'll do very well if they'll let us alone."

* In a song which became very popular, Howell thus lampooned Colonel
Fanning:

     "When Fanning first to Orange came,
     Both man and mare wa'n't worth five pounds,
     He looked both pale and wan;
     As I've been often told,
     An old patched coat upon his back--
     But by his civil robberies
     An old mare he rode on.
     He's laced his coat with gold."

* In 1771, s pamphlet was published in Boston, entitled "A Fan for
Fanning, and a Touch for Tryon; containing an Impartial Account of the
Rise and Progress of the so-much-talked-of Regulators in North Carolina.
By Regulus." In this pamphlet, Tryon and Fauning were sufficiently
scorched to need a "fan.

[[[Outrages upon Fanning--Sketch of his Public Life.--Mock Court and
Trials.--Yorke]]]

{574}ing the night. On the following morning, when they discovered that
the judge had escaped, they beat Fanning again, demolished his costly
furniture, and pulled down his house. They intended to burn it, but the
wind was high, and they apprehended the destruction of other property.
* These proceedings were highly disgraceful, and the harsh treatment of
Fanning was condemned by all right-minded men.

When this violence was completed, they repaired to the court-house, and
appointed a schoolmaster of Randolph county, named Yorke, clerk;

[Illustration: 9584]

chose one of their number for judge; took up the several eases as they
appeared upon the docket, and adjudicated them, making Fanning plead
law; and then decided several suits.

[Illustration: 7584]

As the whole proceedings were intended as a farce, their decisions were
perfectly ridiculous, while some of the "remarks" by Yorke were vulgar
and profane. **

* Fanning's house was upon the site of the present Masonic Hall, a
handsome brick building within a grove on King Street. On the opposite
side of the street is his office, too much modernized for a drawing of
it to possess any interest. Edmund Fanning was a native of Long Island,
New York, son of Colonel Phineas Fanning. He was educated at Yale
College, and graduated with honor in 1757. He soon afterward went to
North Carolina, and began the profession of a lawyer at Hillsborough,
then called Childsborough. In 1760, the degree of L.L.D.'was conferred
upon him by his alma mater. In 1763, he was appointed colonel of
Orange county, and in 1765 was made clerk of the Superior Court
at Hillsborough. He also represented Orange county in the Colonial
Legislature. In common with other lawyers, he appears to have exacted
exorbitant fees for legal services, and consequently incurred the
dislike of the people, which was finally manifested by acts of violence.
He accompanied Governor Tryon to New York, in 1771, as his secretary.
Governor Marlin asked the Legislature to indemnify Colonel Fanning for
his losses; the representatives of the people rebuked the governor
for presenting such a petition. In 1776, General Howe gave Fanning the
commission of colonel, and he raised and commanded a corps called the
Kings American Regiment of Foot. He was afterward appointed to the
lucrative office of surveyor general, which he retained until his
flight, with other Loyalists, to Nova Scotia, in 1783. In 1786 he was
made lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and in 1794 he was appointed
governor of Prince Edward's Island. He held the latter office about
nineteen years, a part of which time he was also a brigadier in the
British armv, having received his commission in 1808. He married in Nova
Scotia, where some of his family yet reside. General Fanning died in
London, in 1818, at the age of about eighty-one years. His widow and two
daughters yet (1852) survive. One daughter, Lady Wood, a widow, resides
near London with her mother; the other, wife of Captain Bentwick
Cumberland, a nephew of Lord Bentwick, resides at Charlotte's Town, New
Brunswick. I am indebted to John Fanning Watson, Esq., the Annalist
of Philadelphia and New York, for the portrait here given. General
Fanning's early career, while in North Carolina, seems not to have given
promise of that life of usefulness which he exhibited after leaving
Republican America. It has been recorded, it is true, by partisan pens,
yet it is said that he often expressed regrets for his indiscreet course
at Hillsborough. His after life bore no reproaches, and the Gentlemen's
Magazine (1818), when noting his death, remarked, ''The world contained
no better man in all the relations of life."

** The fae similes here given of the writing of Fanning and Yorke are
copies which I made from the original in the old record book. The first
shows the names of parties to the suit entered by Fanning on the record.
The mock court, of course, decided in favor of the defendant, Smith, and
opposite these names and the record of the verdict, Yorke wrote, with a
wretched pen, the sentence here engraved: "Fanning pays cost, but loses
nothing." He being clerk of the court, and the lawyer, the costs were
payable to himself, and so he lost nothing. Yorke was a man of great
personal courage, and when, a few years later, the war of the Revolution
was progressing, he became the terror of the Loyalists in that region.
An old man on the banks of the Allamance, who knew him well, related
to me an instance of his daring. On one occasion, while Cornwallis
was marching victoriously through that section, Yorke, while riding on
horseback in the neighborhood of the Deep River, was nearly surrounded
by a band of Tories. He spurred his horse toward the river, his enemies
in hot pursuit. Reaching the bank, he discovered he was upon a cliff
almost fifty feet above the stream, and sloping from the top. The Tories
were too close to allow him to escape along the margin of the river.
Gathering the reins lightly in his hands, he spurred his strong horse
over the precipice. The force of the descent was partially broken by
the horse striking the smooth sloping surface of the rock, when half way
down. Fortunately the water was deep below, and horse and rider, rising
to the surface, escaped unhurt. It was a much greater feat than Putnam's
at Horse Neck.


[[[Military Expedition against the Regulators.--Bad Treatment of
Husband.--Tryon's March to Hillsborough.--His Officers.]]]

{575}Judge Henderson, who was driven from the bench, called upon
Tryon to restore order in his district. The governor perceived that a
temporizing policy would no longer be expedient, and resolved to employ
the military force to subdue the rebellious spirit of the Regulators. He
deferred operations, however, until the meeting of the Legislature, in
December. Herman Husband was a member of the Lower House, from Orange,
and there were others in that body who sympathized with the oppressed
people. Various measures were proposed to weaken the strength of the
Regulators; and among others, four new counties were formed of portions
of Orange, Cumberland, and Johnson. * Finally, when the Legislature was
about to adjourn without authorizing a military expedition, information
came that the Regulators had assembled in great numbers at Cross Creek
(Fayetteville), with the intention of marching upon Newbern, having
heard that their representative (Husband) had been imprisoned. ** The
Assembly immediately voted two thousand dollars for the use of the
governor. The alarmed chief magistrate fortified his palace, and placed
the town in a state of defense. He also issued a proclamation,[[Feb 7,
1771]] and orders to the colonels of the counties in the vicinity, to
have the militia in readiness. These precautions were unnecessary, for
the Regulators, after crossing the Haw, a few miles above Pittsborough,
to the number of more than one thousand, met Husband on his way home,
and retraced their steps.

The governor soon issued another proclamation, prohibiting the sale of
powder, shot, or lead, until further notice. This was to prevent the
Regulators supplying themselves with munitions of war. This measure
added fuel to the flame of excitement, and finally, the governor
becoming again alarmed, he made a virtual declaration of war, through
his council. That body authorized him to raise a sufficient force to
march into the rebellious districts and establish law and order. The
governor issued a circular[[March 18, 1771]] to the colonels, ordering
them to select fifty volunteers from their respective regiments and send
them to Newbern. With about three hundred militia-men, a small train of
artillery, some baggage wagons, and several personal friends, Tryon left
Newbern on the twenty-fourth of April. On the fourth of May he encamped
on the Eno, having been re-enforced by detachments on the way. ***
General Hugh Waddel was directed to collect the forces from the western
counties, rendezvous at Salisbury, and join the governor in Orange (now
Guilford) county. While he was waiting at Salisbury for the arrival of
powder from Charleston, a company of men assembled in Cabarras county,
blackened their faces, intercepted the convoy with the ammunition,
between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard, and destroyed the
powder.

* These were Guilford, Chatham, Wake, and Surrey.

** Tryon, who feared and hated Husband, procured the preferment of
several charges against him, and he was finally arrested, by order
of the council, and imprisoned for several days. The charges, on
investigation, were not sustained, and he was released.

***Colonel Joseph Leech commanded the infantry, Captain Moore the
artillery, and Captain Neale a company of rangers.

[Illustration: 9585]

* On his way to the Eno, he was joined by a detachment from Hanover,
under Colonel John Ashe: another from Carteret, under Colonel Craig;
another from Johnston, under Colonel William Thompson; another from
Beaufort, under Colonel Needham Bryan: another from Wake, under Colonel
Johnson Hinton; and at his camp on the Eno, he was joined by Fanning,
with a corps of clerks, constables, sheriffs, and other materials of a
similar kind. The signatures here given, of two of Tryon s officers on
this occasion, I copied from original committee reports to the Colonial
Legislature, now in possession of the Reverend Dr. Hawks. Some of these
officers were afterward active patriots. Several other signatures of
North Carolina men given in this work, I copied from the same documents.

[[[Dispersion of Waddel's Troops.--Tyron's March toward the
Allamance.--Dr. Caldwell's Mediation.--Battle.]]]

{576}General Waddel crossed the Yadkin on the morning of the tenth of
May,[[1771]] intending to join Governor Tryon. He had advanced but a
short distance, when he received a message from a body of Regulators,
warning him to halt or retreat. Finding that many of his men were averse
to fighting, and that others were favorable to the Regulators, and were
thinning his ranks by desertions, he retreated across the Yadkin, hotly
pursued by the insurgents. They surrounded Waddel's small army, and took
several of them prisoners, after a slight skirmish. The general and a
few followers escaped to Salisbury.

Tryon, informed of the disaster of Waddel, broke up his camp on the Eno,
crossed the Haw just below the Falls,[[May 13]] and pressed forward
toward the Allamance, where he understood the Regulators were collecting
in force on the Salisbury Road. He encamped very near the scene of
Colonel Pyles's defeat in 1781, within six miles of the insurgents, just
at sunset, and during the night sent out some scouts to reconnoiter. *
On the fifteenth he received a message from the Regulators, proposing
terms of accommodation, and demanding an answer within four hours. ** He
promised a response by noon the next day.

At dawn the following morning[[May 16]] he crossed the Allamance, a
little above the present site of Holt and Carrigan's cotton factory,
and marched silently and undiscovered along the Salisbury Road, until
within half a mile of the camp of the Regulators, where he formed his
line in battle order. Dr. Caldwell, who was there, with many of his
parishioners, now visited the governor a second time, and obtained a
renewal of a promise made the night before to abstain from bloodshed;
but Tryon demanded unconditional submission. Both parties advanced to
within three hundred yards of each other, when Tryon sent a magistrate,
with a proclamation, ordering the Regulators to disperse within an hour.
Robert Thompson, an amiable, but bold, outspoken man, who had gone to
Tryon's camp to negotiate, was detained as a prisoner. Indignant because
of such perfidy, he told the governor some plain truths, and was about
to leave for the ranks of the Regulators, when the irritated governor
snatched a gun from the hands of a militia-man and shot Thompson dead.
Tryon perceived his folly in a moment, and sent out a flag of truce. The
Regulators had seen Thompson fall, and, deeply exasperated, they paid no
respect due to a flag, and immediately fired upon it. *** At this moment
Dr. Caldwell rode along the lines and urged his people and their friends
to disperse; and had an equal desire to avoid bloodshed guided the will
of Tryon, valuable lives might have been spared. But he took counsel of
his passions, and gave the word "_Fire!_" The militia hesitated, and the
Regulators dared them to fire. Maddened with rage, the governor rose
in his stirrups and shouted "_Fire!_ fire on them, or on me!" A volley
ensued, and the cannons were discharged with deadly effect. The fire was
returned, and the governor's hat was pierced by a musket-ball. He sent
out a flag of truce, but the bearer immediately fell. Some young men
among the Regulators rushed forward and took possession of the cannons.
They did not know how to manage them, and soon abandoned them. The
military now fired with vigor, and the Regulators fell back to a ledge
of rocks on the verge of a ravine, not, however, until their scanty
supply of ammunition was exhausted. They had no acknowledged leader;****
for as soon as it was evident

* Colonel Ashe and Captain John Walker, who were out reconnoitering,
were caught by the Regulators, tied to a tree, severely whipped, and
detained as prisoners. The great body of the Regulators in camp censured
this cruelty and disclaimed approval.

** The Reverend David Caldwell, D.D., of Orange, many of whose
congregation were with the Regulators, was the messenger on this
occasion, and received from Tryon the most positive assurances that
no blood should be shed unless the insurgents should be the first
aggressors. Dr. Caldwell was a pure patriot, and during the war which
ensued a few years later, himself and family were great sufferers for
"conscience' sake."

*** Tradition currently reported that Donald Malcolm, one of Governor
Tryon's aids, and who was afterward a very obnoxious under-officer
of the customs at Boston, was the bearer of the flag. When the
firing commenced, he retreated with safety to his person, but had
the misfortune to have the buttons of his small clothes leave their
fastenings. Trumbull, in his M'Fingall, with rather more wit than
modesty, notices the circumstance in four lines.

* Captain Montgomery, who commanded a company of Mountain Boys, was
considered the principal leader, if any might be called by that name. He
was killed by the second fire of the cannon, when most of the Regulators
fled. James Pugh, a young gunsmith from Hillsborough, and three
others, shielded by a ledge of rocks on the edge of a ravine, did great
execution with rifles. Pugh fired while the others loaded, and he killed
fifteen men. He was made prisoner, and was one of six who were hung at
Hillsborough.

[[[Flight of Husband.--Defeat of the Regulators.--The
Battle-ground.--Cruelty of Tryon.]]]

{577}that blood would be shed, Herman Husband, the soul of the
agitation, declared that his peace principles as a Quaker would not
allow him to fight, and he rode off, and was not seen again in North
Carolina until the close of the Revolution.

[Illustration: 8587]

Charity must stretch her mantle to cover this delinquency of the leader
of the Regulators; for why should he have urged the people to assemble
for resistance unless they were to fight? All was confusion when the
conflict began, and each fought for life and liberty in his own way.
Although they were defeated in that early conflict--that _first battle
of our war for independence_--they were not subdued, and many of the
survivors were among the most determined opposers of Cornwallis a few
years later. Nine of the Regulators and twenty-seven of the militia
fell in that conflict, and a great number on both sides were wounded.
* Tryon, in his report, said, "The loss of our army in killed, wounded,
and missing, amounted to about sixty men."

The admitted excesses of the Regulators afford no excuse for the cruelty
of Tryon after the battle on the Allamance. With the implacable spirit
of revenge, he spent his wrath upon his prisoners, and some of his acts
were worthy only of a barbarian. *** Having rested a few days near the
battle-ground, he went on as far as the Yadkin,

* Martin, Williamson, Caruthers, Foote.

** This view is from the south side of the Salisbury Road, which is
marked by the fence on the left. The belligerents confronted in the
open field seen on the north of the road, beyond the fence. Between the
blasted pine, to which a muscadine is clinging, and the road, on
the edge of a small morass, several of those who were slain in that
engagement were buried. I saw the mounds of four graves by the fence,
where the sheep, seen in the picture, are standing. The tree by the
road side is a venerable oak, in which are a few scars produced by the
bullets.

*** Among his victims was a young carpenter of Hillsborough, named James
Few. He was the sole support of his widowed mother, and had suffered
greatly, it is said, at the hands of Fanning. Young Few alleged that he
had not only made him feel the curse of his exactions, but had actually
seduced a young girl who was his betrothed. Driven to madness, he joined
the Regulators, was taken prisoner, and was hung on the night after the
battle, without trial, and without witnessing friends. * Justice to the
dead, and a regard for the truth of history, demand the acknowledgment
that this story, like the apocryphal one that the Regulators cut off
Fanning's ears, ** needs confirmation, and rests solely upon uncertain
tradition. It is further related that Tryon destroyed the property of
Few's mother when he reached Hillsborough! Captain Messer, who was made
prisoner, was sentenced to be hanged the day after the battle. His wife,
informed of his intended fate, hastened to him with her little son, a
lad ten years old. She pleaded for her husband's life in vain. Messer
was led to execution, while his wife lay weeping upon the ground, her
boy by her side. Just as Messer was to be drawn up, the boy went to
Tryon and said, "Sir, hang me, and let my father live." "Who told you to
say that?" said the governor. "Nobody," replied the lad. "And why," said
the governor, "do you ask that?" "Because," the boy replied, "if you
hang my father, my mother will die, and the children will perish." The
heart of the governor was touched, and he said, "Your father shall not
be hanged to-day." Messer was offered his liberty if he would bring
Husband back. He consented, and his wife and children were kept as
hostages. He returned in the course of a few days, and reported that
he overtook Husband in Virginia, but could not bring him. Messer was
immediately bound, and, after being exhibited with the other prisoners,
was hung at Hillsborough.

* Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, pages 61, 62.

** See Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, page
573.

[[[Tryon's Prisoners exhibited in Chains.--Execution of Six of
them.--Effect of the Regulator Movement--Career of Husband.]]]

and, after issuing a proclamation[[May 17, 1771]] of pardon to all who
should lay down their arms and take the oath of allegiance before the
tenth of July, except a few whom he named, he made a circuitous route
through Stokes, Rockingham, and Guilford counties, back to Hillsborough,
exhibiting his prisoners in chains in the villages through which
he passed. He exacted an oath of allegiance from the people; levied
contributions of provisions; chastised those who dared to offend him;
and at Hillsborough he offered a large reward for the bodies of
Husband and other Regulators, "dead or alive." * On his march he held
courts-martial for trying civil cases, burned houses, and destroyed the
crops of inoffensive people. At Hillsborough he held a court-martial for
the trial of his prisoners. Twelve were condemned to suffer death; six
were reprieved, and the others were hung,[[June 19, 1771] among whom
was Captain Messer, whose life had been spared a few days before by the
intercession of his little child. His thirst for revenge satiated, Tryon
returned to his palace at Newbern, where he remained but a short time,
having been called to the administration of affairs in the province
of New York. Joseph Martin succeeded him as governor, and acted with
judgment. He so conciliated the Regulators that many of them were firm
Loyalists when the governor was finally driven away by the Whigs.

The movements of the Regulators and the result of the battle on the
Allamance, form an important episode in the history of our Revolution.
Their resistance arose from oppressions more personal and real than
those which aroused the people of New England. It was not wholly
the abstract idea of freedom for which they contended; their strife
consisted of efforts to relieve themselves of actual burdens. While the
tea-duty was but a "pepper-corn tribute," imposing no real burden upon
the industry of the people in New England, extortion in every form, and
not to be evaded, was eating out the substance of the working-men in
North Carolina. Implied despotism armed the New Englanders; actual
despotism panoplied the Carolinians. Each were equally patriotic, and
deserve our reverent gratitude. The defeat on the Allamance did not
break the spirit of the patriots; and many, determined no longer to
suffer the oppressions of extortioners, abandoned their homes,
with their wives and children, went beyond the mountains, and began
settlements in the fertile valleys of Tennessee. As Mr. Bancroft, in a
letter to the Honorable David L. Swain, happily expressed it, "Like
the mammoth, they shook the bolt from their brow, and crossed the
mountains."

While the Regulator movement planted deep the seeds of resistance to
tyranny, the result of the battle on the Allamance was disastrous in
its subsequent effects. The people, from whom Tryon wrung an oath
of allegiance, were conscientious, and held a vow in deep reverence.
Nothing could make them swerve from the line of duty; and when
the hostilities of the Revolution fully commenced, hundreds, whose
sympathies were with the patriots, felt bound by that oath to remain
passive. Hundreds of men, with strong hearts and hands, would have
flocked around the standards of Gates and Greene, in Guilford, Orange,
and the neighboring counties, had not their oath been held too sacred
to be violated, even when it was evident that the king could no longer
protect them. Loyalty to conscience, not opposition to the principles
of the Revolutionists, made these men passive; for their friends and
neighbors on the other side of the Yadkin, where Tryon's oath was not
exacted, were among those who earliest cast off their allegiance to the
British crown.

The course of Governor Martin was generally so judicious, that the
people of North Car-

* Husband fled to Pennsylvania, and settled near Pittsburgh. He went to
North Carolina on business soon after the close of the war, but did not
remain long. In 1794 he was concerned in the "Whisky Insurrection," in
Western Pennsylvania, and was appointed on the Committee of Safety with
Brackenridge, Bradford, and Gallatin. Husband was arrested, and taken
a prisoner to Philadelphia, where he was pardoned, through the
interposition of Dr. Caldwell who happened to be there, Dr. Rush, and
the North Carolina senators. He met his wife on his return home, and
died at an inn before he reached his own neighborhood. Husband was a
member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for some years.

[[[Committees of Correspondence.--Difficulties between the Governor and
People.--Conventions of the Patriots.]]]

{579}olina were not very restive, while the Northern colonies were all
on fire with rebellion in 1774. Yet sympathy for the people of Boston,
suffering from the effects of the Port Bill, was general and
sincere, and the inhabitants of Wilmington and other towns made large
contributions for their relief. When the final decision was to be made
respecting allegiance to, or independence of the British crown, very
many remained loyal, and the ardent Whigs required the full exercise
of all their zeal to leaven the inactive population of the state. The
efficient machinery of corresponding committees was put in operation
early In December, 1773, the resolution of the House of Burgesses, of
Virginia, recommending the appointment of committees of correspondence,
was received by the Assembly of North Carolina and approved of. A
committee was appointed, and instructed to be vigilant and industrious
in the performance of their duties. * Governor Martin was then in New
York, and the duties of his office devolved upon James Hasell, the
president of the council. Hasell was rather favorably inclined toward
republicanism, and opposed the patriots only so far as his official duty
demanded action.

[Illustration: 8589]

The proceedings of that short session were quite offensive to the
governor and most of his council, as representatives of the imperial
government, and the amity of the provincial legislation was disturbed.
The governor soon returned home, and prorogued the Assembly until
March following,[[1774]] that the members might "reflect upon their
proceedings, learn the sentiments of their constituents, and adopt a
more loyal course." When they again met, strengthened by the approval
of their constituents, they were firmer than ever in their opposition to
some of the measures of government; and that the sincerity and courage
of those who professed patriotic proclivities might be tested, the
Yeas and Nays were taken upon the adoption of an important bill. ** A
committee was appointed to address the king, and on the twenty-fifth
of March the Assembly was again prorogued. Four days afterward, it
was dissolved by the governor's proclamation; an act considered
unconstitutional, and which highly offended the people.

During the summer of 1774, a majority of the inhabitants, in primary
meetings assembled, openly avowed their approval of a Continental
Congress, as proposed by Massachusetts. A general meeting of delegates
from the several towns was proposed to be held at Newbern on the
twenty-fifth of August. On the thirteenth of that month, the governor
issued his proclamation, disapproving of the district meetings, and
requiring the people to forbear sending delegates to the general
convention. The people did not heed his proclamation, and the delegates
met on that day. John Harvey, of Perquimans, the late speaker of the
Assembly, was chosen moderator. The council convened by the governor,
seeing the gathering of the people's representatives, decided that
"nothing could be done." The convention expressed its firm loyalty to
the king; claimed only the common rights of Englishmen; asserted the
doctrine that they ought not to be taxed without their own consent;
reprobated the tea and other duties; expressed great sympathy for the
people of Massachusetts; condemned the Boston Port Bill, as a "cruel
infringement of the rights and privileges of the people," and other
measures of government as unrighteous; signed a non-importation

* The committee consisted of John Harvey (speaker of the Assembly),
Robert Howe (afterward a general in the Continental army), Cornelius
Harnett, William Hooper (one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence), Richard Caswell, Edward Vail, John Ashe, Joseph Hewes
(another signer), and Samuel Johnson.

[Illustration: 9589]

* John Harvey was an active citizen in public life, before the war of
the Revolution began. He was a member of the Colonial Legislature for
a number of years, and in 1766 succeeded John Ashe as speaker of the
House. He presided with dignity for three years, and at the close
of each session received the unanimous thanks of the House for his
impartiality. He early espoused the patriot cause; was active in the
first Revolutionary movements in his state, but died before the struggle
had advanced far toward a successful issue.

** A bill for the establishment of Superior Courts upon a new basis,
which was calculated to remove the powers of the judiciary further from
the control of the people.

[[[Approval of a General Congress, and Appointment of
Deputies.--Provincial Congress.--Maneuvers of Governor Martin.]]]

{580}agreement, and expressed their hearty approval of the proposition
for a general Congress. This approval was further manifested by the
choice of deputies to represent the province in the Continental
council. *

Pursuant to the recommendations of the general Congress when it convened
in September, contributions were raised in all parts of the province
for the relief of the people of Boston; and committees of safety were
appointed in every county and chief town, to see that the articles of
association adopted by the Congress were signed and faithfully observed.
Activity every where prevailed among the Whigs during the winter;
and when Governor Martin fixed the day for the assembling of the
Legislature,[[April 5, 1775]] John Harvey, who presided over the
convention at Newbern several months before, now summoned those
delegates to meet as a Provincial Congress on the same day. Governor
Martin attempted, by proclamation, to prevent the meeting of the
deputies, but in vain. The two bodies, composed chiefly of the same men,
met at the same time, and Harvey was called upon to preside over both.
The governor attempted to keep the two Assemblies distinct. He besought
the legal Assembly to discountenance the irregular convention of the
other deputies, chosen by the people, and expressed his determination
to use all the means in his power to counteract their treasonable
influence. He denounced the Continental Congress as "seditious and
wicked," "highly offensive to his majesty," and in firm but respectful
language urged the people to remember their allegiance and to faithfully
maintain it. His appeals were of no avail, for both Assemblies were too
intimately allied in sentiment to act in opposition to each other. Both
bodies concurred in approving of the proceedings of the Congress of
1774, and in appointing delegates to a new one, to meet in Philadelphia
in May following.[[May 10, 1775]] The governor, perceiving the Assembly
to be intractable, consulted his council, and by their recommendation
dissolved it, by proclamation, on the eighth of April.

Governor Martin and the representatives of the people were now fairly
at issue. The latter organized a Provincial Congress, and, assuming
the functions of government, sent forth an address to the people,
recommending the adoption of measures for resistance, similar to those
pursued in other colonies. After transacting some other business for
the public good, they quietly separated. As soon as the deputies had
departed, the governor, perceiving the tide of public opinion setting
strongly against him, became alarmed, and sought to intimidate the
people, and at the same time to protect his person, by placing
some cannon in front of the palace. He dispatched messengers to the
Highlanders at Cross Creek, upon whose loyalty he relied, and others
were sent into the more westerly districts to promise the Regulators
exemption from the punishments to which they were still liable for
past misdeeds, if they would assist the king's government against its
opposers. These promises had great effect, and, strange as it may seem,
many of the Regulators were active Loyalists. About this time, a letter
which the governor had sent to General Gage at Boston, soliciting a
supply of arms and ammunition, was intercepted. The people were greatly
exasperated, and the Committee of Safety of Newbern seized and carried
off six of the cannons which had been placed in front of the palace.
From every quarter the governor heard of hostile preparations, and
becoming alarmed for his personal safety, he fled to Fort Johnson, on
the Cape Fear River, near Wilmington,[[June 14, 1775]] whence he sent
forth a menacing proclamation. ** [[June 16]]

At the beginning of July, preparations for a servile insurrection on the
Tar River were

* William Hooper, of the county of Orange, Joseph Hewes, of the town
of Edenton, and Richard Caswell, of the county of Dobbs were chosen
deputies. They were instructed to carry out the principles embodied in
the preamble and resolutions adopted by the convention, the substance of
which is given in the text.

** To this proclamation the General Committee of Safety of the District
of Wilmington, as appears by their proceedings, issued an answer,
denying many of its allegations, and proclaiming the governor to be
an instrument in the hands of administration to rivet those chains so
wickedly forged for America." This answer was drawn up and adopted in
the session of the committee, at the court-house in Wilmington, on the
twentieth of June, 1775.

[[[Symptoms of a Servile Insurrection.--Destruction of Fort
Johnson.--Provincial Congress at Hillsborough]]]

{581}discovered. This plot was disclosed to Thomas Rispess, a former
member of the Assembly from Beaufort, by one of his slaves. It was
generally supposed that Governor Martin was an accessory in inducing the
slaves to rise and murder their masters. *

[Illustration: 8591]

Fired with indignation by this opinion, the exasperated people
determined to demolish Fort Johnson, lest the governor should strengthen
it, and make it a place of reception for a hostile force and insurgent
negroes. Under Colonel John Ashe, a body of about five hundred men
marched to the fort, when it was ascertained that the governor had fled
to the sloop of war _Cruiser_, lying in the river, and that Collett, the
commander of the fortress, had removed all the small arms, ammunition,
and part of the artillery, to a transport hired for the purpose. The
militia immediately set fire to the buildings, and demolished a
large portion of the walls of the fort. ** The Committee of Safety
of Wilmington, at the same time, publicly charged the governor with
fomenting a civil war, and endeavoring to excite an insurrection among
the negroes. They declared him an enemy to his country and the province,
and forbade all persons holding any communication with him. While these
events were transpiring on the coast, the people of Mecklenburg
county, over the Yadkin, met by representatives, and, by a series of
resolutions, virtually declared themselves independent of the British
crown, and established republican government in that county. This
important movement will be considered in the next chapter.

Pursuant to a resolve of the late convention, delegates from the several
towns in the state were summoned to meet in Provincial Congress at
Hillsborough, on the twentieth of August. * When this summons appeared,
Governor Martin, yet on board the _Cruiser,_ issued a long proclamation,
in which he stigmatized the incendiaries of Fort Johnson as traitors to
the king; pronounced the proceedings of the Wilmington committee as base
and scandalous; denounced the movement in Mecklenburg in May; *** warned
the people not to send delegates to Hillsborough; denounced Colonels
Ashe **** and Howe as rebels; and offered the king's pardon for all
past outrages to those who should return to their allegiance. The people
defied the governor's threats, and mocked his proffers of forgiveness;
and on Sunday, the twentieth of August, every county and chief town in
the province had a delegate in Hillsborough. They organized on Monday,
(v) when one hundred and eighty-four deputies were present. One of
their first acts was to declare their determination to hold the ægis of
popular power over the Regulators, who were liable to punishment, and
had not been cajoled into submission by the governor's promises. They
also declared the governor's proclamation to be a "false, scurrilous,
malicious, and seditious libel," and tending to stir up

[Illustration: 6591]

* In a letter to Lewis Henry de Rosset, the governor endeavored to
vindicate himself, and denied all knowledge of the matter. He said in
his letter, "that nothing could justify such a measure but the actual
and designed rebellion of the king's subjects, and the failure of all
other means to maintain his government." From these expressions and the
language held in a pamphlet, entitled Taxation no Tyranny, written by
the celebrated Dr. Johnson, together with the conduct of Lord Dunmore,
of Virginia, it was evident that the inciting of the slaves to massacre
their masters was a part of the programme of ministers for crushing the
rebellion. *

** Fort Johnson was on the west side of the Cape Fear River, two miles
above its mouth, where the present town of Smithville, the capital
of Brunswick county, is situated. There is now a fortress and small
garrison there.

***An account of the proceedings in Mecklenburg were published in the
Cape Fear Mercury.

**** This was the same officer who accompanied Tryon to the Allamance,
and was flogged by the Regulators. He resigned his commission as colonel
of the militia of Hanover, under the king, and espoused the patriot
cause. We shall meet him in the field hereafter.

* (v) The members of the Provincial Congress assembled in the
Presbyterian Church, which stood where the present place of worship of
that denomination, in Hillsborough, is located.

* "The slave should be set free," said Johnson; "an act which the lovers
of liberty must surely commend. If they are furnished with arms for
defense and utensils of husbandry, and settled in some simple form of
government, within the country, they may be more honest and grateful
than their masters."

[[[Action of the Congress.--Military Organization.--Minute-men.--Sketch
of Cornelius Harnett.]]]

{582}tumult and insurrections, dangerous to the peace of the king's
government." It was then directed to be burned by the common hangman.
They also provided for raising and equipping a military force of one
thousand men for the defense of the liberties of the province. This
force was divided into two regiments. The command of the first regiment
was given to Colonel James Moore (one of Tryon's officers when he
marched against the Regulators), of New Hanover; the second to Colonel
Robert Howe, of Brunswick. In addition to this regular force, a
battalion of ten companies, of fifty men each, was directed to be raised
in each district, to be called _minute-men_, their uniform to be a
hunting-shirt, leggings or spatterdashes, and black gaiters. To pay
these troops and other expenses of the government, the Provincial
Congress directed the emission of bills of credit to the amount of
$150,000, for the redemption of which a poll tax was levied for nine
years, commencing in 1777. The deputies closed their labors by agreeing
to an address to the inhabitants of the British empire (which was drawn
up by William Hooper), and in organizing a provisional government. * The
Congress adjourned on the nineteenth of September.[[1775]]

The provincial council met for the first time on the eighteenth of
October following, and appointed Cornelius Harnett, of Wilmington,
president. ** Already the Continental Congress

* A provincial council was established, composed of two persons duly
chosen by the delegates of each district, and one by the whole Congress.
* A Committee of Safety, composed of a president and twelve members,
were chosen for each district; the freeholders were also directed to
choose a committee. The provincial council and the committees of safety
exercised the functions of government in the management of civil
and military affairs. Secret committees of correspondence were also
organized. Premiums were voted for the manufacture of saltpetre,
gunpowder, cotton and woolen cards, pins, needles, linen and woolen
cloth, and for the erection of rolling and slitting mills, furnaces
for the manufacture of steel and iron, paper-mills, salt-works, and for
refining sulphur.

[Illustration: 9592]

** In the Wilmington Chronicle, August 21, 1844, there appeared a very
interesting memoir of Cornelius Harnett, which I have condensed. Mr.
Harnett was a native of England, and was born on the twentieth of April,
1723. The precise time when he came to America is not known. He was a
man of wealth and consideration, before circumstances brought him into
public life. He was among the earliest in North Carolina in denouncing
the Stamp Act and kindred measures, and from that period until his
death he was extremely active in public affairs. He resided upon Hilton
plantation, about one mile from the center of Wilmington, where he owned
a large estate, and was a gentleman of leisure.

[Illustration: 8592]

** He represented the borough of Wilmington in the Provincial Assembly,
in 1770-71, and was chairman of the most important committees of that
body. From one of the reports of a committee of which Harnett was
chairman, I copied till accompanying signature of the patriot. In 1772,
Mr. Harnett, with Robert (afterward General) Howe, and Judge Maurice
Moore, constituted a committee of the Assembly to prepare a remonstrance
against the appointment, by Governor Martin, of commissioners to run
the southern boundary line of the province. In 1773, Josiah Quincy, the
young and ardent patriot of Boston, while traveling in the South for his
health, passed a night at Wilmington, at the residence of Mr. Harnett,
whom he denominated "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina" (except in
point of fortune). "Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett, and myself," he wrote,
"made the social triumvirate of the evening." The plan of "Continental
Correspondence" was a subject for discussion that evening, and Quincy
returned to Boston, feeling that with such men as Pinckney, Rutledge,
Gadsden, and Harnett, as leaders, the South would co-operate with
Massachusetts in resistance.

* Samuel Johnson, Cornelius Harnett, Samuel Ashe, Abner Nash, James
Coor, Thomas Jones of Edenton, Whitmill Hill, William Jones, Thomas
Jones of Halifax, Thomas Person, John Kinchen, Samuel Spencer, and
Waightstill wery, composed this first provincial council. They were to
meet quarterly.

** This sketch is from a pencil drawing made in 1851 by Mr. Charles
Burr. It is situated about a mile and a half from the center of
Wilmington, on the northeast branch of the river. I am informed by
Edward Kidder, Esq., of Wilmington, through whose kindness this and
several other drawings in his vicinity have been procured for my work,
that it has never been altered since Mr. Harnett occupied it. This is a
view of the south point.

** In December, 1773, Mr. Harnett was placed on the Committee of
Correspondence for Wilmington district. In that sphere he was the
master-spirit of the Revolution upon the Cape Fear and its vicinity. In
the Provincial Congress of 1775, he represented his old constituents;
and when a provincial council was appointed to fill the vacancy
in government caused by the abdication of Martin, he was made its
president, and became, in that capacity, actual governor of North
Carolina. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which assembled
at Halifax in the spring of 1776, and was chairman of the committee
appointed to consider the usurpations, &c., of the imperial government.
He submitted a report on the twelfth of April, which contained a
resolution empowering the delegates of North Carolina in the Continental
Congress, to use their influence in favor of a Declaration of
Independence. When, in the spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton, with a
British fleet, appeared in the Cape Fear River, that commander honored
Harnett and Robert Howe, by excepting them in his offer of a general
pardon to those who should return to their allegiance, as published in
his proclamation issued to the people of North Carolina from the Pallas
transport. They were considered arch-rebels. When, on the twenty-second
of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence arrived at Halifax,
Harnett read it to a great concourse of citizens and soldiers. When he
concluded, the latter crowded around him, took him upon their shoulders,
and bore him in triumph through the town. In the autumn, he was on a
committee for drafting a State Constitution, and a Bill of Rights; and
to his liberal spirit the people were indebted for the claim in the
first document, guaranteeing the privilege of enjoying the public
offices and emoluments to Dissenters and Churchmen, equally. Under the
new Constitution, Richard Caswell was made the first governor of the
state, and Harnett was one of his council. He was afterward elected to
fill his place in the Continental Congress, and Cornelius Harnett's name
is attached to the "articles of confederation and perpetual union." When
the British afterward held possession of the country around the Cape
Fear, Harnett was made prisoner, and died while a captive. His remains
lie buried in the northeast corner of the grave-yard attached to St.
James's Church, in Wilmington, and at the head and foot of his grave are
two upright slabs of brown stone. On the one at the head is inscribed,
"Cornelius Harnett, Died, 1781, aged 58 years."

[[[Friendship of lhe Highlanders courted.--Called to take up Arms by
Donald M'Donald.--Flora M'Donald.]]]

{583}had adopted measures for the defense of the province. The two
battalions of five hundred men each were attached to the Continental
army, and the committees of safety were requested to employ all the
gunsmiths in the colony, that might be procured in making muskets. Two
Gospel ministers were sent by the provincial council to explain to
the Highlanders and others the nature of the quarrel with the mother
country, and endeavor to win them to the patriot cause. In the mean
while, Governor Martin had busy emissaries among the Highlanders and
Regulators, endeavoring to unite them in favor of the king. This was
an object of great importance; for if he could embody a strong force
of Loyalists in the heart of the province, he could easily keep the
sea-board quiet, especially after the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton
with troops from the North, then daily expected. He had also received
intelligence that Sir Peter Parker, with a strong squadron, bearing
Lord Cornwallis with a considerable force, would sail for America at the
beginning of 1776. These anticipations gave the governor pleasing hopes
for the future.

While Lord Dunmore, as we have seen, was making a demonstration against
the lower counties of Virginia, * Governor Martin prepared to strike a
blow against the patriots in North Carolina. He gave Donald M'Donald,
an influential Highlander at Cross Creek, a commission of brigadier
general, and with it a large number of copies of a proclamation, with a
blank left for the date, which commanded all the king's loyal subjects
in North Carolina to join his standard. M'Donald had discretionary
powers concerning the distribution of these proclamations. While Colonel
Robert Howe, with North Carolina troops, was absent at Norfolk, in
Virginia, whither he had gone to assist Colonels Woodford and Stevens
against Dunmore, M'Donald set up the royal ensign at Cross Creek[[Feb
1, 1776]] (now Fayetteville), and issued some of the proclamations.
The loyal-hearted Scotchmen, not fully comprehending the nature of the
difficulties, obeyed blindly; and in a few days more than one thousand
of them, with many timid Regulators, in all fifteen hundred strong,
gathered around the standard of the Highland chief. M'Donald was a brave
veteran, and had fought valiantly for the Pretender on the field of
Culloden, and his influence over his countrymen was very great.

At Cross Creek lived Flora M'Donald, the noble and beautiful girl who
saved the life of Charles Edward, after the defeat of the troops at
Culloden. ** She was now the wife of

* See page 534.

** The Pretender, while a fugitive among the Highlands of Scotland, was
discovered by his enemies, and fled in an open boat to South Uist, an
island on the west coast, where he found refuge with Laird M'Donald.
His pursuers discovered his retreat, and three thousand English soldiers
were sent to search every nook and dell, crag and cottage upon the
island. A cordon of armed vessels surrounded South Uist, so that escape
appeared impossible. But escape from the island was neeessary for the
safety of the prinee. Lady M'Donald proposed that he should put on the
garb of a servant-woman, and, in company with a lady as waiting-maid,
leave the island. Who had the courage? Flora M'Donald, from Millburg, a
beautiful girl just from school at Edinburgh, was there on a visit. Her
step-father was then on the island, in command of a corps of soldiers
searching for the prinee. Regardless of the certain displeasure of her
father and the extreme peril of the undertaking, Flora acceded to the
proposal of Lady M'Donald to save the prince; and that very night, in
company with a trusty officer, she went among the crags of Carradale,
to the cave where the royal fugitive was concealed. Great was the
astonishment and delight of the prince when he was informed of the plan
for his eseape. Within a day or two, Flora procured a passport from her
unsuspecting step-father for herself, a young companion, a boat's crew,
and Betsey Bourke, an Irish woman, whom Flora pretended she had procured
as a spinster for her mother. The prince, attired as Betsey Bourke,
embarked with Flora and her companions, on the twenty-eighth of June,
1746, for the Isle of Skye. A furious tempest tossed them about all
night, and a band of soldiers prevented their landing in the morning.
They finally landed near the residence of Sir Alexander M'Donald, where
the prince was concealed in the cavity of a rock, for the laird was his
enemy, and his hall was filled with soldiers seeking the fugitive. Flora
touched the heart of Lady M'Donald, and by her aid the prince and the
maiden made a safe journey of twelve miles on foot, to Potaree. There
they parted forever, the prince to escape to Franee, Flora to be soon
afterward carried a prisoner to London and east into the Tower. The
story of her adventure excited the admiration of all classes, and as
she was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith,
the nobility interfered in her behalf. The father of George the Third
visited her in prison, and so much was he interested in her that he
procured her release. While she remained in London, her residence was
surrounded by the carriages of the nobility; and Lady Primrose, a friend
of the Pretender, introduced her to court society. When presented to
the old King George the Second, he said to her, "How could you dare
to succor the enemy of my crown and kingdom." Flora replied with great
simplicity-, "It was no more than I would have done for your majesty,
had you been in like situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for
her return to Scotland, and her escort was Malcolm M'Leod, who often
said afterward, "I went to London to be hanged, but rode back in a
chaise and four with Flora M'Donald." Four years afterward she married
Allan, the son of the Laird M'Donald, and became mistress of the mansion
where the prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye. In 1775,
Flora and her husband, with several children, arrived among their
countrymen in North Carolina. Full of loyalty, she encouraged her
countrymen to rally in defense of the royal cause. After suffering much,
they embarked in a sloop-of-war for Scotland. On the voyage, the vessel
was attacked by a French cruiser, and the brave Flora, who was on deck
during the action, was severely wounded in the hand. They reached their
country, where Flora lived until the fifth of March, 1790. She was
buried in the cemetery of Killmuir, in the Isle of Skye; her shroud was
the sheet in which the prince slept while under her guidance; and three
thousand persons stood and wept as her coffin was let down into the
grave.

[[[Influence of Flora M'Donald.--The Pretender saved by her.--Patriot
Expedition against the Highlanders.]]]

{584}Allan M'Donald, and it is said used all her influence in bringing
her countrymen to the standard of the Scotch general. Her husband took a
captain's commission under him, and was one of the most active officers
in the engagement which speedily ensued.

As soon as Colonel James Moore, of Hanover, was apprised of the
gathering of the Loyalists to the banner of M'Donald, he marched with
his regulars and a detachment of New Hanover militia (in all about
eleven hundred men), toward Cross Creek,

[Illustration: 9594]

and encamped about twelve miles south of the Highlander's
head-quarters.[[Feb 15. 1776]] He fortified his camp, and by scouts and
spies cut off all communication between M'Donald and Governor Martin.
The Loyalist general, feeling the necessity of dislodging the patriots,
marched toward their camp. When within four miles, he halted, and sent
the governor's proclamation, and a friendly but firm letter to Moore,
urging him to prevent bloodshed by joining the royal standard; at the
same time threatening him, in case of refusal, with the treatment due
to rebels against the king. After some delay, during which he sent an
express to Colonel Caswell, Moore replied, that he was engaged in a
holy cause, from which he could not be seduced. He besought M'Donald
to prevent bloodshed by signing the Test proposed by the Provincial
Congress, and menaced him with the same treatment which the general
proposed to award to the patriot colonel and his followers. M'Donald was
not prepared to put his threats into execution, for he was advised of
the rapid gathering of the _minute-men_ around him. Informed, in the
mean while, of the expected arrival of Sir Henry Clinton and Lord
William Campbell in the Cape Fear River, M'Donald resolved to avoid an
engagement that might

[[[The Highlanders pursued by Colonel Moore.--Colonels Caswell and
Lillington.--Biographical Sketch of Caswell]]]

{585}prove disastrous, and attempt to join the governor and his friends
at Wilmington. At midnight he decamped, with his followers, crossed the
Cape Fear, and pushed on at a rapid pace, over swollen streams, rough
hills, and deep morasses, hotly pursued by Colonel Moore. On the third
day of his march, he crossed the South River (one of the principal
tributaries of the Cape Fear), from Bladen into New Hanover, and as
he approached Moore's Creek, a small tributary of that stream, * he
discovered the gleaming of fire-arms.[[Feb 26, 1776]] He had come upon
the camp of Colonels Caswell ** and Lillington, *** near the mouth of

* Moore's Creek runs from north to south, and empties into the South
River, about twenty miles above Wilmington.

** I am indebted to the Honorable David L. Swain, late governor of North
Carolina, and now president of the University at Chapel Hill, for the
following sketeh of the publie life of Richard Caswell. Governor Swain
married a grand-daughter of Governor Caswell; and from among the family
papers in his possession, he sent me the subjoined interesting autograph
letter, written by Caswell, to his son, from Philadelphia. *

* Richard Caswell was born in Maryland, August 3, 1729. In 1746, he was
induced, by unsuccessful mercantile speculations of his father, to leave
his home, and seek his fortune in the then colony of North Carolina.
Bearing letters to Governor Johnston from the governor of Maryland, he
soon received employment in one of the publie offices. Subsequently, he
was appointed deputy surveyor of the colony, and was clerk of the
County Court of Orange in 1753. He finally settled himself in Dobbs (now
Lenoir) county, where he married Mary Mackilwean, who bore him a son,
William. He afterward married Sarah, the daughter of William Heritage,
an eminent attorney, under whom he had studied law. He had obtained a
license, and practiced the profession with great success. In 1754 he was
chosen a member of the Colonial Assembly from Johnston eounty, which he
continued to represent till 1771. In this and the preceding year, he
was made the speaker of the House of Commons. He was also colonel of
the militia of his eounty, and, as such, commanded the right wing of
Governor Tryon's forees at the battle of Allamance, May 16, 1771. In
1774, he was one of the delegates to Congress, with William Hooper and
Joseph Hewes, and was continued in this offiee in 1775. In September of
this year, having been appointed treasurer of the Southern District of
North Carolina, he resigned his seat in Congress. The estimate formed by
his contemporaries of Caswell's merits in this affair, is clearly shown
in the resolve passed by the Provincial Congress, on the thirteenth of
April, "that the thanks of this Congress be given to Colonel Richard
Caswell and the brave officers and soldiers under his command, for the
very essential sendee by them rendered this country at the battle of
Moore's Creek and by the further fact that, on the twenty-second of
the same month, the same body appointed him "brigadier general of the
militia for the District of Newbern." In November of the same year,
he was chosen president of the Provincial Congress, which framed the
Constitution of the state, and, in December, was eleeted the first
governor under it. This office he held during the stormy and perilous
period of 1777, 1778, and 1779. He refused to receive any compensation
for his services beyond his expenses. In 1780 he led the troops of North
Carolina, under General Gates, and was engaged in the disastrous battle
at Camden. In 1782 he was chosen speaker of the Senate, and controller
general, and continued to discharge the duties of both offices till
1784, when he was again elected governor of the state, and re-elected in
1785 and 1786, when he ceased to be eligible under the Constitution. The
Assembly of 1787 elected him a delegate to the convention which was
to meet at Philadelphia in May of that year, to form a Federal
Constitution, and conferred on him the extraordinary power, in case of
his inability to attend, to select his successor. William Blount was
selected by him, and his name is appended to that instrument. In 1789
he was eleeted senator from Dobbs county and also a member of Lhe
convention whieh, in November, ratified the Federal Constitution. When
the General Assembly met, he was chosen speaker of the Senate. But his
course was run. His second son, Richard, had been lost on his passage by
sea from Charleston to Newbern, and the father certainly entertained
the opinion that he had been taken by pirates and carried to Algiers, or
murdered. This and other events threw a cloud over his mind, from which
he seems never to have recovered. While presiding in the Senate, on the
fifth of November, he was struck with paralysis, and after lingering
speechless till the tenth, he expired, in the sixtieth year of his
age. His body was, after the usual honors, conveyed to his family
burial-place in Lenoir, and there interred. As a statesman, his
patriotism was unquestioned, his discernment was quick, and his judgment
sound; as a soldier, his courage was undaunted, his vigilance untiring,
and his success triumphant. Mrs. Anne White, Governor Caswell's last
remaining child, died at Raleigh, on the twentieth of September, 1851,
in the eighty-fourth year of her age.

*** I am indebted to Miss Margaret H. Lillington, a great grand-daughter
of General Lillington, for the materials of the following brief sketeh
of the publie career of that officer: John Alexander Lillington, was
the son of Colonel George Lillington, an officer in the British service,
who, after being engaged in an expedition against the French in the West
Indies, settled upon the island of Barbadoes, and became a member of the
Royal Council in 1698. In that capacity he remained during the latter
part of the reign of William and Mary, and the beginning of that of
Queen Anne. His son, the subject of this memoir, captivated by the
glowing accounts given of the Carolina country, emigrated thither,
and settled within the present limits of New Hanover county. The fine
mansion delineated in the engraving, and known as Lillington Hall, is
yet standing. It was built in 1734. Its location is near the great road
leading from Wilmington to Newbern, on the northeast branch of the Cape
Fear River, about thirty miles above Wilmington. When the "Hall" was
erected, that part of Carolina was a wilderness, and the savannah or
grassy opening where it stands, in the midst of vast pine forests, made
it an oasis in the desert.

John Alexander inherited the military tastes of his father, and when the
notes of preparation for the Revolutionary contest was heard all over
the land, his skill was brought into requisition.

[Illustration: 9597]

His patriotic principles were early made known; and when the war broke
out, we find him a member of the Wilmington Committee of Safely, and a
colonel of militia. In the first battle fought at. the South
(Moore's Creek Bridge), described in the text, Colonel Lillington was
conspicuous, with his neighbor and friend, Colonel Richard Caswell.

[Illustration: 8597]

Soon after this decisive battle, Colonel Lillington was promoted to
brigadier. He served under General Gates in the Carolinas, in 1780.
His son, Colonel John Lillington, also served with honor during this
campaign. The silver crescents which each wore on his hat during the war
are preserved by the family, and I am indebted to Miss Lillington for
the opportunity of making a drawing of the one worn by the general.

[Illustration: 7597]

These crescents hear the initials of the names of the respective owners,
and each has the motto, "Liberty or Death," engraved upon it. The sketch
is about half the size of the original.

General Lillington remained in service until the close of the war, when
he retired to his estate at Lillinglon Hall. Near his mansion repose the
remains of the general and his son. Over the grave of the former is a
marble slab, hearing the following inscription: Sacred to the memory
of General John Alexander Lillington, a soldier of the Revolution.
He commanded the Americans in the battle of Moore's Creek, fought the
twenty-seventh day of February, 1776, and by his military skill and cool
courage in the field, at the head of his troops, secured a complete and
decisive victory. To intellectual powers of a high order he united an
incorruptible integrity, devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism. A
genuine lover of liberty, he periled his all to secure the independence
of his country, and died in a good old age, bequeathing to his posterity
the remembrance of his virtues." Near his grave is that of his son,
with a stone bearing the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory
of Colonel John Lillington, son of General John Alexander Lillington; a
patriot and soldier of the Revolution, he served his country faithfully
during the entire war."

"General Lillington," writes Miss L., "is represented as a man of
Herculean frame and strength. There are no portraits of him extant. Some
few of his old slaves still remain [1852], who were children, of course,
at the time, who can remember some of the events of the Revolution. It
would be interesting to one unacquainted with the patriarchal relations
of master and slave, to see how their aged laces kindle with enthusiasm
when they speak of the kindness of 'Old Master,' and of 'Massa Jackie
comin' hum from college in Philadelphia to help his father fight the
British.'" On account of his uniform kindness to all, the fine mansion
of General Lillington was saved from the torch by the interposition of
many ot his Tory neighbors.

* This was Mrs. Smith, the grandmother also of Governor William Pann,
of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. She
lived to the remarkable age of ninety-one years.

** I am informed by Governor Swain, that this boy entered the service
in less than four months afterward, and before he had attained his
majority, as an ensign. He was a lieutenant in 1776, and in 1777 was
promoted to eaptain, and commanded a company at the battle on the
Brandywine. In 1781 he was a brigadier, his father, at the same time,
being a major general, and his younger son a colonel in active service
struggling to counteract the operations of Major Craig at Wilmington.

* Letter of Governor Caswell. I print lhe subjoined letter of Governor
Caswell entire, because it gives an interesting view of the excitement
which prevailed at the time, and the manner in which the delegates
to the Continental Congress were carefully escorted on their way to
Philadelphia.

* "Philadelphia, 11 May 1775.

* "My Dear Son,--By a Gentleman Bound to Tar River, I now write to
inform you, that after I parted with you at Halifax, Mr. Hewes & myself
proceeded on our Journey as follows; Sunday evening we arrived at
Petersburg in Virginia where we met the express with an account of a
Battle between the King's Troops & the Bostonians. The next day we
crossed James River & Lodged at Hanover Court House, where we had an
Account of 1500 Men being under Arms to proceed to Williamsburg in Or
der to Oblige Lord Dunmore to return some powder he had taken out of
the Magazine & Lodged on Board of a Man of-AVar in James River. What
was done in that matter we have not since Heard. The next day we were
constantly meeting Armed men who had been to Escort the Delegates for
Virginia, on their way towards this place. AVe Lodged that night at Port
Royal and were only 2 or 3 Hours after the Virginia Gent". The next
day we got down to Potomack side before the Boats returned that had
carried the Virginians over. Here were part of the Militia of three
Counties under Arms, & in the Uniforms of Hunting Shirts. They received
us, and Conducted us on the return of the Boats, to the water's edge
with all the Military Honors due to General Officers. We then crossed
the River, and learned at the Ferry on Maryland side that a Company of
Independents in Charles County had attended the Virginia Delegates
from thence under Arms. We proceeded and overtook them at Port Tobacco,
where, indeed, the Independents made a Most Glorious Appearance. Their
Company consisted of 68 Men beside officers, all Genteelly drest in
Scarlet & well equiped with Arms, & Warlike Implements, with drum &
Fife. Sentinels were placed at the doors &. Occasionally relieved during
the Time we stayed there. The next Morning we all set out together, &
were Attended by the Independents to the Verge of their County, where
they delivered us to another Company of Independents in Prince George's;
they in like Manner to a Second, and that to a Third, which brot us
thro' their County. We Lodged that night lit Marlborough the next day
tho' we met with a Most Terrible Gust of Lightning, thunder, wind. Hail
& rain, Arrived at Baltimore, at the entrance of which Town we were
received by four Independent Companies who Conducted us with their
Colours Flying, drums Beating and Fife's playing, to our lodgings at the
Fountain Tavern (Grants). The next day we were prevailed on to stay
at Baltimore, where Coll Washington, Accompanied by the rest of the
Delegates, reviewed the Troops. They have four Companies of 08 men
each, Comptent, who go throh their Exercises extremely Clever. They are
raising, in that Town, three other Companies which they say will soon be
full. We were very Genteelly entertained here in the Court House.
The next day we Breakfasted at my old Master Cheynes & dined at
Susquehannah; crossed the River and Lodged at the Ferry House. As I had
in some Measure been the cause of the Virginia Gent" going round the
Bay by recommending that road, and being the only person in Company
acquainted with the road, I was Obliged to keep with them so that I did
not call on any of my relations. I sent George to Jos. Dallants where
he left the Letters I brot for our Friends, and was informed my Grand
Mother* & all Friends were well except Mrs Dallam who had been poorly
some Time--the next day we got to Wilmington where we fell in with
Several of the Maryland Delegates, & came all into the City to
Dinner, on the 9th Instant. Yesterday the Congress met Agreeable
to Appointment, & this day it was Resolved that they enter upon the
Consideration of American Grievances on Monday next. Here a Greater
Martial Spirit prevails, if possible, than I have been describing in
Virginia and Maryland. They have 28 Companies Compleat, which make near
2000 Men, who March out to the Common &. go thro' their Exercises twice
a day regularly. Scarce any thing but Warlike Musick is to be heard
in the Streets. There are several Companies of Quakers only, and many
of them beside enrolled in other Companies promiscuously. 'Tis said
they will, in a few days, have 3000 Men under Arms ready to defend
their Liberties. They are raising Men in New York & all the Northern
Governments. The Yorkers, I am told by their Delegates, are determined
to Defend their Liberties, & since the action between the Kings Troops
and the Provincials, scarcely a Tory is to be found amongst them.
I herewith Inclose you a paper in which is a List of the Killed and
Wounded of the Kings Troops. But 'tis said this is not Genuine, a much
greater number being Actually Killed. On the side of the Bostonians 3
were Killed outright 4 are missing & I forget the number of Wounded; I
think thirty odd. Thus you have the fullest Account I am able to give of
these matters, and as the Acct is so long, 'twill not be in my power
to Communicate the same, to any other of my Countrymen and friends but
throh you. You may therefore remember me in the Strongest manner to
Your Uncles, Capt Bright, and others of my particular Friends. Shew them
this Letter, and tell them it will be a Reflection on their Country to
be Behind their neighbours; that it is Indispensibly necessary for them
to arm and form into a Company or Companies of Independents. When their
Companies are full, 68 private Men each, to elect Officers, Viz a Capt.
2 Lieut* an Ensign & Subalterns, And to meet as often as possible Si go
thro' the exercise. Recieve no man but such as can be depended on, at
the same Time reject none who will not discredit the Company. If I live
to return I shall most Chearfully Join any of my Countrymen even as
a rank &. file man. And as in the Common cause I am here exposed to
Danger, that or any other difficulties I shall not shun whilst I have
any Blood in my Vins, But freely offer it in Support of the Liberties
of my Country. Tell your Uncles (the Clk & Sheri ) it may not be prudent
for them so far to engage yet awhile in any Company as to risk the loss
of their offices. But you, my Dear Boy, must become a soldier & risk
your life in Support of those invaluable Blessings which once lost,
Posterity will never be able to regain it. Some men, I fear, will start
objections to the enrolling of Companies & exercising the Men, &. will
say it will be acting against Government. That may be answered "that
it is not so." That we are only Qualifying ourselves and preparing
to defend our Country & Support our Liberties. I can say no more at
present. But that May God Almighty protect you all & his Blessing
Attend your good endeavour, is the Ardent prayer of My Dear Child Your
Affectionate Father.

* .. P.S.--only shew this letter to such as I have described above, &.
dont let it be Copied. Consult Capt Bright &c.

* "Mr William Caswell."

[[[Biographical Sketch of Lillington.--Caswell's Letter to his Son.]]]

{586}the Creek, who, with the minute-men of Dobbs, Craven, Johnston, and
Wake counties, and battalions from Wilmington and Newbern, in all about
one thousand strong, were out in

[[[Peril of the Highlanders.--Preparations for Battle.--Lillinglon
Hall.--Colonel John Lillington.]]]

{587}search of the Tory army. * The situation of M'Donald (who was now
very ill) was perilous ill the extreme. The strong minute-men of the
Neuse region, their officers wearing silver crescents upon their hats,
inscribed with the stirring words, "Liberty or Death," were in front;
and Colonel Moore, with his regulars, were close upon his rear. To fly
was impossible; to fight was his only alternative.

Both parties were encamped in sight of each other during the night. A
professed neutral informed Colonel Lillington of the intended
movements of the enemy in the morning, and he and Caswell took measures
accordingly. During the night, they cast up a breastwork, removed the
planks from the bridge across Moore's Creek, and disposed their forces
so as to command the passage and the roads on each side. The patriots
lay upon their arms all night, ready, at a signal, to meet the foe. At
early dawn, bagpipes were heard, and the notes of a bugle, ringing out
upon the frosty air, called the eighteen hundred Loyalists to arms. In a
few minutes they rushed forward to the attack, led on by Captain M'Leod,

* Colonel Lillington. with the Wilmington battalion of minute-men,
arrived at the bridge about four hours before Caswell, with his larger
foree, made his appearance. Caswell, who was the senior officer, took
command of the whole patriot army.

[[[Battle at Moore's Creek.--Feat of Mrs. Slocum.--Effect of the
Battle.--Humanity of the Whigs.--Governor Martin.]]]

{588}for General M'Donald was too ill to leave his tent. Finding a small
intrenehment next the bridge quite empty, they concluded the Americans
had abandoned the post. They had advanced to within thirty paces of
the breast-work, when the Whigs, though unused to war, arose from their
concealment, bravely confronted the foe, and for ten minutes the contest
was fierce and bloody. Captain M'Leod was killed at the beginning of the
battle. Captain John Campbell, the next in command, soon fell, mortally
wounded. At that moment, Lieutenant Slocum, of the patriot army, with a
small detachment, forded the stream, penetrated the swamp on its
western bank, and fell with vigor upon the rear of the Loyalists. *
The Scotchmen were routed and dispersed, and many of them were made
prisoners. Among the latter were General M'Donald, and also the husband
of Flora. The Loyalists lost seventy men in killed and wounded; the
Americans had only two wounded, and one of them survived. ** Colonel
Moore arrived soon after the engagement ended, and that evening the men
of the united forces of the patriots slept soundly upon the field of
their victory.

The effect of this defeat of the Loyalists was of vast importance to the
Patriot cause in North Carolina. It exhibited the courage and skill
of the defenders of liberty, and completely broke the spirit of the
Loyalists. It prevented a general organization of the Tories, and their
junction with the forces under Sir Henry Clinton, which arrived in the
Cape Fear in May, upon which the royal power in the South depended for
vitality. The opposers of that power were encouraged, and the timid and
wavering were compelled to make a decision. The kindness extended to the
prisoners and their families won the esteem of all, and many Loyalists
were converted to the Republican faith by the noble conduct of the
victors. ** The plans of the governor, and of Sir Henry Clinton and Lord
William Campbell, were, for the time, completely frustrated, and Martin
**** soon afterward abdicated government, and took

* Mrs. Ellett relates a noble instance of female heroism whieh this
battle developed. The wife of Lieutenant Slocum, whose home was sixty
miles distant from the scene of conflict, had dreamed, after her husband
and his neighbors had departed with Caswell, that she saw him lying dead
upon the ground. She awoke in great distress, arose, saddled a horse,
and rode at full gallop in the direction the troops had taken. Through
that thinly-settled and swampy country she pressed on, and at nine
o'clock in the morning she heard the firing. As she came near the
battle-ground, she saw a body lying in her husband's cloak, but it
proved to be another man, who was wounded. She alighted, washed his
face, bound up his wounds, and was administering comfort to another
wounded man, when Caswell and her astonished husband came up. With true
womanly feeling, she interceded for the life of the prisoner, attended
to the wounded Loyalists through the day, and at midnight started for
home. She did not tell her husband of her dream until his return. She
rode one hundred and twenty-five miles in less than forty hours, and
without one interval of rest! A mother's love, for she "wanted to see
her child," impelled her to return with speed. The Carolinas were full
of such heroic women as Mary Slocum when the storm of the Revolution
swept over them.--See Mrs. Ellett's Domestic History of the Revolution,
page 46; II omen of the Revolution, i., 317--321.

** The patriots captured thirteen wagons, three hundred and fifty guns
and shot-bags, about one hundred and fifty swords and dirks, and fifteen
hundred excellent rifles.--Gordon, ii., 37.

*** The Provincial Congress Issued a manifesto on the twenty-ninth of
April, respecting the Loyalists, in the wounds whieh a separation from
husbands, fathers, and the dearest relations has made. They are the
rightful pensioners upon the charity and bounty of those who have aught
to spare from their own necessities for the relief of their indigent
fellow-creatures; to such we recommend them." Had such noble sentiments
governed Cornwallis and his officers when they subdued the Carolinas, a
few years later, they might have made their victory permanent. General
M'Donald and his son, who held a colonel's commission, were granted
liberal paroles of honor; and, during the summer, the general and
twenty-five of his fellow-prisoners were exchanged at Philadelphia.

**** Governor Josiah Martin was a soldier by profession, and, in 1770,
had risen to the rank of major in the British armv. When Tryon was
transferred to New York in 1771, Martin was appointed governor of North
Carolina, and was the last royal chief magistrate of that colony. He was
a man of considerable ability, urbane in manners, and sincerely desirous
of promoting the best interests of the colony. After going to New York
with Sir Henry Clinton, when driven from the colony, he joined the army,
under Cornwallis, and was in the battle near Camden, where Gates was
defeated. He was with Cornwallis in Virginia, as late as March, 1781,
when impaired health caused him to leave. He went to New York, spent
a part of the summer at Rockaway, on Long Island, and then sailed for
England. He died in London, in July, 1786. Samuel Martin, who fought
a duel with the celebrated John Wilkes in 1763, was the governor's
brother. His father was Colonel Samuel Martin, of Virginia, who lost
a large estate by confiscation. Judge Martin, the historian of North
Carolina, computes the population of that state, when Governor Martin
fled and the royal power ended, at one hundred and fifty thousand, more
than one fifth of whom were slaves.

[[[Organization of Civil Government.--Proclamation of Sir Henry
Clinton.--Desolation of Howe's Plantation.]]]

{589}refuge on board the Bristol, the flag-ship of Sir Peter Parker. *
Royal government in North Carolina now ceased forever, and a brighter
era in the history of the state was opened.

The provincial council now labored vigorously in the elaboration of
measures for the defense of the colony, and the maintenance of liberty.
A strong military establishment was organized, and in eaeh district
a brigadier general was appointed, with an efficient corps of
field-officers. ** On the eighteenth of December[[1776]] a state
government was formed under a Constitution, *** and, a few days
afterward, a device for a great seal of the commonwealth was presented
by a committee appointed for the purpose, and adopted. ****

[Illustration: 8599]

In all their actions, the Carolinians exhibited the aspect of men
determined to be free, and conscious that hope for reconciliation with
the mother country was vain. A blow had been struck which marked out the
bright line of future operations. There could no longer be hesitation,
and the line between Whigs and Tories was as distinctly drawn as that of
the twilight between the day and the night.

The siege of Charleston, and other events of the war which speedily
followed the battle on Moore's Creek, will be detailed hereafter. From
this time until the close of the Revolution, the military history of
North Carolina is identified with that of the whole confederacy. From
the time of the battle on Moore's Creek until Cornwallis and his army
overran the Carolinas, there were no regularly organized bands of
Loyalists in the "Old North State." Here let us close the chronicle for
a day, and ride on toward the fertile region of the Allamanee, after
glancing at noteworthy objects in Hillsborough.

I employed the first morning of the new year,[[Jan 1, 1849]] in visiting
places of interest at Hillsborough, in company with the Reverend Dr.
Wilson. The first object to which my attention was ealled was a small
wooden building, represented in the engraving on the next page, situated
opposite the hotel where I was lodged. Cornwallis used it for

* Gordon, ii., 36. 37; Foote, 143-145: Marlin, ii., 380-384. On the
fifth of May, 1776, Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation from
the Pallas sloop of war, which declared North Carolina in a state of
rebellion, ordered all Congresses to be dissolved, and offered pardon to
all penitents, exeept the arch-rebels Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe.
The people laughed at him. Fired with indignation, he vented his spite
upon the property of Colonel Howe. On the twelfth, he sent Cornwallis
and a marauding party of nine hundred men on shore, who ravaged Howe's
plantation in Brunswick, treated some women at his house with brutality,
burned some mills in the neighborhood, and then returned to the ships.
Despairing of success in that quarter, Clinton sailed with the British
fleet of thirty vessels for New York.

[Illustration: 9599]

***The following gentlemen were appointed brigadiers: Richard Caswell,
of Newbern; John Ashe, of Wilmington; Thomas Person,* of Hillsborough;
Griffith Rutherford, of Salisbury; Edward Vail, of Edenton; and Allen
Jones, of Halifax.

*** The following gentlemen were appointed state officers under the
Republican Constitution: Richard Caswell., governor; James Glasgow,
secretary of slate; Cornelius Harnett, Thomas Person, William Day,
William Haywood, Edward Staricey, Joseph Leech, and Thomas Eaton,
counselors of state.

**** The committee consisted of William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Thomas
Burke. The seal then adopted continues to be that of the state. The two
figures represent respectively Liberty and Plenty. Liberty holds the
Constitution in one hand, and in the other a staff, with the cap of
freedom, indicating the security of liberty by the Constitution. Clasped
by one arm, Plenty holds a small bundle of wheat ears, and with the
other supports an overflowing cornucopia, indieating the generous
fertility of the soil of North Carolina.

* Thomas Person had been one of the leading Regulators, and exceedingly
active against the royal government. He was for many years a member of
the State Senate. Person Hall, of the university at Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, was so named to commemorate a munificent donation which he
made to that institution.

[[[Localities at Hillsborough.--Departure for the Allamance.--Place of
Pyle's Defeat]]]

{590}an office, hiring his tarryings in Hillsborough, after driving
General Greene out of the state.

[Illustration: 9600]

After sketching this, we visited the office of the Clerk of the Superior
Court, and made the fac similes and extracts from its records, printed
on pages 573--4. We next visited the head-quarters of Cornwallis, a
large frame building situated in the rear of Morris's _Hillsborough
House_, on King Street. Generals Gates and Greene also occupied it when
they were in Hillsborough, and there a large number of the members of
the Provincial Congress were generally lodged.

[Illustration: 8600]

The old court-house, where the Regulators performed their lawless
acts, is no longer in existence. I was informed by Major Taylor, an
octogenarian on whom we called, that it was a brick edifice, and stood
almost upon the exact site of the present court-house, which is a
spacious brick building, with steeple and clock.

The successor of the first was a wooden structure, and being removed
to make room for the present building, was converted into a place of
meeting for a society of Baptists, who yet worship there.[[1849]] Upon
the hill near the Episcopal church, and fronting King Street, is the
spot "where the Regulators were hung.

The residence of Governor Tryon, while in Hillsborough was on Church
Street, a little west of Masonic Hall. These compose the chief objects
of historic interest at Hillsborough. The town has other associations
connected with the Southern campaigns, but we will not anticipate the
revealments of history by considering them now.

At one o'clock I exchanged adieus with the kind Dr. Wilson, crossed
the Eno, and, pursuing the route traversed by Tryon on his march to the
Allamance, crossed the rapid and now turbid Ha, ** just below the falls,
at sunset. I think I never traveled a worse road than the one stretching
between the Eno and the Haw. It passes over a continued series of red
clay hills, which are heavily wooded with oaks, gums, black locusts, and
chestnuts. Small streams course among these elevations; and in summer
this region must be exceedingly picturesque. Now every tree and shrub
was leafless, except the holly and the laurel, and nothing green
appeared among the wide-reaching branches but the beautiful tufts of
mistletoe which every where decked the great oaks with their delicate
leaves and transparent berries. Two and a half miles beyond the Haw,
and eighteen from Hillsborough, I passed the night at Foust's house of
entertainment, and after an early breakfast, rode to the place where
Colonel Pyle, a Tory officer, with a considerable body of Loyalists, was
deceived and defeated by Lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee and his dragoons,
with Colonel Pickens, in the spring of 1781. Dr. Holt, who lives a
short distance from that locality, kindly accompanied me to the spot and
pointed out the place where the battle occurred; where Colonel Pyle lay
concealed in a pond, and where many of the slain were buried. The place
of conflict is about half a mile north of the old Salisbury highway,
upon a "plantation road," two miles east of the Allamance, in Orange
county. Let us listen to the voices of history and tradition.

In February, 1781, General Greene, then in command of the American army
at the South, accomplished a wonderful and successful retreat across
North Carolina into Virginia, closely pursued by Lord Cornwallis. This
memorable retreat we shall consider presently.

* This view is from the piazza of the Union Hotel. The building is of
logs, covered with clap-boards. When James Monroe (afterward President
of the United States) visited the Southern army in 1780, as military
commissioner for Virginia, he used this building for his office while in
Hillsborough.

** The Haw River (which derives its name from the abundance of hawthorns
in that region) rises in Rockingham and Guilford counties, and in
Chatham county unites with the Deep River, and forms the northwest
branch of the Cape Fear.

[[[Cornwallis at Hillsborough.--Greene's Plans.--Expedition under
Lieutenant Colonel Lee.--His Public-Life]]]

{591}When Cornwallis was certified that Greene had escaped across the
Dan with all his force, baggage, and stores, he ordered a halt,[[Feb 14,
1781]] and, after refreshing his wearied troops, moved slowly back to
Hillsborough, and there established his head-quarters.' His object was
partially accomplished; he had not captured the "rebel army," but he had
driven it from the Carolinas, and he now anticipated a general rising
of the Tories, to assist him in crushing effectually the remaining
Republicanism at the South. Although driven across the Dan, Greene had
no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession of the
enemy.

[Illustration: 9601]

In the fertile and friendly county of Halifax, in Virginia, his troops
reposed for a few days, and then they were called again to the field of
active exertion. He resolved to recruit his thinned battalions, and as
soon as possible recross the Dan and confront Cornwallis.

Among the most active and efficient officers engaged in the Southern
campaigns was Henry Lee, ** at this time lieutenant colonel, in command
of a corps of choice cavalry. He was in Greene's camp when that general
issued his orders to prepare for recrossing the Dan into the Carolinas.
His patriot heart leaped for joy when the order was given, and he was
much gratified when himself and General Pickens, who commanded a body
of South Carolina militia, with Captain Oldham and two companies of
Maryland veteran militia, were directed[[Feb 18, 1781]] to repass the
Dan and reconnoitre the front of Cornwallis, for he burned to measure
strength with the fiery Tarleton. They were sent by Greene to interrupt
the intercourse of Cornwallis with the country surrounding his army at
Hillsborough, and to suppress every attempt of the Loyalists to join
him in force. This proved necessary, for the British commander issued
a proclamation on the twentieth of February,[[1781]] inviting the
Loyalists to join his standard at Hillsborough.

Lieutenant-colonel Lee crossed the Dan on the eighteenth, and was
followed

* Cornwallis remained in Hillsborough about ten days. While a detachment
of his army lay at the Red House, a short distance from the town, they
occupied the Church of Hugh M'Aden, the first located missionary in
North Carolina. Supposing M'Aden (then a short time in his grave) to
have been a rebel, be-cause he was a Presbyterian, the British burned
his library and papers. His early journal escaped the flames.--Fuote,
273.

** Henry Lee. was born at the family seat, in Stratford (see page 423),
on the twenty-ninth of January, 1756. He was educated at Princeton
College, where he graduated in 1773. Fond of active life, and imbued
with a military spirit, he sought and obtained the command of a company,
in Colonel Bland's regiment of Virginia volunteers, in 1776. He joined
the Continental army in September, 1777. where he soon attracted the
favorable notice of Washington. He was promoted to the rank of major, in
command of a separate corps of cavalry. On the sixth of November, 1780,
Congress promoted him to lieutenant eolonel, and ordered him to join the
Southern army under General Greene, where his career was marked by great
skill and bravery. His military exploits and the honors conferred upon
him by Congress, are noticed in various places in this volume. In 1786,
he was appointed a delegate to Congress, which position he held until
the adoption of the Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly
Randolph as governor of Virginia, and remained in office three years. He
commanded the forces, by appointment of Washington, which were sent
to quell the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. He was a member of
Congress in 1799, and was chosen to pronounce a funeral oration at
Washington, on the occasion of the death of the first president. He
wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United
States, in 1808. He was active in quelling a mob in Baltimore in 1814,
and from wounds received at that time he never fairly recovered. Toward
the close of 1817, he repaired to the West Indies for the benefit of his
health, but without success. Returning, he stopped at Cumberland Island,
near St. Mary's, in Georgia, to visit Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General
Greene, where he died on the twenty-fifth of March, 1818, at the age of
sixty-two years. The names of Lee, Marion, Morgan, Sumter, and Pickens
form a brilliant galaxy in the Southern firmament of our Revolutionary
history.

[[[Pursuit of Tarleton.--Approach of Tories under Colonel
Pyle.--Conception of a Plan to Ensnare them.]]]

{592}by Pickens and Oldham. He sent out his scouts, and early on the
morning of the nineteenth he was informed by them that Tarleton and his
legion were out toward the Haw reconnoitering, and offering protection
to the Loyalists who were desirous of marching to Cornwallis's
camp. Lee and Pickens pushed on to gain the great road leading from
Hillsborough to the Haw. They ascertained that Tarleton had passed there
the day before, and was probably then on the western side of the Haw.
The next day[[Feb 21]] the Americans crossed the Haw, and were informed
that the Loyalists between that and the Deep River were certainly
assembling to join the earl. They also learned from a countryman (a sort
of passive Tory named Ephraim Cooke) that Tarleton's force consisted of
most of his cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two light field
pieces; and that he was encamped about four miles distant with all the
carelessness of confident security. Lee determined to surprise him, and
placed his little army in battle order for a quick march. They reached
the designated spot too late, for Tarleton had left and proceeded a
few miles further, to the plantation of Colonel William O'Neil, whose
memory, if common report speaks true, deserves a greater share of the
odium of his countrymen than the most bitter Tory, for by his avaricious
acts while claiming to be a Whig, he drove many of his neighbors to join
the ranks of the Loyalists. * Two of Tarleton's officers, who were left
behind, were captured.

Lee now resolved to employ stratagem. His legion greatly resembled
that of Tarleton, and he made the country people believe that his was
a detachment sent by Cornwallis to re-enforce that officer. The two
prisoners were commanded to favor the deception, under penalty instant
death. The legion took the van in the march,[[Feb. 25, 1781]] with
Lieutenant-colonel Lee at the head, preceded, at the distance of a
few hundred yards, by a scout. The officer of the van soon met two
well-mounted young men, who, believing him to belong to a British
re-enforcement, promptly answered an inquiry by saying that they were
"rejoiced to fall in with him, they having been sent forward by Colonel
Pyle, the commander of quite a large body of Loyalists, to find out
Tarleton's camp, whither he was marching with his followers." A dragoon
was immediately sent to Lee with this information, and was speedily
followed by the young men, who mistook "Legion Harry" for Tarleton,
and, with the greatest deference, informed him of the advance of Colonel
Pyle. Lee dispatched his adjutant to General Pickens to request him to
place his riflemen (among whom were those of Captain Graham, ** who had
just joined him) on the left flank, in a place of concealment in the
woods, while he himself should make an attempt to capture the deceived
Loyalists. Lee also sent one of the duped young men, with the dragoon
who escorted them, to proceed to Colonel Pyle with his compliments, and
his request "that the colonel would be so good as to draw out his forces
on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his (Lee's)
much wearied troops to pass by without delay to their right position."
The other young countryman was detained to accompany Lee himself, whom
he supposed to be Tarleton. The van officer was ordered to halt as
soon as he should perceive the Loyalists. This order was obeyed; and
presently the young man who had been sent to Colonel Pyle, returned with
that officer's assurance that he was "happy to comply with the request
of Colonel Tarleton." It was the intention of Lee, when his force should
obtain the requisite position to have the complete advantage of Colonel
Pyle, to reveal his real name and character, demand the immediate
surrender of the Tories, and give them their

* See Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 213.

** The father of the present Secretary of the Navy.

[[[Destruction of the Loyalists.--Escape of Colonel Pyle.--The
Battle-ground.--Escape of Tarleton.]]]

{593}choice, to return quietly to their homes, after being disarmed, or
to join the patriot army. Thus far every thing had worked favorably to
Lee's humane design.

Lee's cavalry first approached the Loyalists, who, happily for
the furtherance of the plan, were on the _right_ side of the road;
consequently, the horsemen following Lee were obliged to countermarch
and confront the Loyalists. As Lee approached Colonel Pyle, the
Loyalists raised the shout, "God save the king!" He rode along the Tory
column (who were also mounted, with their rifles on their backs), and,
with gracious smiles, complimented them on their fine appearance and
loyal conduct. As he approached Pyle and grasped his hand (the signal
for his cavalry to draw when he should summon the Tories to surrender),
the Loyalists on the left discovered Pickens's militia, and perceived
that they were betrayed.

[Illustration: 8603]

They immediately commenced firing upon the rear-guard of the American
cavalry, commanded by Captain Eggleston. * That officer, as a matter of
necessity, instantly turned upon the foe, and this movement was speedily
followed by the whole column. A scene of dreadful slaughter followed,
for the Loyalists, taken by surprise, could not bring their rifles to
bear before Lee had struck the fatal blow. Colonel Pyle commanded four
hundred Loyalists; ninety of them were killed in that brief moment, and
a large portion of the remainder were wounded. A cry for mercy arose
from the discomfited Tories, but the hand of mercy was stayed until the
red arm of war had placed the Americans beyond danger. ** Colonel Pyle
was badly wounded, and fled to the shelter of a small pond, which was
environed and deeply shaded by a fringe of oaks, persimmons, hawthorns,
crab-trees, and black jacks, trellised with the vines of the muscadine.
Tradition says that he laid himself under the water, with nothing but
his nose above it, until after dark, when he crawled out, made his
way home, and recovered. The place of his concealment is yet known as
"Pyle's Pond," of which the engraving is a correct view, as it appeared
when I visited the spot in 1849.[[Jan 2]] It is on the verge of a
cultivated field, of some six acres, half a mile northwest from the
Salisbury road. Its dense fringe is gone, and nothing indicates its
former concealment but numerous stumps of the ancient forest.

Lee and Pickens did not pursue the retreating Loyalists; but, anxious to
overtake Tarleton, who was at Colonel O'Neil's, upon the Greensborough
road, three miles northward, he resumed his march, notwithstanding it
was almost sunset. He halted within a mile of O'Neil's, and encamped for
the night, where they were joined by Colonel Preston and three hundred
hardy mountaineers from Virginia, who had hastened to the support of
Greene. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack,
when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated
stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to
his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received,
and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that
river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the
ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. "Fortune, the capricious
goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton." ****

* Captain Eggleston was one of the most efficient cavalry officers in
Lee's legion, during the campaigns further south the same year. We shall
meet him hereafter.

** In this action the Americans did not lose a single man, and only
one horse. The generally accurate and impartial Stedman, influenced,
doubtless, by wrong information, called the event a "massacre;" says
that "no quarter was granted" when asked; and that "between two and
three hundred of them were inhumanly butchered while in the act of
begging for mercy."--History of the American War, ii., 334.

*** About a quarter of a mile northwest from this pond, is the spot
where the battle occurred. It was then heavily wooded; now it is a
cleared field, on the plantation of Colonel Michael Holt. Mr. Holt
planted an apple-tree upon the spot where fourteen of the slain were
buried in one grave. Near by, a persimmon-tree indicates the place of
burial of several others.

**** Memoirs, page 160.

[[[The Allamance.--Factory Labor.--Regulator
Battle-ground.--Greensborough]]]

{594}




CHAPTER XXIII.


````"Cornwallis led a country dance;

`````The like was never seen, sir;

````Much retrograde, and much advance,

````And all with General Greene, sir.

````They rambled up and rambled down.

`````Joined bands, and off they ran, sir;

````Our General Greene to old Charlestown,

`````And the earl to Wilmington, sir. * =


```There was Greene in the South; you must know him--

````Whom some called a "Hickory Quaker;"

```But he ne'er turned his back on the foeman,

````Nor ever was known for a Shaker.'--William Elliot.=

[Illustration: 9604]

LEFT the place of Pyle's defeat toward noon, and, following a sinuous
and seldom-traveled road through a forest of wild crab-apple trees and
black jacks, crossed the Allamance at the cotton-factory of Holt and
Carrigan, two miles distant. ** Around this mill quite a village of neat
log-houses, occupied by the operatives, were collected, and every thing
had the appearance of thrift. I went in, and was pleased to see the
hands of intelligent white females employed in a useful occupation.
Manual labor by white people is a rare sight at the South, where an
abundance of slave labor appears to render such occupation unnecessary;
and it can seldom be said of one of our fair sisters there, "She layeth
her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." *** This
cotton-mill, like the few others which I saw In the Carolinas, is a real
blessing, present and prospective, for it gives employment and comfort
to many poor girls who might otherwise be wretched; and it is a seed of
industry planted in a generous soil, which may hereafter germinate and
bear abundant fruit of its kind in the midst of cotton plantations,
thereby augmenting immensely the true wealth of the nation.

At a distance of two miles and a half beyond the Allamance, on the
Salisbury road, I reached the Regulator battle-ground; and, in company
with a young man residing in the vicinity, visited the points of
particular interest, and made the sketch printed on page 577. The rock
and the ravine from whence James Pugh and his companions (see page 576)
did such execution with their rifles, are now hardly visible. The place
is a few rods north of the road. The ravine is almost filled by the
washing down of earth from the slopes during eighty years; and the rock
projects only a few ells above the surface. The whole of the natural
scenery is changed, and nothing but tradition can identify the spot.

While viewing the battle-ground, the wind, which had been a gentle and
pleasant breeze from the south all the morning, veered to the northeast,
and brought omens of a cold storm. I left the borders of the Allamance,
and its associations, at one o'clock, and traversing a very hilly
country for eighteen miles, arrived, a little after dark, at
Greensborough, a thriving, compact village, situated about five miles
southeast from the site of old Guilford Court House. It is the capitol
of Guilford county, and successor of old Martinsburg, where the

* These lines form a part of a song which was very popular at the close
of the war, and was sung to the air of "Yankee Doodle."

** This factory, in the midst of a cotton-growing eountry, and upon a
never-failing stream, can not be otherwise than a source of great profit
to the owners. The machinery is chiefly employed in the manufacture
of cotton yarn. Thirteen hundred and fifty spindles were in operation.
Twelve looms were employed in the manufacture of coarse cotton goods
suitable for the use of the negroes.

*** Proverbs, xxxi., 19.

[[[Fire in Greensborough.--The Guilford Battle-ground.--Gates superseded
by Greene]]]

{595}court-house was formerly situated. Very few of the villages in
the interior of the state appeared to me more like a Northern town
than Greensborough. The houses are generally good, and the stores gave
evidences of active trade. Within an hour after my arrival, the town was
thrown into commotion by the bursting out of flames from a large
frame dwelling, a short distance from the court-house. There being no
fire-engine in the place, the flames spread rapidly, and at one time
menaced the safety of the whole town. A small keg of powder was used,
without effect, to demolish a tailor's shop, standing in the path of
the conflagration toward a large tavern. The flames passed on, until
confronted by one of those broad chimneys, on the outside of the house,
so universally prevalent at the South, when it was subdued, after four
buildings were destroyed. I never saw a population more thoroughly
frightened; and when I returned to my lodgings, far away from the fire,
every bed in the house was packed ready for flight.

[Illustration: 8605]

It was past midnight when the town became quiet, and a consequently late
breakfast delayed my departure for the battle-field at Guilford Court
House, until nine o'clock the next morning.

A cloudy sky, a biting north wind, and the dropping of a few snow-flakes
when I left Greensborough, betokened an unpleasant day for my
researches. It was ten o clock when I reached Martinsville, once a
pleasant hamlet, now a desolation. There are only a few dilapidated and
dispirited dwellings left; and nothing remains of the old Guilford Court
House but the ruins of a chimney, depicted on the plan of the battle,
printed on page 608. Only one house was inhabited, and that by the
tiller of the soil around it. Descending into a narrow, broken valley,
from Martinsville, and ascending the opposite slope to still higher
ground on the road to Salem, I passed among the fields consecrated by
the events of the battle at Guilford, in March,[[March 14]] 1781, to the
house of Mr. Hotchkiss, a Quaker, who, I was informed could
point out every locality of interest in his neighborhood.

Mr. Hotchkiss was absent, and I was obliged to wait more than an hour
for his return. The time passed pleasantly in conversation with his
daughter, an intelligent young lady, who kindly ordered my horse to be
fed, and regaled me with some fine apples, the first fruit of the kind I
had seen since leaving the James River.

While tarrying there, the snow began to fall thickly, and when, about
noon, I rambled over the most interesting portion of the battle-ground,
and sketched the and directed General Washington to make the selection.

The scene is printed on page 611, the whole country was covered with
a white mantle. Here, by this hospitable fireside, let us consider
the battle, and those wonderful antecedent events which distinguished
General Greene's celebrated _Retreat._

After the unlucky battle near Camden, where General Gates lost the
laurels he had obtained at Saratoga, Congress perceived the necessity
of appointing a more efficient commander for the army in the Southern
Department. The commander-in-chief appointed General Nathaniel
Greene,[[Oct 30, 1780]] late the quarter-master general, who immediately
proceeded to his field of labor.

Passing through Delaware, Maryland, and Vir-

* Nathaniel Greene was born of Quaker parents, at Warwick, in Rhode
Island, in 1746. His father was an anchor smith, and in that business
Nathaniel was trained. While yet a boy, he learned the Latin language,
and by prudence and perseverance he collected a small library while a
minor. The perusal of military history occupied much of his attention.
He had just attained his majority, when his abilities were so highly
estimated, that he was chosen a representative in the Legislature of
Rhode Island.

* Fired with military zeal, and ardent patriotism, young Greene
resolved to take up arms for his country, when he heard of the battle
at Lexington. He was appointed to the command of three regiments in the
Army of Observation, raised by his state, and led them to Roxbury. In
consequence of this violation of their discipline, the Quakers disowned
him. General Washington soon perceived his worth, and in August the
following year, Congress promoted him from the office of brigadier of
his state militia to that of major general in the Continental army. He
was in the battles at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown.
In March, 1778. he was appointed quarter-master general, and in June
was engaged in the battle of Monmouth. He resigned his office of
quarter-master general in 1780, and was succeeded by Timothy Pickering.
He took the command of the Southern Department, December third, 1780,
and in February following made his famous retreat. He engaged in the
battle of Guilford, in March, 1781, when he was defeated. In April
following, he fought with Lord Rawdon, near Camden, where he was again
defeated, but retreated in good order, and soon afterward captured
several British posts in South Carolina. He besieged Fort Ninety-Six
in May, but was unsuccessful. On the eighth of September, he gained a
partial victory at Eutaw Springs, for which Congress presented him with
a British standard and a gold medal. This engagement closed the war in
South Carolina. He returned to Rhode Island at the conclusion of the
war. He went to Georgia in 1785 to look after an estate belonging to him
near Savannah. While walking one day, in June, without an umbrella, he
was "sun struck," and died on the nineteenth of that month, in 1786, at
the age of forty-six years. His body was buried in a vault in Savannah,
on the same day, but owing to negligence in designating the one, a
search for his remains, in 1820, was unsuccessful. No man living can now
point out the sepulchre of that ablest of Washington's generals. On the
eighth of August following, Congress adopted the following resolution:
"That a monument be erected to Nathaniel Greene, Esq., at the seat of
the Federal government, with the following inscription: Sacred to the
memory of Nathaniel Greene, Esq., a native of the State of Rhode Island,
who died on the nineteenth of June, 1786; late major general in the
service of the United States, and commander of their army in the
Southern Department. The United Slates, in Congress assembled, in honor
of his patriotism, valor, and ability, have erected this monument." The
Board of Treasury was directed to take action for the due execution
of the foregoing resolutions. In person General Greene was rather
corpulent, and above the common size. His complexion was fair and
florid; his countenance serene and mild. His health was generally
delicate, but was preserved by temperance and exercise.

[[[Greene's Arrival in Carolina.--Courtesy of Gates.--Disposition of the
belligerent Armies.]]]

{596}ginia, he ascertained what supplies he was likely to obtain from
those states; and leaving the Baron Steuben to direct the defense of
Virginia, and to raise levies and stores for the Southern army, he
proceeded to Hillsborough, the seat of government of North Carolina.
Governor Nash received him with joy, for the dangers which menaced the
state were imminent. After remaining there a few days, he hastened on
to Charlotte, the head-quarters of the army. General Gates received
him with great respect, and on the day after his arrival he took formal
command of the army.[[Dec 3. 1780]] Gates immediately set out for the
head-quarters of Washington (then in New Jersey, near the Hudson),
to submit to an inquiry into his conduct, which had been ordered by
Congress.[[Oct 5, 1780]] From that time until the commencement of
his retreat from the Carolinas, Greene was exceedingly active in the
arrangement of the army, and in wisely directing its movements.

His first arrangement was to divide his army into two detachments, the
largest of which, under himself, was to be stationed opposite Cheraw
Hill, on the east side of the Peedee River, in Chesterfield District,
upon a small stream called Hick's Creek, about seventy miles to
the right of Cornwallis, who was then at Winnsborough, in Fairfield
District. The other, composed of about one thousand troops, under
General Morgan, was placed some fifty miles to the left, near the
junction of the Broad and Pacolet Rivers, in Union District. Cornwallis
sent Colonel Tarleton, with a considerable force, to disperse the
little army of Morgan, and soon the memorable battle of the Cowpens
occurred,[[Jan 17, 1781]] in which the Americans were victorious.
Tarleton, with the remnant of his troops, retreated precipitately to the
main army of Cornwallis, who was then at Turkey Creek; and Morgan, in
the evening of the same day, crossed the Broad River, and moved, by
forced marches, toward the Catawba, to form a junction with the division
of General Greene.

"When Cornwallis heard of the defeat of Tarleton and the direction that
Morgan had taken, he resolved on pursuit, with the hope of regaining the
prisoners taken at the Cowpens, and of demolishing the Americans before
they could reach the Catawba. He was joined on the eighteenth by General
Leslie and his troops, from Camden. To facilitate his march, he ordered
all the superfluous baggage and wagons to be destroyed[[Jan 25]] at Ram-


[[[Greene in Co-operation with Morgan.--Conference of the
Commanders.--Battle at Ramsour's Mills.--General Rutherford.]]]

{597}sour's Mills, on the south fork of the Catawba. * In the mean
while, General Greene had been apprised of the battle and the result,
and on the same day when Cornwallis commenced pursuit, he ordered
Brigadier Stevens to march with his Virginia militia (whose term of
service was almost expired) by way of Charlotte, to take Morgan's
prisoners and conduct them to Charlottesville, in Virginia. Greene,
anxious to confer with Morgan personally, left the eamp on the Pedee,
under the eommand of General Huger and Colonel Otho H. Williams,
and started, with one aid and two or three mounted militia, for the
Catawba.[[Jan 28]] On the route he was informed of Cornwallis's pursuit
and immediately sent an express to Huger and Williams to break up the
camp, and march with all possible dispatch to form a junction with
Morgan's light troops at Salisbury or Charlotte. Greene reached
Sherrard's Ford, on the Catawba, on the thirty-first, where he had an
interview with Morgan, and directed his future movements.

* At this place a severe battle was fought on the twentieth of June,
1780, between a body of North Carolina militia and a large force of
Loyalists. Early in June, General Rutherford * was in command of more
than five hundred North Carolina militia, and was in the vicinity of
Charlotte. Having received intelligence that the Tories were embodying
in arms beyond the Catawba, in Tryon county, he issued orders to
commanders in the vicinity to arouse the militia for the dispersion of
those men. Ramsour's Mills, in the present county of Lincoln, on the
south fork of the Catawba, was their place of rendezvous, and toward
that point he marched, he having received intelligence that Lord Rawdon
had retired to Camden. The Tories were assembled under Colonels John
Moore and Major Nicholas Welch, to the number of almost thirteen
hundred, on the twentieth of June. On Sunday, the eighteenth, having
concentrated the militia of Mecklenburg, Rowan, and neighborhood,
Rutherford proceeded to the Catawba, and crossed that river at the
Tuckesege Ford, on the evening of the nineteenth. He dispatched a
messenger to Colonel Francis Locke, of Rowan, informing him of the state
of affairs, and ordering him to form a junction with him between the
Forks of the Catawba, sixteen miles from Ramsour's. That officer, with
the militia under several other subordinate commanders, in all about
four hundred men, encamped on the nineteenth on Mountain Creek, higher
up on the Catawba, above Beattie's Ford, and also sixteen miles from
Ramsour's. At a council of the officers, junction with Rutherford, who
was about thirty-five miles distant, was not deemed prudent, and they
resolved to attack the Tories without delay. Colonel Johnson, one
of their number, was dispatched to apprise General Rutherford of the
situation of affairs. He reached Rutherford's camp at ten o'clock the
same night. Late in the evening of the nineteenth, Colonel Locke and his
companions commenced their march, and at daylight the following morning
they were within a mile of the enemy's eamp. The latter were upon a high
hill, three hundred yards east of Ramsour's Mill, and half a mile from
the present village of Lincolnton.

* Their position was very advantageous, and as there were but few trees
upon the slope, they could fire effectually upon an approaching foe. The
companies of Captains Falls, M'Dowell, and Brandon, of the patriot army,
were on horseback, and led on to the attack; the footmen were under the
immediate command of Colonel Loeke. The Tories were surprised. Their
pickets fired when the patriots appeared, and then retreated to the
camp. For a moment the Tories were confused, but, recovering, they
poured such a deadly fire upon the horsemen, who had pursued the pickets
to the lines, that they were compelled to fall back. They rallied, and
soon the action became general. Captain Hardin now gained the right
flank of the Tories, while the action was warm in the center. In two
instances the parties were so close that they beat each other with the
buts of their guns. The Whigs soon drove the Tories from the hill, when
they discovered them collected in force on the other side of the mill
stream. Expecting an immediate attack, messengers were sent to urge
Rutherford forward. They met him within six miles of Ramsour's, pushing
on with all possible haste. Major Davie, with his cavalry, started off
at full gallop, followed by Colonel Davidson's infantry. They were met
within two miles of Ramsour's, with the intelligence that the Tories
had retreated. Rutherford marched to the scene of action, and there
encamped. The conflict was very severe, and seventy men were left dead
on the ground. As all were in "citizen's dress," it was difficult to
distinguish the Whigs from the Tories among the dead. It is believed
that each party had an equal number killed. About one hundred men on
each side were wounded. Fifty Tories were taken prisoners. A terrible
voice of wail went up from that battle-field the next day, when the
relatives of the slain came there in search of them.

[Illustration: 9607]

* Griffith Rutherford was an Irishman by birth, brave and patriotic, but
uncultivated in mind and manners. He resided west of Salisbury, in the
Locke settlement, and in 1775 represented Rowan county in the Convention
at Newbern. In 1776 he led a large force into the Cherokee country, and
assisted the people of South Carolina in destroying their corn-fields
and villages. He was appointed a brigadier by the Provincial Congress,
in April, 1776. He commanded a brigade in the battle near Camden, in
August, 1781, and was taken prisoner by the British. He was exchanged,
and was in command at Wilmington when that place was evacuated by the
British at the close of the war. He was a state senator in 1784, and
soon afterward removed to Tennessee, where he died. A county both in
North Carolina and Tennessee bears his name.

[[[Morgan pursued by Cornwallis.--Narrow Escape of the former.--Passage
of the Catawba by Cornwallis's Army.]]]
===
{598}The pursuit by Cornwallis had been keen and untiring. He had kept
between the Broad and the Catawba Rivers, and his sole efforts were to
reach the fords toward which Morgan was pressing, in time to cut him
off. Morgan's march was equally rapid, and he crossed the Catawba at the
Island Ford, on the northern border of the present Lincoln county, with
his prisoners and baggage, two hours before the arrival of the British
van-guard, under Brigadier-general O'Hara.[[Jan 28, 1781]] It was
sunset, and the earl, confident of his prey, postponed further pursuit
until morning.

[Illustration: 9608]

This delay was fatal to his success. Rain fell copiously during
the night, and in the morning the Catawba was brimful, and entirely
unfordable. Thus it remained for forty-eight hours; and in the mean
while Morgan's prisoners were sent forward to a place of safety, and
measures were adopted to dispute the passage of the river with the
British. Had the flood in the river happened a few hours earlier,
Morgan's little army must have been lost. The event was properly marked
by the friends of liberty as the tangible interposition of Providence.
The arrival of Greene, at this juncture, was equally providential; for
Morgan had resolved upon a line of retreat which must have proved fatal.
Greene interposed counter orders, and the whole army was saved.

When the waters subsided, Cornwallis resumed his pursuit.
Lieutenant-colonel Webster, with a small detachment, moved toward
Beattie's Ford, to give the impression that the British army would cross
there; while Cornwallis, decamping at midnight with the main body,
moved rapidly toward Cowan's Ford, six miles below. This was a private
crossing-place, and the earl supposed he would thus elude the vigilance
of Greene and Morgan. It was a miscalculation, as numerous camp-fires
assured him when he approached the ford, a little before dawn.[[Feb 1,
1781]] General Davidson, the commander in Salisbury District, who had
arrived the day before with three hundred North Carolina militia, was
sent by Greene, who was quartered at Salisbury, * to guard the ford and
dispute its passage if attempted. Neglecting to place his main body
near the river, so as to make an imposing appearance he did not deter
Cornwallis from proceeding to cross. The current was rapid, the stream
in many places waist-deep, and almost five hundred yards wide, yet the
brave Britons, led on by General O'Hara, plunged into the stream, and
in the face of a severe fire from Captain Graham's ** riflemen, who were
posted at the ford, pressed forward

* Greene was quartered at Salisbury, in the house of Elizabeth Steele, a
patriot of purest mold. She had heard Greene utter words of despondency,
and her heart was touched. While he was at table, she brought two bags
full of specie, the earnings of years of toil, and presented them to
him, saying, "Take these"; for you will want them, and I can do without
them." Greene was grateful; and before he left her house he wrote upon
the back of a portrait of the king, hanging in the room, "O George, hide
thy face and mourn!" and then hung it up, with the face to the wall.
That portrait, with the writing, is in the present possession of the
Honorable David L. Swain, of Chapel Hill.

** Captain Joseph Graham was an excellent specimen of those young men of
Carolina who flocked to the armv fighting for independence. He was born
in Pennsylvania, on the thirteenth of October, 1759, and at the age of
seven years accompanied his widowed mother to North Carolina. He was
educated at Queen's Museum, in Charlotte, and was a spectator at the
famous convention, held there in May, 1775. In May, 1778, at the age of
nineteen, young Graham enlisted in the fourth regiment of North Carolina
regular troops, under Colonel Archibald Lyle. Marching northward, his
commander received instructions to return to Carolina, and Graham went
home on furlough. He was called into active service in the autumn
of that year, and accompanied General Rutherford to the banks of the
Savannah, soon after the defeat of General Ashe at Brier Creek. He was
with General Lincoln while maneuvering against Prevost, and was in the
severe battle at Stono, in June, 1779. A fever prostrated him, and
he returned home. While plowing in the field, he heard of the fall of
Charleston and defeat of Buford at the Waxhaw, and, like Cincinnatus, he
left the furrow to engage in public duties. He was appointed adjutant
of the Mecklenburg regiment. He was engaged in active service for some
time, and fought the enemy with Major Davie, at Charlotte, in the autumn
of 1780. In that engagement he was cut down and severely wounded by a
British dragoon. He received six sabre and three bullet wounds. These
confined him in the hospital for two months. When recovered, he raised
a company of mounted riflemen, and, with his fifty men, disputed the
passage of the British army at Cowan's Ford. With his company, and some
troops from Rowan, he surprised and captured a British guard at Hart's
Mill, only a mile and a half from head-quarters at Hillsborough, and the
next day was with Lee when Pyle was defeated. He was engaged in active
service all that summer, and in September was appointed a major, and,
with a pretty strong force, proceeded toward Wilmington to rescue
Governor Burke, who had been abducted from Hillsborough by Fanning, a
noted Tory, and his associates. South of Fayetteville he encountered a
band of Tories, and, after a severe skirmish, defeated them. His force
was only one hundred and thirty-six; that of the Tories was six hundred.
It was a brilliant achievement. He was engaged in two or three other
military enterprises soon afterward, when the surrender of Cornwallis
caused a cessation of hostilities at the South. With this campaign,
Major Graham's revolutionary services closed. In the course of four
years (at the end of which he was only twenty-three years of age) he
had commanded in fifteen engagements, and was greatly beloved by his
companions.

* Major Graham was elected the first sheriff of Mecklenburg, alter the
close of the war, and, in 1787, married a daughter of John Davidson,
one of the members of the famous Mecklenburg Convention. By her he had
twelve children, the youngest of whom, the Honorable William A. Graham,
is now (1852) Secretary of the Navy of the United States. Soon after his
marriage, he erected iron-works, and settled in Lincoln county, eight
miles from Beattie's Ford, where he lived forty years, and died. In
1814, one thousand men were raised in North Carolina to assist the
Tennessee and Georgia volunteers against the Creek Indians. Graham was
urgently solicited to take the command. He consented, and received
the commission ol major general. He arrived with his corps just as the
Creeks had submitted to Generals Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, after the
battle at the Horse Shoe. For many years after that war, General Graham
was the senior officer of the fifth division of the stale militia.
Temperate in all things, he enjoyed remarkable health until about the
time of his death, which occurred from apoplexy, on the twelfth of
November, 1836, at the age of seventy-seven years. His honored remains
lie in a secluded spot, near the great road leading from Beattie's Ford
to Lincolnton.

[[[Success of the British.--Death old General Davidson.--British Account
of the Conflict.--Queen's-Museum.]]]

{599}to the opposite bank. * The British reserved their fire until they
had gained the shore, and then, pouring a few volleys into the ranks of
Graham, soon dispersed them. While ascending the bank, Colonel Hall, of
the British army, was killed. General Davidson was stationed half a mile
from the ford, with the main body of the militia. Hearing the firing, he
hastened to the spot, with Colonel William Polk and the Reverend Thomas
M'Caule. They arrived just as the Americans were about to flee. Davidson
was the last upon the ground, and as he turned to follow his troops he
was shot dead by a rifle ball. ** The mili-

* Stedman, an eye-witness, from whose work the plan is copied, gives
the following account of the passage of the river. This description
illustrates the plan. "The light infantry of the guards, led by Colonel
Hall, first entered the water. They were followed by the grenadiers,
and ihe grenadiers by the battalions, the men marching in platoons, to
support one another against the rapidity of the stream. When the
light infantry had nearly reached the middle of the river, they
were challenged by one of the enemy's sentinels. The sentinel having
challenged thrice and received no answer, immediately gave the alarm
by discharging his musket; and the enemy's pickets were turned out. No
sooner did the guide [a Tory] who attended the light, infantry to show
them the ford, hear the report of the sentinel's musket, than he
turned round and left them. This, which at first seemed to portend much
mischief, in the end proved a fortunate incident. Colonel Hall, being
forsaken by his guide, and not knowing the true direction of the ford,
led the column directly across the river, to the nearest part of the
opposite bank. This direction, as it afterward appeared, carried the
British troops considerably above the place where the ford terminated on
the other side, and where the enemy's pickets were posted, so that
when they delivered their fire the light infantry were already so far
advanced as to be out of the line of its direction, and it took
place angularly upon the grenadiers, so as to produce no great
effect."--History of the American War, ii., 328.

** General William Davidson was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania,
in 1746. His family went to North Carolina (Rowan county) when he was
four years old. He was educated at Queen's Museum, * an institution at
Charlotte, where many of the patriots of Carolina were instructed; and
when the war broke ont, he took up arms. He was major of one of the
first regiments raised in Carolina, but first saw active service in New
Jersey. In November, 1779, he was detached to reenforce Lincoln at the
South. In a skirmish, near Carson's Mills, a ball passed through his
body, near the kidneys, but the wound was not mortal.

[Illustration: 9610]

* He was appointed brigadier after the battle of Camden, in the place
of Colonel Rutherford, who was made a prisoner there. In the action at
Cowan's Ford, on the first of February, 1781, he was shot through the
breast, and instantly fell dead. Congress, on the twentieth of September
following, ordered a monument to be erected to his memory, at a cost
not exceeding $500 dollars. * General Davidson was a man of pleasing
address, great activity, and pure devotion.

* This building stood upon the site of the present residence ot W. J.
Alexander, Esq., and was better known during the Revolution as Liberty
Hall Academy. Previous to the establishment of an institution of
learning here, there were but two chartered seminaries in the province;
one at Edenton, and the other at Newbern. In those none but members
of the Established Church were allowed to hold official station. The
Presbyterians, who were very numerous, resolved to have a seminary of
their own, and applied for an unrestricted charter for a college. It
was granted; but, notwithstanding it was called Queen's College, in
compliment to the consort of the king, and was located in a town called
by her name, and a county ot the same name as her birth-place, the
charter was repealed in 1771 by royal decree. The triple compliment
was of no avail. It continued to exist, nevertheless, and the first
Legislature under the State Constitution, in 1777, gave it a charter
under the title ot Liberty Hall Academy. The people of Mecklenburg would
not allow any preference to be given to one religious denomination over
another in the management of the affairs of the institution; and with
firmness they pressed forward, with a determination to maintain both
religious and political freedom. These principles, ever active, made
Mecklenburg, the seat of this free institution of learning--"the most
rebellious county in the state"--"the Hornet's Nest." No doubt
the repealing of the charter by royal authority, of this popular
institution, operated powerfully in alienating the affections of the
people from the parent government; for there, as in every dissenting
community in America, the establishment of "the Church" as a dominant
power among them, was regarded with disfavor. Episcopacy and royalty
appeared to be inseparable in interest, and concurrent in aristocratic
tendencies.

[[[Dispersion of Militia.--Commencement of Greene's Retreat.--His
Passage of the Yadkin.--Cornwallis again foiled]]]

{600}tia were entirely routed; and all the fords being abandoned,
Cornwallis, with the whole royal army, crossed the Catawba without
further molestation. * The militia reassembled at Tarrant's tavern,
about ten miles distant. Tarleton, who had been sent with his cavalry
in pursuit, hastened to their rendezvous, made a furious charge, broke
through their center, killed quite a number, and dispersed the whole.
A heavy rain had injured their powder, and they were not prepared to
fight. The loss of General Davidson, and the total dispersion of the
militia, greatly dispirited the patriots in that region, and Toryism
again became bold and active.

Now fairly commenced the great race between Greene and Cornwallis; the
goal was the Dan, the prize the possession of the Carolinas.

General Greene had hoped, by guarding the fords on the Catawba with the
light troops under Morgan, to prevent the passage of the British army
until Huger and Williams should arrive with the other divisions of the
American forces. The passage at Cowan's Ford destroyed these hopes, and
Morgan and his light troops retreated precipitately toward the Yadkin.
The detachment of Lieutenant-colonel Webster crossed at Beattie's Ford,
and joined Cornwallis the next day,[[Feb 2]]on the road to Salisbury,
five miles from the crossing-place. The royal army rested at Salisbury
** that night, and the next morning started in pursuit of Greene and
Morgan. These officers did not await the dawn, but passed the Yadkin
at Trading Ford (see cut on opposite page), while Cornwallis was
slumbering; and when, on the morning of the third, the earl hastened
to strike a fatal blow on the banks of that stream, the Americans were
beyond his reach, and Providence had again placed an impassable barrier
of water between them. Another copious rain in the mountains had swollen
the Yadkin to a mighty river. The horses of Morgan had forded the stream
at midnight, and the infantry passed over in bateaux at dawn. These
vessels were secured on the east shore of the Yadkin, and Cornwallis was
obliged to wait for the waters to subside before he could cross. Again
he had the Americans almost within his grasp. A corps of riflemen were
yet on the west side when O'Hara, with the van-guard, approached, but
these escaped across the river, after a smart skirmish of a few minutes.
Nothing was lost but a few wagons belonging to the Whigs who were
fleeing with the American army, with their effects.

Greene now pushed on toward Guilford Court House, where he arrived on
the sev-

[Illustration: 9610]

* The loss on this occasion is not certainly known. Colonel Hall and
three or four of the light infantry were killed, and between thirty and
forty were wounded. The Americans lost Davidson, and about twenty killed
and wounded. Cornwallis's horse was shot under him, and fell as soon
as he got upon the shore. O'Hara's horse tumbled over with him in the
water, and other horses were carried down the stream.--Lee's Memoirs,
137.

** It is related that while at Salisbury, the British officers were
hospitably entertained by Dr. Anthony Newman, notwithstanding he was a
Whig. There, in presence of Tarleton and others, Dr. Newman's two little
sons were engaged in playing the game of the battle of the Cowpens with
grains of corn, a red grain representing the British officers, and
a white one the Americans. Washington and Tarleton were particularly
represented, and as one pursued the other, as in a real battle, the
little fellows shouted, "Hurrah for Washington, Tarleton runs! Hurrah
for Washington!" Tarleton looked on for a while, but becoming irritated,
he exclaimed, "See those cursed little rebels."

* Journals of Congress, vii., 148.

[[[The Trading Ford.--Numbers of Ihe two Armies.--Passage of the Yadkin
by Cornwallis.--His March resumed.]]]

{601}enth.[[Feb 1781]] He had dispatched an order to Huger and Williams
to march directly t to that point, and join him there.

[Illustration: 9611]

This order was promptly obeyed, and these officers, with their commands,
arrived there on the same day with Greene and Morgan. Lieutenant-colonel
Lee and his legion, who had been on an expedition to Georgetown,
seventy-five miles below Che-raw, overtook them on their march, and
that gallant corps was now added to the concentrated strength of the
Americans. The army, lying at rest on the slopes around Martinsville,
was mustered on the eighth, and amounted to about two thousand men,
including five hundred militia. Of this number nearly two hundred were
superior cavalry. The army of Cornwallis in pursuit, was between two
thousand five hundred and three thousand strong, of which three hundred
were mounted men.

Perceiving no prospect of the falling of the river, for the rain
continued, Cornwallis marched as rapidly as possible up the western
side of the Yadkin to the shallow ford near the present village of
Huntsville, in Surrey county, where he crossed. There he was informed of
the junction of the two divisions of the American army, and the hope of
keeping them separate was extinguished. An attempt to intercept their
march toward Virginia, and compel Greene to fight or surrender, was
now the chief object of the earl's solicitude. Upon the success of
this undertaking depended not only the maintenance of his power in the
Carolinas, but perhaps the actual existence of his army. He knew the
inferiority of the American army in numbers, and being assured that the
rivers which lay between Greene and Virginia were too much swollen to be
forded, and the ferries too wide apart to furnish a sufficient number
of boats at one point to transport the retreating army across, he felt
confident of success. His lordship was now within twenty-five miles of
Greene, at Guilford, and nearer the shallow fords of the Dan than he
was; and on the ninth of February[[1781]] he resumed his march with
vigor, to gain a position in front of the Americans.

* Both divisions of the army were in want of rest. That of Morgan had
been almost constantly in motion since the battle at the Cowpens, and
had traveled one hundred and fifty miles; that of Huger had traveled
one hundred miles from the camp on the Pedee, with bad wagons and poor
teams, over an exceedingly wretched road. Many marched without shoes
over the frozen ground, and their footsteps were marked with blood for
many miles. No one can form an idea of the character of the roads in
winter, at the South, where the red clay abounds, without passing over
them. Until I had done so, I could not appreciate the difficulties
experienced by the two armies in this race toward Virginia, particularly
in the transportation of baggage wagons or of artillery.

** This view of the Trading Ford, where Greene, with Morgan and his
light troops, crossed the Yadkin, is from the east side of the river.
It is just at the foot of an island, about a mile and a half below the
great bridge on the road to Salisbury. The river is usually fordable
between the island and the stakes seen in the picture; below that point
the water is deep. I made this sketch just at dawn on a cold frosty
morning (January 5, 1849), the moon shining brightly in the west, and
the nearer stars glittering in profusion in the deep sky above.

[[[Greene's Resolution to continue his Retreat.--Light Army organized.--
Colonel Williams.--Line of March.]]]

{602}Greene, also aware of the inferiority of his forces, called a
council of war,[[Feb 9]]when it was resolved to avoid a battle,
and retreat as rapidly as possible across the Dan into the friendly
districts of Virginia.

[Illustration: 9612]

A light army, designed to maneuver in the rear of the Americans and
in front of the pursuers, was formed out of Lee s legion, the regular
battalion of infantry under Colonel Howard, the cavalry under Colonel
Washington, and a small corps of Virginia riflemen under Major Campbell,
in all about seven hundred men, the flower of the Southern army. General
Morgan, who was worn down by fatigue, and tortured by rheumatism,
expressed a desire to quit the service. Greene was embarrassed, for he
was at a loss how to supply the place of the brave partisan, and wished
him to command the light corps just organized. Morgan declined, and
Greene bestowed the honor upon his deputy adjutant general, Colonel Otho
Holland Williams, a brave young officer of the Maryland line, who proved
himself worthy of the confidence of his commander. * Williams entered
upon his command on the morning of the tenth, and on that day the whole
army moved toward the Dan at a point seventy miles from Guilford Court
House.

The two armies moved in lines almost parallel with each other, Greene on
the right, and Cornwallis on the left. Colonel Williams, with his light
corps, took an intermediate road, to watch the movements of the enemy.
Lee's "partisan legion," which maneuvered in the rear, was often in
sight of O Hara s van-guard. Great vigilance was necessary at night to
prevent a surprise, and so numerous were the patrols, that each man on
the march enjoyed only six hours sleep in forty-eight. Williams always
moved at three o'clock in the morning, so as to get a sufficient
distance in advance to partake of breakfast, the only meal they were
allowed each day. Cornwallis was equally active, and both armies made
the extraordinary progress of thirty miles a day.

On the morning of the thirteenth, while a portion of the light troops
were eating breakfast at a farm-house, they were informed by a friendly
countryman, who came from his plow for the purpose, that the British
army had left their direct route, and were only four miles in the rear,
upon the road they were marching. Lee dispatched Captain Mark Armstrong,
one of the most efficient of his cavalry officers, to reconnoiter, and
his whole camp

* Otho Holland Williams was born in Prince George county, Maryland,
in 1748. His ancestors were Welsh, and came to America soon after Lord
Baltimore became proprietor of the province of Maryland. He was left
an orphan at twelve years of age. He was a resident of Frederick county
when the war of the Revolution began, where he entered the military
serviee as lieutenant of a rifle corps under Colonel Michael Cresap, and
with that officer he went to Boston. He was afterward promoted to the
command of his company. In 1776, he was promoted to major, and fought at
Fort Washington with distinction. In that engagement he was wounded
and captured, and for some time experienced the horrors of the provost
prison of New York. He was afterward exchanged for Major Ackland,
captured at Saratoga. During his captivity, he was appointed to the
command of a regiment in the Maryland line. He was Gates's adjutant
general during the campaign of 1780. When Gates collected the remnant
of his army, scattered at Camden, the Marylanders were formed into two
battalions, constituting one regiment. To Williams was assigned the
command, with John Eager Howard as his lieutenant. When Greene assumed
the command of the Southern army, he perceived the value of Williams,
and appointed him adjutant general. In Greene's memorable retreat,
and the subsequent battle at Guilford, Williams greatly distinguished
himself; and at Eutaw Springs he led the celebrated charge which swept
the field and gained the bloody victory. Congress promoted him to
the rank of brigadier; and at the close of the war he received the
appointment of collector of customs at Baltimore, which office he held
until his death, which occurred on the sixteenth of July, 1794. while on
his way to a watering-place for the benefit of his health.

[[[Death of Lee's Bugler.--A Skirmish and Race.--Efforts of both Parties
to reach the Dan.]]]

{603}was soon in commotion. Lee, with a considerable force, concealed
himself in a wood to await the approach of the British van.

[Illustration: 8613]

Soon a sharp firing was heard, and Captain Armstrong came dashing by
where Lee was posted, with some of Tarleton's cavalry, under Captain
Miller, in hot pursuit. Lee instantly gained the road, and made such a
fierce charge upon the pursuers that he completely broke their ranks,
killing a large number. Captain Miller was made prisoner, and narrowly
escaped hanging, for Lee charged him with the murder of his bugler, a
lad of eighteen, who, while hastening to Williams, was overtaken and
sabred by the British cavalry. * Lee was about to hang him upon a tree,
when the British van appeared, and Miller was sent on to General Greene
as a prisoner of war. In this skirmish eighteen of the British dragoons
were killed; the Americans lost only the little bugler. The dead were
buried by Cornwallis, an hour afterward.

In the course of the day another encounter occurred. Lee's troops had
been deprived of their morning meal, which was half cooked when the
countryman gave the alarm. By taking a road shorter and more secluded
than the one passed by Williams, he hoped to gain time to dine at a
well-stocked farm. He did not apprehend a surprise, for the road was
only a by-way. He stationed a few videttes, however, to watch, and well
he did. Just as the horses were about to partake of their provender, and
the soldiers of corn bread and bacon, the videttes fired an alarm and
came dashing toward the main body. Battle or flight was the alternative.
Before them was a swollen stream spanned by a single bridge; to gain and
hold this, was an object of vital importance to Lee. His infantry were
ordered to run and take possession of it, while the cavalry prepared to
cover a retreat. The van of the British were surprised at this meeting,
not being aware of the proximity of their foe, and while halting to
receive orders, Lee's troops had an opportunity to pass the bridge. The
British soon followed, and across a cultivated plain both parties sped
with all their might. The Americans had the strongest and fleetest
horses, and, ascending a hill to its summit, they entered upon the great
road leading to Irwin's Ferry, on the Dan. All day long O'Hara, with
the van of the British army, continued in pursuit, and was frequently in
sight of Lee's legion; sometimes within rifle-shot. Thus again escaped
this right arm of the Southern army. Vigilance--sleepless vigilance
alone, under Providence, preserved it.

The night that succeeded was dark, cold, and drizzly. Cornwallis and his
whole army were directly in the rear of the Americans, and now was his
only chance for striking an effective blow, for another day, and Greene
might be beyond the Dan. The British commander resolved to push forward
with the hope of overtaking his prey before morning. Williams and
the wearied troops of Lee were compelled to do the same to avoid an
encounter. They were ignorant of the position of Greene, and felt great
anxiety for his safety. At eight o'clock, they were much alarmed by the
apparition of camp fires, a mile in advance, supposing it to be the camp
of Greene, and that Cornwallis would inevitably overtake him. Williams
prepared to confront and annoy the enemy while Greene should escape.
This sacrifice was unnecessary, for the camp fires were those Greene had
lighted two nights before, and had been kept burning by friendly people
in the neighborhood. With glad hearts the light troops pressed forward,
until assured that the enemy had halted for the night, when they lighted
fires, laid down, and slumbered for three or four hours.

Only forty miles now intervened between Cornwallis and the Dan. His rest
was brief, and before dawn he was again in pursuit. The roads, passing
through a red clay region,

* The pony rode by the countryman who gave notice of the approach of
the British was much jaded, and when he went back with Armstrong, Lee
ordered his young bugler to change horses with the planter. Upon the
jaded pony the bugler started for the ranks of Williams in advance. The
attacking party, under Captain Miller, soon overtook the bugler, who,
too small to carry a sword, was unarmed. The poor boy was cut down,
begging for mercy. Lee saw the transaction just as he led his cavalry
to the attack. He was greatly exasperated, and held Captain Miller
responsible for the deed. That officer charged the cruelly upon the
drunkenness of some of his men, but Lee would listen to no excuse.
Miller escaped, as we have seen in the text. The bugler was left in the
woods by the road side.

[[[Greene's Passage across the Dan.--Passage of the whole
Army.--Disappointment of Cornwallis.]]]

{604}were wretched in the extreme, yet the pursued and the pursuers
pushed forward rapidly. It was the last stake for the prize, and eagerly
both parties contended for it. During the forenoon, only a single hour
was allowed by the belligerents for a repast. At noon a loud shout
went up from the American host; a courier, covered with mud, his horse
reeking with sweat, brought a letter to Colonel Williams from Greene,
announcing the joyful tidings that he had _crossed the Dan safely at
Irwins Ferry on the preceding day_[[Feb 13, 1781]] That shout was heard
by O'Hara, and Cornwallis regarded it as ominous of evil. Still he
pressed forward. At three o'clock, when within fourteen miles of the
river, Williams filed off toward Boyd's Ferry, leaving Lee to maneuver
in front of the enemy. Williams reached the shore before sunset, and
at dark was landed upon the north side. Lee sent his infantry on in
advance, and at twilight withdrew with his cavalry, and galloped for
the river. When he arrived, his infantry had just passed in boats with
safety. The horses were turned into the stream, while the dragoons
embarked in bateaux. At nine o'clock, Lieutenant-colonels Lee and
Carrington (the quarter-master general), embarked in the last boat, and
before midnight the wearied troops were in deep slumber in the bosom of
Virginia. During the evening Cornwallis heard of the passage of Greene,
and the escape of Williams and his light troops. The Dan was too much
swollen to be forded; every boat was moored upon the northern shore, and
for the third time a barrier of water interposed between the pursuer
and pursued. The prize was lost, and with a heavy heart Cornwallis moved
slowly back toward Hillsborough, after resting his wearied troops for a
day. He had but one hope left, the promised general rising of the Tories
in North Carolina, now that the "rebel army" was driven out of the
state. Greene encamped in the rich and friendly district of Halifax
çounty, in Virginia, and there his wearied troops reposed after one of
the most skillfully conducted and remarkable retreats on record. ** Upon
this

* Lieutenant-colonel Edward Carrington was an exceedingly active
officer. He had been detached with that portion of the Virginia regiment
of artillery retained with the main army, when some of his companies
had attended the Virginia line to the South, and had been taken at the
surrender of Charlestown.

[Illustration: 9614]

* On reaching North Carolina with De Kalb, Colonel Harrison, commander
of the Virginia artillery, unexpectedly arrived and assumed the command.
On account of a misunderstanding with Harrison, Carrington retired, and
was afterward dispatched by Gates to superintend the examination of the
Roanoke, to ascertain the readiest points of communication across it, to
be used either in receiving supplies from Virginia or in retreating
from North Carolina. Greene found him engaged in this service. Aided by
Captain Smith of the Maryland line, he explored the Dan, and made every
preparation for Greene to cross it with his army. Having completed his
arrangements, he joined the army near the Yadkin, and was one of the
most active of Lee's officers in the retreat to the Dan. At this time
he held the office of quarter-master general of the Southern army, which
office he filled with honor to himself and the service. He was afterward
engaged in the siege of Yorktown, where he commanded the artillery on
alternate days with Lamb and Stevens of New York. After the war, he
was a representative in Congress from his native state (Virginia). When
Aaron Burr was tried for treason, Colonel Carrington was the foreman of
the jury. He died on the twenty-eighth of October, 1810, at the age of
sixty-one years.--See Lee's Memoirs.

** Gordon, Ramsey, Lee, Tarleton, Stedman, &c. The distance traversed by
the retreating army was more than two hundred miles. It was in February,
when the roads are worse than at any other season of the year, sometimes
very muddy, at others frozen hard. On the day after his passage, Greene
sent the following dispatch to Governor Jefferson: "On the Dan River,
almost fatigued to death, having had a retreat to conduct for upward of
two hundred miles, maneuvering constantly in the face of the enemy, to
give time for the militia to turn out and get off our stores." Nothing
of importance was lost on the way, and baggage and stores were safely
crossed to the Virginia side. The condition of the army was wretched
respecting clothing. The shoes were generally worn out, the body-clothes
much tattered, and no more than a blanket for four men. The light corps
were a little better off, yet there was only one blanket for three men.
During the retreat from Guilford, the tents were never used; and Greene,
in his note to Williams announcing his passage of the Dan, declared that
he had not slept more than four hours sinee he left Guilford. The troops
were allowed only one meal a day during the retreat. Before crossing,
many of the North Carolina militia deserted; only about eighty remained.
General Lillington (who was a colonel at the battle on Moore's Creek),
was sent with his corps to Cross Creek, to awe the Tories in that
quarter.

[[[Preparations to Recross the Dan.--March of the Army toward
Guilford.--Maneuvers of the Belligerents.]]]

{605}movement all eyes were turned, and when the result was known the
friends of liberty every where chanted a loud alleluiah.

As we have observed (page 591), Greene soon prepared to recross the Dan,
and attempt to retrieve his losses in Carolina. We have considered the
first movements toward the accomplishment of this object--the expedition
of Lee and Pickens beyond the Haw, the defeat of Pyle, and the retreat
of Tarleton to Hillsborough. The success of this enterprise, the arrival
in camp of General Stevens, with six hundred Virginia militia, and
the necessity of making a demonstration before the Tories should rise,
caused Greene to break up his camp after a few days of repose. He
recrossed the Dan on the twenty-third,[[Feb 1781]] and this event being
made known, completely dispirited the Loyalists who were disposed to
join the royal army. The recruiting service stopped, and the friends of
government, awed by the fate of Pyle's corps, stood still. The situation
of Cornwallis was full of peril. The country around Hillsborough was
speedily stripped of provision by his army, * and he found it expedient
to fall back and take a new position upon the south side of the
Allamance, west of the Haw.[[Feb 27]] On the same day, Lee and Pickens,
with their respective forces, joined the main body of the American light
infantry, and the whole corps crossed the Haw, a little below the mouth
of Buffalo Creek. Greene, with the main army augmented by the

North Carolina militia, crossed above Buffalo Creek the next morning,
[[Feb 28]]and encamped between Troublesome Creek and Reedy Fork. It
was an ineligible place; and, hoping to gain time for all his expected
re-enforcements to come in, Greene constantly changed his position, and
placed Colonel Williams and his light corps between the two armies,
now within a score of miles of each other. Tarleton occupied the same
relative position to the British army, and he and Williams frequently
menaced each other. Finally, the latter having approached to within a
mile of the British camp, Tarleton attacked him,[[March 2, 1781]] and
a brief but warm skirmish ensued. This encounter was sustained, on the
part of the Americans, chiefly by Lee's legion and Preston's riflemen.
About thirty of the enemy were killed and wounded. The Americans
sustained no loss. In the mean while, Greene's constant change of
position, sometimes seen on the Troublesome Creek, and sometimes
appearing near Guilford, gave the impression that his force was larger
than it really was, and Cornwallis was much perplexed. Well knowing that
the American army was augmenting by the arrival of militia, he resolved
to bring Greene to action at once. Under cover of a thick fog, he
crossed the Allamance,[[March 6]] hoping to beat up Williams's quarters,
then between that stream and Reedy Fork, and surprise Greene. Williams's
vigilant patrols discovered the approach of the enemy at about eight
o'clock in the morning, on the road to Wetzell's Mill, an important pass
on the Reedy Fork. Lee's legion immediately maneuvered in front of
the enemy, while Williams withdrew his light troops and other corps of
regulars and militia across the stream.** A covering party, composed
of one hundred and fifty Virginia militia, were attacked by
Lieutenant-colonel Webster, with one thousand British infantry and a
portion of Tarleton's cavalry. The militia boldly returned the fire, and
then fled across the creek. The British Infantry followed, *** and met

** Stedman says (ii., 335),: "Such was the situation of the British army
[at Hillsborough], that the author, with a file of men, was obliged to
go from house to house throughout the town, to take provisions from the
inhabitants, many of whom were greatly distressed by this measure, which
could only be justified by extreme necessity."

** These consisted of quite a large body of militia, under Pickens; a
corps of cavalry, under Lieutenant-colonel William A. Washington;
some militia and riflemen, under Colonel Campbell, the hero of King's
Mountain; and regular infantry, under Colonel John Eager Howard, who
distinguished himself at the Cowpens.

*** Lee says, that in the woods, near the mill, where some riflemen were
stationed, was an old log school-house. In this building, twenty-five of
the most expert marksmen, who were at King's Mountain, were stationed by
Lee, with orders not to engage in the general conflict, but to pick off
officers at a distance When Webster entered the stream, and was slowly
fording its rocky bed, the marksmen all discharged their rifles at
him in consecutive order, each certain of hitting him, yet not a ball
touched him or his horse. Thirty-two discharges were made without
effect! The hand of Providence shielded him on that day, but soon he
received a fatal wound, in a battle far more fierce and bloody.--Lee's
Memoirs, 164.

[[[Skirmish on Reedy Fork.--Augmentation of the American
Army.--Disposition of the two Armies.]]]

{606}with a severe attaek from Campbell's riflemen and Lee's infantry.
Webster was quickly re-enforced by some Hessians and chasseurs, and
the whole were supported by field-pieces planted by Cornwallis upon
an eminence near the banks of the stream. The artillery dismayed the
militia, which Williams perceiving, ordered them to retire. He followed
with Howard's battalion, flanked by Kirkwood's Delaware infantry and the
infantry of Lee's legion, the whole covered by Washington's cavalry. *
The day was far spent, and Cornwallis did not pursue. In this skirmish
the Americans lost about fifty killed and wounded.

As soon as Greene heard of the approach of Cornwallis, he fell baek
across the head waters of the Haw with the main army, determined not
to risk an engagement until the arrival of re-enforcements, now fast
approaching. In the mean while he changed his position daily, and
Cornwallis, who, unwilling to wear down his army by useless attempts to
strike the Americans in detail, had retired slowly to Bell's Mills on
the Deep River, about thirteen miles below the present Jamestown,
could gain no positive information concerning him. ** At length, while
encamped at Speedwell's iron-works, on Troublesome Creek, northeast of
Guilford, Greene was joined by a brigade of militia from Virginia,
under General Lawson; two from North Carolina, under Generals Butler
and Eaton; and four hundred regulars, raised for eighteen months.[[March
10]] He now felt strong enough to grapple with the earl, and the light
corps of Colonel Williams was incorporated with the main army. ***
Crossing the Haw and Reedy Fork, Greene encamped in battle order near
Guilford Court House.[[March 13]] The movements of the two generals
during the ten preceding days were or great interest. They were
contending for a prize of the greatest value. One false step by either
party would have been his ruin. None were more interested spectators
than the Tories, from whom Cornwallis fondly anticipated aid. When
Greene invited battle, they were utterly amazed, and not one dared lift
his arm in defense of the king, the issue being so doubtful.

Cornwallis, in the mean while, had advanced from Deep Reep River toward
New Garden (Quaker) meeting-house. Perceiving Greene's disposition
to fight, he gladly prepared to meet him. It was an event he had been
trying to accomplish for more than six weeks. Sending his baggage
back to Bell's Mills, on the evening of the fourteenth, under a proper
escort, he moved forward at dawn the next morning,[[March 15]] with
twenty-four hundred men, chiefly veterans. The vigilant Lee, with his
legion, was near New Garden

* Gordon relates that Sergeant-major Perry, and Quarter-master-sergeant
Lumsford, of Lee's dragoons, performed a very bold maneuver. They were
separately detached, with four dragoons, to make observations. They saw
sixteen or eighteen British horsemen ride into a farm-house yard in an
irregular manner, and some of them dismount. The two young men joined
their forces, charged the horsemen, and, in sight of Tarleton's legion,
eut every man down. They then retired without a scar!--Gordon, iii.,
172.

** Cornwallis first encamped, in this retrograde march on the plantation
of William Rankin, a Whig, and then proceeded to the plantation of Ralph
Gorrel, another wealthy patriot. The family were turned out of doors,
and sought shelter at a neighbor's house. The soldiers plundered and
destroyed until the place was made a desolation. On Sunday, the eleventh
of March, the royal army proceeded to the plantation of Reverend Dr.
Caldwell, one of the most ardent Whigs in North Carolina, from the time
of the Regulator movement. The doctor was then in Greene's camp, at the
iron-works on Troublesome Creek. His family left the house, and retired
to the smoke-house, where they remained twenty-four hours without food
or a bed, exposed to the abuse and profane language of the soldiery.
Cornwallis occupied the house of Mr. M'Cuistin, on the great road from
the Court House to Fayetteville. Every thing but the buildings were
destroyed on the plantation of Dr. Caldwell. ''Every panel of fence on
the premises was burned; every particle of provisions was consumed or
carried away; every living thing was destroyed, exeept one old goose;
and nearly every square rod of ground was penetrated with their iron
ramrods in search of hidden treasure." By command of the officers, the
doctor's valuable library and papers--even the family Bible--were burned
in an oven near the house. All was made a desolation. Cornwallis had
offered a reward of one thousand dollars to any one who should bring
Dr. Caldwell into his camp. Dr. Caruthers, in his Life of Caldwell,
gives many painful descriptions of the sufferings of this good man and
his faithful Rachel. Dr Caldwell died in 1824, when in his hundredth
year. His wife died in 1825, at the age of eighty-six.

*** The whole army fit for duty now consisted of 4243 foot, and 161
cavalry. It was composed of Huger's brigade of Virginia continentals,
778; Williams's Maryland brigade, and a company of Delawares, 630;
infantry of Lee's partisan legion, 82; total of Continental regulars,
1490. There were 1060 North Carolina militia; 1693 from Virginia; in
all, 2753. Washington's light dragoons, 86; Lee's dragoons, 75. To these
were added, the next day, 40 horse, under the Marquis of Bretagne, a
French nobleman.

[[[Skirmish at New Garden Meeting house.--Defeat of Tarleton.--Lee
driven back by the main British Army]]]

{607}meeting-house when the van of the British army, consisting of
cavalry, some light infantry, and yagers, under Lieutenant-colonel
Tarleton, * approached. Desirous of drawing them as far from the royal
army, and as near Greene's as possible, Lee ordered a change of front,
and a slow retreat.

Hoping to produce a route, Tarleton and his cavalry pressed forward upon
Armstrong, who was now in the rear, but with little effect.

[Illustration: 8617]

They made a second charge, and emptied their pistols, when Lee, with
the troops of Rudolph and Eggleston, wheeled suddenly, and, in a close
column, advanced upon Tarleton. The moment Tarleton saw the gain the
main army. Lee did not pursue, but endeavored to cut off Tarleton's
retreat. While pushing forward with eager hope, he met the British
vanguard, in the midst of the lofty oaks at the meeting-house. They
instantly displayed, and gave his cavalry a terrible volley. Lee
ordered a retreat, when his infantry came running up, and delivered
a well-directed fire. This was followed by a volley from Campbell's
riflemen, who had taken post on the left of the infantry, and a general
action ensued. It had continued but a few minutes, when Lee, perceiving
that the main body of the British was approaching, ordered a general
retreat; his cavalry falling in the rear, to cover the infantry and
riflemen. *** During this skirmish, Greene prepared for battle.

From Guilford Court House southward, the ground slopes abruptly,
terminating in a broken vale, through which winds a small stream. At
the time of the engagement, there were pretty broad clearings around the
court-house, which extended southward along the great Salisbury road.
On either side of the road, and crossing it at some distance from the
court-house, was a forest of lofty oaks. Within the southern border of
this forest, and the whole cavalry of the legion pressing upon him, he
sounded a retreat; for he well knew the superiority of the horses of
the Americans. ** Only one front section of the British cavalry met
the shock, and these were all dismounted, and most of the horses were
prostrated. Some of the dragoons were killed, and others made prisoners.
The Americans lost neither man nor horse. Tarleton, with the remainder
of his corps, withdrew in great haste.

* Banastre Tarleton was born in Liverpool, England, on the twenty-first
of August, 1754. He commenced the study of the law, but when the war in
America commenced, he entered the army, and came hither with Cornwallis.
He served with that officer In all his campaigns in this country,
and ended his military career at Yorktown, in 1781. On his return to
England, the people of his native town elected him their representative
in the House of Commons. In 1798, he married the daughter of the Duke
of Ancaster. In 1817, he received the commission of major general,
but never entered into active service. At the coronation of George the
Fourth, he was created a baronet and Knight of Bath. In person, Tarleton
was below the middle size, stout, strong, and heavily built. His legs
were very muscular, and great activity marked all of his movements. He
had a sanguinary and resentful temper, which made him unmerciful to his
enemies.--See Georgian Era, London, 1833.

** The inferiority of the horses of the British cavalry was owing to
the fact that they had been taken chiefly from the plantations in South
Carolina, and could not be compared in size and strength with those of
Pennsylvania and Virginia, from whence came those of Lee. The momentum
of the latter, when meeting, was much greater than that of the former,
and, of course, in a charge they had a great advantage.

*** About forty of Tarleton's dragoons were killed in this action; and
it is believed that about one hundred of the infantry were killed and
wounded by the riflemen. The loss of the Americans was considerably
less; the exact number was not reported. Lieutenant Snowdon, of the
legion infantry, was left wounded on the field. Captain Tate, who shared
in Howard's memorable charge at the Cowpens, was with Lee, and had his
thigh broken.

[[[Disposition of the American Army at Guilford.--Plan of the
Battle.--Approach of the British]]]

{608}Concealed behind a fence and some dwarf trees, lay the North
Carolina forces (B), militia and volunteers, and some riflemen, the
whole under Generals Butler and Eaton.

[Illustration: 9618]

They were strongly posted, and much was expected of them. Within the
woods, about three hundred yards in the rear of the first line, the
second line (C) was formed. It was composed of the Virginia militia,
under Generals Stevens and Lawson; * the right flank of Stevens, and
the left flank of Lawson, resting on the road. The Continental infantry,
consisting of four regiments, were drawn up near the court-house, in the
field, on the north side of the road, about four hundred yards in the
rear of the Virginians. The two Continental regiments of Virginia
were commanded by Colonel Greene and Lieutenant-colonel Hewes, under
Brigadier Huger, and composed the right. The two Maryland regiments,
led by Colonel Gunby and Lieutenant-colonel Ford, were under Colonel
Williams, and composed the left. The remainder of the troops, under
Greene, lay near the court-house. Only Gunby's regiment were experienced
soldiers; the remainder were new recruits. Lieutenant-colonel
Washington, with his cavalry, the old Delaware corps, under Captain
Kirkwood, and Colonel Lynch with a battalion of Virginia militia, were
posted on the right; Lieutenant-colonel Lee, with his legion, and the
Virginia riflemen, under Colonel Campbell, were posted on the left, each
being ordered to support the respective flanks. Captain Singleton, with
two six pounders, took post in the road, a little in advance of the
front line, and the remainder of the artillery (only two pieces) were
with the rear line, near the court-house.

Such was the disposition of the Americans for battle when the royal
army, under Cornwallis, approached. It was about noon; the sun was
unclouded, and the air was cool, but not cold. They could be seen for
more than a mile, defiling (G) from the Salisbury road into the open
fields, and presented a gorgeous spectacle; their scarlet uniforms and
bur-

* These were chiefly from Augusta and Rockbridge counties, and were
descendants of the Scotch-Irish, who first settled that portion of
Virginia. One company was composed principally of the congregation of
James Waddell, the glorious Blind Preacher of the wilderness along the
eastern base of the Blue Ridge, whose person and ministration is so
eloquently described in Letter VII. of Wirt's British Spy. He gave them
a farewell address when they were under arms and ready to march. Many of
them were left upon the field of Guilford.

* NOTE: Explanation of the Plan.--The shaded parallelograms, A, B, and
C, and others not lettered, represent American troops; the half shaded
ones the British troops. G, the British columns advancing along the
road from the direction of the New Garden meeting-house. 1. Their first
position, in battle order. B, the first American line, consisting of
North Carolina militia, posted at the head of a ravine, in the edge of
a wood. C, the second American line, of Virginia militia. A, extending
irregularly along the road to Reedy Fork, to its junction with the main
road, near the court-house. E, the Maryland and Virginia Continentals,
under Huger and Williams. 2. The second position of the British, after
the retreat of the Carolinians. 3. The third position of the British,
endeavoring to gain Greene's right. D, severe conflict between Lester
with the Hessians and the Americans. E, Guilford Court House. The broken
chimney in the corner of the map represents all that is left of the old
court house.

[[[Commencement of the Battle.--Flight of the Carolinians.--Bravery of
the Virginians and Marylanders.--General Stevens.]]]

{609}nished arms strongly contrasting with the somber aspect of the
country, then barren of leaves and grass. Having formed their line,
they approached slowly and steadily, chiefly in solid column (1), to the
contest. As soon as the van appeared, Singleton opened a cannonade upon
it, but with little effect. Lieutenant M'Leod, commanding the British
artillery, pressed forward along the road, and returned the fire, also
with little effect. The battle now commenced. Although Cornwallis
knew his inferiority of numbers, and the great advantages of Greene's
position, he boldly began what he had so long sought an opportunity
for--a general battle with his antagonist. He had brave and veteran
troops. The 71st (Fraser's Highland regiment), with the Hessian regiment
of Bose, formed his right, under General Leslie; his left consisted
of the 23d and 33d regiments, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel
Webster. The royal artillery, led by M'Leod, and supported by the light
infantry of the guards and the yagers, moved along the road in the
center. Lieutenant-colonel Norton, with the first battalion of the
guards, supported the right, and Brigadier O'Hara, with the grenadiers
and second battalion of guards, supported the left.

After a brisk cannonade of nearly half an hour, Singleton, pursuant to
orders, fell back to the second line. Leslie, with the guards in the
center, supported on the left by the Hessians, and on the right by
Webster's brigade, immediately advanced upon the North Carolinians, who
were concealed behind a fence in the edge of the wood. When the British
were within rifle shot, the Carolinians commenced a desultory fire
upon them. The British pressed steadily forward, and when at a proper
distance, discharged their guns, and with a loud shout rushed forward
to a bayonet charge. The North Carolinians wheeled and fled in great
confusion, though not a man had been killed, or even wounded. Only a few
of General Eaton's men were exempt from the panic, and these, falling
back upon Lee's legion and Campbell's riflemen, maintained their ground
well. Butler and Eaton, with Colonel Davie, the commissary general,
endeavored, but in vain, to rally the fugitives. Throwing away their
muskets, knapsacks, and even canteens, they rushed through the woods
like frightened deer, until far beyond the point of danger. * Had the
first line done its duty, the result of the battle must have been far
different; for the few that remained with Campbell, together with his
corps, maintained their position so manfully that Leslie was obliged to
order Lieutenant-colonel Norton into line for his support. The cowardly
flight of the Carolinians left Lee's legion exposed to the danger of
being cut off from the main body. The Virginians of the second line,
upon whom the first had partially retreated, did their duty nobly, **
until, being hard pressed by the British, the right of that line, under
General Lawson, wheeled round upon the left, and retreated in confusion,
back to the line of regulars. Lieutenant-colonel Webster, with the
British left, now advanced across the open fields, in the face of a
terrible fire from the Americans, and gallantly attacked their right,
while Leslie and Bose were in fierce conflict with the American left.
The whole of the British infantry were now engaged in action. The
Virginians, under Stevens and Lawson, combated vigorously with Webster,
while supported on the right by Washington and his cavalry. That officer
sent Lynch's battalion of riflemen to fall upon the flank of Webster.
Perceiving this, O'Hara, with the grenadiers and second battalion of
guards, hastened to the support of the left. Webster immediately turned
the 33d regiment upon Lynch, and relieved his flank from annoyance.

* Dr. Caruthers, speaking from tradition, says that many of the
Highlanders, who were in the van, fell near the fence, from behind
which the Carolinians rose and fired. Among the Carolinians were some
volunteers, under Captain John Forbes, from the Allamance, consisting
chiefly of his friends and neighbors. Captain Forbes fired the first
gun, and in the retreat received a mortal wound. He was found by his
friends thirty hours after the battle. He said that a Tory passed him,
and, instead of giving him some water asked for, he kicked him, and
called him a rebel. After the death of Forbes, the Tory was found one
morning suspended to a tree before his own door.

** General Stevens had posted forty riflemen twenty paces in the rear of
his brigade, with orders to shoot every man who should leave his post.
This had the effect to keep the cowardly in the ranks. General Stevens
was shot through the thigh during this first conflict of his brigade
with the British, yet he did not quit the field. When the Carolinians
retreated, he had the address to prevent his own brigade being
panic-stricken, bv telling them that the former had been ordered to
retreat after the first fire. He ordered the Virginians, to open, and
allow the fugitives to pass through.

[[[Retreat of Marylanders.--Washington's Charge.--Junction of British
Regiments.--Cornwallis's victorious Blow.]]]

{610}O'Hara, advancing at that instant with the remainder of the left,
with fixed bayonets, aided by the 71st, under Leslie, compelled first
Lawson's and then Stevens's brigade to give way, and the second line of
the Americans was broken up.

In the mean while, the action on the right (D), between the regiment
of Bose and the riflemen, and the legion infantry, was unremitting. The
portion of the British force thus engaged could not be brought to bear
upon the third line of the Americans, now well supported by Colonel
Washington at the head of his cavalry, and Captain Kirkwood with his
brave Delawares. Greene felt hopeful, and, riding along the lines,
exhorted his battalions to stand firm, and give the final blow which
would secure victory. Webster pressed forward over the ground lately
occupied by the Virginia militia (c) to attack the right wing of the
Continentals. There stood Colonel Gunby and Lieutenant-colonel Howard,
with the first Maryland regiment, ready to do battle. The British,
with great courage, rushed forward, and engaged in a close fire. The
Marylanders, nobly sustained by Howe s Virginia regiment and Kirkwood's
Delawares, received the shock so valiantly, that Webster recoiled and
fell back across a ravine, where, upon an elevation, he awaited the
arrival of the remainder of his line. Very soon Lieutenant-colonel
Stuart, with the first battalion of guards, followed by two other small
corps, swept across the open fields, and attacked the second Maryland
regiment, under Colonel Ford, which was supported by Captain Finley with
two six pounders. Colonel Williams expected to observe bravery on the
part of his second regiment, like that of the first, and hastened
toward it to combine his whole force in repelling the attack, but he was
disappointed. It gave way at the first shock, fled, and abandoned the
two field-pieces to the enemy. Stuart pursued, when Gunby, who had been
left free by the recession of Webster to the other side of the ravine,
wheeled upon him, and a very severe conflict ensued. Lieutenant-colonel
Washington, who was upon the flank of the Continentals, pressed forward
with his cavalry, and Stuart was soon compelled to give way. With sword
in hand, followed by his cavalry, and Howard and his infantry with fixed
bayonets, Washington furiously charged the British, and put them
to flight.* Stuart was slain by Captain Smith of the first Maryland
regiment, the two field-pieces were retaken, and great slaughter ensued.
The whole of Stuart's corps would have been killed or made prisoners,
had not Cornwallis, who came down from his post where the Salisbury road
enters the wood a little south of the court-house, ordered M'Leod
to draw up his artillery and pour grape-shot upon the pursuers. This
cannonade endangered friends as well as foes, for it was directed in the
face of the flying guards. It was effectual, however; and Washington and
Howard, perceiving two regiments of the enemy, one on the right, and the
other on the left, approaching, withdrew to the line of Continentals.

When Webster perceived the effect of Stuart's attack upon Ford, he
recrossed the ravine, and fell upon Hawes and Kirkwood. The 71st and 23d
(the two regiments discovered by Washington) were soon connected in the
center by O'Hara, who, though severely wounded, kept his horse, and,
rallying the remnant of the guards, filled up the interval between the
left and right wing. The fierce contest upon the British right still
continued, with some advantage to the enemy. Norton, believing Bose's
regiment sufficient to maintain the conflict, joined the 71st, in
preparation for a final blow upon the Continentals. Lee's legion
infantry and Campbell's riflemen immediately attacked Bose with new
vigor. Bose and his major, De Buy, fought gallantly, and by example
encouraged their men. Leaving Campbell to continue the contest, Lee
hastened, with his infantry, to rejoin his cavalry, whom he had left on
the flank with the Continentals. On his way, he found Norton with the
guards upon the eminence occupied by Lawson's brigade. He attacked
Norton, and driving him back upon Bose, withdrew with Campbell, and
joined the Continentals near the

* It was at this time that Francisco, a brave Virginian, cut down
eleven men in succession with his broadsword. One of the guards pinned
Francisco's leg to his horse with a bayonet. Forbearing to strike, he
assisted the assailant to draw his bayonet forth, when, with terrible
force, he brought down his broadsword, and cleft the poor fellow's head
to his shoulders! Horrible, indeed, were many of the events of that
battle; the recital will do no good, and I will forbear.

[[[End of die Battle.--Retreat of the Americans.--View of the Battle
ground.--Loss of the Combatants.]]]

{611}court-house. The flight of the North Carolinians, the retreat of
the second Maryland regiment, the scanty supply of ammunition, and the
junction of the two wings of the British army, convinced Greene that
there was no hope of success in a conflict with Webster, who was now
pressing forward in good order, with a prospect of speedily turning
the American right. He had resolved, before the battle, not to risk the
annihilation of his army, and he now determined to retreat before it
should be too late. Ordering the brave veteran Colonel Greene, with his
Virginia regiment, to take post in the rear, and cover a retreat, the
Americans withdrew in regular order, leaving their artillery behind, for
almost every horse had been slain.

[Illustration: 0621]

The 71st and 23d British regiments, supported by Tarleton's cavalry,
commenced a pursuit; but Cornwallis, unwilling to risk such a movement,
soon recalled them. * Thus ended the battle at Guilford Court House; a
battle, in its effects highly beneficial to the cause of the patriots,
though resulting in a nominal victory for the British army. Both of the
belligerents displayed consummate courage and skill, and the flight of
the North Carolinians from a very strong position is the only reproach
which either army deserved. It doubtless caused the loss of victory to
the Americans. Marshall justly observes, that "no battle in the course
of the war reflects more honor on the courage of the British troops
than that of Guilford." Greene had a much superior force, and was very
advantageously posted. The number of the Americans engaged in the action
was quite double that of the British. The battle lasted almost two
hours, and many brave men fell upon that field of carnage. *** The
British claimed the victory; it was victory at fearful cost and small

* Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Lee, &c.

** This view is from the eminence southwest of the site of old Guilford
Court House, near the junction of the roads running one north to
Bruce's Cross-roads, the other west to Salem. The log-house, partially
clap-boarded, seen on the right, was uninhabited. It stands near the
woods which intervene between Martinsville and the plantation of Mr.
Hotchkiss. In the distance, near the center, is seen Martinsville,
and between it and the foreground is the rolling vale, its undulations
furrowed by many gulleys. In an open field, on the left of the road,
seen in the hollow toward the left of the picture, was the fiercest part
of the battle, where Washington charged upon the guards. Upon the ridge
extending to the right, through the center of the picture, the seeond
line (Virginians) was posted. The fence running to the right from
Martinsville, down into the valley on the right, denotes the Salisbury
road. The snow was falling very fast when I made this sketch, and
distant objects were seen with great difficulty. Our point of view,
at the old log-house, is the extreme westerly boundary of the field of
controversy.

*** The British lost in killed and wounded over six hundred men, besides
officers. Colonel Stuart, of the guards, and Lieutenant O'Hara
(the general's brother), of the royal artillery, were killed.
Lieutenant-colonel Webster was severely wounded; so also were Captains
Schultz and Maynard, of the guards, and Captain Wilmouski and Ensign De
Trott, of the Hessian regiment. They all died of the wounds received in
the battle, during the march of the army to Wilmington. The whole
army deeply lamented the loss of Webster, for he was one of the most
efficient officers in the British serviee. He was the son of an eminent
physician in Edinburgh, and came to America with Cornwallis. During the
operations in New Jersey, in 1777, he was very active. In 1779, he had
charge of Fort La Fayette at Verplanck's Point, and sustained the attack
of General Robert Howe upon that post. He commanded the right wing in
the battle at Camden; and, as we have seen, bore a conspicuous part in
the pursuit of Greene previous to the battle in whieh he received his
death wound. Webster was buried near Elizabeth, on the Cape Fear River,
now Bladen county. Captains Goodrych, Maitland, Peter, Lord Douglas,
and Eichenbrocht, who were wounded, recovered. Among the wounded was
Adjutant Fox, a brother of the eminent statesman, Charles J. Fox.

*** The Americans lost in killed and wounded about three hundred of the
Continentals, and one hundred of the Virginia militia. Among the killed
was Major Anderson, of the Maryland line; and among the wounded were
Generals Stevens and Huger. Of the North Carolina militia, six were
killed and three wounded, and five hundred and fifty-two missing. Of the
Virginia militia, two hundred and ninety-four were missing. The missing,
"as is always the case with militia after a battle," according to Lee,
might be found "safe at their own firesides." By these desertions,
Greene's army suffered a greater diminution than that of the British,
whose loss in action was so much greater. They did not, however, desert
"by thousands," as the editor of the Pictorial History of England avers.

*** Events such as are generally overlooked by the historian, but
which exhibit a prominent trait in the character of the people of North
Carolina, occurred during this battle, and deserve great prominence in
a description of the gloomy picture, for they form a few touches of
radiant light in the midst of the somber coloring. While the roar of
cannon boomed over the country, groups of women, in the Buffalo and
Allamanee congregations, who were under the pastoral charge of Dr.
Caldwell, might have been seen engaged in common prayer to the God of
Hosts for his protection and aid; and in many places, the solitary voice
of a pious woman went up to the Divine Ear, with the earnest pleadings
of faith, for the success of the Americans. The battling hosts were
surrounded by a cordon of praying women during those dreadful hours of
contest!

[[[Effect of The Battle.--Withdrawal of Cornwallis.--Pursued by
Greene.--American Women at Prayer.]]]

{612}advantage. * In some degree, the line of the Scotch ballad might be
applied to the combatants,=

``"They baith did fight, they baith did beat, and baith did rin awa'."=

The Americans retreated in good order to the Reedy Fork, and crossed
that stream about three miles from the field of action. Tarrying a short
time to collect the stragglers, they retired to Speedwell's iron-works,
on Troublesome Creek, ten miles distant from Guilford Cornwallis
remained upon the battle-ground that night, burying the dead. The
next morning he proceeded as far as New Garden meeting-house. On the
eighteenth,[[March 1781]] he issued a proclamation boasting of his
complete victory, calling upon the Loyalists to join him in restoring
good government, and offering pardon to the rebels. Had he remained,
this proclamation might have given confidence to the Tories, but the
very next day[[March 19]] he decamped, leaving behind him between
seventy and eighty wounded British officers and soldiers in the New
Garden meeting-house, which he used for a hospital. He also left behind
him all the American prisoners who were wounded, and retreated as
speedily as possible southward, toward Cross Creek (Fayetteville),
evidently afraid that Greene would rally his forces and attack him.
Greene, supposing the earl would advance, had made preparations to
confront him; as soon as he was informed of his retreat, he eagerly
commenced a pursuit,[[March 20]] after writing a letter to the Quakers
at New Garden, desiring them to take care of the sick and wounded of
both parties. Notwithstanding heavy rains and wretched roads, Greene
pressed after his lordship with great alacrity, as far as Ramsay's
Mills, on the Deep River, in Chatham county. On the way, frequent
skirmishes occurred between the light troops of the two armies, and
Greene arrived at the earl's encampment, on the Deep River, only a few
hours after Cornwallis had left it.

* This victory of Cornwallis was considered by many British statesmen
equivalent to a defeat. In the Parliament, the intelligence of the
battle produced a great sensation. Ministers were dissatisfied, and
the opposition had a theme for just denunciation against the policy of
government. Fox moved in committee, "That his Majesty's ministers ought
immediately to take every possible measure for concluding peace "with
our American colonies and in the course of an animated debate, he
declared, "Another sueh victory will ruin the British army." William
Pitt, the successor of his father, the Earl of Chatham, inveighed
eloquently against a further prosecution of the war. He averred that it
was "wicked, barbarous, unjust, and diabolical--conceived in injustice,
nurtured in folly--a monstrous thing that contained every characteristic
of moral depravity and human turpitude--as mischievous to the unhappy
people of England as to the Americans." Fox's motion was rejected by one
hundred and seventy-two against ninety-nine.

[[[Cornwallis's March to Wilmington.--Pursued by Green.--Greene's
Approach to Camden.--New Garden Meeting-house.]]]

{613}Before leaving Winnsborough, Cornwallis sent an order to
Lieutenant-colonel Balfour, who commanded at Charleston, to dispatch a
competent force by water to Wilmington, to hold that post as a depot for
supplies for the royal army in North Carolina. Balfour detached Major
Craig upon that service, who drove the American militia from Wilmington,
and took possession of it on the same day when General Davidson was
killed at Cowan's Ford.

[Illustration: 9623]

After the battle at Guilford Court House, Cornwallis, observing the
backwardness of the Loyalists in that vicinity, and the scarcity of
provisions, determined to fall back to Cross Creek, where, he knew, had
been a population of loyal Scotchmen, and there make his head-quarters,
not doubting that his army could be easily supplied with stores, by
water, from Major Craig at Wilmington. In these expectations the earl
was bitterly disappointed. The Loyalists were comparatively few, a
large portion having been changed to either active or passive Whigs;
provisions were very scarce, and no communication could be had
with Major Craig. Greene was in eager pursuit, and the earl had no
alternative but to continue his march to Wilmington. This he performed
along the southwestern side of the Cape Fear, and arrived at Wilmington
on the seventh of April.[[1781]] He had got so much the start of Greene,
that the latter relinquished pursuit at Ramsay's Mills,[[March 28]]
where he resolved to allow his troops to repose and recruit, as far as
circumstances would allow. Greene dismissed all of the militia except a
few North Carolinians, yet he could not afford his army such comforts as
he desired. *

At the suggestion of Lieutenant-colonel Lee, Greene resolved to march
back into South Carolina and take post at Camden with the main army,
while the light troops should join Marion on the Pedee, and beat up
all the British posts between Camden and Ninety-Six, and Charleston.
Pursuant to this plan, he left Ramsay's and marched toward Camden, to
confront Lord Rawdon, then in command there. Cornwallis, as we have
already noticed in chapter xxi., soon afterward marched into Virginia,
while Greene and his brave partisan allies of the South regained all
that had been lost in previous conflicts.

Let us here leave the two commanders and their armies for a time, and
resume our journey toward King's Mountain and the Cowpens. We shall
meet them both frequently, in our future journeys in the Carolinas and
Georgia.

I left the Guilford battle-ground and the hospitable cottage of Mr.
Hotchkiss, at noon, the snow falling fast. At four miles distant, on the
Salisbury road, I reached the venerable New Garden meeting-house, yet
standing within the stately oak forest where Lee and Tarleton met. It
is a frame building with a brick foundation. It was meeting-day, and the
congregation were yet in session. Tying Charley to a drooping branch,
I entered softly. A larger number than is usually present at "week-day
meetings" had congregated, for a young man of the sect from Randolph
county, thirty miles distant, and a young woman of Guilford, had
signified their intentions to declare themselves publicly, on that day,
man and wife. They had just risen before the elders and people when
I glided into a seat near the door, and with a trembling voice
the bridegroom had begun the expression of the marriage vow. His
weather-bronzed features betokened the man of toil in the fields, and
strongly contrasted with the blonde and delicate face, and slender form
of her who, with the downcast eyes of modesty, heard his pledge of love
and protection, and was summoning

* "No magazines were opened for our accommodation." says Lee in his
Memoirs; "rest to our wearied limbs was the only boon within his gift.
Our tattered garments could not be exchanged; nor could our worn out
shoes be replaced. The exhilarating cordial was not within his reach,
nor wholesome provision in abundance within his grasp. The meager beef
of the pine barrens, with corn ash-cakes, was our food, and water
our drink; yet we were content; we were more than content--we were
happy."--Page 189.

[[[Quaker Marriage.--A Centenarian Preacher.--His
Blessing.--Jamestown.--Ridge Roads.]]]

{614}all her energy to make her kindred response. I had often observed
the simple marriage ceremony of the Quakers, but never before did
the beauty of that ritual appear so marked with the sublimity of pure
simplicity. *

At the close of the meeting, I learned from one of the elders that a
Friend's boarding-school was near, and, led by curiosity, I visited it.
The building is of brick, spacious, and well arranged. It was under the
superintendence of Thomas Hunt, a son of Nathan Hunt, an eminent Quaker
preacher. An incidental remark concerning my relationship with Quakers,
made while conversing with the wife of the superintendent, caused her to
inquire whether I had ever heard of her father-in-law. I replied in the
affirmative, having heard him preach when I was a boy, and expressed the
supposition that he had long ago gone to his rest. "Oh no," she replied,
"he is in the adjoining room," and leading the way, I was introduced to
the patriarch of ninety-one years, whose voice, still vigorous, I had
listened to when I was a lad of twelve years. He remembered well when
the New Garden meeting-house was built, and resided in the neighborhood
when the wounded and dying, from the field of Guilford, were brought
there. Although physical infirmities were weighing heavily upon him, his
mind appeared clear and elastic. When I was about departing, and pressed
his hand with an adieu, he placed the other upon my head and said,
"Farewell! God's peace go with thee!" I felt as if I had received the
blessing of a patriarch indeed; and for days afterward, when fording
dangerous streams and traversing rough mountain roads, that uttered
blessing was in my mind, and seemed like a guardian angel about my path.
Gloomy unbelief may deride, and thoughtless levity may laugh in ridicule
at such an intimation, but all the philosophy of the schools could
not give me such exquisite feelings of security in the hands of a kind
Providence as that old man's blessing imparted.

The storm yet continued, and the kind matron of the school gave me a
cordial invitation to remain there until it should cease; but, anxious
to complete my journey, I rode on to Jamestown, an old village situated
upon the high southwestern bank of the Deep River, nine miles from
New Garden meeting-house, and thirteen miles above Bell's Mills, where
Cornwallis had his encampment before the Guilford battle. The country
through which I had passed from Guilford was very broken, and I did not
reach Jamestown until sunset. It is chiefly inhabited by Quakers, the
most of them originally from Nantucket and vicinity; and as they do not
own slaves, nor employ slave labor, except when a servant is working to
purchase his freedom, the land and the dwellings presented an aspect of
thrift not visible in most of the agricultural districts in the upper
country of the Carolinas.

I passed the night at Jamestown, and early in the morning departed for
the Yadkin. Snow was yet falling gently, and it laid three inches deep
upon the ground; a greater quantity than had fallen at one time, in that
section, for five years. Fortunately, my route from thence to Lexington,
in Davidson county, a distance of twenty miles, was upon a fine ridge
road ** a greater portion of the way, and the snow produced but little
inconvenience. Toward noon, the clouds broke, and before I reached
Lexington (a small village on the west

* The marriage ceremony of the Quakers is very simple. The parties give
notice at a monthly meeting of the society that on a certain day they
intend to enter into the holy estate of matrimony. On the day appointed,
they, with their friends, repair to the meeting-house, where they arise
before the whole congregation and say, the bridegroom first, "I, A B,
do take thee, C D, to be my wedded wife, and promise, through Divine
assistance, to be unto thee a loving husband, until separated by death."
The bride then repeats the same, only changing the person. A certificate
of the marriage is then read by a person appointed for the purpose,
and is signed by as many present as may choose to do so. These simple
proceedings compose the whole marriage ceremony, which is as binding in
the sight of God and man as the most elaborate formalities of priest or
magistrate. The groomsman and bridesmaid are called waiters among the
Quakers of New Garden.

** These ridge roads, or rather ridges upon which they are constructed,
are curious features in the upper country of the Carolinas. Although the
whole country is hilly upon every side, these roads may be traveled
a score of miles, sometimes, with hardly ten feet of variation from a
continuous level. The ridges are of sand, and continue, unbroken by the
ravines which cleave the hills in all directions for miles, upon almost
a uniform level. The roads following their summits are exceedingly
sinuous, but being level and hard, the greater distance is more easily
accomplished than if they were constructed in straight lines over the
hills. The country has the appearance of vast waves of the sea suddenly
turned into sand.

[[[Journey to the Yadkin.--Salisbury.--A Night with a Cotton-planter
near Concord]]]

{615}side of Abbott's Creek, a tributary of the Yadkin), at half past
two in the afternoon, not a flake of snow remained. Charley and I had
already lunched by the margin of a little stream, so I drove through
the village without halting, hoping to reach Salisbury, sixteen miles
distant, by twilight. I was disappointed; for the red clay roads
prevailed, and I only reached the house of a small planter, within a
mile of the east bank of the Yadkin, just as the twilight gave place to
the splendors of a full moon and myriads of stars in a cloudless sky.
From the proprietor I learned that the Trading Ford, where Greene and
Morgan crossed when pursued by Cornwallis, was only a mile distant. As I
could not pass it on my way to Salisbury in the morning, I arose at four
o'clock, gave Charley his breakfast, and at earliest dawn stood upon the
eastern shore of the Yadkin, and made the sketch printed upon page 601.
The air was frosty, the pools were bridged with ice, and before the
sketch was finished, my benumbed fingers were disposed to drop the
pencil. I remained at the ford until the east was all aglow with
the radiance of the rising sun, when I walked back, partook of some
corn-bread, muddy coffee, and spare-ribs, and at eight o'clock crossed
the Yadkin at the great bridge, on the Salisbury road. * The river is
there about three hundred yards wide, and was considerably swollen
from the melting of the recent snows. Its volume of turbid waters came
rolling down in a swift current, and gave me a full appreciation of the
barrier which Providence had there placed between the republicans and
the royal armies, when engaged in the great race described in this
chapter.

From the Yadkin the roads passed through a red clay region, which was
made so miry by the melting snows that it was almost eleven o'clock when
I arrived at Salisbury. This village, of over a thousand inhabitants,
is situated a few miles from the Yadkin, and is the capital of Rowan
county, a portion of the "Hornet's Nest" of the Revolution. It is a
place of considerable historic note. On account of its geographical
position, it was often the place of rendezvous of the militia preparing
for the battle-fields; of various regular corps, American and British,
during the last three years of the war; and especially as the brief
resting-place of both armies during Greene's memorable retreat. Here,
too, it will be remembered, General Waddell had his head-quarters for a
few days, during the "Regulator war." I made diligent inquiry, during
my tarry in Salisbury, for remains of Revolutionary movements and
localities, but could hear of none. ** The Americans, when fleeing
before Cornwallis, encamped for a night about half a mile from the
village, on the road to the Yadkin; the British occupied a position
on the northern border of the town, about an eighth of a mile from the
court-house. I was informed that two buildings, occupied by officers,
had remained until two or three years ago, when they were demolished.
Finding nothing to invite a protracted stay at Salisbury, I resumed the
reins, and rode on toward Concord. The roads were very bad, and the sun
went down, while a rough way, eight miles in extent, lay between me and
Concord. Night approached, brilliant and frosty; the deep mud of the
road soon became half frozen, and almost impassable, and I was beginning
to speculate upon the chances of obtaining comfortable lodgings short of
the village, when a large sign-board by the way-side indicated a place
of entertainment, and relieved my anxiety. Such an apparition is so rare
in the upper country of the Carolinas, where the traveler must depend
upon the hospitality of the planters, that it is noteworthy. Passing
through a lane, I came to the spacious mansion of Mr. Martin Phifer, one
of the largest planters in Cabarras county. It is in the midst of one
of the finest districts of North Carolina for the production of upland
cotton. Practical observations upon that great staple of the South was
the chief topic of our evening's conversation, which was protracted to
the "small hours of the morning;"

* The Yadkin rises in North Carolina, on the east of the Alleghany
range, and flows east and southeast into South Carolina. A few miles
below the Narrows, in Montgomery county, it receives the Rocky River,
and from thence to its mouth at Winyaw Bay, near Georgetown, it bears
the name of the Great Pedee.

** An ancient stone wall exists at Salisbury, but tradition has no
knowledge of its origin. It is laid in cement, and plastered on both
sides. It is from twelve to fourteen feet high, and twenty-two inches
thick. The top of the wall is a foot below the surface of the earth
at present. It has been traced for three hundred feet. Six miles from
Salisbury there is a similar wall, and may connect wilh the other.
Conjecture alone can read its history. May it not be a part of the
circumvallation of a city of the mound builders?

[[[A Patriot's Grave at the Red Hills.--Picturesque Scenery.--Arrival at
Charlotte.--Ancient Chureh and Congregation.]]]

{616}and I left his hospitable abode a wiser man than when I entered it.
Mr. Phifer is a grandnephew of John Phifer, one of the leading patriots
of Mecklenburg, whose remains lie buried at the Red Hills, three
miles west of Concord. A rough, mutilated slab covers the grave of the
patriot. Tradition avers that when the British army was on its march
from Charlotte to Salisbury, a fire was built upon the stone by the
soldiers, in contempt for the patriot's memory.

Departing from the post-road, a little distance from Mr. Phifer's, I
traversed a nearer, though a rougher route to Charlotte than through
Concord, passing that village about three miles to the westward, close
by the Red Hills. The scenery through this whole region is extremely
picturesque. Wooded hills, deep ravines, broad cultivated slopes and
uplands, and numerous water-courses, present diversified and pleasing
pictures at every turn of the sinuous road. In summer, when the forests
and fields are clad, the roads hard, and the deep shades of the ravines
and water-courses desirable, I can not imagine a move agreeable tour
for a traveler of leisure than that portion of my journey from the
Roanoke to the Cowpens, across the Broad River, back to the eastern
side of the Catawba, and so down to the verge of the low country,
near Camden. In the vicinity of Concord are the head-waters of several
tributaries of the Yadkin and Catawba, and between that village and
Charlotte I crossed the Coddle, Stony, and Mallard Creeks, and one of
the main branches of Rocky River. The latter, which is a considerable
tributary of the Yadkin, is here a small stream, but very turbulent, and
broken into numerous cascades. I reached Charlotte at half past three
o'clock, having traveled only twenty-one miles since morning. * It was
Saturday[[Jan 6, 1840]] and I eagerly coveted the Sabbath's rest, after
a week of excessive toil. Charley, too, was jaded, and needed repose;
for a large portion of the circuitous journey from Hillsborough hither
had been through a region abounding in red clay, saturated with rains
and melting snows.

Charlotte has historical notoriety, chiefly on account of its being the
place where a convention of patriots assembled in 1775, and by a series
of resolutions virtually declared themselves and those they represented
free and independent of the British crown. To this event I particularly
directed my inquiries, but was singularly unsuccessful. Two gentlemen,
to whom I had letters of introduction from President Polk, were absent.
I called upon another, whom he named, but could not obtain information
of much value. Being an entire stranger, I knew not unto whom to apply,
and I left Charlotte on Monday, with feelings of disappointment not
to be expressed. Since my visit, I have received varied and important
information from James W. Osborne, Esq., superintendent of the Branch
Mint, and others in that vicinity, which compensates me, in a measure,
for my failure..

By the merest accident, I ascertained that the mill upon Sugar Creek,
two or three miles

* Charlotte is the capital of Mecklenburg county, and contains about
fourteen hundred inhabitants. It is pleasantly situated upon a rolling
plain, on the east side of the Sugar or Sugaw Creek, a small tributary
of the Catawba. It is in the midst of the gold region of North Carolina,
and here a branch of the United States Mint is established. Eastward of
Charlotte are several productive gold mines, which are now but little
worked, partly on account of the more inviting field for miners in
California. The first settlers in Mecklenburg county were principally
the descendants of the Puritans, Scotch-Irish, and Roundheads; and, near
Charlotte, the "Sugar Creek Congregation," the first on the Catawba, was
established. I passed the brick meeting-house" about three miles from
the village, where worshiped the tarent of the seven congregations from
which came delegates to meet in political convention in 1775 * This
meeting-house is the third erected by the Sugar Creek Congregation. The
first stood about half a mile west from this, and the second a few
feet south of the present edifice. In the second, the mother of Andrew
Jackson, late president of the United States, worshiped for a-while,
when she took refuge in the Sugar Creek Congregation after the massacre
of Burford's regiment, near her residence on the Waxhaw, in May, 1780.
Near the site of the first church is the ancient burying-ground.
Therein is the grave of Alexander Craighead, the first minister of the
congregation. His only monument are two sassafras-trees, one at the
head, the other at the foot of his grave, which are the living poles
used as a bier for his coffin, and stuck in the ground to mark,
temporarily, his resting-place. **

* These were Sugar Creek, Steel Creek, Providence, Hopewell, Center,
Rocky River, and Poplar Tent.--Foote, p. 190.

** Ibid., p.192

[[[Colonel Polk's Mill. The People of Mecklenburg.--Scheme for a
Republican Assembly.--A Convention called]]]

{617}south of Charlotte, and known as Bissell's, was formerly the
property of Colonel Thomas Polk, one of the active patriots in that
section. Early on Monday morning, I rode down to the mill. Informed that
it had been materially altered since the Revolution, I did not stop to
sketch the locality. It is an interesting spot, for there a portion
of Cornwallis's army was encamped, and the mill was used during the
cantonment there, to supply his troops with flour.

Let us glance at the historical events which render Charlotte famous
in our annals. While public sentiment in North Carolina and its sister
colonies was making rapid strides toward a bold resistance to augmenting
oppressions, the people of Mecklenburg and vicinity, between the Yadkin
and the Catawba, were neither indifferent nor inactive, notwithstanding
their distance from the sea-board. There was no printing-press in the
upper country; and as no regular post traversed that region, a newspaper
was seldom seen there among the people. They were in the habit of
assembling at stated places to hear printed hand-bills from abroad
read, or to obtain verbal information of passing events. Charlotte was
a central point for these assemblages, and there the leading men in
that section often met at Queen's Museum or College, the Faneuil Hall
of North Carolina, to discuss the exciting topics of the day. These
meetings were at first irregular, and without system. It was finally
agreed that Thomas Polk, a large property-holder in the vicinity
of Charlotte, colonel of the militia of Mecklenburg, a man of great
excellence of character, extensive knowledge of the people around him,
and deservedly popular, should be authorized to call a convention of the
representatives of the people whenever circumstances should appear
to require it. * It was also agreed that such representatives should
consist of two from each captain's company, to be chosen by the people
of the several militia districts, and that their decisions, when thus
legally convened, should be binding upon the people of Mecklenburg. This
step was in accordance with the recommendation of the eleventh article
of the _American Association_, adopted by the first Continental Congress
(see page 268), and now generally acted upon throughout the colonies.

When Governor Martin made an attempt to prevent the assembling of a
Provincial Congress at Newbern,[[April 1777]] the people were much
exasperated, for they remembered his arbitrary proceedings in dissolving
the last Provincial Legislature, after a session of four days, and
before any important business had been transacted. The excitement
throughout the province was intense. While the public mind was thus
inflamed, Colonel Polk issued a notice to the elected committee-men of
the county, to assemble in the courthouse ** at Charlotte toward
the close of May. On what precise day they first met, can not now be
positively determined. They appointed Abraham Alexander, *** an esteemed
citizen,

* Colonel Polk was great uncle to the late President Polk. His brother,
Ezekiel Polk, whose name appears quite conspicuous in the annals of
Mecklenburg county, was the president's grandfather. "The house in which
President Polk is supposed to have been born," says Honorable David L.
Swain, in a letter to me of recent date, "is about two hundred yards
south of Sugar Creek, and eleven miles south of Charlotte, on the
lands of Nathan Orr. The house shown to me is of logs, was never
weather-boarded, and is covered with a decaying shingle roof. It is
formed by joining two houses together."

*** The court-house was a frame building, about fifty feet square,
placed upon brick pillars, ten or twelve feet in height, with a
stair-way on the outside. It stood in the center of the town, at the
intersection of the two principal streets, now the village green.
The lower part was a market-house; the upper part was used for public
purposes. Stedman says it was a "large brick building," and Lee says it
was of stone. Tradition of undoubted character pronounces it such as I
have described. The village at that time contained about twenty houses.

*** Abraham Alexander was a leading magistrate in Meeklenburg county,
and represented it in the Colonial Legislature. At the time of the
convention, of which he was appointed chairman, he was almost threescore
years of age. He died on the twenty-third of April, 1786, at the age of
sixty-eight years. He was buried in the old church-yard, near Charlotte,
where a plain slab, with an inscription, marks his grave. Elijah
Alexander, a relative of the chairman, and who was present when the
Mecklenburg Resolutions were read to the people at Charlotte, died at
the residence of his son-in-law, James Osborne, Esq., in Cornersville,
Tennessee, on the eleventh of November, 1850, at the age of ninety
years. He voted for every president of the United States, from
Washington to Taylor. His widow, to whom he was married in 1784, was yet
living in 1851.

[[[Officers of the Convention.--Speakers on the Occasion.--Preamble and
Resolutions]]]

{618}who had served them in the Colonial Legislature, chairman, and Dr.
Ephraim Brevard, * a scholar and unwavering patriot, clerk or secretary.
According to tradition, intelligence of the affairs at Lexington and
Concord, in Massachusetts, was received during the session of the
delegates, and added greatly to the excitement among the people, who
had assembled in great numbers around the court-house, eager to know the
resolves of their representatives within. The principal speakers on the
occasion were Dr. Brevard, Reverend Hezekiah J. Balch, William Kennon (a
lawyer of Salisbury), and Colonel Polk. The first three gentlemen
were appointed a committee to prepare suitable resolutions, and on the
thirty-first of May, 1775, the following preamble and resolves were
unanimously adopted: ** "Whereas, By an address presented to his majesty
by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American colonies are
declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws
and commissions confirmed by or derived from the authority of the
king and Parliament are annulled and vacated, and the former civil
Constitution of these colonies for the present wholly suspended. To
provide in some degree for the exigencies of this county in the present
alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following
resolves, viz.:

I. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the
crown to be exer-

* Ephraim Brevard was one of the "seven sons" of his widowed mother
who where "in the rebel army."* He graduated at Princeton, and, after
pursuing medical studies a proper time, settled as a physieian in
Charlotte. His talents commanded universal respect, and he was a leader
in the movements in Meeklenburg toward independence, in 1775. When
the British army invaded the Southern States, Dr. Brevard entered the
Continental army as a surgeon, and was taken prisoner at Charleston, in
May, 1780. Broken by disease, when set at liberty, Dr. Brevard returned
to Charlotte, sought the repose of privacy in the family of his
friend, John M'Knitt Alexander, who had succeeded him as clerk of the
Mecklenburg Committee, and there soon expired. His remains were buffed
in Hopewell grave-yard. No stone marks his resting-place, and "no man
living," says Mr. Foote, "can lead the inquirer to the spot." He was
a remarkable man, and, as the undoubted author of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence and Constitution of Government, deserves the
reverence of all patriots. His pen was often employed in the cause of
freedom, and he was probably the most accomplished writer, of his day,
in Western Carolina.

* Minute biographical sketches of these leading patriots of Meeklenburg,
if they could be obtained, would make an exceedingly useful and
entertaining volume. Of the general character of the people in that
vicinity at the period of the Revolution, J. G. M. Ramsey, M.D., the
historian of Tennessee, who has studied the character of the Mecklenburg
patriots with great care, writes thus appreciatingly to me, under date
of January 19, 1852: "In regard to the people, then residing between
the Yadkin and the Catawba, it is almost impossible to conceive, at
this day, the incalculable benefits the country received from their
immigration and settlement in it; nor the happy influences, secular,
civil, religious, and literary, they uniformly diffused in their
respective neighborhoods. To these are we indebted, in a great measure,
for the enterprise, industry, thrift, skill, frugality, love of order,
sobriety, regard for wholesome laws, family and social government,
establishment of schools, churches, and a high standard of education
and training for youth, attachment to well-regulated liberty, and the
representative principle in government."

** The following are the names of the leading patriots in Mecklenburg,
and reported to have been members of the Mecklenburg Committee, who met
in the Convention at Charlotte: Abraham Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, John
M'Knitt Alexander, Adam Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Ezra Alexander,
Charles Alexander, Waightstill wery, Hezekiah J. Balch, Thomas Polk,
John Flenekin, James Harris, Neil Morrisson, David Reese, Robert
Harris, senior, Richard Barry, Duncan Ochiltree, John Ford, William
Kennon, Samuel Martin, Zacheus Wilson, senior,t Benjamin Patton, Robert
Irwin, John Davidson, John Pfifer, Henry Downes, William Graham, Matthew
M'Clure, John Queary, William Wilson.

* When Cornwallis was in pursuit of Greene, he passed near the
plantation of the Widow Brevard, and ordered it to be desolated. When
asked why he was so cruel toward a poor widow, he replied, "She has
seven sons in the rebel army!" What higher compliment could that noble
mother have received.

** The Wilsons were all stanch Scotch-Irish, and sturdy Republicans. The
wife of Robert Wilson, a brother of Zaclieus like the Widow Brevard, had
"seven sons in the rebel army," and also her husband. When Cornwallis
retired from Charlotte, he halted upon Wilson's plantation, and himself
and staff quartered at the house of the patriot. Mrs. Wilson was very
courteous, and Cornwallis endeavored to win her to the royal cause by
flattering words. Her reply deserves to be inscribed upon brass and
marble: "I have seven sons who are now, or have been bearing arms;
indeed, my seventh son, Zacheus, who is only fifteen years old, I
yesterday assisted to get ready to go and join his brothers in Sumter's
army. Now, sooner than see one of my family turn back from the glorious
enterprise, 1 would take these boys (pointing to three or four small
sons), and with them would myself enlist under Sumter's standard and
show my husband and sons how to fight, and, if necessary, to die for
their country!" "Ah, general," said the cruel Tarleton, "I think you've
got into a hornet's nest! Never mind; when we get to Camden, I'll take
good care that old Robin Wilson never gets back again!"--See Mrs. Ellet
Women of the Revolution, iii. 317.

[[[Autographs of the Mecklenburg Committee.]]]

{619}cised in these colonies are null and void, and the Constitution of
each particular colony wholly suspended.

[Illustration: 0629]

II. That the Provincial Congress of each province, under the direction
of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and
executive powers within their respective provinces, and that no other
legislative or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of
these colonies.

III. As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the
Congress has not

* I am indebted to the kindness of the Honorable David L. Swain, of
Chapel Hall, John H. Wheeler, Esq., author of Historical Sketches of
North Carolina, and James W. Osborne, Esq., superintendent of the Branch
Mint at Charlotte, for the originals from which these fac similes are
made.

[[[Resolutions adopted by the Mecklenburg Convention.]]]

{620}yet provided others, we judge it necessary for the better
preservation of good order, to form certain rules and regulations for
the internal government of this county, until laws shall be provided for
us by the Congress.

IV. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on a certain day
appointed by the committee, and, having formed themselves into nine
companies (to wit: eight for the county, and one for the town), do
choose a colonel and other military officers, who shall hold and
exercise their several powers by virtue of the choice, and independent
of the crown of Great Britain, and former Constitution of this province.

V. That for the better preservation of the peace and administration
of justice, each of those companies do choose from their own body
two discreet freeholders, who shall be empowered each by himself, and
singly, to decide and determine all matters of controversy arising
within said company, under the sum of twenty shillings, and jointly and
together all controversies under the sum of forty shillings, yet so as
their decisions may admit of appeal to the convention of the selectmen
of the county, and also that any one of these men shall have power to
examine and commit to confinement persons accused of petit larceny.

VI. That those two selectmen thus chosen do jointly and together
choose from the body of their particular company two persons to act as
constables, who may assist them in the execution of their office.

VII. That upon the complaint of any persons to either of these
selectmen, he do issue his warrant directed to the constable, commanding
him to bring the aggressor before him to answer said complaint.

VIII. That these select eighteen selectmen thus appointed do meet every
third Thursday in January, April, July, and October, at the court-house
in Charlotte, to hear and determine all matters of controversy for sums
exceeding forty shillings, also appeals; and in case of felony to commit
the persons convicted thereof to close confinement until the Provincial
Congress shall provide and establish laws and modes of proceeding in all
such cases.

IX. That these eighteen selectmen thus convened do choose a clerk, to
record the transactions of said convention, and that said clerk, upon
the application of any person or persons aggrieved, do issue his warrant
to any of the constables of the company to which the offender belongs,
directing said constable to summon and warn said offender to appear
before said convention at their next sitting, to answer the aforesaid
complaint.

X. That any person making complaint, upon oath, to the clerk, or any
member of the convention, that he has reason to suspect that any
person or persons indebted to him in a sum above forty shillings intend
clandestinely to withdraw from the county without paying the debt,
the clerk or such member shall issue his warrant to the constable,
commanding him to take said person or persons into safe custody until
the next sitting of the convention.

XI. That when a debtor for a sum above forty shillings shall abscond and
leave the county, the warrant granted as aforesaid shall extend to any
goods or chattels of said debtor as may be found, and such goods or
chattels be seized and held in custody by the constable for the space of
thirty days, in which time, if the debtor fail to return and discharge
the debt, the constable shall return the warrant to one of the selectmen
of the company, where the goods are found, who shall issue orders to the
constable to sell such a part of said goods as shall amount to the sum
due.

That when the debt exceeds forty shillings, the return shall be made to
the convention, who shall issue orders for sale.

XII. That all receivers and collectors of quit-rents, public and county
taxes, do pay the same into the hands of the chairman of this committee,
to be by them disbursed as the public exigencies may require, and that
such receivers and collectors proceed no further in their office until
they be approved of by, and have given to this committee good and
sufficient security for a faithful return of such moneys when collected.

XIII. That the committee be accountable to the county for the
application of all moneys received from such public officers.

[[[Mecklenburg Resolutions dispatched to Philadelphia and
Hillsborough.--Action concerning them.]]]

{621}XIV. That all these officers hold their commissions during the
pleasure of their several constituents.

XV. That this committee will sustain all damages to all or any of their
officers thus appointed, and thus acting, on account of their obedience
and conformity to these rules.

XVI. _That whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the
crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received,
shall be deemed an enemy to his country_; and upon confirmation being
made to the captain of the company in which he resides, the said company
shall cause him to be apprehended and conveyed before two selectmen,
who, upon proof of the fact, shall commit said offender to safe custody,
until the next sitting of the committee, who shall deal with him as
prudence may direct.

XVII. That any person refusing to yield obedience to the above rules
shall be considered equally criminal, and liable to the same punishment
as the offenders above last mentioned.

XVIII. That these resolves be in full force and virtue until
instructions from the Provincial Congress regulating the jurisprudence
of the province shall provide otherwise, or the legislative body of
Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect
to America.

XIX. That the eight militia companies in this county provide themselves
with proper arms and accouterments, and hold themselves in readiness
to execute the commands and directions of the General Congress of this
province and this committee.

XX. That the committee appoint Colonel Thomas Polk and Dr. Joseph
Kennedy to purchase three hundred pounds of powder, six hundred pounds
of lead, and one thousand flints, for the use of the militia of
this county, and deposit the same in such place as the committee may
hereafter direct.

Signed by order of the Committee. Ephraim Brevard, _Clerk of the
Committee_."

These resolutions, which not only substantially declared the people of
Mecklenburg, represented by the convention, free and independent of the
British crown, but organized a civil government upon a republican basis,
were read to the assembled multitude from the courthouse door, and were
received with loud acclaims of approbation. It is said that they were
read to fresh gatherings of the people several times during the day, and
were always greeted with cheers.

These resolutions formed the closing proceedings of the convention,
and having provided for the transmission of the resolutions to the
Provincial Congress of North Carolina, to meet in Hillsborough
in August, and to the Continental Congress, then in session at
Philadelphia, it adjourned. Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was
the appointed messenger, and a few days after the adjournment of the
convention, he proceeded to Philadelphia, and placed the papers in his
charge, in the hands of Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, the delegates in
Congress from North Carolina. * These gentlemen, perhaps considering the
movement premature or too radical, did not make the proceedings public.
They still hoped for reconciliation with the mother country, and were
willing to avoid any act that might widen the breach. They addressed a
joint letter to the people of Mecklenburg, complimenting them for their
patriotism, recommending the strict observance of order, and expressing
their belief that the whole continent would soon follow their example,
if the grievances complained of were not speedily redressed. For
the same prudential reasons, the Provincial Congress at Hillsborough
declined taking any immediate action upon their bold proceedings. ** But
for

* It was the regular court day when Captain Jack passed through
Salisbury. Mr. Kennon, a member of the convention, was in attendance
there, and persuaded Jack to permit the resolutions to be publicly read.
They were generally approved; but two men (John Dunn and Benjamin Boole)
pronounced them treasonable, and proposed the forcible detention of
Captain Jack. For this act, Dunn and Boote were arrested by some armed
men sent by the committee at Charlotte for the purpose. They were first
sent to Camden, in South Carolina, to be kept in confinement as "persons
inimical to the country." They were afterward sent to Charleston for
better security.

** The papers were referred to a committee, who reported on the first
of September. After some discussion, the Congress resolved that "the
present Association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a
reconciliation with the parent state." No further notice was taken
of the matter, and this brilliant spark was lost in the blaze of the
Federal Declaration of Independence published the following year.

[[[History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.]]]

{622}this hesitation, growing out of a sincere desire to preserve the
integrity of the British realm, the world would long ago have conceded
to the people of Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, the distinguished honor
of making a _Declaration of Independence_ of the British crown, thirteen
months previous to the Federal declaration by the Continental Congress.
That honor has not only been withheld, but the fact denied by men
presumed to have positive information upon all subjects connected with
Revolutionary events. Documentary evidence has settled the question
beyond cavil. *

* Almost fifty years this brilliant event in Mecklenburg county remained
in obscurity, and when its radiance appeared, it was believed to be only
reflected light. There appeared in the Raleigh Register, April 30,
1819, a statement over the signature of J. M'Knitt, that a convention of
representatives of the people of Mecklenburg county met at Charlotte,
on the nineteenth and twentieth of May, 1775, and by a series of
resolutions substantially declared themselves free and independent. *
He alleged that Captain Jack bore those resolutions to the Continental
Congress, and placed them in the hands of the delegates from North
Carolina in that body, who thought them premature. Mr. M'Knitt also
stated that John M'Knitt Alexander was the secretary of the convention,
and that all of the original papers were destroyed when the house
of that gentleman was burned in April, 1800, but that copies of the
proceedings were made, one of which was sent to Dr. Hugh Williamson,
of New York, who was writing a history of North Carolina, and one to
General William R. David. * This statement was copied from the Raleigh
Register by the Essex Register, of Massachusetts, and was brought to
the notice of the venerable John Adams. Mr. Adams sent the paper to Mr.
Jefferson, accompanied with the remark that he thought it genuine. On
the ninth of July, 1819, Mr. Jefferson replied to Mr. Adams's letter at
some length, disclaiming all knowledge of such proceedings, and giving
his decided opinion that the article in the Register was a "very
unjustifiable quiz."! Among his reasons for not believing the thing
genuine, he mentioned the fact that no historian, not even Williamson
(whose History of North Carolina was published in 1812), alluded to any
such proceedings. Such was the fact, and public opinion was divided. It
was singular, indeed, that such an important event should not have been
mentioned by Williamson, if he believed the resolutions sent to him
by Mr. Alexander to be true copies of those adopted in convention at
Charlotte. Because of a similarity of expressions and sentiments in
these resolutions and the Federal Declaration of Independence, Mr.
Jefferson was charged with gross plagiarism, *** while the North
Carolinians were charged with attempting to arrogate to themselves a
glory which did not belong to them.

In 1829, Judge Martin's History of North Carolina appeared, and in
vol. ii., pages 272--274, inclusive, he publishes an account of the
Mecklenburg proceedings, with the resolutions. These resolutions
differ materially from those which were possessed by General Davie, and
published as authentic in a state pamphlet, prepared by order of the
North Carolina Legislature, in 1831. Whence Judge Martin procured
his copy, is not known. In 1830, a publication appeared denying the
statements of the Raleigh Register in 1819, and also denying that a
convention, with such results, was ever held at Charlotte. The friends
of those patriots whose names appeared as members of the convention in
question, very properly tender of their reputation and the honor of
the state, sought for proof that sueh a convention, with such glorious
results, was held in Charlotte. The testimonies of several living
witnesses of the fact were procured, some of them as early as 1819-20,
and some as late as 1830. Their certificates all agree as to the main
fact that such a convention was held, but all are not explicit as to
date, and some evidently point to other resolves than those referred
to. These discrepancies caused doubts, and the public mind was still
unsatisfied. To set the matter at rest, the Legislature of North
Carolina appointed a committee to investigate the subject. The result
was published in pamphlet form in 1831, and the statement made in the
Raleigh Register in 1819 was endorsed as true. The certificates alluded
to (which also appear in Force's American Archives, ii., 855) are
published therein together with the names of the Mecklenburg Committee
appended thereto. Yet one stubborn fact remained in the way--a fact
favorable to a belief in the undoubted truth and sincerity of Mr.
Jefferson in his denial--namely, that in no public records or files of
newspapers of the day had the resolutions of the twentieth or an account
of the convention, been discovered. Some of the most important of those
of the thirty-first were published in the Massachusetts Spy in 1775.
Doubt still hung over the genuineness of the published resolutions, and
eminent men in North Carolina made earnest searches for «her testimony,
but in vain.

* In 1847, the Reverend Thomas Smyth, D.D., of Charleston, published an
inquiry into "The true Origin and Source of the Mecklenburg and
National Declaration of Independence," in which, assuming the published
resolutions, purporting to have been adopted at Charlotte, on the
twentieth of May, 1775, to be genuine copies of the originals prepared
by Dr. Brevard, he advances an ingenious theory, by which Mr. Jefferson
is impliedly defended against the charge of plagiarism and subsequent
misrepresentation. Assuming that both Jefferson and Dr. Brevard were, as
students of history, familiar with the confessions, covenants, and bands
(declarations and pledges) of the Presbyterian Reformers of Scotland
and Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he draws the
conclusion that them ideas, and even their expressions, were copied from
those instruments of a people struggling for religious freedom. As
a proof that such forms were appealed to, he quotes Jefferson's
acknowledgment (Memoirs, &c., i., 2), that to a Scotch Presbyterian
tutor he was indebted for his republican bias; and his statement (p. 6)
that, in preparing a resolution at Williamsburg, recommending a fast
on the first of June, 1774, they "rummaged over" Rushworth "for the
revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day." Upon
these premises, Dr. Smyth argues that Mr. Jefferson and Dr. Brevard
doubtless drew water from the same well, without a knowledge of each
other's act--a well from which copious draughts were made by the Father
of our Republic.

* While these inquiries were in progress, the discovery of documentary
evidence settled the main question beyond cavil, and established the
fact that, on the thirty-first of May, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg,
in a representative convention assembled, passed resolutions equivalent
in spirit to a declaration of independence, and organized a civil
government upon the basis of political independence. Among the most
indefatigable searchers after the truth, was the Honorable David L.
Swain, late governor of North Carolina. A manuscript proclamation
of Governor Martin, dated August 8, 1775, which was deposited in the
archives of the state by Reverend Francis L. Hawks, D.D., was found
to contain the following words: "And whereas, I have also seen a most
infamous publication in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves
of a set of people styling themselves a committee for the county of
Mecklenburg, most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the
laws, government, and Constitution of this country, and setting up a
system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and subversive
of his majesty's government," &c., &c. Here was a clue. After repeated
searches at the instance of Mr. Swain, a copy of the South Carolina
Gazette and Country Journal, dated "Tuesday, June 13, 1775," and
containing the entire set of resolutions printed on pages 620-21,
bearing date of May 31, 1775, was discovered by Dr. Joseph Johnson, in
the Charleston Library. * These were copied, and sent to Mr. Swain, who
immediately forwarded a copy to Mr. Bancroft, the historian, then the
American minister at the court of St. James. Before they reached Mr.
Bancroft at London, that gentleman had discovered in the State
Paper Office a copy of the same South Carolina paper, containing the
resolutions. This paper was sent to Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of
state for the colonies, by Sir James Wright, then governor of Georgia.
In a letter which accompanied the papers, Governor Wright said, "By the
inclosed paper your lordship will see the extraordinary resolves of
the people of Charlottetown, in Mecklenburg county; and I should not be
surprised if the same should be done every where else." These facts Mr.
Bancroft communicated in a letter to Mr. Swain, written on the fourth of
July, 1848.

* The only question unsettled now is, Whether the Mecklenburg Committee
assembled at an earlier date than the thirty-first of May, 1775, and
adopted the resolutions which were in possession of General Davie, and
published in the Raleigh Register in 1819. It is a question of minor
historical importance, since the great fact is established beyond
cavil, that more than a year previous to the promulgation of the
Federal Declaration, the people of Mecklenburg declared their
entire independence of the British crown, and, in pursuance of that
declaration, organized a civil government. *

* Dr. Johnson, in his Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution
(Charleston, 1851), gives a fac simile of a hand-bill, containing
the first three of the Mecklenburg Resolutions published in the state
pamphlet, together with the names of the committee. Dr. Johnson says it
is "the oldest publication of the Mecklenburg Declaration yet found
in print." This is a significant fact. The hand-bill was printed by
Heiskell and Brown, who established their printing-office at Knoxville,
Tennessee, in 1816. This document is not now (1852) more than thirty
five years old. It was probably printed at about the time (1819) when
the resolutions appeared in the Raleigh Register.

* The following is a copy of the resolutions, which were in the
possession of General William R. Davie, and are now in the archives of
the state, at Raleigh:

* "Resolved, 1. That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in
any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous
invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to
this country--to America--and to the inherent and inalienable rights of
man.

* "Resolved, 2. That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby
dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother
country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British
crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association
with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and
liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at
Lexington.

* "Resolved, 3. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and
independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and
self-governing association, under the control of no power, other than
that of our God, and the general government of the Congress; to the
maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our
mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.

* "Resolved, 4. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of
no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do
hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our
former laws; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can
be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority
therein."

* "Resolved, 5. That it is also further decreed, that all, each, and
every military officer in this county is hereby retained in his former
command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And
that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a
civil officer, viz., a justice of the peace, in the character of a
'committee-man,' to issue process, hear and determine all matters of
controversy, according to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, and
union, and harmony in said county; and to use every exertion to spread
the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more
general organized government be established in this province."

* To these resolutions, it is said, a number of by-laws were appended to
regulate the general conduct of citizens.

** The house of Mr. Alexander was destroyed in April, 1800. The date of
the earliest copy of the resolutions is September of the same year.

*** Jefferson's Memoirs and Correspondence, iv., 322.

***The chief ground upon which this charge was predicated, was the
identity of expression in the last clause of the third resolution, and
the closing of the Federal Declaration--" We pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor." This charge has no
weight when it is considered that this was a common parliamentary
suffix. Gibbon, writing to his friend Sheffield concerning the Boston
Port Bill, in 1774, said, "We voted an address of lives and fortunes,
&c." See volume i. of this work, page 515.

[[[History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.]]]

{623}Charlotte was the point to which Gates retreated, with a few
followers, after the disastrous battle near Camden, in August, 1780, and
soon afterward it became the scene of act-

[[[Movements of Cornwallis and his Subordinates.--Colonel Polk
suspected.--General William R. Davie.]]]

{624}ual hostilities. After refreshing his army at Camden, and adopting
further measures for keeping down the spirit of rising rebellion in
South Carolina, Cornwallis moved, with his a Sept 8 forces, toward
Charlotte,[[Sept. 8, 1780]] for the purpose of giving encouragement to
the timid Loyalists between the Yadkin and the Catawba; to assist Major
Ferguson, who was then across the Broad River attempting to embody the
militia in the service of the king; to awe the Republicans, who were in
the ascendant in Mecklenburg, Rowan, and vicinity; in fact, to conquer
North Carolina before Congress could organize another army at the South.

[Illustration: 9634]

Cornwallis reached Charlotte toward the close of the month, where he
expected to be joined by Ferguson and his Loyalists. But he was doomed
to disappointment; that officer was soon afterward killed, and his whole
force was broken up in a severe battle on King's Mountain.[[Oct. 7]]
Cornwallis was diligent in issuing his proclamations, in which he
denounced "the rebels offered pardon to those who should seek it, and
protection to persons and property to those who would accept it.
Gates, in the mean while, had retired, with the remnant of his army, to
Salisbury, and soon proceeded to Hillsborough. Hundreds, who were stanch
patriots, came forward and accepted protection from Cornwallis, for they
saw no alternative but that and the ruin of their families and estates.
Among them was Colonel Thomas Polk, who thereby incurred the suspicions
of his countrymen; but when the danger was over, he renounced the forced
allegiance. Non-conformity would have insured the destruction of all
his property; he wisely accepted a protection, saved his estate, and was
under a cloud of distrust only for a short season. *

When Cornwallis marched from Camden, on the east side of the Wateree,
Tarleton traversed the country, with his legion, on the west side of
that river. At the Waxhaws, Cornwallis halted, and there Tarleton united
with the main body.

[Illustration: 8634]

On the fifth of September, Major William R. Davies was appointed, by
Governor Nash, colonel commandant of cavalry, and, with Major George
Davidson, was very active in collecting supplies for Gates's broken

* Colonel Polk was commissary of provisions at that time. The
acceptance of protection from the British was considered equivalent to
a renunciation of republicanism. He was, therefore, denounced as a Tory.
Among Gates's papers in the New York Historical Society is the following
order, issued after Cornwallis had retreated to Winnsborough: "From a
number of suspicious circumstances respecting the conduct and behavior
of Colonel Thomas Polk, commissary general of provisions for the State
of North Carolina, and commissary of purchases for the Continental
troops, it is our opinion that the said Colonel Polk should be directly
ordered to Salisbury to answer for his conduct; and that the persons of
Duncan Ochiltree and William M'Aferty * be likewise brought under guard
to Salisbury. Given unanimously as our opinion, this twelfth day of
November, 1780."

* William Richardson Davie was born at Egremont, near Whitehaven,
England, on the twentieth of June, 1756. He came with his father to
America at the age of five years, and was adopted by William Richardson,
a maternal uncle, who lived near the Catawba, in South Carolina. He
commenced study at Princeton, but during the summer of 1776 entered the
army as a volunteer. He resumed his studies after the battle of Long
Island, graduated in the autumn of 1776, and returned to Carolina, where
he commenced the study of law in Salisbury. He was elected lieutenant of
a troop of horse in 1779, and was attached to Pulaski's legion. He soon
rose to the rank of major. At Stono, below Charleston, he was wounded in
the thigh. When he recovered, he returned to Salisbury and resumed his
books. In the winter of 1780, he raised a troop of cavalry, with which
he was very active in beating back the enemy, while forcing his way
northward. He was in the battle at Hanging Rock; with Rutherford at
Ramsour's Mills, and nobly confronted the British army at Charlotte,
after a brilliant display of courage and skill at Wahab's plantation.
General Greene appointed Davie commissary general of the Southern army;
and he was with that officer in his Retreat, and at the battles at
Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, and Ninety-Six. In 1783, he commenced his
career as a lawyer, and the same year married the daughter of General
Allen Jones. He was a member of the convention which framed the Federal
Constitution. He was instrumental in procuring the erection of the
buildings of the University at Chapel Hill, and as grand master of the
Masonic Fraternity, he laid the corner stone. He received the commission
of major general of militia in 1797, and in 1798 was appointed a
brigadier in the army of the United States. He was elected governor of
North Carolina the same year, and in 1799 was appointed an embassador to
France by President Adams. On his return, he was engaged in some Indian
treaties, but on the death of his wife in 1803, he withdrew from public
life. He died at Tivoli, near Landsford, in South Carolina, in December,
1820, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.

* M'Cafferty, as the name is properly spelled, was a wealthy Scotchman,
and was employed by Cornwallis as a guide when he left Charlotte


[[[Cornwallis's March toward Charlotte.--Operations of the Americans
against him.--Skirmish at Charlotte.]]]

{625}army, and in repressing the depredations of the British. They
had continually maneuvered in front of the approaching enemy, and
fell gradually back to Charlotte as the British pressed onward. While
encamped at Providence, Davie learned that some Tories and light troops
were on the western bank of the Catawba, not far distant. He determined
to beat up their quarters; and early on the morning of the twenty-first
of September,[[1780]] he surprised them at Captain Wahab's * plantation,
and killed and wounded sixty, while he lost but one man wounded. He took
ninety-six horses, with their equipments, and one hundred and twenty
stand of arms, and returned to his camp, having marched sixty miles
within twenty-four hours.

On the day of the engagement at Wahab's, Generals Sumner and Davidson,
with their brigades of militia, arrived at Providence. On the advance
of the British, they retreated to Salisbury, ordering Colonel Davie
and Major Joseph Graham to annoy the enemy on his march. Four days
afterward, Cornwallis having established a post at Blair's Mill, on Five
Mile Creek, commenced his march toward Charlotte, by the Steel Creek
road. Davie and Graham were on the alert, annoying him all the way.
They took several of his men prisoners, in one or two skirmishes. Davie
reached Charlotte at midnight,[[Sept. 25]] and determined to give the
enemy a warm reception. He dismounted his cavalry, who were armed
with swords, pistols, and muskets, and posted them in front of the
court-house, under cover of a stone wall, breast high. His infantry and
Graham's volunteers were advanced eighty yards in front on each side
of the street, covered by the garden inclosures of the villagers. While
this arrangement was in progress, Tarleton's legion, the van of the
royal army, approached. Tarleton was sick, and Major Hanger was in
command. As soon as he reached the Common at the entrance of the
village, and observed the Americans, Hanger's trumpeter sounded a
charge. The cavalry moved slowly, while the flanking infantry attacked
Graham and his party. While they were engaged, Hanger, with his cavalry,
rushed toward the court-house, when Davie poured a deadly volley upon
them. They recoiled, but were instantly rallied on the Common. In the
mean while, the contest in the street was warmly maintained. Again the
cavalry charged, and again fell back in confusion to the Common. The
British infantry having gained Davie's right, he withdrew from the
courthouse, and formed his line on the eastern side of the town.
Cornwallis had now reached the cavalry, and upbraided them for want of
courage. They charged a third time, when Davie, having mounted his men,
gave the enemy such a reception that they again fell back to the Common.
The 71st and 33d British regiments of Webster's brigade (which fought so
gallantly at Guilford nearly five months afterward) now advanced to the
support of the light

* Captain Wahab was with Davie on this occasion, and for the first time
in many months had the opportunity of embracing his wife and children.
Before he was out of sight of his dwelling, he saw his dear ones driven
from it by the foe, and their shelter burned to the ground, without the
power to protect them.

[[[Retreat of the Americans from Charlotte.--March of Cornwallis
Southward.--Young Ladies of Mecklenburg and Rowan.]]]

{626}troops. Davie, perceiving the contest now to be very unequal,
retreated toward Salisbury, leaving Cornwallis master of Charlotte.
Colonel Francis Locke (who commanded at Ramsour's) and five privates
were killed; and Major Graham and twelve others were wounded in this
action. The British lost twelve non-commissioned officers and privates,
killed; Major Hanger, two captains, and many privates, were wounded.
Cornwallis remained in Charlotte until the fourteenth of October, when
he retreated southward. It had been his intention to advance northward;
but the loss of Ferguson and his corps, and the general lukewarmness, if
not absolute hostility of the people, and the constant annoyance by the
American troops, * caused him to retrograde, and on the twenty-ninth he
established his head-quarters at Winnsborough, in Fairfield District,
South Carolina, midway between the Catawba and Broad Rivers. There we
shall leave the earl for the present.

The British army, while at Charlotte, lay encamped upon a plain, south
of the town, on the right side of the road. Cornwallis's head-quarters
were next to the southeast corner of the street from the court-house;
and most of the other houses were occupied, in part, by his officers.
I found no person in Charlotte yet living who remembered the British
occupation and the noble deeds of the patriots; but history, general and
local, fully attests the patriotism of its inhabitants during the
whole war. ** It was never visited by the British army after
Cornwallis returned to Winnsborough, and only for a short time was
the head-quarters of the American army, while Gates was preparing for
another campaign. It was at this place General Greene took the command
of the Southern army from Gates, fifty days after Cornwallis decamped
[[Dec. 3, 1780]]

* Provisions soon became scarce in the British camp, for the people in
the neighborhood refused a supply. In Colonel Polk's mill, two miles
from the town, they found twenty-eight thousand weight of flour, and a
quantity of wheat. Foraging parties went out daily for cattle and other
necessaries, but so hostile were the people that Webster's and Rawdon's
brigades were obliged to move, on alternate days, as a covering party.
There were few sheep, and the cattle were so lean that they killed
one hundred head a day. On one day, according to Stedman (who was
commissary), they killed thirty-seven cows with calf. Frequent
skirmishes occurred. On one occasion, the plantation of Mr. M'Intyre,
seven miles north of Charlotte, on the road to Beattie's Ford, was
plundered, the family having barely time to escape. While loading their
wagons with plunder, a bee-hive was overturned, and the insects made
a furious attack upon the soldiers. While their commander stood in the
door laughing at the scene, a party of twelve patriots approached in a
moment, the captain, nine men, and two horses lay dead upon the ground
The British hastily retreated to their camp, believing that a large
American force was concealed near.

** On one occasion, the young ladies of Mecklenburg and Rowan entered
into a pledge not to receive the attentions of young men who would not
volunteer in defense of the country, they "being of opinion that such
persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of the
country demand their military services abroad, must certainly be
destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave and manly spirit
which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair
sex."--South Carolina and American General Gazette, February, 1780.

* One of the twelve was George Graham, brother of General Joseph Graham.
He was born in Pennsylvania, in 1753, and went to North Carolina, with
his widowed mother, when six years of age. He was educated at Queen's
Museum, and was strongly imbued with the republican principles of the
Scotch-irish of that region. He was one of the party who rode from
Charlotte to Salisbury and arrested those who proposed to detain Captain
Jack, as mentioned on page 621. He was active in partisan duties while
the British were at Charlotte. After the war, he rose to the rank of
major general of militia, and often served his country in the State
Legislature. He died at Charlotte, on the twenty-ninth of March, 1826,
in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

[[[Departure from Charlotte.--Gold Region of North Carolina.--Tuckesege
Ford.]]]

{627}




CHAPTER XXIV.


```"We marched to the Cowpens, Campbell was there,

```Shelby, Cleveland, and Colonel Sevier;

```Men of renown, sir, like lions, so bold--

```Like lions undaunted, ne'er to be controlled.

```We set out on our march that very same night;

```Sometimes we were wrong, sometimes we were right;

```Our hearts being run in true liberty's mold,

```We valued not hunger, wet, weary, or cold.

```On the top of King's Mountain the old rogue we found,

```And, like brave heroes, his camp did surround;

```Like lightning, the flashes; like thunder, the noise;

```Our rifles struck the poor Tories with sudden surprise."

`````Old Song.* =

[Illustration: 9637]

HE Sabbath which I passed in Charlotte was exceedingly unpleasant. The
morning air was keen and hazy; snow fell toward evening, and night set
in with a gloomy prospect for the morrow's travel. I breakfasted by
candle-light on Monday morning, and before sunrise was on the road for
King's Mountain and the Cowpens. I passed the United States Branch Mint,
upon the road leading from the village to the Tuckesege or Great Catawba
Ford, and at the forks, about a mile from the town, halted a moment to
observe the operation of raising gold ore from a mine, by a horse and
windlass.

[Illustration: 8637]

This mine had not been worked for fifteen years, owing to litigation,
and now yielded sparingly. The vein lies about seventy feet below the
surface. This is in the midst of the gold region of North Carolina,
which is comprehended within the limits of eleven counties. **

From Charlotte to the Catawba, a distance of eleven miles, the country
is very hilly, and the roads were bad the greater portion of the way.
I crossed the Catawba at the Tuckesege Ford, the place where General
Rutherford and his little army passed, on the evening of the nineteenth
of June, 1780, when on their way to attack the Tories at Ramsour's
Mills. *** I was piloted across by a lad on horseback.

The distance from shore to shore, in the direction of the ford, is more
than half a mile, the water varying in depth from ten inches to three
feet, and running in quite a rapid current. In the passage, which is
diagonal, two islands, covered with shrubbery and trees, are traversed.
This was Charley's first experience in fording a very considerable
stream, and he seemed to participate with me in the satisfaction
experienced in setting foot upon the solid ground of the western shore.
I allowed him to rest while I made the above sketch,

* The song called "The Battle of King's Mountain," from which these
lines are taken, was very popular in the Carolinas until some years
after the close of the war. It was sung with applause at political
meetings, wedding parties, and other gatherings, where the ballad formed
a part of the proceedings. Mr. M'Elwees, an old man of eighty-seven, who
fought under Sumter, and with whom I passed an evening, within two miles
of King's Mountain, remembered it well, and repeated the portion here
given.

**& These are Randolph, Montgomery, Richmond, Davidson, Stanley, Anson,
Cabarras, Rowan, Iredell,

Mecklenburg, and Lincoln, all east of the Catawba.

* See page 597.

**** This view is from the western bank of the Catawba, looking down the
stream.

[[[Passage of the South Fork of the Catawba.--Loss of Way in a
Forest.--Road to King's Mountain.]]]

{628}and then we pushed on toward the South Fork of the Catawba, almost
seven miles farther.

I was told that the ford there was marked by a row of rocks, occurring
at short intervals across the stream; but when I reached the bank,
few of them could be seen above the surface of the swift and swollen
current. The distance across is about two hundred and fifty yards, and
the whole stream flows in a single channel. The passage appeared (as
it really was) very dangerous, and I had no guide. As the day was
fast waning away, a storm seemed to be gathering, and there was not an
inhabitant within a mile, I resolved to venture alone, relying upon the
few rocks visible for indications of the safest place for a passage.
Taking my port-folio of drawings from my trunk, and placing it beside me
on the seat, and then folding my wagon-top, I was prepared to swim, if
necessary, and save my sketches, if possible. Charley seemed loth to
enter the flood, but once in, he breasted the stream like a philosopher.
Twice the wheels ran upon rocks, and the wagon was almost overturned,
the water being, in the mean while, far over the hubs; and when within
a few yards of the southern shore, we crossed a narrow channel, so deep
that my horse kept his feet with difficulty, and the wagon, having
a tight body, floated for a moment. The next instant we struck firm
ground. I breathed freer as we ascended the bank, and with a thankful
heart rode on toward Falls's house of entertainment, away among the
hills near the South Carolina line, twenty-six miles from Charlotte.

On account of numerous diverging ways, it was very difficult to keep in
the right road from the South Fork to Falls's. I tried to reach there
before dark, but the clouds thickened, and night fell suddenly. In the
uncertain twilight, I missed a diverging road which I was directed
to pursue, and got into the midst of a vast pine forest. Just before
entering the woods, I had a glimpse of Crowder s Knob, the highest peak
of King's Mountain, estimated to be three thousand feet above the level
of the sea.1 It was about twelve miles distant, and loomed up from the
wilderness of pines which intervened, like some ancient castle in the
dim light. For more than an hour I pursued the forest road, without
perceiving the diverging one which I was directed to follow. I stopped
to listen for sounds of habitation. All was silent but the moaning of
the wind among the pine boughs, the solemn voice of an owl, and the
pattering of the rain upon my wagon-top. For almost another hour I rode
on in the gloom, without perceiving an opening in the forest, and I
began to think I should be obliged to "camp out" for the night. Again
I listened, and was cheered by the distant barking of a dog. I gave
Charley a loose rein, and in twenty minutes an open field appeared, and
the glimmer of a candle. A shout brought the master of the cottage to
the door, and, in reply to my solicitation for food and shelter until
morning, he informed me that a contagious disease, which had destroyed
two of his family, yet prevailed in his house. He could not offer me the
hospitalities of his roof and table, but he would mount his horse and
guide me to Falls's, which was four miles distant. I was glad to avoid
the contagion, and to reward him liberally for his kind pilotage. I
ascertained that I had been within a quarter of a mile of Falls's, but,
missing the "turn out," had traversed another road several miles back in
the direction of Charlotte!

Mr. Falls was the postmaster, and an intelligent man, apparently about
sixty years of age. It was the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans,
in 1815,[[Jan. 8]] and as the old man had a brother killed in that
engagement, it was a day always memorable to him. I was entertained
with the frank hospitality so common in the Carolinas, and at my request
breakfast was ready at early dawn. A more gloomy morning can not well be
conceived. Snow had fallen to the depth of two inches during the night,
and when I departed, a chilling east wind, freighted with sleet, was
sweeping over the barren country. King's Mountain battle-ground was
fourteen miles distant, and I desired to reach there in time to make
my notes and sketches before sunset. The roads, except near the water
courses, were sandy and quite level, but the snow made the traveling
heavy. Six miles from Falls's, I forded Crowder's Creek, a stream about
ten yards wide, deep and sluggish, which rises from

* The sides of this peak are very precipitous, and its top is accessible
to man only upon one side.

[[[Visit to the King's Mountain Battle ground.--Character of the
Locality.--View of the Battle-ground]]]

{629}Crowder's Knob, and, after a course of eighteen miles, falls into
the Catawba. A little beyond it, I passed a venerable post oak, which
was shivered, but not destroyed, by lightning the previous summer. It
there marks the dividing-line between North and South Carolina. At noon
the storm ceased; the clouds broke, and at three o'clock, when I reached
the plantation of Mr. Leslie, whose residence is the nearest one to the
battle-ground, the sun was shining warm and bright, and the snow had
disappeared in the open fields.

When my errand was made known, Mr. Leslie brought two horses from his
stable, and within twenty minutes after my arrival we were in the saddle
and traversing a winding way toward Clarke's Fork of King's Creek. From
that stream, to the group of hills among which the battle was fought,
the ascent is almost imperceptible. The whole range, in that vicinity,
is composed of a series of great undulations, from whose sides burst
innumerable springs, making every ravine sparkle with running water. The
hills are gravelly, containing a few small bowlders. They are covered
with oaks, chestnuts, pines, beaches, gums, and tulip poplars, and an
undergrowth of post oaks, laurel, and sour-wood. The large trees stand
far apart, and the smaller ones are not very thick, so that the march of
an army over those gentle elevations was comparatively easy. Yet it was
a strange place for an encampment or a battle; and to one acquainted
with that region, it is difficult to understand why Ferguson and his
band were there at all.

[Illustration: 0639]

We tied our horses near the grave of Ferguson and his fellow-sleepers,
and ascended to the summit of the hill whereon the British troops were
encamped and fought. The battleground is about a mile and a half south
of the North Carolina line. It is a stony ridge, extending north and
south, and averaging about one hundred feet in height above the ravines
which surround it. It is nearly a mile in length, very narrow upon its
summit, with steep sides. From its top we could observe _Crowder's Knob_
in the distance, and the hills of less altitude which compose the range.
** The sun was declining, and its slant rays,

* This view is from the foot of the hill, whereon the hottest of the
fight occurred. The north slope of that eminence is seen on the left. In
the center, within a sort of basin, into which several ravines converge,
is seen the simple monument erected to the memory of Ferguson and
others; and in the foreground, on the right, is seen the great
tulip-tree, upon which, tradition says, ten Tories were hung.

** The range known as King's Mountain extends about sixteen miles
from north to south, with several spurs spreading laterally in each
direction. One of these extends to the Broad River, near the Cherokee
Ford, where I crossed that stream on my return from the Cowpens. Many of
its spurs abound in marble and iron, and from its bosom a great number
of streams, the beginning of rivers, gush out. The battleground is about
twelve miles northwest of Yorkville, and one hundred and ninety from
Charleston.

[[[Past and Present.--Major Ferguson detached to the Upper
Country.--Gathering of Tories.--Surprise at Greene's Spring.]]]

{630}gleaming through the boughs dripping with melting snows, garnished
the forest for a few moments with all the seeming splendors of the
mines; gold and silver, diamonds and rubies, emeralds and sapphires,
glittered upon every branch, and the glowing pictures of the Arabian
Nights, which charmed boyhood with the records of wondrous visions,
crowded upon the memory like realities. Alas! on this very spot, where
the sun-light is braiding its gorgeous tapestry, and suggesting nothing
but love, and beauty, and adoration, the clangor of steel, the rattle of
musketry, the shout of victory, and the groans of dying men, whose blood
incarnadined the forest sward, and empurpled the mountain streams, were
once heard--and there, almost at our feet, lie the ashes of men slain by
their brother man! History thus speaketh of the event:

On the sixteenth of August, 1780, the Americans, under General Gates,
were defeated by Cornwallis, near Camden, and dispersed. Two days
afterward, Tarleton defeated Sumter at Rocky Mount, and elsewhere the
American partisan corps were unsuccessful. The whole South now appeared
to be completely subdued under the royal power; and the conqueror,
tarrying at Camden, busied himself in sending his prisoners to
Charleston, in ascertaining the condition of his distant posts at
Ninety-Six and Augusta, and in establishing civil government in South
Carolina. Yet his success did not impair his vigilance. West of the
Wateree * were bands of active Whigs, and parties of those who were
defeated near Camden were harassing the upper country. Cornwallis
detached Major Ferguson, a most excellent officer and true marksman,
of the 71st regiment, ** with one hundred and ten regulars under the
command of Captain Depuyster, and about the same number of Tories, with
an ample supply of arms and other military stores. He ordered him to
embody the Loyalists beyond the Wateree and the Broad Rivers; intercept
the Mountain Men, *** who were retreating from Camden, and also the
Americans, under Colonel Elijah Clarke, of Georgia, who were retiring
from an attack upon Augusta; endeavor to crush the spirit of rebellion,
which was still rife; and, after scouring the upper part of South
Carolina, toward the mountains, join him at Charlotte. Ferguson at first
made rapid marches to overtake the Mountain Men, and cut off Clarke's
forces. Failing in this, he proceeded leisurely, collecting all the
Tories in his path, until about the last of September, when he encamped
with more than a thousand men, at a place called Gilbert Town, west of
the Broad River, near the site of the present village of Rutherfordton,
the county seat of Rutherford, in North Carolina. **** These were
all well armed, (v) and Ferguson began to feel strong. True to their
instincts, his Tory recruits committed horrible outrages upon persons
and property wherever they went, and this aroused a spirit of the
fiercest vengeance among the patriots. At different points, large

* The Wateree River is that portion of the Catawba which flows through
South Carolina. It is the Catawba to the dividing-line of the states,
and, after its junction with the Congaree, is ealled the Santee.
The Congaree is formed by a union of the Broad and Saluda Rivers
at Columbia, the head of steam-boat navigation upon the Santee and
Congaree, from the ocean.

** This was the regiment that behaved so gallantly at the battle of
Guilford.

*** The pioneers who had settled in the wilderness beyond the mountains,
now Kentucky and Tennessee, were called Mountain Men.

**** While Ferguson was in Spartanburg District, on his way toward
Gilbert Town, a detachment of his little army had a severe skirmish with
Colonel Clarke and his men at Greene's Spring. Clarke and his company,
some two hundred in number, had stopped at the plantation of Captain
Dillard, who was one of them, and, after partaking of refreshments,
proceeded to Greene's Spring. The same evening Ferguson arrived at
Dillard's, whose wife soon learned, from the conversation of some of his
men, that they knew where Clarke was encamped, and intended to surprise
him that night. She hastily prepared supper for Ferguson and his men,
and while they were eating she stole from the room, bridled a young
horse, and, without a saddle, rode to the encampment of Clarke, and
warned him of impending danger. In an instant every man was at his
post, prepared for the enemy. Very soon Colonel Dunlap, with two hundred
picked mounted men, sent by Ferguson, fell upon the camp of Clarke.
Day had not yet dawned, and the enemy were greatly surprised and
disconcerted when they found the Americans fully prepared to meet them.
For fifteen minutes the conflict raged desperately in the gloom,
when the Tories were repulsed with great slaughter, and the survivors
hastened back to Ferguson's camp.

* (v) Those of his recruits who were without arms Ferguson furnished
with rifles. Some of them so fixed the large knives which they usually
carried about them, in the muzzle of their rifles, as to be used as
bayonets, if occasion should require.

[[[Leaders of the Mountain Men.--Ferguson West of the Broad
River.--Expedition against him.--Concentration of Troops.]]]

{631}bodies of volunteers assembled simultaneously, without concert, and
placed themselves under tried leaders, the chief of whom were Colonels
Campbell, of Virginia; Cleaveland, Shelby, Sevier, and M'Dowell, of
North Carolina; and Lacy, Hawthorn, and Hill, of South Carolina.

[Illustration: 9641]

They all had but one object in view--the destruction of the marauders
under Ferguson. They were men admirably fitted by their daily pursuits
for the privations which they were called upon to endure. They had
neither tents, baggage, bread, or salt, and no Commissary Department
to furnish regular supplies. Potatoes, pumpkins, roasted corn, and
occasionally a bit of venison supplied by their own rifles, composed
their daily food. Such were the men who were gathering among the
mountains and valleys of the Upper Carolinas to beat back the invaders.

On his way to Gilbert Town, Ferguson had succeeded in capturing two
of the Mountain Men. These he paroled, and enjoined them to tell the
officers on the Western waters, that if they did not desist from their
opposition and "take protection under his standard, he would march his
army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste their country
with fire and sword." * While Colonel Charles M'Dowell, ** of Burke
county, who, on the approach of Ferguson, had gone over the mountains to
obtain assistance, was in consultation with Colonels Shelby and Sevier,
the paroled prisoners arrived, and delivered their message. These
officers were not dismayed by the savage threat of Ferguson, but decided
that each should endeavor to raise all the men that could be enlisted,
and that the forces thus collected should rendezvous at Watauga on the
twenty-fifth of September. It was also agreed that Colonel Shelby should
give intelligence of their movements to Colonel William Campbell, of
Washington county, in Virginia, hoping that he would raise a force to
assist them.

The following official report of events from the meeting of these
several forces at Watauga, until the defeat of Ferguson, I copied from
the original manuscript among Gates's papers. It is full, yet concise,
and being official, with the signatures of the three principal officers
engaged in the affair, attached, it is perfectly reliable: ***

"On receiving intelligence that Major Ferguson had advanced up as high
as Gilbert Town, in Rutherford county, and threatened to cross the
mountains to the Western waters, Colonel William Campbell, with four
hundred men, from Washington county, of Virginia, Colonel Isaac Shelby,
with two hundred and forty men, from Sullivan county, of North Carolina,
and Lieutenant-colonel John Sevier, with two hundred and forty men,
of Washington county, of North Carolina, assembled at Watauga, on the
twenty-fifth day of September, where they

* General Joseph Graham, who lived in the vicinity of King's Mountain,
and knew many of those who were employed in the battle, wrote a graphic
account of the events connected with that affair. His account is
published in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, page 264--269,
inclusive.

** The M'Dowells were all brave men. Joseph and William, the brothers of
Charles, were with him in the battle on King's Mountain. Their mother,
Ellen M'Dowell, was a woman of remarkable energy. Mrs. Ellet relates
that on one occasion some marauders carried off some property during the
absence of her husband. She assembled some of her neighbors, started
in pursuit, and recovered the property. When her husband was secretly
making gunpowder in a cave, she burned the charcoal for the purpose
upon her own hearth, and carried it to him. Some of the powder thus
manufactured was used in the battle on King's Mountain.--Women of the
Revolution, iii., 356.

*** General Gates sent a copy of this report to Governor Jefferson for
his perusal, and desired him to forward it to Congress. His letter to
Jefferson is dated Hillsborough, November 1, 1780.

**** Isaac Shelby was born on the eleventh of December, 1750, near the
North Mountain, a few miles from Hagerstown, in Maryland. His ancestors
were from Wales. He learned the art of surveying, and at the age of
twenty-one years settled in Western Virginia. He was with his father,
Evan Shelby, in the battle at Point Pleasant, in 1774. He was afterward
employed as a surveyor under Henderson & Co., in Kentucky. In July,
1776, he was appointed captain of a company of minute-men by the
Virginia Committee of Safety. Governor Henry appointed him a commissary
of supplies in 1777, and in 1778 he was attached to the Continental
Commissary Department. In the spring of 1779, he was elected a member
of the Virginia Legislature, from Washington county, and in the autumn
Governor Jefferson gave him the commission of a major. He was engaged
in defining the boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina,
the result of which placed his residence in the latter state. Governor
Caswell soon afterward appointed him a eolonel of the new county of
Sullivan. In the summer of 1780, he was engaged in locating lands
for himself in Kentucky, when he heard of the fall of Charleston. He
returned home to engage in repelling the invaders. He raised three
hundred mounted riflemen, crossed the mountains, and joined Colonel
Charles M'Dowell, near the Cherokee Ford, on the Broad River. In that
vicinity he was very active, until he joined other officers of like
grade in an attaek upon Major Ferguson, on King's Mountain. Colonel
Shelby soon afterward suggested to Greene the expedition which resulted
so brilliantly at the Cow-pens. In the campaign of 1781, Shelby served
under Marion, and was in the skirmish at Monk's Corner. Colonel Shelby
was a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1782; and ten years
afterward, he was among the framers of the Constitution of Kentucky. In
May of that year, he was elected the first governor of the new state.
He served one term with great distinction; and in 1812, consented again
to an election to the chief magistracy of Kentucky. His energy and
Revolutionary fame aroused the patriotism of his state when the war with
Great Britain broke out. At the head of four thousand volunteers, he
marched to the shores of Lake Erie, to assist General Harrison in his
warfare with the British and Indians in the Northwest. During the whole
war, his services were great and valuable in the highest degree; and
for his bravery at the battle of the Thames, Congress honored him with
a gold medal. In 1817, President Monroe appointed him his Secretary of
War, but on account of his age (being then sixty-seven), he declined
the honor. His last public act was that of holding a treaty with the
Chickasaw Indians, in 1818. in whieh General Jackson was his colleague.
He was attacked with paralysis, in February, 1820, which somewhat
disabled him. He died of apoplexy, on the eighteenth of July, 1826, at
the age of seventy-six years. Shelby county, in Kentucky, was named in
honor of him in 1792. A college at Shelbyville also bears his name.

[[[Selection of a Commander-in-chief.--March to the Cowpens.--Colonels
Shelby, Campbell, and Williams.]]]

{632}were joined by Colonel Charles M'Dowell, with one hundred and sixty
men, from the counties of Burke and Rutherford, who had fled before the
enemy to the Western waters. We began our march on the twenty-sixth, and
on the thirtieth we were joined by Colonel Cleaveland, on the Catawba
Priver, with three hundred and fifty men, from the counties of Wilkes
and Surry. No one officer having properly a right to the command in
chief, on the first of October we dispatched an express to Major-general
Gates, informing him of our situation, and requested him to send a
general officer to take command of the whole. In the mean time, Colonel
Campbell was chosen to act as commandant till such general officer
should arrive. We marched to the _Cowpens_, on Broad River, in South
Carolina, where we were joined by Colonel James Williams, *** with four
hundred men, on the evening of the

* Colonel Charles M'Dowell. His brother, Major M'Dowell, commanded his
regiment till his return.

** William Campbell was a native of Augusta, Virginia. He was of Scotch
descent, and possessed all the fire of his Highland ancestors. He was
among the first of the regular troops raised in Virginia in 1775, and
was honored with a captain's commission. In 1776, he was made lieutenant
colonel of the militia of Washington eounty, and, on the resignation of
Evan Shelby, the father of Governor Shelby, he was promoted to colonel.
That rank he retained until after the battle on King's Mountain and at
Guilford, in both of which he greatly distinguished himself, when he
was promoted by the Virginia Legislature to the rank of brigadier.
La Fayette gave him the eommand of a brigade of riflemen and light
infantry. He was taken sick a few weeks before the siege of Yorktown,
and soon afterward died at the house of a friend. He was only in the
thirty-sixth year of his age when he died. His military career, like
those of Warren and Montgomery, was short, but brilliant, and on all
occasions bravery marked his movements. Foote relates that in the battle
on King's Mountain he rode down two horses, and at one time was seen on
foot, with his coat off, and his shirt collar open, fighting at the head
of his men. He also says, that on one occasion Senator Preston, of
South Carolina, a grandson of Campbell, was breakfasting at a house near
King's Mountain, and, while eating, the old landlady frequently
turned to look at him. She finally asked him his name, and remarked,
apologetically, that he appeared very much like the man she had most
dreaded upon earth.. "And who is that?" Preston inquired. "Colonel
Campbell," replied the old lady, "that hung my husband at King's
Mountain." *

*** James Williams was a native of Granville county, in North Carolina.
He settled upon Little River, Laurens District, in South Carolina, in
1773, where he engaged in the pursuit of a farmer and merchant. He early
espoused the patriot cause. Williams first appears as a colonel in the
militia, in April, 1778. In the spring of 1779, he went into actual
service, and he was probably at the siege of Savannah. He was with
Sumter in 1780, but does not seem to have been permanently attached
to the corps of that partisan. In the early part of that year, he was
engaged in the battle at Musgrove's mill, on the Ennoree River. After
that engagement, he went to Hillsborough, where he raised a corps of
cavalry and returned to South Carolina; and during Ferguson's movements,
after crossing the Wateree, Williams continually hovered around his
camp. In the sanguinary battle upon King's Mountain, he was slain. He
was near Major Ferguson, and both officers received their death-wound at
the same moment. He died on the morning after the battle, and was buried
within two miles of the place where he fell. Tradition says that his
first words, when reviving a little soon after he was shot, were, "For
God's sake, boys, don't give up the hill!"

* Sketches of North Carolina, page 271.

[[[Pursuit of Ferguson.--The Battle.--Colonel Sevier.--Frankland.]]]

{633}sixth of October, * who informed us that the enemy lay encamped
somewhere near the Cherokee Ford, of Broad River, about thirty miles
distant from us. By a council of principal officers, it was then thought
advisable to pursue the enemy that night with nine hundred of the best
horsemen, and have the weak horse and footmen to follow us as fast as
possible. We began our march with nine hundred of the best men about
eight o'clock the same evening, and, marching all night, came up with
the enemy about three o'clock P.M. of the seventh, who lay encamped on
the top of King's Mountain, twelve miles north of the Cherokee Ford,
in the confidence that they could not be forced from so advantageous a
post. Previous to the attack on our march, the following disposition was
made: Colonel Shelby's regiment formed a column in the center, on the
left; Colonel Campbell's regiment another on the right, with part of
Colonel Cleaveland's regiment, headed in front by Major Joseph Winston;
**

[Illustration: 9643]

and Colonel Seviers *** formed a large column on the right wing. The
other part of Cleaveland's regiment, headed by Colonel Cleaveland
himself, and Colonel Williams's regiment, composed the left wing. In
this order we advanced, and got within a quarter of a mile of the enemy
before we were discovered. Colonel Shelby's and Colonel Campbell's
regiments began the attack, and kept up a fire on the enemy, while the
right and left wings were advancing to surround them, which was done
in about five minutes, and the fire became general all around. The
engagement lasted an hour and five minutes, the greater part of which
time a heavy and incessant fire was kept

* Colonel Williams had just been joined by sixty men from Lincoln, under
Colonel Hambrite and Major Chronicle.

** Joseph Winston was a native of North Carolina, and was the first
senator in the Republican Legislature, from Stokes county. He was a
member of Congress from 1793 to 1795, and again from 1803 to 1807. He
died in 1814.

*** John Sevier was descended from an ancient French family. The
original orthography of the name was Xavier. His father settled on the
Shenandoah, in Virginia, where this son was born, about 1740. In 1769,
he accompanied an exploring party to East Tennessee, where, with his
father and brother, he settled on the Holston River. He aided in the
construction of Fort Watauga; and while in that fortress as commander,
bearing the title of captain, _he caught a wife!_ One day, in June,
1776, he saw a young lady speeding, like a fawn, toward the fort,
closely pursued by Cherokees, under "Old Abraham." She leaped the
palisades, and fell into the arms of the gallant captain. Her name was
Catharine Sherrill; and in 1779 she became the second wife of Sevier, by
whom he had ten children. Sevier was with Shelby at the battle of Point
Pleasant, in 1774. During the first five years of the war, he was an
active Whig partisan, on the mountain frontier of the Carolinas, was
raised to the rank of colonel, and greatly distinguished himself at
King's Mountain. He was in the battle near Musgrove's Mills, and early
in the following year he chastised some of the turbulent Indians among
the mountains. At the close of the war, he received the commission of
brigadier; and he was so much beloved by the people, that by acclamation
he was acknowledged governor of the "State of Franklin" or Frankland."
* He was so often engaged in treaties with the Indians, that they called
him the treaty-maker. When the State of Tennessee was organized, and
admitted into the Union, Sevier was elected its first governor. In 1811,
he was elected to a scat in Congress, with Felix Grundy and John Rhea,
and in 1813 was re-elected. During the war, Madison appointed him Indian
commissioner, and while engaged in his duties, near Fort Decatur, on
the east side of the Tallapoosa River, he died, on the twenty-fourth of
September, 1815. Under the direction of the late General Gaines, he
was buried with the honors of war. No stone marks his grave; but in the
Nashville cemetery, a handsome marble monument to his memory has lately
been erected. Upon the monument is the following inscription: "Sevier,
noble and successful defender of the early settlers of Tennessee;
the first, and for twelve years governor; representative in Congress;
commissioner in many treaties with the Indians. He served his country
faithfully for forty years, and in that service died. An admirer of
patriotism and merit unrequited erects this cenotaph."

* At the close of the Revolution, that portion of North Carolina
bordering East Tennessee contained quite a large and exceedingly active
population. Dissatisfied with the course pursued by North Carolina,
they called a convention, adopted a Constitution, and organized a state
government, which they called Frankland, in honor ot Dr. Franklin. They
chose John Sevier for governor, and organized a judiciary, &e. When
informed of this movement, Governor Caswell issued a proclamation
against "this lawless thirst for power," and denounced it as a revolt.
But the mountaineers did not heed official menaces. Violence ensued.
The difficulties were finally settled, and the State of Frankland
disappeared.

[[[Surrender of the British and Tories.--Loss in the Battle.--Effect of
the Battle.--Death of Ferguson.]]]

up on both sides. Our men in some parts where the regulars fought, were
obliged to give way a distance, two or three times, but rallied and
returned with additional ardor to the attack.

[Illustration: 9644]

The troops upon the right having gained the summit of the eminence,
obliged the enemy to retreat along the top of the ridge to where Colonel
Cleaveland commanded, and were there stopped by his brave men. A flag
was immediately hoisted by Captain Depeyster, * the commanding officer
(Major Ferguson having been killed a little before), for a surrender.
Our fire immediately ceased, and the enemy laid down their arms (the
greatest part of them charged), and surrendered themselves prisoners at
discretion.

[Illustration: 8644]

It appears from their own provision returns for that day, found in their
camp, that their whole force consisted of eleven hundred and twenty-five
men, out of which they sustained the following loss:

[Illustration: 7644]

Of the regulars, one major, one captain, two sergeants, and fifteen
privates killed; thirty-five privates wounded, left on the ground
not able to march; two captains, four lieutenants, three ensigns, one
surgeon, five sergeants, three corporals, one drummer, and forty-nine
privates, taken prisoners. Loss of the Tories, two colonels, three
captains, and two hundred and one killed; one major, and one hundred and
twenty-seven privates wounded, and left on the ground not able to march.

One colonel, twelve captains, eleven lieutenants, two ensigns, one
quarter-master, one adjutant, two commissaries, eighteen sergeants, and
six hundred privates taken prisoners.

Total loss of the enemy, eleven hundred and five men at King's Mountain.

Given under our hands at camp.

No battle during the war was more obstinately contested than this; for
the Americans were greatly exasperated by the cruelty of the Tories,
and to the latter it was a question of life and death. It was with
difficulty that the Americans, remembering Tarleton's cruelty at
Buford's defeat, could be restrained from slaughter, even after quarter
was asked. In addition to the loss of men on the part of the enemy,
mentioned in the report, the Americans took from them fifteen hundred
stand of arms. The loss of the Americans in killed was only twenty, but
they had a great number wounded. Among the killed was Colonel Williams
and Major Chronicle. Colonel Hambrite was wounded. Major Chronicle and
Major Ferguson were buried in a ravine at the northern extremity of the
battle-hill, where the friends of the former erected a plain monument,
a few years ago, with inscriptions upon both sides. The monument is
a thick slab of hard slate, about three feet high, rough hewn, except
where the inscriptions are. ***

* Captain Depeyster belonged to a corps of Loyalists, called the King's
American Regiment. His signature, here given, I copied from a letter of
his to General Gates a few days after the battle, while Depeyster was a
prisoner.

** The following is a copy of the inscriptions: North side.--"Sacred to
the memory of Major William Chronicle, Captain John Mattocks, William
Robb, and John Boyd, who were killed here fighting in defence of
America, on the seventh of October, 1780." South side.--Colonel
Ferguson,* an officer belonging to his Britannic majesty, was here
defeated and killed."

* Major Patrick Ferguson was a Scotchman, a son of the eminent jurist,
James Ferguson, and nephew of Patrick Murray (Lord Elibank). He entered
the army in Flanders at the age of eighteen years. He came to America in
the spring of 1777. and was active in the battle on the Brandywine,
in September of that year. He was active on the Hudson in 1779, and
accompanied Sir Henry Clinton to South Carolina. He so distinguished
himself at the siege of Charleston in 1780, that he was particularly
mentioned by the commander-in-chief. He was on the high road to military
fame, when he was slain on King's Mountain. His rank is incorrectly
given on the monument. He was only a major.

[[[Execution of Tories.--Character of the Battle-ground.--One of
Sumter's Men.--Route to the Cowpens]]]

{635}On the morning after the battle,[[Oct. 8, 1780]] a court-martial
was held, and several of the Tory prisoners were found guilty of murder
and other high crimes, and hanged. Colonel Cleaveland had previously
declared that if certain persons, who were the chief marauders, and who
had forfeited their lives, should fall into his hands, he would hang
them. Ten of these men were suspended upon a tulip-tree, which is yet
standing--a venerable giant of the forest. This was the closing scene
of the battle on King's Mountain, an event, which completely crushed the
spirits of the Loyalists, and weakened, beyond recovery, the royal power
in the Carolinas. Intelligence of the defeat of Ferguson destroyed
all Cornwallis's hopes of Tory aid. He instantly left Charlotte,
retrograded, and established his camp at Winnsborough,[[Oct. 29, 1780]]
in Fairfield District, between the Wateree and Broad Rivers.

It was from this point he commenced the pursuit of Morgan and General
Greene, after the battle at the Cowpens, as detailed in a preceding
chapter.

After making the sketch on page 629, and that of the monument on King's
Mountain, we rode back to Mr. Leslie's. It was twilight when we arrived;
for we had proceeded leisurely along the way, viewing the surrounding
scenery. I could perceive at almost every turn of our sinuous road the
originals of Kennedy's graphic sketches in the scenery of _Horse Shoe
Robinson_, and a recurrence to that tale at the house of Mr. Leslie
awoke pleasing reminiscences connected with its first perusal. On our
return, we ascertained that the grandfather of Mr. Leslie, the venerable
William M'Elwees, had just arrived. His company for the evening was a
pleasure I had not anticipated. He was one of Sumter's partisan corps,
and fought with him at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock. He was also in
the battle at Guilford, and during the whole war was an active Whig. Mr.
M'Elwees was eighty-seven years of age when I saw him,[[Jan. 1849]]
yet his intellect seemed unclouded. His narrative of stirring incidents,
while following Sumter, was clear and vivid; and when, at a late hour,
the family knelt at the domestic altar, a prayer went up from that
patriarch's lips, equal in fervid eloquence, both in words and accents,
to any thing I ever heard from the pulpit.

A cold, starry night succeeded my visit to the battle-ground on King's
Mountain, and at sunrise the next morning I was on my way to the Broad
River and the Cowpens. The ground was frozen and very rough. I traversed
King's Mountain in a northwesterly direction, and in the deep narrow
valley at its western base crossed King's Creek, a large and rapid
stream. The country over which I passed, from Leslie's to Ross's Ferry,
on the Broad River, a distance of twenty-one miles, is exceedingly rough
and hilly. In some places the road was deep gullied by rains; in others,
where it passed through recent clearings, stumps and branches were in
the way, endangering the safety of wheel and hoof. Within a mile of
the ferry, I discovered that the front axle of my wagon was broken,
evidently by striking a stump; but, with the aid of a hatchet and strong
cord with which I had provided myself, I was enabled to repair the
damage temporarily.

The sun was about an hour high when I reached the eastern bank of the
Broad River, a little below the mouth of Buffalo Creek. The house of
Mrs. Ross, the owner of the ferry, was upon the opposite side. For more
than half an hour I shouted and made signals with a white handkerchief
upon my whip, before I was discovered, when a shrill whistle responded,
and in a few minutes a fat negro came to the opposite shore, and
crossed, with a miserable bateau or river flat, to convey me over. The
river, which is there about one hundred and twenty yards wide, was quite
shallow, and running with a rapid current, yet the ferryman had the
skill to "pole" his vessel across without difficulty. I was comfortably
lodged at the house of Mrs. Ross for the night, and passed the evening
very agreeably in the company of herself and two intelligent daughters.
Here I observed, what I so frequently saw in the upper country of the
Carolinas, among even the affluent planters--the windows without sashes
or glass. In the coldest weather these and the doors are left wide open,
the former being closed at night by tight shutters. Great light-wood
(pine) fires in the huge chimney-

[[[Ventilation of Southern Houses.--Thicketty Mountain.--Loss of
Way.--Visit to the Cowpens Battle ground.]]]

{636}places constantly blazing, in a measure beat back or temper the
cold currents of air which continually flow into the dwellings. This
ample ventilation in cold weather is universally practiced at the South.
At Hillsborough and Charlotte, I observed the boarders at the hotels
sitting with cloaks and shawls on at table, while the doors stood wide
open! I was now within fifteen miles of the Cowpens, and at daybreak the
next morning[[Jan 1849]] started for that interesting locality.

[Illustration: 9656]

I was informed that the place of conflict was among the hills of
Thicketty Mountain, and near the plantation of Robert Scruggs. To that
gentleman's residence I directed my inquiries. After traversing a rough
road, much of it, especially along the water-courses, of red clay, I
began the ascent of Thicketty Mountain, upon the Mill-gap road, at the
forks leading to Clarke's iron-works and Rutherfordton. Here the ground
was covered with snow, and I had no means of discriminating between the
beaten track of the Mill-gap way and the numerous forks. I ought to
have turned to the northwest after leaving the Rutherfordton Fork half a
mile, and descended the northern slope of the mountain. Instead of that,
I kept along the ridge road, skirted by the forest on each side, without
any indication of habitation. For an hour I slowly traversed this
gradually ascending way, and almost imperceptibly approached the summit
of Thicketty Mountain, until convinced that I was not in the Mill-gap
road. Far to the northward, some thirty miles distant, I could see the
azure range of the Blue Ridge, near the Nutgap, where the springs of
the Broad River gush out from the mountains. They were covered with
snow, and from their lofty summits came a keen breeze, like that of
December at the North. The day was waning, and I had no time to lose
in deliberation, so I turned back and sought a lateral road, toward the
west, to the settlements below. Presently I heard the crying of a child,
and looking in the direction of the sound, I saw some thin blue smoke
curling among the trees near. I tied Charley to a laurel shrub, and soon
discovered a log cabin, in front of which some children were at play.
They fled at my approach, and the mother, a lusty mountaineer, whose
husband was at work in the iron-beds which abound in that mountain,
appeared astonished at the apparition of a stranger. From her I learned
that I had left the Mill-gap road at least three miles back. By her
direction I found it, and at about four o'clock reached the residence of
Mr. Scruggs. His house is upon the Mill-gap road, and about half a mile
west of a divergence of a highway leading to Spartanburg, the capital
of Spartanburg District, in which the Cowpens * are situated. Upon the
gentle hills on the borders of Thicketty Creek, covered with pine woods,
within a triangle, formed by the Spartanburg and Mill-gap roads, having
a connecting cross-road for a base, the hottest part of the fight
occurred. The battle ended within a quarter of a mile of Scruggs's,
where is now a cleared field, on the northeast side of the Mill-gap
road, in the center of which was a log-house, as seen in the annexed
engraving. The field was covered with blasted pines, stumps, and stocks
of Indian corn, and had a most dreary appearance. ** In this field, and
along the line of conflict, a distance of about

* This name is derived from the circumstance that, some years prior to
the Revolution, before this section of country was settled, some persons
in Camden (then called Pine-tree) employed two men to go up to the
Thicketty Mountain, and in the grassy intervales among the hills, raise
cattle. As a compensation they were allowed the entire use of the cows
during the summer for making butter and cheese, and the steers for
tilling labor. In the fall, large numbers of the fattest cattle would
be driven down to Camden to be slaughtered for beef, on account of the
owners. This region, so favorable for rearing cows, on account of the
grass and fine springs, was consequently called The Cowpens.

** They have a dangerous practice at the South in clearing their wild
lands. The larger trees are girdled and left standing, to decay and fall
down, instead of being felled by the ax. Cultivation is carried on among
them, and frequently they fall suddenly, and endanger the lives of
the laborers in the field. Such was the condition of the field here
represented.

[[[Material of the Army under Morgan.--Biography of Morgan]]]

{637}two miles, many bullets and other military relics have been found.
Among other things I obtained a spur, which belonged to the cavalry of
either Washington or Tarleton.=

[Illustration: 9647]

```"Come listen a while, and the truth I'll relate,

```How brave General Morgan did Tarleton defeat;

```For all his proud boasting, he forced was to fly,

```When brave General Morgan his courage did try."

`````Revolutionary Song.=

We have noted on page 596 the disposition which General Greene made of
the "shadow of an army" (less than two thousand men) which he received
from Gates. Brigadier-general Daniel Morgan, * an exceedingly active
officer, who was placed in command of the Western division, was
stationed, toward the close of 1780, in the country between the Broad
and Pacolet Rivers, in Spartanburg District. His division consisted of
four hundred Continental infantry, under Lieutenant-colonel Howard of
the Maryland line; two companies of the Virginia militia, under Captains
Triplet and Tate; and the remnants of the first and third regiments of
dragoons, one hundred in number, under Lieutenant-colonel William
A. Washington. This force, at the time in question, was considerably
augmented by North Carolina militia, under Major M'Dowell, and
some Georgia militia, under Major Cunningham. At the close of
December,[[1780]] Morgan and his troops were encamped near the northern
bank of the Pacolet, in the vicinity of Pacolet Springs. From this
camp Lieutenant-colonel Washington frequently sallied out to smite
and disperse bodies of Tories, who assembled at different points and
plundered the Whig inhabitants. He at-

[Illustration: 8647]

* Daniel Morgan was a native of New Jersey, where he was born in 1737,
and at an early age went to Virginia. He was a private soldier under
Braddock, in 1755, and after the defeat of that officer, returned to his
occupation of a farmer and wagoner. When the war of the Revolution broke
out, he joined the army under Washington, at Cambridge, and commanded
a corps of riflemen. He accompanied Arnold across the wilderness to
Quebec, and distinguished himself at the siege of that city.

* He was made a prisoner there. After his exchange, he was appointed to
the command of the 11th Virginia regiment, in which was incorporated his
rifle corps. * He performed great service at Stillwater, when Burgoyne
was defeated. Gates unjustly omitted his name in his report of that
affair to Congress. He served under Gates and Greene at the South,
where he became distinguished as a partisan officer. His victory at the
Cowpens was considered a most brilliant affair, and Congress voted him a
gold medal. (See next pane). At the close of the war, he returned to
his farm. He commanded the militia organized to quell the Whisky
Insurrection in Western Virginia, in 1794, and soon afterward was
elected a member of Congress. His estate in Clarke county, a few miles
from Winchester, Virginia, was called Saratoga. He resided there until
1800, when he removed to Winchester, where he died on the sixth of July,
1802, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. The house in which he died
stood in the northwest part of the town, and a few years since was
occupied by the Reverend Mr. Boyd. His grave is in the Presbyterian
grave-yard at Winchester; and over it is a plain horizontal slab, raised
a few feet from the ground, upon which is the following inscription:
"Major-general Daniel Morgan departed this life on July the 6th, 1802,
in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Patriotism and valor were the
prominent features of his character, and the honorable services he
rendered to his country during the Revolutionary war crowned him with
glory, and will remain in the hearts of his countrymen, a perpetual
monument to his memory."

[Illustration: 0648]

* In early life General Morgan was dissipated, and was a famous
pugilist; yet the teachings of a pious mother always made him
reverential when his thoughts turned toward the Deity. In his latter
years, he professed religion, and became a member of the Presbyterian
church in Winchester. "Ah!" he would often exclaim, when talking of
the past, "people said old Morgan never feared--they thought old Morgan
never prayed--they did not know old Morgan was often miserably afraid."
He said he trembled at Quebec, and in the gloom of early morning,
when approaching the battery at Cape Diamond, he knelt in the snow and
prayed; and before the battle at the Cowpens, he went into the woods,
ascended a tree, and there poured out his soul in prayer for protection.
In person, Morgan was large and strong. He was six feet in height, and
very muscular. *

* The following are the devices and inscriptions upon the medal: An
Indian queen with a quiver on her back, in the act of crowning an
officer with a laurel wreath; his hand resting upon his sword. A cannon
lying upon the ground; various military weapons and implements in the
background. Legend: Daniel Morgan duci Exercitus Comitia Americana--"The
American Congress to General Daniel Morgan." Reverse: An officer
mounted, at the head of his troops, charging a flying enemy. A battle in
the back-ground. In front, a personal combat between a dragoon unhorsed
and a foot soldier. Legend: Victoria libertatis vindex--"Victory, the
maintenance of Freedom." "The foe put to flight, taken, or slain,
at the Cowpens, January 17, 1781."

* This sketch of the flag of Morgan's rifle corps I made from the
original in the Museum at Alexandria, in Virginia.

[[[Defeat of Tories by Washington.--Pursuit of Morgan by Tarleton.--Gold
Medal awarded to Morgan.]]]

{638}tacked and defeated two hundred of them at Hammond's store, and
soon afterward a section of Washington's command dispersed another Tory
force under Bill Cunningham. Cornwallis, who was still at Winnsborough,
perceived these successes with alarm, and apprehending a design upon his
important post at Ninety-Six, over the Saluda, determined to disperse
the forces under Morgan, or drive them into North Carolina, before
he should rally the Mountain Men in sufficient numbers to cut off his
communication with Augusta. He accordingly dispatched Tarleton with his
legion of horse (three hundred and fifty in number), and the foot and
light infantry attached to it, the 7th regiment, and the first battalion
of the 71st, with two field pieces, to force Morgan to fight, or retreat
beyond the Yadkin. Tarleton's entire force consisted of about eleven
hundred well-disciplined men, and in every particular he had the
advantage of Morgan.

Tarleton commenced his march on the eleventh of January. The roads were
in a very bad condition, and it was not until the fifteenth that he
approached the Pacolet. He had crossed the Broad River near Turkey
Creek, and advanced with all possible speed toward the camp of Morgan.
That officer was at first disposed to dispute Tarleton's passage of the
Pacolet, but, informed of the superiority of his numbers, and that a
portion had already crossed above him, he retreated hastily northward,
and took post on the north side of Thicketty Mountain, near the Cowpens.
Tarleton passed through the place of Morgan's camp in the evening, a
few hours after he had left,[[Jan. 16, 1781]] and leaving his baggage
behind, he pressed eagerly forward in pursuit, riding all night, and
making a circuit around the western side of Thicketty Mountain. Early
the following morning,[[Jan. 17]] he cap-

[[[Disposition of the American Army.--John Eager Howard.--Silver Medal
awarded to Howard.]]]

{639}tured two American videttes, and learned from them the place of
Morgan s encampment. At eight o'clock he came in sight of the advanced
guard of the patriots, and fearing that Morgan might again retreat,
and get safely across the Broad River, he resolved to attack him
immediately, notwithstanding the fatigue of his troops.

The Americans were posted upon an eminence of gentle descent, covered
with an open wood.

[Illustration: 8649]

They were rested, had breakfasted, and were thoroughly refreshed after
their flight from the Pacolet. And now expecting Tarleton, they were
drawn up in battle order. On the crown of the eminence were stationed
two hundred and ninety Maryland regulars, and on their right the two
companies of Virginia militia, under Major Triplet. These composed the
rear line of four hundred and thirty men, and were under the general
command of Lieutenant-colonel Howard. One hundred and fifty yards in
advance of this line was a body of militia, about three hundred in
number, all practiced riflemen, and burning with a spirit of revenge,
because of the cruelties which the British and Tories had inflicted. A
part of these were commanded by Captain Beatty and Samuel Hammond, of
South Carolina. *

They were commanded by Colonel Andrew Pickens, who, with his followers,
had joined Morgan during the night. About one hundred and fifty yards in
advance of this first line, were placed the best riflemen of the
corps of M'Dowell and Cunningham. Those on the right were commanded by
Cunningham, and those on the left by M'Dowell. These were directed to
operate as circumstances should direct, after delivering their first
fire, which was to be

* No accurate plan of the arrangement of the troops on this occasion has
ever been made. Captain Hammond made a sketch many years afterward from
memory, which is published in Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences
of the Revolution. As it does not fully agree with official reports, I
forbear copying it.

[Illustration: 0649]

** John Eager Howard was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, on the
fourth of June, 1752. When the war commenced, he entered the service as
captain of one of those bodies of militia termed flying camps. He
was present at the battle near White Plains, New York. His corps was
dismissed in December, 1776 and at the solicitation of his friends,
he accepted of the commission of major in one of the Continental
battalions of Maryland. In the spring of 1777, he joined the army under
Washington, in New Jersey, with which he remained until the close of
June, when he returned home, on account of the death of his father. A
few days after the battle on the Brandywine, he rejoined the army, and
was distinguished for his cool courage in the battle at Germantown, of
which he wrote an interesting account. In that engagement, he was major
of the 4th regiment, commanded by Colonel Hall, of Maryland. Major
Howard was present at the battle of Monmouth, in 1778. On the first of
June, 1779, he received a commission as lieutenant colonel of the 5th
Maryland regiment, "to take rank from the eleventh day of March, 1778."
In 1780, he went with the Maryland and Delaware troops to the South, and
served under Gates until the arrival of Greene. Soon after this, we
find him with Morgan, winning bright laurels at the Cowpens; and for his
bravery there, Congress awarded him the honor of a silver medal. Howard
again distinguished himself at the battle of Guilford, where he was
wounded. At the conclusion of the war, Colonel Howard married Margaret,
the daughter of Chief-justice Chew, around whose house at Germantown
he had valiantly battled. In November 1788, he was chosen governor
of Maryland, which office he held for three years. He was commissioned
major general of militia in 1794, but declined the honor. Washington
invited him to a seat in his cabinet at the head of the War Department,
in 1795. That honor he also declined. He was then a member of the
Maryland Senate. In 1796, he was elected to the Senate of the United
States, where he served until 1803, when he retired from public life.
When, in 1814, Baltimore was threatened with destruction by the enemy
the veteran soldier prepared to take the field. The battle at North
Point, however, rendered such a step unnecessary. He lost his wife in
1827; and on the twelfth of Oetober, 1827, he, too, left the scenes of
earth, at the age of seventy-five years. Honor, wealth, and the ardent
love of friends, were his lot in life, and few men ever went down to the
grave more truly lamented than John Eager Howard.

* The following are the device and inscriptions: An officer mounted,
with uplifted sword, pursuing an officer on foot hearing a stand of
colors. Victory is seen descending in front, over the former, holding a
wreath in her right hand over his head. In her left hand is a palm
branch. Legend: "The American Congress to John Eager Howard, commander
of a regiment of infantry." Reverse: A laurel wreath, inclosing the
inscription, "Because, rushing suddenly on the wavering line of the foe,
he gave a brilliant specimen of martial courage at the battle of the
Cowpens, January 17,1781."

[[[Morgan prepared to Fight--His Address to his Troops.--The
Attack.--Tarleton's Charge.]]]

{640}given when the British should be within one hundred and fifty
yards. In the rear of the second line, under Howard, and behind an
eminence of sufficient height to conceal them, * the American reserve
was posted. These consisted of Washington's cavalry, and M'Call's
mounted militia of Georgia, armed with sabers.

Tarleton was rather disconcerted when he found that Morgan was prepared
to fight him, for he expected to overtake him on a retreat. He rode
cautiously forward to reconnoiter, but the shots of the advanced corps
of riflemen obliged him to retire precipitately to his lines. Yet,
feeling sure of an easy victory, Tarleton quickly arranged his line in
battle order upon the Spartanburg road, within three hundred yards
of Morgan's first line. At this moment, Morgan, with solemn voice and
sententious sentences, addressed his troops. He exhorted the militia of
the first line to be steady, and fire with sure aim; and expressed
his conviction that, if they would pour in two volleys at a killing
distance, victory would be theirs. He addressed the second line in a
similar manner, informed them that he had ordered the militia to
fall back after delivering two volleys, and exhorted them not to be
disconcerted by that movement. Then taking post with his line, near
Lieutenant-colonel Howard, he awaited in silence the approach of the
British van, already in motion. It consisted of the light troops and the
legion infantry, with the 7th regiment, under Major New-marsh. In the
center of this line were the two pieces of artillery. Upon each
flank was a troop of cavalry; and in the rear, as a reserve was Major
M'Arthur, with the battalion of the 71st regiment and the remainder of
the cavalry. Tarleton placed himself in the first line.

It was now about nine o'clock in the morning. The sun was shining warm
and bright over the summits of Thicketty Mountain, and gave brilliancy
to the martial array in the forests below. At a signal from Tarleton,
his advance gave a loud shout, and rushed furiously to the contest,
under cover of their artillery and an incessant discharge of musketry.
The riflemen, under Cunningham and M'Dowell, delivered their fire with
terrible effect, and then fell back to the flanks of the first line
under Pickens. The British still shouting, rushed forward, and poured
in a close fire upon the militia. These stood firm, until assailed with
bayonets, when they fell back to the second line. M'Call s militia fled
to their horses, while the remainder, under Pickens, took post upon
Howard's right. Upon the main body Tarleton now made a vigorous charge,
and was met with equal valor and determination. The contest was close
and severe, and the British line began to bend, when M'Arthur, with the
reserve, was ordered to advance. This movement reanimated the quailing
Britons, and they plied ball and bayonet with incessant force. While the
contest was raging, M'Arthur

* Between this eminence and the one on which Howard was stationed, the
Mill-gap road passes.

[[[Charge of Tarleton.--Bold Maneuver of Howard.--Americans
Victorious.--Colonel Washington.]]]

{641}attempted movement His order to gain the American flank under
Colonel Howard. That officer perceived the and its intent, and instantly
ordered his first company to charge the British 71st. was mistaken, and
the company fell back.

[Illustration: 9651]

The whole line also gave way at the same moment, and Morgan ordered
it to retreat to the eminence behind which the cavalry were posted.
Tarleton, believing this maneuver to be a precursor of flight,
ordered another charge, and, with shouts, his infantry rushed forward
impetuously, in disorder. When close to Howard, that officer ordered his
line to face about and give his pursuers a volley. Instantly a close and
murderous fire laid many of the British line dead upon the earth, and
the living, terrified by the unexpected movement, recoiled in confusion.
Howard perceived the advantage of the moment, and followed it up with
the bayonet. This decided the victory in favor of the Americans. At the
same time, a portion of Tarleton's cavalry having gained the rear of the
Americans, fell upon M'Call's mounted militia. Now was the moment for
Lieutenant-colonel Washington * to act. With his cavalry, he struck the
British horsemen a decisive blow, and drove them in confusion before
him. The reserve, under M'Ar-

* William Augustine Washington, "the modern Marcellus," "the sword
of his country," was the eldest son of Baily Washington, of Stafford
county, Virginia. He was educated for the Church, but the peculiar
position of public affairs led him into the political field. He early
espoused the patriot cause, and entered the army under Colonel Hugh
(afterward General) Mercer, as captain. He was in the battle near
Brooklyn, Long Island, distinguished himself at Trenton, and was with
his beloved general when he fell at Princeton. He was afterward a major
in Colonel Baylor's corps of cavalry, and was with that officer when
attacked by General Grey, at Tappan, in 1778. The following year, he
joined the army under Lincoln in South Carolina, and was very active in
command of a light corps, in the neighborhood of Charleston. He became
attached, with his corps, to the division of General Morgan, and with
that officer fought bravely at the Cowpens. For his valor on that
occasion, Congress presented him with a silver medal. He was an active
officer in Greene's celebrated retreat, and again fought bravely at
Guilford Court House. He behaved gallantly at Hobkirk's Hill, near
Camden, and at the battle at Eutaw Springs be exhibited signal valor;
but his horse being shot under him, he was there made a prisoner. He
remained a captive until the close of the war. Having become attached to
a South Carolina lady during his captivity, he married her and settled
in Charleston. He represented that district in the State Legislature.
His talents as a statesman were so conspicuous, that he was solicited to
become a candidate for governor. He declined the honor, chiefly because
he could not make a speech. When President Adams appointed General
Washington commander-in-chief of the American army, he chose Colonel
Washington to be one of his staff, with the rank of brigadier. Colonel
Washington died on the sixth of Mardi, 1810. He was tall in person,
possessed of great strength and activity, and in society was taciturn
and modest.

[Illustration: 0651]

* The following are the device and inscriptions: An officer mounted at
the head of a body of cavalry, charging flying troops; Victory is flying
over the heads of the Americans, holding a laurel crown in her right
hand and a palm branch in her left.' Legend: The American Congress to
William Washington commander of a regiment of cavalry. Reverse: 17th
January, 1761--"Because, having vigorously pursued the foe with a small
band of soldiers, he gave a brilliant specimen of innate valor in the
battle at the Cowpens, seventeenth January, 1731." This inscription is
within a laurel wreath.

[[[Retreat of the British.--Encounter between Washington and
Tarleton.--Result of the Battle.]]]

{641}thur, were too much mixed up with the main forces of Tarleton,
to present a rallying point, and the whole body retreated along the
Mill-gap road to the place near Scruggs's, delineated on page 636, then
covered with an open wood like the ground where the conflict commenced.
There the battle ended, and the pursuit was relinquished. It was near
the northern border of that present open field that Washington and
Tarleton had a personal conflict. In the eagerness of his pursuit of
that officer, Washington had got far in advance of his squadron, when
Tarleton and two of his aids, at the head of the troop of the 17th
regiment of dragoons, turned upon him. An officer on Tarleton's right
was about to strike the impetuous Washington with his saber, when his
sergeant came up and disabled the assailant's sword-arm. An officer
on Tarleton's left was about to strike at the same moment, when
Washington's little bugler, too small to wield a sword, wounded the
assailant with a pistol-ball. Tarleton, who was in the center, then made
a thrust at him, which Washington parried, and gave his enemy a wound in
the hand. * Tarleton wheeled, and, as he retreated, discharged a pistol,
by which Washington was wounded in the knee. During that night and the
following morning, the remnant of Tarleton's force reached Hamilton's
Ford, on Broad River, and also the encampment of Cornwallis, at Turkey
Creek, about twenty-five miles from the Cowpens. For this defeat,
Tarleton's cotemporaries censured him severely. **

The loss of the Americans in this decisive battle was about seventy men,
of whom, strange to say, only twelve were killed. The British, according
to Cornwallis's letter to Sir Henry Clinton, written a few days
afterward, lost ten officers and ninety privates killed, and
twenty-three officers and five hundred privates taken prisoners. Almost
the whole of the British infantry, except the baggage guard, were killed
or taken. The two pieces of artillery, *** eight hundred muskets, two
standards, thirty-five baggage wagons, and one hundred dragoon horses,
fell into the possession of the Americans. **** To the honor of the
victors, it is declared that, notwithstanding the cruel warfare which
Tarleton had waged had exasperated the Americans to the last degree, not
one of the British was killed or wounded, or even insulted, after they
had surrendered.

The defeat of the British at the Cowpens has not been inaptly compared
to that of the Germans of Burgoyne's army near Bennington. The disaster,
in both cases, dealt a severe blow against the success of the main army.
The battle near Bennington paralyzed the energies of Burgoyne's army;
the battle at the Cowpens equally affected the power of Cornwallis. He
was advancing triumphantly toward the heart of North Carolina, having
placed

* It is related that this wound was twice the subject for the sallies
of wit of two American ladies, who were sisters, daughters of Colonel
Montfort, of Halifax county, North Carolina. When Cornwallis and his
army were at Halifax, on their way to Virginia, Tarleton was at the
house of an American. In the presence of Mrs. Wilie Jones (one of these
sisters), Tarleton spoke of Colonel Washington as an illiterate fellow,
hardly able to write his name. "Ah! colonel," said Mrs. Wilie, "you
ought to know better, for you bear on your person proof that he knows
very well how to make his mark.'" At another time, Tarleton was speaking
sarcastically of Washington, in the presence of her sister, Mrs. Ashe.
"I would be happy to see Colonel Washington," he said, with a sneer.
Mrs. Ashe instantly replied, "If you had looked behind you, Colonel
Tarleton, at. the battle of the Cowpens, you would have enjoyed that
pleasure." Stung with this keen wit, Tarleton plaeed his hand on his
sword. General Leslie, who was present, remarked. "Say what you please,
Mrs. Ashe, Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my
presence."--Mr. Ellet's Women of the Revolution.

** See Siedman, ii., 324.

*** These two pieces of artillery were first taken from Burgoyne at
Saratoga; then retaken by the British at Camden; now were recovered
by the Americans, and afterward fell into the hands of Cornwallis
at Guilford. They were of the kind of small field-pieees called
"grasshoppers."

**** Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Lee, Johnson, Tarleton, Moultrie.

[[[The Heroes of the Cowpens.--Departure from that Place.--Cherokee
Ford.--Indians in the Carolinas.]]]

{643}South Carolina, as he thought, in submission at his feet. The
defeat of Ferguson at King's Mountain, and now of Tarleton, his favorite
partisan, withered his hopes of Tory organization and co-operation.
His last hope was the destruction of Greene's army by his own superior
force, and for that purpose he now commenced the pursuit which we
have considered in a preceding chapter, the capture of Morgan and his
prisoners being his first object.

The victory of the Cowpens gave great joy to the Americans throughout
the confederacy. Congress received information of it on the eighth of
February, and on the ninth of March that body voted an award of a gold
medal to Morgan; a silver medal to Howard and Washington; a sword to
Colonel Pickens; and a vote of thanks to the other officers and men
engaged in the battle. *

It was almost sunset when I left the Cowpens to return to a house of
entertainment upon the road to the Cherokee Ford, seven miles distant;
for the resident there could not find a corner for me in his dwelling,
nor for Charley in his stable, that cold night, "for love nor money,"
but generously proposed that I should send him a copy of my work when
completed, because he lived upon the battle-ground! To a planter
on horseback, from Spartanburg, who overtook me upon the road, I am
indebted for kindness in pointing out the various localities of interest
at the Cowpens; to the other for the knowledge that a small building
near his house was the depository of a field-piece used by an artillery
company in the vicinity, when celebrating the anniversary of the battle.

After dark, I reached the house of Mrs. Camp, where I was comfortably
lodged for the night; and early the following morning, accompanied by
one of her sons on horseback, I proceeded to the Cherokee Ford, on the
Broad River, ten miles distant. The road was very rough most of the way,
and quite hilly. At the ford, on the west side of the river, is a large
iron manufactory. The ore is brought from the neighboring mountains,
smelted there, and wrought into hollow-ware, nails, spikes, tacks, &c.
Around the establishment quite a little village has grown up, and there,
as at Matson's Ford (Conshohocken), on the Schuylkill, where hostile
parties were seen during the Revolution, and all around was a
wilderness, the hum of busy industry is heard, and the smiles of
cultivation are seen. Here, as we have observed (page 633), the
Americans, who gained the victory at King's Mountain, crossed this
stream on the morning of the battle.

Before crossing the Broad River, the _Estwawpuddenah_ of the Cherokee
Indians, let us take a historical survey of the most important
occurrences westward of this stream, in the beautiful country watered
by the Tyger, the Ennoree, and the Saluda, and further on to the noble
Savannah. Standing here upon the western selvage of civilization when
the war broke out, and where the aborigines were sole masters but a few
years before, let us glance, first, at the record of events which mark
their conflicts with the over-reaching white race, who beat them back
beyond the mountains. **

We have already noticed, on page 562, the efforts of the Corees,
Tuscaroras, and other Indians of the Neuse and Cape Fear region to expel
the Europeans.[[1712]] This conflict was soon succeeded by another,
more serious in its character. For a while, the very existence of the
Southern colony was menaced. The powerful nation of the Yamassees, who

* Journals of Congress, vii, 47.

** South Carolina was occupied by twenty-eight Indian nations when the
Europeans first made a permanent settlement upon the Ashley River. The
domain of these tribes extended from the ocean to the mountains.
The Westos, Stonos, Coosaws, and Sewees occupied the country between
Charleston and the Edis-to Rivers. They were conquered by the Savannahs,
and expelled from the country. The Yamassees and Tuspahs held the
territory in the neighborhood of Port Royal. The Savannahs, Serannahs,
Cussobos, and Euchees occupied the middle country, along the Isundigia,
or Savannah River. The Apalachians inhabited the head waters of
the Savannah and Alatamaha, and gave their name to the mountains of
Apalachy, and the bay of Apalachicola. The Museoghees or Creeks occupied
a part of the country between the Savannah and Broad Rivers, being
divided by the latter from the country of the Cherokees. The Congarees,
Santees, Waterees, Saludas, Catawbas, Peedees, and Winyaws lived
along the rivers which bear their respective names. The Museoghees and
Catawbas were the most warlike; the Cherokees were more numerous than
either, but more peaceful. These various nations, when Charleston was
founded, could muster, probably, fifty thousand warriors.--See Simms's
History of South Carolina, page 67.

[[[War with the Indians.--Peril of the White People.--Defeat and
Conquest of the Indians.--Seminoles]]]

{644}possessed the territory around Port Royal, where the French
Huguenots first attempted settlement, had long evinced their friendship
for the Carolinians, whose first settlement was in the neighborhood of
the present city of Charleston, by engaging with them as allies in their
wars against the Spaniards and some Indian tribes. The Spaniards at
St. Augustine, who were the mortal enemies of the Carolinians, finally
succeeded in uniting the Cherokees--"the mountaineers of aboriginal
America" * --the Muscoghees, Apalachians, and other Indian nations, in a
league for the destruction of the colony. They also won the confidence
of the Yamassees, and suddenly that powerful tribe appeared in arms
against the Carolinians. Already the Apalachian tribes, occupying
a large portion of the present State of Georgia, instigated by the
Spaniards, had desolated some of the frontier settlements.[[1703]]
Governor Moore, at the head of a body of Carolinians and friendly
Indians, penetrated into the very heart of the Apalachian settlements,
between the Savannah and the Alatamahaw Rivers.

He laid their villages in ashes, devastated their plantations slew about
eight hundred people, and, with a large number of captives, marched back
in triumph to Charleston. This invasion broke the spirit of the tribe,
and made the power of the Carolinians thoroughly respected among their
neighbors.

When the confederacy of the tribes of the upper country was effected,
and the Yamassees lifted the hatchet against the white people,[[1715]]
Governor Craven, who had promptly sent aid to the people of the northern
provinces, as promptly met the danger at his own door. So secretly had
the confederation been formed, and their plans matured, that the first
blow was struck, and almost a hundred people were slain, ** before
the Carolinians were aware of danger. The Yamassees, the Muscoghees or
Creeks, and Apalachians, advanced along the southern frontier, spreading
desolation in their track. The Cherokees, the Catawbas, and the
Congarees joined them, and the Corees, and some of the Tuscaroras, also
went out upon the war-path. Almost a thousand warriors issued from the
Neuse region, while those of the southern division amounted to more than
six thousand. Within forty days, the Indian tribes from the Cape Fear
to the St. Mary's, and westward to the Alabama, were banded together for
the destruction of the colony at Ashley River.

Governor Craven, whose character was the reverse of his name, acted
with the utmost energy when the confederation and its purposes were made
known. He immediately proclaimed martial law; laid an embargo on all
ships to prevent men or provisions from leaving the colony, and seizing
arms wherever they could be found, placed them in the hands of faithful
negroes, to co-operate with the white people. With twelve hundred men,
white and black, he marched to confront the Indians, now approaching
with the knife, hatchet, and torch, in dreadful activity. In the first
encounters of his advanced parties with the enemy the Indians were
victors, but Craven finally compelled them to fall back to their chief
camp upon the Salk-hatchie, *** whither the governor pursued them.
Desperate were the conflicts which ensued, and for a while the victory
was doubtful. The fate of the whole colony was suspended upon the
result, and the Carolinians contended with all the energy of men
fighting for life, home, and family. The Indians were repulsed, and,
hotly pursued by the white people and their black aids, they were driven
across the Savannah and sought shelter under the guns of the Spanish
fortress at St. Augustine. No longer useful to them, the Spaniards drove
their savage allies into the wilderness, and fearing to return to their
hunting-grounds north of the Savannah, the Indians set up their wigwams
among the everglades of Florida, and became, it is believed, the
ancestors of the powerful Seminoles of our day.

When the division of the Carolinas occurred,[[1729]]and the southern
portion became a

* Bancroft, iii., 246.

* This massacre was at Pocotaligo, an old village in the parish of
Prince William, in Beaufort District. It then contained about three
hundred inhabitants. There stood Fort Balfour, which was captured,
during the Revolution, by a few Americans under Colonel Harden.

*** This is the name of the south fork of the Combahee River, which
empties into St. Helena Sound. The place of the encampment was near
Barnwell, the capital of Barnwell District.

[[[Embassy to the Indians.--Erection of Forts.--War with the
Cherokees.--Small pox at Charleston.]]]

{645}royal province, the first care of the administration was to secure
the friendship of the neighboring tribes. In 1730, an embassy under
Sir Alexander Cumming, visited and explored the Cherokee country, three
hundred miles from Charleston. They made a favorable impression, secured
advantageous treaties, and laid, as they hoped, the foundation of a
permanent peace. For twenty years the treaty remained unbroken. In 1755,
the Cherokees renewed their treaty with the Carolinians, and at the
same time made cessions to them of large tracts of land. Upon this ceded
territory, stretching along the Savannah to the Tennessee River,
Glenn, then governor of South Carolina, built forts, and named them
respectively Prince George, * Moore, and Loudon. The first was upon the
Savannah, three hundred miles from Charleston; the second was about one
hundred and seventy miles below; and the latter was upon the waters of
the Tennessee River, five hundred miles from Charleston. These forts
were garrisoned by troops from Great Britain, and, promising security,
settlements rapidly extended in that direction. They served to awe the
Indian nations, and peace might have been always secured, had the white
people exercised ordinary prudence. But one rash act scattered the
power of treaties to the wind, and lighted the flames of war along the
Carolina frontier.

In 1757, during the administration of Governor Lyttleton (afterward Lord
Wescott), while a large party of the Cherokees, who had been assisting
the English against the French on the Ohio, were returning home, they
took possession of some horses from the back settlers of Virginia. The
white people pursued them, killed a number of warriors, and took several
captive. This violence exasperated the Indians, and they retaliated by
scalping every white man whom they met. Parties of young warriors fell
upon the border settlements of the Carolinas, and war was kindled
along the whole frontier. Lyttleton called the Carolinians to arms. The
Cherokee chiefs were alarmed, and sent a deputation to Charleston to
appease the wrath of the English. Lasting friendship might have been
at once secured had not Lyttleton indiscreetly refused to listen. He
collected fourteen hundred men upon the Congaree, conducted the Cherokee
delegation thither, under guard, and, extorting a pledge of peace
and alliance, he returned to Charleston, after sending to Fort George
twenty-two hostages, whom he had demanded for the delivery of the
warriors who had desolated the border settlements. The Cherokees were
very indignant, and the governor had scarcely reached his capital, when
he received intelligence that fourteen white people had been murdered
within a mile of Fort George. Soon the Cherokees surrounded that
fortress, led on by Occonastota, a chief of great influence, and the
implacable enemy of the English. Perceiving the power of his arms to be
vain, he had recourse to stratagem. Withdrawing his warriors, he spread
them in ambush, and while conferring with the commander of the garrison
and two other officers, whom he had decoyed to the margin of a stream
by expressions of friendship, he gave a signal, and instantly they were
surrounded by armed savages. The commander was slain, and the other
two were wounded and made prisoners. The garrison proceeded to put the
hostages in irons. They made a deadly resistance, and were all slain.
This event maddened the whole Indian nation, and, with gleaming
hatchets, they swept along the Carolina frontier like the scythe of
Death. Men, women, and children were butchered without mercy; and the
war-belt was sent to the Catawbas and other tribes, inviting them to
confederate for the extermination of the English.

About this time, Charleston was severely scourged by the small-pox, and
was too weak to send efficient succor to the frontiers. Lyttleton had
been appointed governor of Jamaica, and, sailing for that island about
this time, was succeeded by William Bull, a native Carolinian. Bull sent
to Virginia and North Carolina for aid, and those states furnished seven
troops of rangers for the service. These, with the British regulars
under Colonel Montgomery (afterward Earl of Eglinton), sent from Canada
by General Amherst, marched into the

* Fort Prince George was a strong work. It was quadrangular, with an
earthen rampart six feet high, upon which stockades were placed. Around
it was a ditch, and it had a natural glacis on two sides. At each angle
was a bastion, on which four small cannons were mounted. It contained
barracks for a hundred men.

[[[Montgomery's Expedition against the Indians.--Peace.--Renewal of
War.--Grant and Middleton's Expedition.]]]

{646}Indian country. Before proceeding, Montgomery rendezvoused at
Monk's Corner,[[April, 1760]] near Charleston, where volunteers flocked
to his standard. The Cherokees were advised of these preparations for
invading their territory, and were at first uneasy. Their beautiful
domain spread out between the Broad and Savannah Rivers, and was fenced
in by rugged mountains. They had then sixty-four towns and villages,
and upon an emergency could call six thousand warriors to the field.
Reflecting upon this force, they felt strong. Montgomery, with only two
thousand men, proceeded against the Indians. In several engagements he
chastised them severely, and pressed on to the relief of Fort Prince
George, then closely invested by the red warriors. The Indians fled at
his approach toward the secure fastnesses of the mountains and morasses,
and hither Montgomery pursued them. The wilderness was vast and fearful
over which he marched, and the streams to be forded were often deep and
turbid. The enemy finally made a stand at Etchoee, the nearest town of
their middle settlements. Within five miles of this village a severe
battle was fought. The Cherokees fell back slowly before the cold
bayonet; and when they saw the English pressing toward the town,
they fled thither precipitately, to save their women and children.
Montgomery, feeling unsafe in that far off and desolate region, returned
to Fort Prince George, and from thence toward Charleston. All the way to
the populous settlements, he was annoyed by the Indians, who hung upon
his rear, and the purpose of the campaign was only half accomplished.
Montgomery and his regulars soon afterward returned to New York.

While this retreat was in progress, the distant post of Fort Loudon,
on the Tennessee, was invested by the Cherokees. The garrison of two
hundred men was daily melting away by famine. The Virginia Rangers
attempted its relief, but without success. The garrison finally
surrendered. Safe guidance to the frontier settlements, with ammunition
and other baggage was promised them; but they had gone only a short
distance on their way, when their guides forsook them, and another body
of Indians fell upon and massacred twenty-six of them. A few escaped,
and Stuart, their commander, and some others, remained captives a long
time.

The Cherokees were now willing to treat for peace, but the French
had sent emissaries among them, who kept their fears and animosities
constantly excited. Soon the war was renewed with all its former
violence, while Carolina was left almost wholly to her own resources.
She raised a provincial regiment of twelve hundred men, and gave the
command to Colonel Middleton, a brave and accomplished officer. Among
his subordinates were Henry Laurens, Francis Marion, William Moultrie,
Isaac Huger, and Andrew Pickens, all of whom were very distinguished
patriots during the Revolution. This was their first military school,
and the lessons they were there taught were very useful in a subsequent
hour of need. When this little band was ready to march into the Cherokee
country, Colonel James Grant, with the regiments formerly commanded by
Montgomery, landed at Charleston.[[April, 1761]] The united forces of
Grant and Middleton, with some of the Chickasaw and Catawba Indians as
allies, in all twenty-six hundred men, reached Fort

Prince George on the twenty-ninth of May. Nine days afterward[[June 7]]
they advanced toward Etchoee, where, upon the ground where Montgomery
fought them, a large body of Cherokees were gathered. Well skilled
in the use of fire-arms, and now well supplied by the French, they
presented a formidable front. They also had the advantage of superior
position, and the battle which ensued was severe and bloody. For three
hours the conflict raged in that deep wilderness; and it was not until
the deadly bayonet, in the hands of desperate men, was brought to bear
upon the Indians, that they gave way. Inch by inch they fell back,
until finally, completely overpowered, they fled, hotly pursued by their
conquerors. How many were slain is not known; the English lost nearly
sixty men. Like Sullivan in the Seneca country, Grant followed up his
victory with the torch. Etchoee was laid in ashes; the cornfields and
granaries were destroyed, and the wretched people were driven to the
barren mountains. * So terrible was the punishment, that the name of
Grant was to them a synonym for _devastation_.

* Marion, in a letter quoted by Weems, mentioned the wanton destruction
of the corn, then in full ear, and said, "I saw every where around the
footsteps of the little Indian children, where they had lately played
under the shelter of the rustling corn. No doubt they had often looked
up with joy to the swelling shocks, and gladdened when they thought of
their abundant cakes for the coming winter. When we are gone, thought I,
they will return, and, peeping through the weeds with tearful eyes,
will mark the ghastly ruin poured over their homes, and the happy fields
where they had so often played. 'Who did this?' they will ask their
mothers. 'The white people; the Christians did it!' will be the reply."

[[[Treaty of Peace and Friendship.--Influence of Royal
Emissaries.--Indian Hostilities renewed.--John Stuart.]]]

{647}By this victory, the spirit of the Cherokee Nation was broken, and
the French, whose machinations had urged them to continued hostilities,
were hated and despised by them. Through the venerable sachem,
Attakullakulla, who had remained a friend of the white people, the
chiefs of the Nation humbly sued for peace. "The Great Spirit," said the
old man, "is the father of the white man and the Indian; as we all live
in one land, let us all live as one people." His words of counsel were
heeded; a treaty of amity was concluded, and a bloody war was ended. The
Treaty of Paris, between the English and French, was concluded in 1763,
and, except the feeble Spaniards on the South, the Cherokees had no
enemies of the English thereafter to excite them to war.

From 1761, until the war of the Revolution commenced, the Indians upon
the Carolina and Georgia frontiers were generally quiet and peaceful.
Pursuant to the secret instructions which the royal governors received
from the British ministry, to band the Indians against the colonists,
Tory emissaries went up from the sea-board and excited the Cherokees
and their neighbors to go upon the war-path. Among the most active
and influential of these emissaries of the crown was John Stuart, a
Scotchman, and at that time his majesty's Indian agent for the Southern
colonies. * Stuart arranged a plan with Wright, Campbell, Martin,
Dunmore, and other royal governors, to land a British army at St.
Augustine, in Florida, which, uniting with the Indians and Tories, might
invade the state at an interior point, while a fleet should blockade
its harbors, and land an invading army on the sea-board. This plan was
discovered by the Carolinians, but not in time entirely to defeat it;
for, when Parker and Clinton made their attack upon Charleston,[[June
28, 1776]] the Cherokees commenced a series of massacres upon the
western frontiers of the province. Already a few stockade forts had been
erected in that section, and to these the terrified borderers fled
for safety. Colonel Williamson, of the district of Ninety-Six, who was
charged with the defense of the upper country, raised about five hundred
true men, and in his first skirmish with the Indians, in which he took
some prisoners, discovered thirteen white men, Tories, disguised as
savages, and wielding the tomahawk and scalping knife. The indignation
excited against these men extended to their class, and this discovery
was the beginning of those bloody scenes between bands of Whigs and
Tories which characterized many districts of South Carolina. The
domestic feuds which ensued were pregnant with horrid results; the
ferocity of the tiger usurped the blessed image of God in the hearts of
men, and made them brutes, with fearful power to be brutal.

When intelligence of the affair at Charleston reached the interior, the
patriots were encouraged, and Williamson soon found himself at the
head of a force of twelve hundred men, and daily augmenting. With a
detachment of three hundred horsemen, he proceeded to attack an Indian
and Tory force at Oconoree Creek. He fell into an ambuscade, and himself
and companions narrowly escaped destruction. His horse was shot under
him; his squad-

* John Stuart came to America with Oglethorpe, probably with the
Highlanders under M'Intosh, the father of General Lachlin M'Intosh, of
the Revolution, who settled upon the Alatamahaw, and called the place
New Inverness. The Indians were greatly pleased wilh the dress and
character of the Highlanders, and to this circumstance is attributed
Stuart's influence among them. Stuart went to Charleston; became Indian
agent; married Niss Fenwick, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in
the province, and finally became one of the king's council. He lived
in the house on the corner of Wadd and Orange Streets. Charleston,
now (1851) owned by William Carson. Esq. He had commanded a corps on
Cumberland Island, who gallantly repulsed the Spaniards in 1745, and
this was the commencement of his popularity which led up to the civil
station that he held in council. He chose the royal side when the
Revolution broke out, and to him was attributed all of the difficulties
with the Indians upon the frontier during the first year of that
strangle. Alarmed for his personal safety, he fled to St. Augustine. His
estate was confiscated. He died in England. His son, Sir John Stuart,
became a distinguished general in ihe British army.--See Johnson's
Traditions of the Revolution, page 107.

[[[Desolation of the Cherokee Country.--Expeditions under Rutherford and
Pickens.--Present Condition of the Cherokees]]]

{648}ron were thrown into disorder; and but for the skill and coolness
of Colonel Hammond in rallying them, they would have been routed,
and many slain. They were victorious, and shortly after this event,
Williamson marched, with two thousand men, to lay waste the Cherokee
country. Again he fell into an ambuscade, in a narrow defile among the
rugged mountains, near the present town of Franklin. From the rocky
heights, and from behind the huge trees of the forest, twelve hundred
warriors, with some Tories, poured a destructive fire upon the Whigs.
But again the Indians were repulsed, and Williamson pressed forward
cautiously but efficiently in the work of conquest and desolation. The
valleys were smiling with crops of corn, and numerous villages dotted
the water-courses. Towns were laid in ashes; the standing corn was
trampled down and destroyed; and over all the Indian settlements
eastward of the Apalachian Mountains, the broom of desolation swept with
terrible effect. The destruction of food invited famine to a revel, and,
to avoid starvation, five hundred warriors crossed the Savannah and fled
to the Loyalists in Florida.

In the mean while, General Rutherford, of North Carolina, with a force
fully equal to Williamson's, crossed the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap,
and proceeded to the valley of the Tennessee River, laying waste the
Indian country on the line of his march. There he joined Williamson on
the fourteenth of September. The work of destruction being completed,
Rutherford returned to Salisbury in October, where he disbanded his
troops. The conquest was consummate. The Cherokees sued for peace, but
they had no Attakullakulla to intercede for them, for he had gone
down into silence. They were compelled to submit to the most abject
humiliation, and to cede to South Carolina all their lands beyond the
mountains of Unacaya, now comprised within the fertile districts of
Greenville, Anderson, and Pickens, watered by the tributaries of the
Savannah, the Saluda, and the Ennoree. *

Only once again did the Cherokees lift the hatchet, during the war. In
1781, British emissaries induced them to go upon the war-path. With a
large number of disguised white men, they fell upon the inhabitants in
Ninety-Six, massacred some families, and burned their houses. General
Pickens, with a party of militia, penetrated the Cherokee country, and
in the space of fourteen days he burned thirteen of their villages,
killed more than forty of the Indians, and took nearly seventy of them
prisoners. They sued for peace, promised never to listen to the British
again, and from that time they remained quiet. **

The spirit of the North Carolina Regulators was infused into the back
settlers of South Carolina, beyond the Broad River, and about 1769,
the leading men of that region took the law into their own hands. To
suppress their rising power and importance, the governor employed a man
of low habits, but of haughty demeanor, named Scovill, to go thither and
enforce the laws of the province. He gave him the commission of colonel,
and, with the mistaken policy of a narrow mind, he used rigorous
measures, instead of evincing forbearance and a spirit of conciliation.
The sufferings which they endured made them reprobate all government,
and when asked to espouse the cause of Congress, they refused, on the
ground that all congresses or instruments of government are arbitrary
and tyrannical. These formed the basis of the Tory ascendency in that
section of the state at the beginning of the war; and before the
names of Whig and Tory became distinctive appellations, the name of
Scovillites was applied to those who opposed the Republicans. There
were also many Dutch settlers between the Broad and Saluda Rivers, who
had received bounty lands from the king.

* Moultrie, Ramsay, Simms, Johnson.

** A greater portion of the Cherokee Nation, now in existence, occupy
territory west of the Mississippi. A remnant of them remain in North
Carolina, at a place ealled Qualla Town, in Haywood county. They were
allowed to remain when the general emigration of their nation took
place. They have a tract of seventy-two thousand acres of land.
Almost every adult can read in the Cherokee language, and most of them
understand English. They manufacture all their necessaries; have courts,
lawyers, and judges of their own, and have all the political rights of
free citizens of the state. They are sober, industrious, and religious.
Their present business chief (1851) is William H. Thomas, Esq., senator
from that district (50th). The Qualla Town Cherokees exhibit some
remarkable cases of longevity. In 1850, Messrs. Mitchell and Smoot,
while on an official visit there, saw Kalostch, who was then one hundred
and twenty years old. His wife "went out like a candle," as Kalosteh
said, the year before, at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years.
It is said that people one hundred years old are not uncommon there.

[[[The Western Settlers.--Growth of Party Spirit.--The
Cunninghams.--Seizure of Powder.]]]

{649}Government emissaries persuaded these settlers to believe that an
espousal of the rebel cause would be the sure precursor of the loss of
their lands. These augmented the loyal population when the inhabitants
were called upon to make a political decision. Still another class, the
Scotch-Irish Protestants, had experienced the bounty of the king, and
these, with a feeling of gratitude, adhered to the royal government.
Over all these, Lord William Campbell, the royal governor when the
war broke out, had unbounded influence, and probably in not one of the
thirteen colonies was loyalty more rampant and uncompromising than
in South Carolina. Many, whose feelings were all in harmony with the
opposers of royal rule, were urged by self-interest to remain quiet; for
they felt secure in person and property under present circumstances, and
feared the result of commotion. Thus active and passive loyalty sat like
an incubus upon the real patriotism of South Carolina; and yet, in every
portion of the state, the Tories were outnumbered by the Whigs, except
in the section we are now considering, between the Broad and Saluda
Puvers. The inhabitants there could not be persuaded to furnish men and
arms for the army of Congress, nor to sign the American Association.

Early in 1776, William Henry Drayton, Colonel William Thomson, Colonel
Joseph Kershaw, and Reverend William Tennent, were sent by the Council
of Safety at Charleston into that district, to explain to the people
the nature of the dispute. Emissaries of government counteracted their
influence by persuading the people that the inhabitants of the seaboard
desired to get their tea free of duty, while those in the interior would
be obliged to pay a high rate for salt, osnaburgs, and other imported
necessaries. The baneful seeds of suspicion and mutual distrust were
sown broad-cast among the settlers. The men of each party banded
together in fear of the violence of the other, and soon opposing
camps were formed. Moderate men endeavored to prevent bloodshed, and a
conference of their respective leaders was finally effected. A treaty
of mutual forbearance was agreed to, and for a while agitation almost
ceased. But restless spirits were busy. Among these, Robert and Patrick
Cunningham, ** Tory leaders, were the most active, and they soon
disturbed the repose of party suspicion and animosity. By their
machinations, it was aroused to wakefulness. The Whigs, fearful of
Robert Cunningham's influence, seized and conveyed him to Charleston,
where he was imprisoned. His brother Patrick raised a force to attempt a
rescue.

At about this time, a thousand pounds of powder, on its way as a present
to the Cherokees, was seized by these Loyalists. This excited the
already vigorous efforts of the Council of Safety to more efficient
measures. Colonel Williamson (the same officer who chastised the
Cherokees), with a party of patriots, was sent to regain the powder.
They seized Patrick Cunningham, the leader, when the Tories gathered in
strength, and drove Williamson into a stockade fort at Ninety-Six. Alter
remaining there some days, an agreement for a cessation of hostilities
was concluded, and both parties dispersed to their homes.

* Mr. Drayton was, at this time, quite a young man, a descendant of one
of the leading families of South Carolina. He was a nephew of Governor
Bull. When Republican principles began to work up to the surface, and
become visible at the South, in 1771, his pen was employed on the side
of government, in opposition to Christopher Gadsden and others. 'These
essays brought him into notice. He was introduced at court, and was
appointed one of Governor Bull's council. As the Revolution advanced to
a crisis, Drayton saw the injustice of Great Britain, and espoused
the Republican cause. He became a favorite of the people, and, while a
delegate in the Continental Congress, he died in their service in 1779.

** Robert Cunningham was an Irish settler in the District of Ninety-Six,
now Abbeville, where he was commissioned a judge in 1770. After his
release, in 1776, he removed to Charleston. In 1780, he was appointed a
brigadier general to command the Loyalists of that province. His estate
was confiscated in 1782, and not being allowed to remain in the province
at the close of the war, he went to Nassau, New Providence, where he
died in 1813, at the age of seventy-four years. The British government
indemnified him for his losses, and gave him a pension. His brother
Patrick was deputy surveyor of the colony in 1769. He received the
commission of colonel, under Robert, in 1780. His property, also, was
confiscated in 1782, and at the close of the war he went to Florida. The
South Carolina Legislature afterward treated him leniently, and restored
a part of his property. He was elected a member of the Legislature by
his Tory friends. He died in 1794.

[[[Tory Faithlessness.--Expedition against them--Battle at Musgrove's
Mill.]]]

{650}The treaty at Ninety-Six was soon violated by the Tories, when
the Provincial Congress, resolving no longer to rely upon words, sent
a large body of militia and newly-raised regulars, under Colonels
Richardson * and Thomson, ** to apprehend the leaders of the party which
seized the powder, and to do all other things necessary to suppress the
present and future insurrections. *** They were joined by seven hundred
militia from North Carolina, under Colonels Thomas Polk and Griffith
Rutherford, and two hundred and twenty regulars, commanded by Colonel
James Martin. This was a wise step. It gave the Tories an exalted idea
of the strength of the friends of government, and entirely destroyed
their organization. Colonel Richardson used his discretionary powers
with mildness. The most obstinate leaders were seized and carried to
Charleston. Quiet was restored, and the Loyalists made no demonstration
of moment until after the reduction of Savannah, when a considerable
party arose in favor of the royal government, having for their leader
Colonel Boyd, who had been secretly employed by the British government
to head the Tories. These were routed and dispersed at Kettle Creek,
while on their way to the British posts in Georgia. This event will
be noticed in detail hereafter. From that time until the British took
possession of Charleston, in 1780, the Tories remained rather quiet upon
their plantations. On the eighteenth of August, 1780, Colonel Williams
(who was killed at King's Mountain a few weeks afterward), with Colonels
Shelby and Clarke, attacked quite a large body of British under Colonel
Innis and Major Fraser, near Musgrove's Mill, upon the Ennoree River, in
the northeast corner of Laurens's District. Many Tories were collected
there, and were joined on the seventeenth by Innis and Fraser. The whole
force was about three hundred strong, and were encamped upon the
south side of the river, where they commanded a bad, rocky ford. The
Americans, whose force was much less, took post upon the north side,
upon a small creek which empties into the Ennoree just below the
Spartanburg line, about two miles above Musgrove's Mill. It was agreed
that Williams should have the chief command. He drew up his little army
in ambush, in a semicircle within a wood, and then proceeded to entice
his enemy across the river. For this purpose he took a few picked
men, appeared at the ford, and fired upon the enemy. The stratagem was
successful. Innis immediately crossed the ford to dislodge the "rebels."
Williams and his party retreated, hotly pursued by Innis until within
the area of the patriot ambuscade, when a single shot by Colonel Shelby
gave the signal for attack. With a loud shout, the concealed Americans
arose, and within two minutes the Tories were completely surrounded.
Colonel Innis was slightly wounded, but with the larger part of his
regulars he escaped. Major Fraser was killed, with eighty-five others.
Colonel Clary, the commander of the militia, escaped, but

* Richard Richardson was a native of Virginia, where he was employed
as a land-surveyor at the time when Washington was engaged in the same
pursuit. He afterward settled in old Craven county, in South Carolina;
and during the Indian border wars, he commanded a regiment. As a
representative in the Provincial Congress of South Carolina, Colonel
Richardson assisted in forming the first Republican Constitution for
that state. He was with General Lincoln in his Southern campaigns, and
with that officer became a prisoner at Charleston, at which time he was
a brigadier. With others, he was sent to St. Augustine, from whence he
returned in September with a broken constitution, and soon died at
his residence, near Salisbury, in Sumter District, at the age of about
seventy-six years. Soon after his death, Tarleton occupied his house,
and, believing the family plate was buried with him, had his body
disinterred. When he was about leaving, that cruel man applied the torch
to the house with his own hand, avowing his determination to make it the
"funeral pile of the widow and her three young rebels." His son, James
B., was afterward governor of South Carolina.--See Johnson's Traditions,
page 158.

** William Thomson was a native of Pennsylvania, and a relative of
Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress. He was
born about the year 1727, and, while a child, was taken to Orangeburg
District, in South Carolina. He was a patriot, and was placed in command
of the 3d regiment, called the Rangers. With his regiment, he fought
in the battle on Sullivan's Island in 1776. He was with General Howe
in Georgia, and served under the command of D'Estaing at Savannah. He
behaved gallantly, and suffered much during the greater part of the war.
At its close, he returned to his estate at Belleville, near Fort Motte,
mentioned on page 687, with shattered health and fortune. There he
continued in the pursuit of an indigo planter, which he began before the
war, until 1796, when declining health induced him to go to medicinal
springs in Virginia. He died there on the twenty-second of November of
that year, at the age of sixty-nine years.

*** Instructions of the Provincial Congress to Colonel Richardson.

[[[Gathering of Troops by Sumter.--His partisan Compatriots.--Attack
upon Wemyss at Fish Dam Ford.]]]

{651}most of his men were made prisoners. The Americans lost four men
killed and eleven wounded.

[Illustration: 9661]

After this victory, Williams, with the prisoners, encamped at the Cedar
Spring, in Spartanburg District, and from thence proceeded to Charlotte.
Williams and Clarke returned to the western frontier, and the prisoners,
under Major Hammond, marched to Hillsborough.

General Sumter, * after his defeat at the mouth of the Fishing Creek,
on the Catawba, in August, 1780,[[Aug. 18]] collected a small volunteer
force at Sugar Creek. Although, when the defeat of Gates at Camden was
effected, there was no regular army in the field in South Carolina for
three months, Sumter with his volunteers, maintained a warfare, and kept
up the spirit of liberty upon the waters of the Broad River and vicinity
for a long time. He crossed that stream, and by rapid marches ranged the
country watered by the Ennoree and Tyger Rivers, in the neighborhood
of the Broad His men were all mounted. They would strike a blow in one
place to-day; to-morrow, their power would be felt far distant. Marion
was engaged, at the same time, in similar service in the lower country;
while Clarke and Twiggs of Georgia, and Williams, Pickens, and others
of Ninety-Six, were equally active. The utmost vigilance of Cornwallis,
then at Winnsborough, was necessary to maintain a communication between
his various posts. While Tarleton was engaged in endeavors to find,
fight, and subdue Marion, the "Swamp Fox," then making his valor felt on
and near the banks of the Santee, Cornwallis perceived the operations
of Sumter with alarm. He surmised (what was really the fact) that Sumter
designed to attack his fort at Ninety-Six; he accordingly detached Major
Wemyss, a bold and active officer, to surprise the partisan, then on
the east side of the Broad River, at Fish Dam Ford, in Chester District,
fifty-three miles from Camden. Wemyss, with a considerable force of
well-mounted men, reached the vicinity on the evening of the eighth
of November.[[1780]] Fearing Sumter might be apprised of his proximity
before morning, and cross the river, Wemyss resolved to attack him at
midnight, and immediately formed his corps for battle. At about one
o'clock in the morning, he rushed upon Sumter's camp. That vigilant
officer was prepared to receive him. Colonel Taylor, who commanded
Sumter's advanced guard, had taken particular precautions. The
horses were all saddled and bridled, ready to retreat or pursue, as
circumstances might require. This preparation astonished the British,
for they believed their approach was unknown. As soon as they were

* Thomas Sumter was one of the South Carolina patriots earliest in the
field. Of his early life and habits very little is known. In March,
1776, he was a lieutenant colonel of a regiment of riflemen. After the
fall of Charleston, in 1780, when a partisan warfare was carried on in
the Carolines, Sumter began to display those powers which made him so
renowned. Governor Rutledge, perceiving his merits, promoted him to
brigadier of militia. His battles at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock gave
him great eclat. He was defeated by Tarleton at Fishing Creek, on the
Catawba, just after the unfortunate battle near Camden. With a few
survivors, and other volunteers, he crossed the Broad River, ranged the
districts upon its western banks, and on the eighth of November,
1780, defeated Colonel Wemyss who had attacked his camp. He afterward
defeated Tarleton at Blackstocks. Sumter was wounded, but was able to
take the field early in February, 1781. While Greene was retreating
before Cornwallis, Sumter, with Marion, was humbling British garrisons
in the lower country. He continued in active service during the whole
campaign of 1781. Ill health caused him to leave the army before the
close of the war. He served a long time in the Congress of the United
States He died at his residence at Statesburg, near Bradford Springs,
in Sumter District, on the first of June, 1832, at the remarkable age of
ninety-eight years.

[[[Defeat of Wemyss.--Sumter pursued by Tarleton.--Halt and Battle at
Blackstocks's.]]]

{652}within rifle shot, Sumter gave a signal; a deadly volley ensued,
and twenty-three of the enemy were laid dead upon the field. The British
recoiled, but rallying in a moment, they renewed the attack. A hot
skirmish ensued, when the British gave way and retreated precipitately,
leaving their commander (who was wounded at the first attack), with many
slain and wounded comrades, upon the field. Major Wemyss was found
the next morning, bleeding profusely. The blood was stanched, and,
notwithstanding he had been guilty of various cruelties toward the
Whigs, and in his pocket was a list of houses he had burned, Sumter
treated him kindly, and allowed him to go to Charleston on parole.

Sumter now prepared to cross the Broad River, for the purpose of
effecting his design upon Ninety-Six. He had agreed with Colonels
Clarke, Twiggs, and others, from Georgia, to join them on the west side
of the Broad River, and proceed to invest that post. For the purpose of
covering this expedition, and deceiving the British, he first approached
and menaced Camden, and then wheeling, by forced marches he crossed the
Broad River and joined Clarke and his associates between the Tyger
and Ennoree. Sumter took the command of the whole, and had crossed the
Ennoree, when he was intercepted by Tarleton. Cornwallis, alarmed for
the safety of Ninety-Six, had recalled that officer from the expedition
against Marion, and ordered him to proceed immediately in pursuit of
Sumter. With his usual celerity, Tarleton soon crossed the Broad River,
and, pushing up the southern side of the Ennoree, attempted to gain
Sumter's rear. A deserter from the British infantry informed that
officer of the approach and design of Tarleton, and he immediately
ordered a retreat. Backward they turned, but so near was the enemy,
that, while crossing the Ennoree, the rear guard of the Americans
were handled roughly by Tarleton's van. They escaped, however, with
a trifling loss. Sumter continued his retreat until he reached the
plantation of Blackstocks, on the southwest side of the Tyger River (in
the extreme western part of Union District), still closely pursued by
Tarleton. That place appeared favorable for a small force to do battle,
and Sumter resolved there to face his pursuers, maintain his ground
during the day, if possible, and, if compelled to retreat, to cross the
river at night. Tarleton did not approach as early as was apprehended,
and it was near the close of the afternoon,[[Nov. 20, 1780]] when, with
about four hundred of his command, he appeared near Blackstocks's. He
was in such haste to overtake Sumter before he should cross the Tyger,
that he pressed forward without waiting for the remainder of his force.
He found the Americans upon a hill near Blackstocks's house, ready for
battle and determined to fight. Major Jackson, of Georgia, who acted as
Sumter's volunteer aid on that occasion, assisted him essentially in the
proper formation of his troops, and in directing their movements.

In Sumter's front was a very steep bank, with a small rivulet at its
base, a fence, and some brushwood. His rear, and part of his right
flank, was upon Tyger River; his left was covered by a large log-barn.
Tarleton took position upon an eminence near by, and, believing the
victory for himself quite sure, he leisurely prepared to attack the
Americans, as soon as the remainder of his command should arrive. When
Sumter perceived that the whole of Tarleton's force was not with him, he
determined not to wait to be attacked, but to act on the offensive. He
issued his orders hastily, and in a few minutes his troops descended
suddenly from the hill, and poured a well-directed fire upon the
British. The latter met the unexpected shock with great valor, and then
rushed upon the American riflemen with bayonets. These fell back in good
order, when a reserve of riflemen, with a second volley, slew many of
the British, and repulsed the remainder. Tarleton, now observing the
peril of his little army, charged directly up the hill with his cavalry.
The Americans stood firm, and, making sure aim with their rifles, drove
the cavalry back beyond the rivulet. Tarleton, amazed at the result,
drew off his whole force, then, wheeling his cavalry, made a furious
charge upon Sumter's left flank, where the hill was less precipitous.
Here he was met by a little band of one hundred and fifty Georgia
militia, under Twiggs and Jackson, who, like veterans of many wars,
stood firm, and made a noble resistance for a long time, * until

* Colonel (afterward General) James Jackson, in a letter to the late
Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, written many years subsequent to the
war (the original of which is in possession of H. C. Baird, Esq., of
Philadelphia), says, "General Sumter was wounded early in the action,
and retired. Colonel (now General) Twiggs and myself fought the enemy
three hours after this, and defeated them totally, bringing off upward
of thirty dragoon horses."

[[[Flight of Tarleton.--Sumter Wounded.--His Retreat.--Thanks of
Congress.--Patriotic Women.]]]

{653}hoof, and saber, and pistol, bore too hard upon them, and they gave
way. At that moment, tiie rifles of a reserve, under Colonel Winn, and
a sharp fire from the log-barn, decided the day. Tarleton fled, leaving
nearly two hundred upon the field. Of these, more than ninety were
killed, and nearly one hundred wounded. The Americans lost only three
killed and five wounded. Among the latter was General Sumter, who
received a ball in his breast early in the action, and was taken to the
rear, when Colonel Twiggs assumed the command. Though Sumter's wound was
severe, and kept him from the field for several months afterward, it
did not completely disable him at the time. Without waiting for the
remainder of Tarleton's force to come up, Sumter, as soon as he had
buried the dead, and made the wounded of the enemy as comfortable
as possible, forded the swift-flowing Tyger, bearing his wounded on
litters, and continued his retreat to the eastern side of the Broad
River, where a large portion of his followers separated, some to go
home, others to join new commanders. He proceeded into North Carolina,
and remained there until his wounds were healed. The Georgians turned
westward, and marched along the base of the mountains toward Ninety-Six.
The valorous achievements of Sumter (several more of which will be
noticed in detail hereafter) during the campaign of 1780 acquired for
him the title of the _Carolina Gamecock_. Cornwallis was obliged to
speak of him as the most troublesome of his enemies. On the thirteenth
of January, 1781, Congress passed a very complimentary resolution of
thanks to him and his men, in the preamble of which, his victory at
Hanging Rock, and his defeat of Wemyss and Tarleton, are particularly
mentioned. * With these latter events ended all the important military
operations westward of the Broad River, and north of the Saluda. **

The day is waning; let us cross the Eswawpuddenah, and resume our
journey.

* Journals of Congress, vii., 14.

** Tradition has preserved many thrilling accounts of the sufferings,
self-sacrifice, and great courage of the women westward of the Broad
River. The gentle maiden and the rough woodsman were, taught in the same
school of rude experience, and imbibed from the events of daily life a
spirit of self-reliance seldom seen in more refined society. Among
the heroines of this region, Sarah Dillard, of Spartanburg District,
mentioned on page 630, and Dicey Langston, of Laurens District, were
among the most conspicuous. Of the latter, Mrs. Ellet, in her admirable
sketches of Women of the Revolution, has recorded many interesting
anecdotes. One of these will suffice to illustrate the courage of
this young girl--a noble type of her class. Her father was infirm; her
brothers were abroad; and Dicey, then only sixteen, was her father's
chief companion and solace. A Tory band, called the Bloody Scout, under
the notorious Bill Cunningham, spread terror over that lonely region;
and the known patriotism of Dicey often jeopardized the life and
property of her father. On one occasion, she learned that the Scout were
about to fall upon a settlement beyond the Tyger, where her brothers
dwelt. She resolved to save them. At night and alone, she crossed the
Ennoree and hastened to the banks of the Tyger. It was swollen, yet she
did not recoil from the danger. The blackness of midnight was upon the
land, yet she went boldly into the stream. Neck deep in the channel, she
became confused, and did not know which way to go. God led her to the
northern bank; and, like an angel of mercy, she sped to the settlement.
When the Bloody Scout reached there the next day, no man was to be
found.

Miss Langston married Thomas Springfield, of Greenville, South Carolina,
where many of her descendants are still living. She died only a few
years ago. Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Simms, Mrs. Otterson, Miss Jackson, Mrs.
Potter, and other less conspicuous of the women west of the Broad River,
were co-patriots with Dicey Langston. Of these, Mrs. Ellet has made many
interesting records.

[[[Cherokee Ford.--Romantic Mountain Gorge.--Passage of King's Creek.]]]

{654}




CHAPTER XXV.


```"Ours are no hirelings train'd to the fight,

```With cymbal and clarion, all glittering and bright;

```No prancing of chargers, no martial display;

```No war-trump is heard from our silent array.

```O'er the proud heads of freemen our star-banner waves;

```Men, firm as their mountains, and still as their graves,

```To-morrow shall pour out them life-blood like rain:

```We come back in triumph, or come not again!"--T. Gray=.

[Illustration: 9664]

T noon I crossed the Broad River at the Cherokee Ford, and turning to
the southeast, pressed on toward Yorkville and the interesting fields
of conflict beyond, near the waters of the Catawba and its surname,
the Wateree, where the chivalrous partisans of the South, scorning the
Delilah lap of ease, retained their strength and battled manfully with
the Philistines of the crown.

[Illustration: 8664]

The river at the ford is about eight hundred yards wide, and upon the
firm pathway, which has been constructed at considerable expense, in
this vicinity, that it is quite unnavigable, except in a few places.

Soon after leaving the ford, I passed through a gorge of a spur of
King's Mountain, which here comes down in a precipitous ridge to the
Broad River. The scenery within this gorge was the most romantic I had
observed in the Southern country.

[Illustration: 6664]

From a ravine, just wide enough for the passage of a small stream and
the high-way, the hills rise almost perpendicularly to a considerable
altitude. They were covered with the various evergreens which give
beauty to Southern forests in winter; and from the fissures of the
rocks, where the water-fountains were bursting forth, hundreds of
icicles were glittering in prismatic beauty wherever the sun shed
its rays upon them. It was truly a gorgeous scene. Along this sinuous
mountain stream, rock-bound on either side, the road continued to an
iron establishment, where it ascends the steep margins of the hills,
presenting a surface of deep adhesive red earth. Descending the eastern
side of the eminence, I crossed King's Creek, a dozen miles below the
place where I passed it two days before when on my way to the Cowpens.
Soon again I was among the rough hills, and so bad was the road, that at
sunset I had traveled only ten miles from the Cherokee Ford.

The average depth of water did not exceed one foot. Unless the river
is much swollen, the ford is perfectly safe. A strong dam, owned by the
proprietors of the iron-works, crosses the river an eighth of a mile
above; and so shallow and rapid is the current, and so rocky the bed of
the river, for many miles

* This view is from the east bank of the river. Toward the extreme right
is seen the dam, made to supply water-power for the iron-works delineated
toward the left of the picture. The fording-place, which crosses a small
island in the middle of the stream, is indicated by the slight fall
toward the left.

[[[A Night on the Mountains.--Contentment.--Mule
Driving.--Yorkville.--Catawba Indians.]]]

{655}I discovered that the temporary repairs of my wagon had not been
sufficient to withstand the rough usage of the way, and that more
thorough work was necessary before I could pursue my journey with
safety. Yorkville, the nearest place In advance where a smith could be
found, was fourteen miles distant, so I was compelled to halt for the
night at a small log-house, of forbidding aspect, among the mountains.
The food and shelter was of the plainest kind imaginable. There was no
"light in the dwelling," except the blaze of pine wood upon the hearth,
and I wrote a letter by the glare of a resinous knot, brought from the
"wood pile" for the purpose. Lying in bed, I could count the stars at
the zenith; while the open floor below afforded such ample ventilation,
that my buffalo robe, wrapped around me, was not uncomfortable on that
keen frosty night. But generous, open-handed hospitality was in that
humble cabin, which made amends for trifling discomforts, and I felt
satisfied.=

````"Out upon the calf, I say,

````Who turns his grumbling head away,

````And quarrels with his feed of hay,

`````Because it is not clover.

````Give to me the happy mind,

````That will ever seek and find

````Something fair and something kind,

`````All the wide world over."=

Unwilling to risk a journey to Yorkville in my broken buggy, I hired
a team of mules and a lumber-wagon from my host, to convey myself and
baggage thither; and placing Charley and the vehicle in charge of his
son, a lad of fourteen years, we started for the distant village at
daybreak the next morning. All the way over that rough road I had
practical evidence that mules are, like facts, "stubborn things." I was
furnished with a hickory goad as long as an angler's rod, and with this
I labored faithfully, full half of the way, to whip the animals into
a trot where a level space occurred. But I made no visible impression;
walk they would, until they reached the brow of a hill, when they would
descend with the vehemence of the swine of old, who, filled with devils,
ran down into the sea. Down three long hills, rocky and gullied, they
ran, while my energies were fully occupied in pulling at the reins
with one hand, and securing my seat upon a loose board, covered with
a sheepskin, with the other. I reached Yorkville in safety at a little
past meridian, resolved never again to play postillion with mules or
donkeys, whether biped or quadruped.

Yorkville, the capital of York District, in South Carolina, almost two
hundred miles from Charleston, is a very pleasant village of about
eight hundred inhabitants, situated in the midst of a high plain, on
the dividing-ridge between the waters of the Broad and Catawba Rivers.
Sheltered from the northwest winds by the mountains, the climate is mild
in winter; elevated far above the low country of the Carolinas, it is
salubrious in summer. The streets of the village are regularly laid
out, and adorned with beautiful Pride of India trees, filled, when I was
there, with clusters of fruit. I saw some elegant mansions; and in the
gardens, fine palmettoes, the first I had seen, were growing. I passed
the Sabbath pleasantly in Yorkville, and left it early on Monday
morning, with the impression that not a lovelier village flourishes in
the "upper eountry" of the South. Leaving the great highway to Columbia
on the right, I traversed the more private roads in the direction of the
Catawba, to visit the scenes of valor and suffering in the vicinity of
that stream. The weather was fine, and the roads generally good.
Soon after leaving Yorkville, I passed through a part of the Catawba
reservation, a narrow tract of land on the Catawba River, near the
southeast corner of Yorkville District. The Catawba tribe, once so
powerful, have dwindled down to the merest remnant. For their general
adherence to the patriots during the Revolution, they have always
received the fostering care of the state. Their number now does not
exceed one hundred, and in a few years that once great rival tribe of
the Five Nations will be extinct. * So the aborigines pass away, and the
few survivors in our land may chant in sorrow,

* The Catawbas spoke a language different from any of the surrounding
tribes. They inhabited the country south of the Tuscaroras, and
adjoining the Cherokees. In 1672, the Shawnees made settlements in their
country, but were speedily driven away. In 1712, they were the allies
of the white people against the Corees and Tuscaroras; but in 1715, they
joined the other tribes in a confederacy against the Southern colonies.
In 1760, they were auxiliaries of the Carolinians against the Cherokees,
and ever afterward were the friends of the white people. Their chief
village was on the Catawba, twenty-four miles from Yorkville. The
following eloquent petition of Peter Harris, a Catawba warrior during
the Revolution, is preserved among the colonial records at Columbia, in
South Carolina. The petition is dated 1822: "I am one of the lingering
survivors of an almost extinguished race. Our graves will soon be our
only habitations. I am one of the few stalks that still remain in the
field where the tempest of the Revolution has passed. I fought against
the British for your sake. The British have disappeared, and you are
free; yet from me have the British took nothing; nor have I gained any
thing by their defeat. I pursued the deer for subsistence; the deer are
disappearing, and I must starve. God ordained me for the forest, and my
ambition is the shade. But the strength of my arm decays, and my feet
fail me in the chase. The hand which fought for your liberties is now
open for your relief. In my youth I bled in battle, that you might be
independent; let not my heart in my old age bleed for the want of your
commiseration."

This petition was not unheeded; the Legislature of South Carolina
granted the old warrior an annuity of Sixty dollars.

````"Our hungry eyes may fondly wish

````To revel amid flesh and fish,

````And gloat upon the silver dish

`````That holds a golden plover

````Yet if our table be but spread

````With bacon and with hot corn-bread,

````Be thankful if we're always fed

`````As well, the wide world over."=

[[[Fishing Creek and its Associations.--Generous Hospitality.--Petition
of a Catawba Indian.]]]

{656}

````"We, the rightful lords of yore,

````Are the rightful lords no more;

````Like the silver mist, we fail,

````Like the red leaves in the gale--

````Fail, like shadows, when the dawning

````Waves the bright flag of the morning.''

`````J. M'Lellan, Junior.=


```"I will go to my tent and lie down in despair;

```I will paint me with black, and will sever my hair;

```I will sit on the shore when the hurricane blows,

```And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes;

```I will weep for a season, on bitterness fed.

```For my kindred are gone to the hills of the dead;

```But they died not of hunger, or lingering decay--

```The hand of the white man hath swept them away!''

`````Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.=


I crossed the Fishing Creek at sunset; and at the house of a young
planter, a mile beyond, passed the night. There I experienced
hospitality in its fullest degree. The young husbandman had just begun
business life for himself, and, with his wife and "wee bairn," occupied
a modest house, with only one room. I was not aware of the extent of
their accommodations when I asked for a night's entertainment, and the
request was promptly complied with. It made no difference to them, for
they had two beds in the room, and needed but one for themselves;
the other was at my service. The young man was very intelligent and
inquiring, and midnight found us in pleasant conversation. He would
accept no compensation in the morning; and I left his humble dwelling
full of reverence for that generous and unsuspecting hospitality of
Carolina, where the people will give a stranger lodgings _even in their
own bedrooms_, rather than turn him from their doors.=

```"Plain and artless her sons; but whose doors open faster

```At the knock of the stranger or the tale of disaster?

```How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,

```With rich ore in their bosoms, and life in their fountains.''

`````Gaston.=

My journey of a day from Fishing Creek to Rocky Mount, on the Catawba,
was delightful.

The winter air[[Jan. 15, 1849]] was like the breath of late April in
New England; and the roads, passing through a picturesque country,
were generally good. Almost every plantation, too, is clustered with
Revolutionary associations; for this region, like Westchester county, in
New York, was the scene of continual partisan movements, skirmishes, and
cruelties, during the last three years of the war. Near the month of the
Fishing Creek (which empties into the Catawba two miles above the Great
Falls), Sumter suffered defeat, after partial success at Rocky Mount
below; and down through Chester, Fairfield, and Richland, too, Whigs
and Tories battled fearfully for territorial possession, plunder, and
personal re-

[[[Great Falls of the Catawba.--Mount Dearborn.--Cotton Factory.--Rocky
Mount and its Associations.]]]

{657}venge. Some of these scenes will be noticed presently. Turning to
the left at Beckhamville, * I traversed a rough and sinuous road down to
the banks of the Catawba, just below the Great Falls.

[Illustration: 8667]

Here yet remain the foundations of a projected United States military
establishment, to be called Mount Dearborn, which was abandoned; and
upon the brink of the foaming waters stands a cotton-mill, the property
of Daniel M'Cullock, operated by white hands, and devoted chiefly to
the production of cotton-yarns. At this place, in the midst of a fine
cotton-growing country, almost inexhaustible water-power invites capital
and enterprise to seek good investment, and confer substantial benefit
upon the state. The place is wild and romantic. Almost the whole
volume of the river is here compressed by a rugged island into a narrow
channel, between steep, rocky shores, fissured and fragmented, as if by
some powerful convulsion.

There are no perpendicular falls; but down a rocky bed the river tumbles
in mingled rapids and cascades, roaring and foaming, and then subsides
into comparative calmness in a basin below.

It was late in the afternoon when I finished my sketch of the Falls,
and leaving Mount Dearborn, crossed Rock Creek and reined up in front of
the elegant mansion of Mrs. Barkley, at Rocky Mount. Her dwelling, where
refined hospitality bore rule, is beautifully situated upon an eminence
overlooking the Catawba and the surrounding country, and within a few
rods of the remains of the old village and the battle-ground. Surrounded
by gardens and ornamental trees, it must be a delightful summer
residence. Yet there was grief in that dwelling and the habiliments of
mourning indicated the ravages of death. The husband and father had been
an honored member of the Legislature of South Carolina, and

* Here was the scene of exciting events during the early part of the
summer of 1780. Rocky Mount was made a royal post. Captain Houseman, the
commander, sent forth hand-bills, calling the inhabitants together in
an "old field," where Beckhamville post-office now stands, to receive
protection and acknowledge allegiance to the crown. One aged patriot,
like another Tell, refused to bow to the cap of this tiny Gesler. That
patriot was Joseph Gaston, who lived upon the Fishing Creek, near the
Catawba. In vain Houseman, who went to his residence with an armed
escort, pleaded with and menaced the patriot. His reply was, "Never!"
and as soon as the British captain had turned his back, he sent his
sons out to ask the brave among his neighbors to meet at his house that
night. Under Captain John M'Clure, thirty-three determined men were
at Judge Gaston's at midnight. They were clad in hunting-shirts and
moccasins, wool hats and deer-skin caps, each armed with a butcher-knife
and a rifle. Early in the morning, they prepared for the business of the
day. Silently they crept along the old Indian trail by the margin of the
creek, and suddenly, with a fearful shout, surrounded and discomfited
the assembled Tories upon the "old field," at Beckhamville. The British
soldiers in attendance fled precipitately to their quarters at Rocky
Mount. Filled with rage, Houseman sent a party to bring the hoary-headed
patriot, then eighty years of age, to his quarters; but they found his
dwelling deserted. His wife,= concealed in some bushes near, saw them
plunder the house of every thing, and carry off the stock from the
plantation. Nothing was left but the family Bible--a precious relic,
yet preserved in the family. This movement of Justice Gaston and his
neighbors was the first effort to cast back the wave of British rule
which was sweeping over the state, and threatening to submerge all
opposition east of the mountains. Judge Gaston had nine sons in the
army. When they heard of the massacre of the patriots on the Waxhaw, by
Tarleton, these young men joined hands, pledged themselves thenceforth
never to submit to oppression, and from that time they all bore arms
in defense of liberty.--See Mrs. Ellett's Domestic History of the
Revolution, pages 169--174, inclusive.

** This view is from the west side of the Catawba, looking northeast,
toward Lancaster District.

[[[A Night at Rocky Mount.--The Battle-ground.--Sumter again in
Arms.--His Compatriots.]]]

{658}in the midst of his useful public life he was thrown from his gig
and killed. Yet the light of hospitality was not extinguished there, and
I shall long remember, with pleasure, the night I passed at Rocky Mount.

[Illustration: 9668]

Accompanied by Mrs. Barkley's three daughters, and a young planter from
"over the river,"

I visited the battleground before sunset, examined the particular
localities indicated by the finger of tradition, and sketched the
accompanying view of the principal place of conflict. Here, in the
porch, sitting with this interesting household in the golden gleams of
the declining sun, let us open the clasped volume of history, and read a
brief but brilliant page.

Almost simultaneously, three distinguished partisans of the South
appeared conspicuous, after the fall of Charleston;[[May 12, 1780]]
Marion, between the Pedee and Santee; Sumter, upon the Catawba and Broad
Rivers; and Pickens, in the vicinity of the Saluda and Savannah Rivers.
With the surrender of Charleston, the hopes of the South Carolina
patriots withered; and so complete was the subjugation of the state by
the royal arms, that on the fourth of June, Sir Henry Clinton wrote to
the ministry, "I may venture to assert that there are few men in South
Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us." Many
unsubdued patriots sought shelter in North Carolina, and others went up
toward the mountains and gathered the cowed Whigs into bands to avenge
the insults of their Tory oppressors. Early in July, Sumter (who had
taken refuge in Mecklenburg), with a few chosen patriots who gathered
around him, returned to South Carolina.=

````"Catawba's waters.smiled again

`````To see her Sumter's soul in arms;

````And issuing from each glade and glen,

`````Rekindled by war's fierce alarms,

````Thronged hundreds through the solitude

`````Of the wild forest, to the call

````Of him whose spirit, unsubdued,

`````Fresh impulse gave to each, to all."

`````J. W. Simmons.=

Already bold Whigs between the Catawba had banded, and, led by Bratton,
M'Clure, Moffit, Winn, ** and others, had smitten the enemy at different
points. The first blow, struck at Beckhamville, is noticed on the
preceding page. To crush these patriots and to band the

* This view is from the garden-gate at Mrs. Barkley's, looking
northeast.. On the left is seen part of a store-house, and on the right,
just beyond the post with a pigeon-house, is a hollow, within which are
the remains of houses. At the foot of the hill may still be seen the
foundations of the house mentioned in the text as having been occupied
by the British when attacked by Sumter. The small log buildings across
the center, occupying the slope where the conflict occurred, are
servants' houses.

** Richard Winn was a native of Virginia. He entered the service early,
and in 1775 was commissioned the first lieutenant of the South
Carolina rangers. He served under Colonel William Thomson, in General
Richardson's expedition against the Tories, in the winter of that
year. He had been with Thomson in the battle on Sullivan's Island. He
afterward served in Georgia, and was in command of Fort M'Intosh, on
the north side of the Santilla River. He was subsequently promoted to
colonel, and commanded the militia of Fairfield District. He was with
Sumter at Hanging Rock, where he was wounded. He was active during-the
remainder of the war, and at the conclusion, was appointed a brigadier,
and finally a major general of militia. He represented his district in
Congress from 1793 to 1802. He removed to Tennessee in 1812, and died
soon afterward. Winnsborough, the present seat of justice of Fairfield
District, was so named in his honor, when he was colonel of that
district, in 1779.

[[[Skirmish at Mobley's Meeting-house.--Expeditions of Huck and
Cunningham.--Their Defeat]]]

{659}Loyalists, marauding parties, chiefly Tories, were sent out. At
Mobley's meeting-house, on the banks of Little River, in Fairfield
District, a party of these men were collected just after the affair at
Beckhamville.[[June, 1780]] Around them were gathering the Tories of
the district, when Captains Bratton and M'Clure fell upon and dispersed
them. This disaster, following closely upon the other, alarmed the
commander at Rocky Mount, and he sent out Captain Christian Huck, a
profane, unprincipled man, * with four hundred cavalry, and a body
of well-mounted Tories, to "push the rebels as far as he might deem
convenient." He executed his orders with alacrity. At one time he
destroyed Colonel Hill's iron-works; at another he burned the dwelling
of the Reverend William Simpson, of the Fishing Creek church, and
murdered an unoffending young man on Sunday morning, while on his way
to the meeting-house, with his Bible in his hand. He hated Presbyterians
bitterly, and made them suffer when he could. Loaded with the spoils
of plunder, Huck fell back to Rocky Mount, and prepared for other
depredations.

About this time, Bill Cunningham and his "Bloody Scout" were spreading
terror in Union and Spartanburg Districts, and also south of the
Ennoree. Against this monster, John M'Clure was dispatched. He chased
him across Union District, and almost thirty miles further toward
Ninety-Six. Four of the scout were captured, and carried in triumph into
Sumter's camp, on the Waxhaw; their leader barely escaped.

Sumter was now gathering his little army, and Huck proceeded to execute
his commission as speedily as possible, before the newly-made brigadier
should approach. He encamped upon the plantation of James Williamson
** (now Brattonville), and there passed the night of the eleventh of
July.[[1780]] At a little past midnight, Colonel Neil and the companies
of Captains Bratton and M'Clure came down from Sumter's camp, in
Mecklenburg, and cautiously approached the sleeping enemy in his
encampment, which was in the middle of a lane. At dawn,[[July 12]] they
entered each end of the lane, and fell upon Huck's party with fury.
The surprise was complete, and for an hour a fierce battle ensued, when
Huck, with Colonel Ferguson of the Tory militia, was killed, and his
party dispersed. The whole patriot force was only one hundred and
thirty-three men. M'Clure and his party, well mounted, pursued the
fugitives almost to Rocky Mount, and within four hours the army of
Huck was as completely dissolved as if they had never seen each other.
Colonel Neil lost only one of his command.

The defeat of Huck had an important bearing upon the future condition
of the state. It encouraged the Whigs, and many joined the standard of
Sumter; while the Tories, abashed, were fearful and silent. Strengthened
by daily recruits, until he had more than six hundred men under his
command, Sumter determined to attack the royal post at Rocky Mount. The
massacre of Buford's command on the Waxhaw, in May,[[May 29]] had fired
the Whigs with a desire for revenge; and Sumter felt strong enough to
attack a force known to be a third larger than his own. The post at
Rocky Mount was now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, with a
small garrison, consisting of one hundred and fifty New York volunteers,
and some South Carolina militia. These were stationed principally in
three buildings, upon a slope surrounded by a ditch and _abatis_, and
encircled by an open wood.

On the thirtieth of July,[[1780]] Sumter left Major Davie's camp, at
the parting of the roads for Rocky Mount and Landsford, and crossing the
Catawba at Blair's Ford,

* Huck had often been heard to say, says Ramsay (ii., 136), that "God
Almighty was turned rebel; but that if there were twenty Gods on their
side, they should all be conquered."

** The house of Colonel Bratton was only half a mile distant from
Williamson's. There Huck had first halted, and rudely demanded of
Colonel Bratton's wife where her husband was. "In Sumter's army," was
her prompt reply. Huck tried to win her to the royal cause, or force
her, by menaces, to disclose the place of her husband's retreat. She
firmly refused all compliance, even when a sharp reaping-hook was at her
throat, in the hands of a brutal soldier. This courageous act of Mrs.
Bratton is still remembered with reverence in that section; and as late
as 1839, a toast, complimentary of the "fortitude of Martha Bratton,"
was given at the anniversary of Huck's * defeat.--See Mrs. Ellet's Women
of the Revolution, i., 237.

* This name is spelled by different authors, Huyck, Huck, and Hucko

[[[Sumter's unsuccessful Battle at Rocky Mount.--His Success at Wateree
Ford.--His Defeat at Fishing Creek.]]]

{660}proceeded cautiously, but swiftly, toward Rocky Mount. Davie,
in the mean while, was to attack the outposts of the British camp at
Hanging Rock, east of the Catawba, twelve miles distant. Sumter was
accompanied by Colonels Neil, Irvine, and Lacy, *and Captain M'Clure and
some of the Gastons. At an early hour of the day, he appeared with his
whole force upon the crown of the hill now occupied by the servants'
houses of Mrs. Barkley. The British commander, warned of his approach
by a Tory, was prepared to receive him, and though the Americans poured
severe volleys upon the fortification (if it might be called one), they
produced but little effect. Having no artillery, they resorted to means
for dislodging the enemy, seldom used in war. Leaping the _abatis_
after three assaults, they drove the garrison into the houses. These,
according to Mr. M'Ehvees, who was in the engagement (mentioned on page
635), were situated near the bottom of the slope, and were composed of
logs. They first attempted to set them on fire by casting burning fagots
upon them. Not succeeding in this, an old wagon was procured, and upon
it was placed a quantity of dry brush and straw taken from the _abatis_.
These were ignited, and then rolled down against the houses. The
British, perceiving their danger, hoisted a flag. Supposing they
intended to surrender, Sumter ordered the firing to cease. At that
moment a shower of rain extinguished the flames, and the enemy defied
him. Having no other means at hand to dislodge or seriously injure the
garrison, Sumter withdrew, first to the north side of Fishing Creek,
near the Catawba (where he was surprised eighteen days afterward), and
then Lanisford, where he crossed the river. Seven days[[August 1780]]
afterward, he was battling with the enemy at Hanging Rock. Early in the
action, in front of the _abatis_, the gallant Colonel Neil was slain,
with two other white men and a Catawba Indian. Sumter had ten wounded,
also. The British lost ten killed, and an equal number wounded.

On the seventh of August Sumter attacked a British post on Hanging
Creek, an event which we shall consider presently. Immediately after
that engagement, he recrossed the Catawba. In the mean while, General
Gates, with his army, had arrived in the neighborhood. Advised by Sumter
that a British detachment, with stores for the main army at Camden,
was on its way from Ninety-Six, Gates ordered that officer to intercept
it,[[Aug. 15]] and detached to his aid one hundred infantry and a
company of artillery of the Maryland line, and three hundred North
Carolina militia, all under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Woodford,
of Virginia. They captured a redoubt at the Wateree Ford, in Fairfield
District, and, intercepting the escort from Ninety-Six, they secured
forty-four wagon loads of stores and clothing, with a number of
prisoners. On the seventeenth, Sumter was informed of the defeat of
Gates, near Camden. Continuing up the Catawba (here called Wateree), he
managed to elude the pursuit of Colonel Turnbull, whom Cornwallis had
sent after him, and, on the eighteenth, encamped at the Fishing Creek,
near the Catawba, a little above the Great Falls. Here he determined to
allow his wearied troops to repose. But a more vigilant and active foe
than Turnbull was upon his trail. Cornwallis, anxious to capture Sumter,
dispatched Tarleton to overtake and smite him. With one hundred dragoons
and sixty mounted light infantry, that officer pressed forward, without
halting, in pursuit of his prey. Crossing the Catawba at Rocky Ford, he
got into the rear of Sumter, and fell upon his eamp while resting, the
patriot leader having had no intimation of his approach. The Americans
were routed, with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and
three hundred were made prisoners. All the stores, clothing, and
prisoners, captured by Sumter on the fifteenth, fell into Tarleton's
hands. This blow laid South Carolina in submission at the feet of
the royal troops, none but Marion, the wily. "Swamp Fox," and a
few followers, remaining in arms against the king. The subsequent
organization of a

* Colonel Lacy was one of the most resolute and sturdy patriots of South
Carolina. It is related that when the Americans were pursuing Huck, Lacy
sent a small party to secure his own father, who was a Tory, and
prevent his giving information to that marauder. Lacy was a man of great
personal strength, and was a general favorite with the people. He was
one of the most active participators in the action or King's Mountain.

[[[Passage of the Catawba--Appearance of the Road.--Anvil Rock.--Old
Slave at Hanging Rock.]]]

{661}force under Sumter, his exploits west of the Broad River, and also
the important events which followed the assumption, by Greene, of the
command of the Southern army, have been detailed in former chapters.

I left the family of Mrs. Barkley with real regret, on the morning after
My arrival, and, pursuing a crooked, steep, and rough road down to the
brink of the river, crossed the Catawba upon a bateau, at Rocky Mount
Ferry, just below the Falls at the mouth of Rocky Mount Creek.

[Illustration: 9671]

The scenery here, and for some miles on my road toward Hanging Rock, my
next point of destination, was highly picturesque. I was approaching the
verge of the Lowlands, the apparent shore of the ancient ocean, along
which are strewn huge bowlders--chiefly conglomerates--the mighty
pebbles cast upon the beach, when, perhaps, the mammoth and the mastadon
slaked their thirst in the waters of the Catawba and the Eswawpuddenah.

[Illustration: 8671]

For several miles the road passed among the erratic rocks and
curiously-shaped conglomerates. When within three miles of Hanging Rock,
I passed the celebrated Anvil Rock, one of the remarkable curiosities of
the South.

It stands alone, on the north side of the road, and is, indeed, a
curiosity.

It appears to be a concretion of the soil around, being composed of
precisely similar material; or the soil may be disintegrated rocks of
a similar character. In its sides are cavities from which large pebbles
have apparently fallen, and also furrows as if made by rains. Its height
above the ground is about twelve feet; its form suggested its name.

I reached the Lancaster and Camden high-way at noon, and, on inquiry,
ascertained that the celebrated Hanging Rock, near which Sumter and
his companions fought a desperate battle, was about a mile and a half
eastward. Thither I went immediately, notwithstanding the temptation of
a good dinner, freely offered, was before me, for I desired to get
as far on toward Camden, that night, as possible. The roads were now
generally sandy, and in many places soft and difficult to travel, making
progress slow. Along a by-road, across the high rolling plain upon which
(at Coles's Old Field) tradition avers the hottest of the battle was
fought, I rode to the brow of a deep narrow valley, through which
courses Hanging Rock Creek, one of the head waters of Lynch's Creek, the
western branch of the Great Pedee. The mingled sound of falling waters
and grinding mill-stones came up from the deep furrow, while from a
small cabin by the road side, upon the verge of the steep bank, I heard
a broken melody. Alighting, I entered the cabin, and there sat an aged
negro dining upon hoe-cake and bacon, and humming a refrain, he was the
miller. His hair was as white with the frost of years, as his coarse
garb was with flour. To my question respecting his family, he said,
shaking his bowed head, "Ah, massa! I lives all alone now; tree years
ago dey sole my wife, and she's gone to Mississippi. Hab to bake my own
hoe-cake now. But neber mind; needn't work 'less I'm a mind too; 'nough
to eat, and pretty soon I die?" He told me that he was more than eighty
years old, and remembered seeing "de red coats scamper when Massa Sumter
and Jacky M'Clure pitched into 'em." Pointing to the celebrated Hanging
Rock upon the opposite side of the stream, "Dar," he said, "a heap o'
red coats sleep de night afore de battle, and dar I hid de night arter."
From

[[[The Hanging Rock.--Disposition of Troops there.--Preliminary
Skirmish.--Sumter's Attack.]]]

{662}the venerable slave, whose memory appeared unclouded, I learned the
location of several points mentioned in the accounts of the engagement.

Leaving Charley to dine upon the verge of the stream, I proceeded to
Hanging Rock, of whose immensity I had heard frequent mention.

[Illustration: 8672]

It is a huge conglomerate bowlder, twenty or thirty feet in diameter,
lying upon the verge of the high east bank of the creek, nearly a
hundred feet above the stream. Around it are several smaller bowlders of
the same materials. It is shelving toward the bank, its concavity being
in the form of the quarter of an orange paring, and capacious enough
to shelter fifty men from rain. Beneath its canopy, let us turn to the
record of history.

Near the Hanging Rock, on the western bank of the creek, Lord Rawdon,
the British commander in that section, had established a post, whieh was
garrisoned by the infantry of Tarleton's legion, part of Brown's corps
of South Carolina and Georgia Provincials, and Colonel Bryan's North
Carolina Loyalists; the whole were under the command of Major Carden,
with the Prince of Wales's American regiment, in number about five
hundred. The greater portion were Loyalists, the remainder were
regulars. In the formation of the camp, the regulars were on the right;
a part of the British legion and Hamilton's regiment in the center; and
Bryan's corps and other Loyalists some distance on the left, Hanging
Rock Creek being in the rear. As we have seen (page 660), Major Davie
proceeded to an attack upon this post, simultaneously with Sumter's
assault on Rocky Mount. Davie, with his cavalry, and some Mecklenburg
militia, under Colonel Higgins, marched toward Hanging Rock. As he
approached, he was informed that three companies of Bryan's Loyalists,
returning from a foraging excursion, were encamped at a farm-house. He
fell upon them with vigor, in front and rear, and all but a few of them
were either killed or wounded. The spoils of this victory were sixty
horses with their trappings, and one hundred muskets and rifles. This
disaster made the garrison exceedingly vigilant.

We have observed that after the assault on Rocky Mount, Sumter crossed
the Catawba, and proceeded toward Hanging Rock. He marched early in the
morning cautiously, and approached the British camp in three divisions,
with the intention of falling upon the main body, stationed upon the
plain at Coles's Old Field. [[Aug. 6, 1780]] The right was composed of
Davie's corps and some volunteers, under Major Bryan; the center, of
Colonel Irwin's Mecklenburg militia; and the left, of South Carolina
regulars, under Colonel Hill, Through the error of his guides, Sumter
eame first upon Bryan's corps, on the verge of the western bank of the
creek, near the Great Rock, half a mile from the British camp. Irwin
made the first attaek. The Tories soon yielded and fled toward the main
body, many of them throwing away their arms without discharging them.
These the Americans seized; and, pursuing this advantage, Sumter next
fell upon Brown's corps, which, being on the alert, poured a heavy fire
upon him from a wood. They also received him with the bayonet. A fierce
conflict ensued, and for a while the issue was doubtful. The riflemen,
with sure aim, soon cut off almost all of Brown's officers and many
of his soldiers; and at length his corps yielded and dispersed in
confusion. The arms and ammunition procured from the vanquished were of
great service, for when the action commenced, Sumter's men had not two
rounds each. *

* Mrs. Ellet relates a circumstance which has some interest in this
connection Colonel Thomas, of Spartanburg District, was intrusted by
Governor Rutledge with a quantity of arms and ammunition. A party, under
Colonel Moore (who was defeated at Ramsour's Mill), attacked the house
of the colonel, during his absence, for the purpose of seizing the
powder. His heroic wife, Jane Thomas, with a son-inlaw, her daughter,
and a lad, formed the garrison in the house. Mrs. Thomas and her
daughter loaded guns as fast as the son-in-law could fire; and the
Tories, believing that the house was filled with men, decamped, and the
ammunition was saved. This powder constituted a part of Sumter's supply
at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.

[[[Sumter's final Blow.--Victory lost by Intemperance.--Sumter's
Retreat.--The Loss.--Captain M'Clure.]]]

{663}Now was the moment to strike for decisive victory; it was lost by
the criminal indulgence of Sumter's men in plundering the portion of the
British camp already secured, and drinking freely of the liquor found
there. A similar cause plucked the palm of victory from the hands of
Greene at Eutaw Springs. Sumter's ranks became disordered; and while
endeavoring to bring order out of confusion, the enemy rallied. Of his
six hundred men, only about two hundred, with Davie's cavalry, eould be
brought to bear upon the remaining portion of the British, who were yet
in some confusion, but defended by two cannons. Sumter was not to be
foiled. With a shout, he and his handful of brave men rushed forward to
the attack. The enemy had formed a hollow square, with the field-pieces
in front, and in this position received the charge. The Americans
attacked them on three sides, and the contest was severe for a while. At
length, just as the British line was yielding, a re-enforcement, under
Captains Stewart and M'Donald, of Tarleton's legion, returning from
an excursion toward Rocky Mount, appeared, and their number being
magnified, Sumter deemed a retreat a prudent measure. This was done at
meridian, but the enemy had been so severely handled, that they did not
attempt a pursuit. A small party appeared upon the Camden road, but was
soon dispersed by Davie. Could Sumter have brought all of his forces
into action in this last attack, the route of the British would have
been complete.=

```"He beat them back! beneath the flame

````Of valor quailing, or the shock!

```He carved, at last, a hero's name,

````Upon the glorious Hanging Rock!"=

With his few prisoners and booty, Sumter retreated toward the Waxhaw,
bearing away many of his wounded. The engagement lasted about four
hours, and was one of the best-fought battles, between militia and
British regulars, during the war. Sumter's loss was twelve killed and
forty-one wounded. Among the former were the brave Captain M'Clure, *
of South Carolina, and Captain Read, of North Carolina; Colonel Hill,
Captain Craighead, Major Winn, Lieutenants Crawford and Fletcher, and
Ensign M'Clure, were wounded. The British loss exceeded that of the
Americans. Captain M'Cullock, commander of the legion infantry, and two
officers and twenty privates of the same corps, were killed, and forty
were wounded.** Brown's regiment also suffered much. Bryan's Tories did
not stop to fight,=

````"------but ran away,

````And lived to fight another day."=

About nine miles north of the present Lancaster Court House, and between
twenty and

* John M'Clure was one of the master spirits of South Carolina. He was
a nephew of the venerable Judge "Gaston, and partook of that patriot's
purity and zeal in the cause of Republicanism. Of him General Davie
said, "Of the many brave men with whom it was my fortune to become
acquainted in the army, he was one of the bravest; and when he fell,
we looked upon his loss as incalculable." He fell at the first fire of
Bryan's Loyalists, pierced by two bullets, and at the same time, four
of his cousins, sons of Judge Gaston, lay bleeding near him. When his
friends came to his aid, he urged them to leave him and pursue the
enemy. After the battle, he was taken, with other wounded soldiers, to
Waxhaw church, where his mother went to nurse him. From thence he
was taken to Charlotte, and on the eighteenth, the very day when his
commander was surprised at Fishing Creek (see page 635). he expired in
Liberty Hall, where the celebrated Mecklenburg resolutions were drawn
up. M'Clure was a native of Chester District, and his men were known as
the Chester Rocky Creek Irish. The first wound which he received in the
engagement was in the thigh. He stanched it with wadding, when another
bullet passed through him at the breast. Two of the Gastons fell dead
across each other; a third was mortally wounded; and a fourth had a
cheek shot away. Doctor Richard E.. Wylie, of Lancaster, wrote a ballad
of twenty stanzas commemorative of this event.

** Ramsay, Moultrie, Lee.

[[[The British in South Carolina.--Retreat of Americans.--Massacre of
Buford's Regiment near the Waxhaw.]]]

{664}twenty-three miles above Hanging Rock, upon the Waxhaw Creek, *
the regiment of Colonel Abraham Buford was massacred by Tarleton on
the twenty-ninth of May, 1780. Sir Henry Clinton took possession of
Charleston on the twelfth, and immediately commenced measures for
securing the homage of the whole state. He sent out three large
detachments of his army. The first and largest, under Cornwallis,
was ordered toward the frontiers of North Carolina; the second,
under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was directed to pass the Saluda, to
Ninety-Six; and the third, under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, was ordered
up the Savannah, to Augusta. Soon after he had passed the Santee,
Cornwallis was informed that parties of Americans who had come into
South Carolina, and had hurried toward Charleston to assist Lincoln,
were as hastily retreating. Among these was Colonel Buford. His
force consisted of nearly four hundred Continental infantry, a small
detachment of Washington's cavalry, and two field-pieces. He had
evacuated Camden, and, in fancied security, was retreating leisurely
toward Charlotte, in North Carolina. Cornwallis resolved to strike
Buford, if possible, and, for that purpose, he dispatched Tarleton, with
seven hundred men, consisting of his cavalry and mounted infantry. That
officer marched one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and
came up with Buford upon the Waxhaw. Impatient of delay, he had left his
mounted infantry behind, and with only his cavalry, he almost surrounded
Buford before that officer was aware of danger. Tarleton demanded
an immediate surrender upon the terms granted to the Americans at
Charleston. Those terms were humiliating, and Buford refused compliance.
** While the flags for conference were passing and repassing, Tarleton,
contrary to military rules, was making preparations for an assault,
and the instant he received Buford's reply, his cavalry made a furious
charge upon the American ranks. Having received no orders to defend
themselves, and supposing the negotiations were yet pending, the
Continentals were utterly dismayed by this charge. All was confusion,
and while some fired upon their assailants, others threw down their arms
and begged for quarter. None was given; and men without arms were hewn
in pieces by Tarleton's cavalry. One hundred and thirteen were slain;
one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to be unable to travel; and
fifty-three were made prisoners, to grace the triumphal entry of the
conqueror into Camden. Only five of the British were killed, and fifteen
wounded. The whole of Buford's artillery, ammunition, and baggage, fell
into the hands of the enemy. For this savage feat, Cornwallis eulogized
Tarleton, and commended him to the ministry as worthy of special favor.
It was nothing less than a cold-blooded massacre; and _Tarleton's
quarter_ became proverbial as a synonym to cruelty. *** The liberal
press, and all right-minded men in England, cried shame!

After the battle, a large number of the wounded were taken to the log
meeting-house of the Waxhaw Presbyterian congregation, where they were
tenderly nursed by a few who had the boldness to remain. With the defeat
of Buford, every semblance of a Continental army in South Carolina was
effaced. This terrible blow spread consternation over that region, and
women and children were seen flying from their homes to seek refuge from
British cruelty in more distant settlements. Among the fugitives was the
widowed mother of

* This name is derived from the Waxhaw Indians, a tribe now extinct, who
inhabited this region.

[Illustration: 8674]

** Buford's answer, as given by Tarleton in his Memoirs, was brief and
positive, as follows: "Waxhaws, May 29th, 1780. "Sir,--I reject
your proposal, and shall defend myself to the last extremity.
"Lieutenant-eolonel Tarleton, commander of British Legion."

*** Justice demands an audience for Tarleton. In his account of the
affair, he alleges that a demand for a surrender was made before his
main body had overtaken Buford, and that after that officer's defiant
letter was received, both parties prepared for action. He excuses the
refusal to grant quarter by the plea that some of the Continentals
continued to fire. As Marshall suggests, the fact that Buford's
field-pieces were not discharged and so few of the British were wounded,
is evidence enough that the attack was unexpected. Tarleton was taunted
with his cruelty on this occasion, on his return to England. Stedman.
the British historian of the war says, "On this occasion, the virtue of
humanity was totally forgot."--See Marshall, i., 338; Gordon, iii., 53;
Lee, 78; Stedman, ib, 193.

[[[Family of President Jackson.--Journey toward Camden.--Flat
Rook.--Rugeley's Mill]]]

{665}Andrew Jackson (the seventh President of the United States), who,
with her two sons, Robert and Andrew, took refuge in the Sugar Creek
congregation, at the house of the widow of the Reverend J. M. Wilson,
near Charlotte.

[Illustration: 8675]

This was the first practical lesson of hatred to tyranny which young
Jackson learned, and it doubtless had an abiding influence upon his
future life. *

Returning to the Lancaster road at two o'clock, I rode on toward Camden,
about thirty-five miles distant, passing on the way the celebrated Flat
Rock, a mass of concrete, like that of Anvil Rock, five hundred yards
across. It lies even with the surface of the ground, and presents
numerous pits or cisterns, supposed to have been hollowed out by the
Indians for the purpose of holding water. The road passed over this mass
with a gentle descent. Near its southern side, the place was pointed
out to me where a severe skirmish occurred in August, 1778, between some
militia and Tories, but the result was not very sanguinary. At sunset
I arrived at the house of Mrs. Fletcher, within nine miles of Rugeley's
Mill, where I was well entertained for the night. ** I departed at
sunrise the following morning. Being now fairly within the sandy region
upon the slopes between the upper and the lower country, the traveling
was very heavy. At the first house after leaving Mrs. Fletcher's, I
saw Mr. Paine, the brother of Mrs. Lee, an intelligent old man of
eighty-four years. During half an hour's conversation with him, I
obtained some valuable information respecting the various historical
localities between there and Camden. The first of these is Clermont,
sometimes called Rageley's, about thirteen miles north of Camden, where
I arrived at an early hour in the forenoon. This is the place where
General Gates concentrated his army for an attack upon the British at
Camden. The place is also memorable on account of a military event which
occurred near Rugeley's Mill, on the fourth of December, 1780. This mill
was about one hundred yards east of the road where it crosses Rugeley's
Creek. No traces of the mill remain; but an embankment, several rods
in extent, partly demolished, and overgrown with pines and shrubbery
interlaced with the vines of the muscadine, mark the place of the dam, a
part of which, where the creek passes through, is seen in the engraving.
Let us consider the event which immortalizes this spot.

When Cornwallis retreated from Charlotte (see page

* I am informed by the Honorable David L. Swain, that the birth-place of
General Jackson is in Mecklenburg eounty, North Carolina, just above the
state line. It is about half a mile west of the Wuxhaw Creek, upon the
estate of W. J. Cureton, Esq., twenty-eight miles south of Charlotte. A
month or two after his birth, his mother removed to the southward of the
state line, to a plantation about twelve miles north of Lancaster Court
House. That plantation is also the property of Mr. Cureton. The house
in which she resided when Tarleton penetrated the settlement is
now demolished. So the honor of possessing the birthplace of that
illustrious man belongs to North, and not to South Carolina, as has been
supposed.

* The massacre of Buford's regiment fired the patriotism of young
Andrew Jackson; and at the age of thirteen he entered the army, with his
brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners; but even
while in the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after
man appeared in the boy. When ordered to clean the muddy boots of a
British officer, he proudly refused, and for his temerity received a
sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the
Waxhaw settlement with their mother. That patriotic mother and two sons
perished during the war. Her son Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert
died of a wound which he received from a British officer while he was
prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The
heroic mother, while on her way home from Charleston, whither she
went to carry some necessaries to her friends and relations on board a
prison-ship, was seized with prison-fever, and died. Her unknown
grave is somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House
and Charleston. Andrew was left the sole survivor of the family.--See
Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 199.

** There I saw Mrs. Lee, the step-mother of Mrs. Fletcher, who was then
ninety-two years of age. She lived near Camden during the war, but was
so afflicted with palsy when I saw her, that she could talk only with
great difficulty, and I could not procure from her any tradition of
interest. Mrs. Lee had buried five husbands.

[[[Tories at Rugeley's.--Stratagem of Colonel Washington in capturing
the Tories.--Gum Swamp.--Sander's Creek]]]

626), {666}Gates advanced to that place, and General Smallwood was
directed to encamp lower down the Catawba, on the road to Camden.
Morgan, with his light corps, composed partly of Lieutenant-colonel
Washington's cavalry, was ordered to push further in advance, for the
purpose of foraging, and to watch the movements of Cornwallis.

[Illustration: 8676]

Smallwood having received information that a body of Tories, under
Colonel Rugeley, were on the alert to intercept his wagons, ordered
Morgan and Washington to march against them. They retreated, and took
post at Rugeley's house, on the Camden road, which he had stockaded,
together with his log-barn.

Washington, with his cavalry, pursued, and at about ten o'clock on the
fourth of December,[[1780]] appeared at Rugeley's Mill, on the south
side of the creek. The Loyalists were strongly posted in the log-barn,
in front, of which was a ditch and _abatis_. Having no artillery,

Washington could make but little impression upon the garrison, so he
resorted to stratagem.

[Illustration: 9676]

Fashioning a pine-log so as to resemble a cannon, he placed it in such
a position near the bridge as, apparently, to command both the house and
barn of Colonel Rugeley. He then made a formal demand for a surrender,
menacing the garrison with the instant demolition of their fortress.
Alarmed at the apparition of a cannon, Rugeley sent out a flag,
and, with his whole force of one hundred and twelve men, immediately
surrendered. Poor Rugeley never appeared in arms afterward. Cornwallis,
in a letter to Tarleton,[[Dec. 4]] said, "Rugeley will not be made a
brigadier.

Soon after leaving Rugeley's, I came to a shallow stream which flows out
of Gum Swamp, and known in the Revolution as Graney's Quarter Creek. It
was thickly studded with ginn shrubs and caries, the latter appearing
as green and fresh as in summer. It was now about noon, and while I made
the accompanying sketch, Charley dined upon corn, which the generous
driver of a team "hauling cotton," gave me from his store. Between this
stream and Sander's Creek, within seven miles of Camden, is the place of
Gates's defeat.[[Aug. 16, 1780]] The hottest of the engagement occurred
upon the hill, just before descending to Sander's Creek from the north,
now, as then, covered with an open forest of pine-trees. When I passed
through it, the undergrowth had just been burned, and the blackened
trunks of the venerable pines, standing like the columns of a vast
temple, gave the whole scene a dreary, yet grand appearance. Many of the
old trees yet bear marks of the battle, the scars of the bullets being
made very distinct by large protuberances. I was informed that many
musket-balls have been cut out of the trees; and I saw quite a number
of trunks which had been recently hewn with axes for the purpose. Some
pines had been thus cut by searchers for bullets which must have been in
the seed when the battle occurred. Within half a mile of Sander's Creek,
on the north side, are some old fields, dotted with shrub pines, where
the hottest of the battle was fought. A large concavity near the road,
filled with hawthorns, was pointed out to me as the spot where many of
the dead were buried.

Sander's Creek is a considerable stream, about two hundred feet wide,
and quite shallow at the ford. Though flowing through a swamp like
Graney's Quarter, its waters were very

* This view is from the south side of the bridge. The counterfeit cannon
was plaeed in the road where the first wagon is seen. The house and barn
of Rugeley were in the cleared field seen beyond the wagons,

** Tarleton's Memoirs, &c, 205.

***This view is from the south side of the stream.

[[[Lincoln Calumniated.--De Kalb sent to the South.--His March.--Sketch
of his Public Life]]]

{667}limpid. Numerous teams drawing heavy loads of cotton, on their way
to Camden, were passing at the time, and the songs and loud laughter of
the happy teamsters enlivened the dreary aspect of nature. *

Let us consider the important events which occurred here.

Misfortune is too often mistaken for a fault, and censoriousness seldom
makes candid distinctions.

[Illustration: 8677]

When General Lincoln was finally obliged to surrender Charleston and his
army to Sir Henry Clinton,[[May 12, 1780]] calumny, with its busy tongue,
decried his fair fame, and whispered doubts respecting his skill and
courage. That blow, struck by a skillful hand, almost demolished the
Southern army, and for a moment the patriots were dismayed. But the
elasticity of hope was found in the national councils, and preparations
were soon made to concentrate the various detachments of the regular
army then in the South, and the volunteers whom Sumter and others were
collecting, to turn back toward the sea-board the flood of invasion.
A month before the fall of Charleston, when it was perceived that the
chief theater of the campaign of 1780 was to be in the Southern States,
Maryland and Delaware troops were sent thither, under the Baron De
Kalb, *** a German officer, who had distinguished himself in the French
service.

[Illustration: 6677]

He left Morristown

[[April 14, 1780]] with fourteen hundred effective men; reached the
head of Elk in May; left Petersburg early in June, passed through
Hillsborough, and halted on Deep River, in North Carolina, on the sixth
of July. In the mean while,

* All the way from Yorkville I passed caravans of wagons with cotton,
on their way to Camden or Columbia. The teams are driven by negroes,
sometimes accompanied by an overseer. They carry corn and fodder
(corn-stalks) with them, and camp out at night, in the woods, where they
build fires, cook their bacon, bake their hoe-cake, and sleep under
the canvas covering of their wagons. It is a season of great delight to
those who are privileged to "haul cotton" to market.

** This view is from the north side of the Creek. Like the other stream,
it is filled with canes, shrubs, and many blasted pines.

***The Baron De Kalb, knight of the royal military order of merit, was
a native of Alsace (a German province ceded to France), and was
educated in the art of war in the French army. He was connected with the
quarter-master general's department, and his experience in the duties of
that station rendered his services very valuable to the American army.
Toward the close of the Seven Years' War, he was dispatched to the
British colonies in America, as a secret agent of the French government.
He traveled in disguise; yet on one occasion, he was so strongly
suspected, that he was arrested as a suspicious person. Nothing being
found to confirm the suspicion, he was released, and soon afterward
returned to Europe. De Kalb came to America again, in the spring of
1777, with La Fayette and other foreign officers, and was one of the
party who accompanied the marquis in his overland journey, from South
Carolina to Philadelphia. Holding the office of brigadier in the French
service, and coming highly recommended, Congress commissioned him a
major general on the fifteenth of September, 1777. He immediately joined
the main army under Washington, and was active in the events which
preceded the encampment of the troops at Valley Forge. He was afterward
in command at Elizabethtown and Amboy, in New Jersey; and while at
Morristown in the spring of 1780, was placed at the head of the Maryland
division. With these, and the Continental troops of Delaware, he marched
southward in April, to re-enforce General Lincoln, but was too late to
afford him aid at Charleston. Gates succeeded Lincoln in the command of
the Southern army, and reached De Kalb's camp, on the Deep River, on
the twenty-eighth of July. 1780. In the battle near Camden, which soon
followed, De Kalb, while trying to rally the scattered Americans, fell,
pierced with eleven wounds. He died at Camden three days afterward,
and was buried there. An ornamental tree was placed at the head of his
grave, * and that was the only token of its place until a few years
since, when the citizens of Camden erected over it the elegant marble
monument depicted in the engraving.

[Illustration: 9678]

* The corner stone was laid by La Fayette in 1825. It is upon the green,
in front of the Presbyterian church, on De Kalb Street. The large base,
forming two steps, is of granite; the whole monument is about fifteen
feet in height. Upon the four sides of the monument are the following
inscriptions: South side, fronting the street.--"Here lies the remains
of Baron Dr Kalb, a German by birth, but in principle a citizen of
the world." North side.--a In gratitude for his zeal and services, the
citizens of Camden have erected this monument." East side.--"His love
of Liberty induced him to leave the Old World to aid the citizens of the
New in their struggle for Independence. His distinguished talents and
many virtues weighed with Congress to appoint him major general, in
their De Kalb's Monument. Revolutionary army." West side.--"He was
second in command in the battle fought near Camden, on the sixteenth of
August, 1780, between the British and Americans; and there nobly
fell, covered with wounds, while gallantly performing deeds of valor in
rallying the friends and opposing the enemies of his adopted country."
The death of De Kalb was a great public loss. Congress, on the
fourteenth of October, 1780, ordered a monument to be erected to his
memory in the city of Annapolis, in Maryland, ** with an appropriate
inscription, but, like kindred resolves, the order was never obeyed.

* This appointment was made without consulting the commander-in-ehief.
He intended to recommend General Greene.

* Alluding to this fact, an anonymous poet wrote:

     "But where, O where's the hallowed sod
     Beneath whose verd the hero's ashes sleep?
     Is this the cold, neglected, moldering clod?
     Or that the grave at which I ought to weep?
     Yet, soldier, thy illustrious name is known,
     Thy fame supported, and thy worth confess'd;
     That peerless virtue which in danger shone,
     Is shining still, where thou art laid in rest.
     Why rises not some massy pillar high,
     To grace a name that fought for Freedom's prize?
     Or why, at least, some rudely-etch'd stone nigh.
     To show the spot where matchless valor lies?
     And though no monumental script is seen.
     Thy worth to publish, and thy deeds proclaim,
     Each son of Freedom, passing near this green,
     Shall hail De Kalb, and venerate his name."

* In the inscription ordered by Congress (Journal, vi., 147) to
be placed upon De Kalb's monument, it is said that he was "in the
forty-eighth year of his age." General Henry Lee, who knew him well,
says in his Memoirs, page 425, "Although nearer seventy than sixty
years of age, such had been the temperance of his life, that he not only
enjoyed to the last day the finest health, but his countenance still
retained the bloom of youth; which circumstance very probably led to the
error committed by those who drew up the inscription on the monument to
be erected by Congress." Lee speaks of him as "possessing a stout
frame, moderate mental powers "sober, drinking water only; abstemious
to excess, and exceedingly industrious." The pay of De Kalb was
considerably in arrears at the time of his death. Within a few years,
some of his immediate descendants have petitioned the American Congress
for the payment of these arrearages, principal and interest. Both Houses
have had reports in favor of the petitioners, but the money yet (1852)
remains unpaid. Among the petitioners are five of De Kalb's great
grandchildren, who, by the loss of both parents, are cast upon the
support and protection of an aunt, a grand-daughter of the baron. They
are residing about thirty miles from Paris.

[[[Gates in chief Command.--De Kalb's Monument and
Inscription.--Tardiness of Justice.]]]

{668}Charleston had been captured, General Lincoln was a prisoner on
parole, and De Kalb became the commander-in-chief at the South. Although
Congress reposed confidence in the skill of De Kalb, it was thought
proper to send an officer better known to the people for past services,
and on the thirteenth of June,[[1780]] General Gates was appointed to
the command. * He was then at his estate in Virginia, a few miles from
Shepherdstown, and the glory of Saratoga was not yet dimmed.

[Illustration: 9678]

He immediately departed[[June 26]] for the camp of De Kalb, taking
with him, as secretary, his friend William Clajon, and reached his
destination on the twenty-fifth of July. The prospect before him was
far from flattering. An army without strength; a military chest without
money; but little public spirit in the

[[[Situation of Gates's Army.--Plan of Operations.--Sketch of Gates's
Publie Life.]]]

{669}Commissary Department; a climate unfavorable to health; the spirits
of the Republicans pressed down; Loyalists swarming in every direction,
and a victorious enemy pressing to spread his legions over the territory
he had come to defend, were obstacles in the way of success.

[Illustration: 8679]

Yet he did not despond, and, retaining De Kalb in command of his
division, prepared to march into South Carolina. His whole force
consisted of the Maryland and Delaware troops, a legionary corps of
sixty horse and as many foot soldiers, under Colonel Armand, and three
companies of artillery. There was elsewhere a considerable force of
North Carolina militia in the field, under General Caswell; and on the
morning of the twenty-seventh,[[July 1780]] Gates marched at the the
head of his little army to effect a junction with those troops.

He passed the Deep River at the Buffalo Ford, and in the afternoon
encamped upon Spinks's farm, on the road to Camden. There the plan
of immediate operations was decided upon. De Kalb and Colonel Otho H.
Williams (the deputy adjutant general) thought it expedient to march
to Charlotte, establish a hospital and magazine at Salisbury, leave the
women and all the heavy baggage there, and from thence proceed toward
Camden, without impediment, through a well-cultivated and friendly
country, by the way of the Waxhaw. These opinions had no weight with

* Horatio Gates was a native of England, and was educated to the
military profession. He was an officer under Braddoek when that general
was defeated, but does not seem to have acquired particular distinction.
When the Continental army was organized in 1775, he was appointed
adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. He was then residing in
Virginia. He accompanied Washington to Cambridge, in July, 1775; and in
June, 1776, the chief command of the Northern army was conferred upon
him, and he was promoted to major general. In the autumn of that
year, he joined the main army in the Jerseys, with a detachment of his
command, but his career was not marked by any brilliant action. In the
summer of 1776, he was unjustly placed in command of the Northern army,
in place of General Schuyler, who had succeeded him in the "spring of
that year; and the victory over Burgoyne, at Saratoga, by the army under
his command, gave him great eclat. "The glory of that achievement was
not due to him, but to the previous operations of Schuyler, and the
bravery and skill of Arnold and Morgan. In the winter of 1778. he was
involved in attempts to wrest the supreme command from Washington. His
position as President of the Board of War enabled him to throw obstacles
in the way of the chief, nor were they withheld. From that period until
appointed to the command of the Southern army, his military operations
were of little account, and were chiefly in Rhode Island. When Congress
gave him the command of the Southern forces, General Charles Lee said,
"His Northern laurels will be exchanged for Southern willows." The
prophecy was soon fulfilled, when the disastrous battle, near Camden,
scattered his troops, and, apparently panic-stricken himself he fled
toward Charlotte. He was superseded in his command by General Greene, in
the autumn of that year, and his conduct was scrutinized by a committee
of Congress. Upon their report, he was acquitted of blame. He was
reinstated in his military command in the main army in 1782, but active
service was no longer required. At the close of the war, he retired to
his estate in Virginia, and in 1790 took up his permanent abode upon
Manhattan Island, almost three miles from the then city of New York.
His mansion, which was an elegant country residence, near Rose Hill,
was standing as late as 1845, near the corner of Twenty-third Street and
Second Avenue. In 1800, he was elected a member of the Legislature of
New York, where he served but one term. He died at his residence, on the
tenth of April, 1806, at the age of seventy-eight years.

* General Gates was an accomplished gentleman in his manners, but did
not possess a brilliant or highly-cultivated intellect. He possessed
many excellent social qualities, but was entirely deficient in the
qualifications necessary for a great military commander. His vanity
misled his judgment, and often perverted the finer feelings of his
nature. He was always a generous friend, and not an implacable enemy.
Humanity marked his treatment of prisoners, and benevolence was a ruling
principle of his heart. A few years before his death, he manumitted all
his slaves, but so great was the attachment of many, that they preferred
to remain in his family. He died without surviving issue, his only son
having been taken from him by death, at the moment when he was informed
that General Greene had superseded him. On that occasion, Washington
wrote him a most touching letter, consoling him for his domestic
affliction, and sympathizing with him on account of the troubles of his
public life. His patriotism is undoubted, and the faults of his military
career may be charged to errors of judgment.

[[[Sufferings of the Army.--Alarm of the British.--Cornwallis at
Camden.--Approach of Gates.]]]

{670}Gates, whose vanity overruled his judgment, and on the
twenty-eighth, having been joined that morning by Lieutenant-colonel
Porterfield with about one hundred Virginians, he marched directly for
Camden.

The country through which the Americans passed was sparsely populated,
and in many places exhibited nothing but swamps and pine barrens. The
heat was intense. Sickness and want of provisions soon began the work
of death. Lean cattle found in the woods, green corn, and peaches,
constituted the principal portion of their food. Dysentery ensued, and
at one time the total destruction of the army seemed inevitable. Yet
Gates pressed slowly forward, and on the day when Sumter achieved his
partial victory at Hanging Rock, he reached the banks of Little Lynch's
Creek, a few miles distant, where he was joined by General Caswell. *

Let us glance a moment at the movements of the British troops. We have
noted how the grand army was divided and spread over South Carolina (see
page 664) soon after the fall of Charleston, the northern portion of
which was placed under the command of Cornwallis. This disposition of
the forces of the enemy had hardly taken place, when intelligence of the
approach of De Kalb was received; also of the gathering of Virginians
under Porterfield; of North Carolinians, under Rutherford, in the west;
and of a large body of North Carolina militia, under Caswell, in the
east. Then came the intelligence that Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne,
was on his way, with a large force, to recover all that Lincoln
had lost, and more, if possible. Rumor magnified their numbers. The
Loyalists became alarmed; the patriots took courage; and, as we have
seen, Marion and Sumter had raised their standards. The British
officers were perplexed; and Lord Rawdon, who was second in command
to Cornwallis, and had his post at Camden, called in some of his more
distant outposts. Major M'Arthur, who was at Cheraw to encourage the
Loyalists, was ordered to fall back toward Camden; and the most distant
outposts were upon Lynch's Creek, at Hanging Rock, and at Rocky Mount.
These, as we have seen (page 662), were attacked by Sumter, Davie, and
other active officers, with their men.

Cornwallis, perceiving the gathering storm on the borders of South
Carolina, hastened from Charleston to join Rawdon at Camden. He arrived
there on the thirteenth of August, and learned, with much concern, the
successes of Sumter, and the disaffection of the people, especially in
the county between the Black River and the Pedee. Nearly eight hundred
of his troops were sick at Camden, and his effective force amounted to
only a little more than two thousand men, fifteen hundred of whom
were regulars. The remainder were militia and North Carolina refugees.
Cornwallis would gladly have retreated to Charleston, but the
consideration that he must leave his sick behind, abandon or destroy
his magazines, and relinquish all the territory they had gained, except
Charleston, prevented that step. He therefore resolved to move forward
and attack Gates before the Virginia troops, known to be approaching,
could join him.

On the day when Cornwallis reached Camden, Gates advanced to Clermont,
and encamped near Rugeley's Mill. Those who had opposed Sumter at
Hanging Rock had fled to Camden on the approach of Gates, and Lord
Rawdon had also called in the garrison which he had stationed at
Rugeley's. The day after his arrival there[[Aug. 15, 1780]] Gates was
joined by General Stevens, with seven hundred militia; and, at about
noon, a message from Sumter announced the approach of stores and
clothing on the west side of the Wateree, for the enemy at Camden.
The capture of these stores, and the dispersion of the escort, we have
considered on page 660.

Notwithstanding Gates had weakened his army by sending a strong
re-enforcement to Sumter, he prepared to march upon Camden, to divert
attention from Sumter's enterprise,

* Richard Dobbs Spaight, afterward (1792) governor of North Carolina,
was General Caswell's aid on this occasion.

[[[Gates's Night-march toward Camden.--Cornwallis's March to meet
Gates.--General Gist.]]]

{671}and to fight, if necessary. On the evening of the fifteenth, he
sent his sick extra stores, and heavy baggage, under guard, to the
Waxhaw, and at ten o'clock at night commenced his march. Colonel
Annand's legion composed the van, flanked upon the right by
Porterfield's infantry, in Indian file, two hundred yards from the
road; and upon the left by Armstrong's infantry, in the same order.
Next followed the first and second Maryland brigades, under Brigadiers
Smallwood and Gist, and the Delaware troops, all commanded by De Kalb:
then the North Carolina division, under Caswell; the Virginia division,
under Stevens; with a rear-guard of volunteer cavalgage.

[Illustration: 8681]

Confident in his strength by such a disposition of his troops, he
ordered Colonel Armand to withstand the attack of the enemy's cavalry,
whatever its number. The most profound silence was commanded, and
instant death was threatened to the soldier who should fire a gun until
ordered. **

Cornwallis, notwithstanding his inferior force, marched to attack Gates
at Rugeley's, being informed that his position was a weak one. At the
same hour when Gates marched toward Camden, Cornwallis upon
the flanks struck his tents at that place, and proceeded
cautiously toward Rugeley's. His troops consisted of the 23d and 33d
regiments, under Lieutenant-colonel Webster (who was afterward mortally
wounded at Guilford); Tarleton's legion; Irish Volunteers; a part of
Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton's North Carolina regiment; and Bryan's corps
of Loyalists, under Lord Rawdon, with two six and two three pounders
commanded by Lieutenant M'Leod; and the 71st regiment. Camden was left
in the care of Major M'Arthur, with the sick and convalescents. Silently
both armies marched in the gloom of night. The air was sultry; no moon
was in the heavens, but the stars looked down in serene radiance upon
the earth. Not a footfall was heard in the deep sand, and neither party
was aware that the other had struck his tents, until the advanced guards
of each met at about two o'clock in the morning,[[Aug. 16, 1780]] upon
the gentle slope about half a mile north of Sander's Creek.

* Mordecai Gist was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1743. His ancestors,
early emigrants to Maryland, were English. He was educated for
commercial pursuits, and was engaged in the vocation of a merchant when
the storm of the Revolution began to lower. The young men of Baltimore
associated under the title of the "Baltimore Independent Company," and
elected Gist captain. This was the first company raised in Maryland for
the defense of popular liberty. Gist was appointed major of a battalion
of Maryland regulars in 1776, and was with them in the battle near
Brooklyn, at the close of the summer of that year. He was promoted to
colonel in 1777, and was in the battle at Germantown, in September of
that year. In January, 1779, Congress appointed him a brigadier in the
Continental army, and he was honored with the command of the 2d Maryland
brigade. He fought bravely, and suffered defeat in the battle near
Camden, In 1780. Gist was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, and
afterward joined the Southern army, under Greene. When that commander
remodeled the army, in 1782, while lying near Charleston, he gave
General Gist the command of the light corps." It was a part of his
command, under Colonel Laurens, that dealt one of the last blows upon
the enemy, in an engagement upon the banks of the Combahee. At the close
of the war, he retired to a plantation which he bought near Charleston,
where he resided until his death, which occurred in Charleston, in 1792.
General Gist had but two children, sons; one he named Independent, and
the other States.

** When Deputy-adjutant-general Williams received these orders from
Gates, with the estimates of the forces, he perceived that the commander
was much deceived in his idea of the number of the troops. Instead of
there being almost seven thousand men, he showed, by his returns, that
there were only three thousand six hundred and sixty-three, exclusive of
those detached in aid of Sumter. Gates did not alter his plan on account
of this discovery.

[[[Meeting of the Armies. Skirmish.--Council of War.--Preparations for
Battle.--The Attack.]]]

{672}Both parties were surprised, and each fired almost at the same
moment. Some of Arrnand's troops were killed at the first fire, and so
sudden and unexpected was the attack that the remainder fell back in
disorder upon the first Maryland brigade. That column was broken by the
shock, and the whole line was filled with consternation. Porterfield,
with his usual gallantry, rushed forward and attacked the left of
the enemy's van, while Armstrong, with equal gallantry and decision,
attacked them on the right, and they were brought to a pause.
Porterfield was severely wounded, carried to the rear of the army, and
died a few days afterward. Both armies halted, and some prisoners having
been taken by both parties, the position of the respective forces
became known to each other. The situation of the British was far more
advantageous than that of the Americans. They had crossed Sander's
Creek, and they were completely guarded in the rear by an impenetrable
swamp.

[Illustration: 9682]

The Americans were upon rising ground in an open wood, and were obliged
to be watchful of their flanks.

When the first excitement of the encounter had subsided, Gates called a
council of officers. A retreat was practicable, and would doubtless have
been prudent. No one seemed willing to propose it; and when, to Gates's
remark, "Gentlemen, you know our situation, what are your opinions?"
General Stevens replied, "It is now too late to retreat;" the silence
that ensued was interpreted as favorable to an attack, and the
commander-in-chief remarked, "Then we must fight; gentlemen, please take
your posts."

The British army formed in line for battle, the right under the command
of Webster, and the left under Rawdon, and anxiously awaited the dawn.
The Americans, also, soon recovered from the panic produced by the
attack, and formed in battle order. The second Maryland brigade, and the
Delaware troops, under General Gist, took the right; the North Carolina
militia, under Caswell, the center; and the Virginians, under Stevens,
the left. The first Maryland brigade, under Smallwood, was formed in
reserve. De Kalb, charged with the line of battle, took post on the
right. The artillery of both armies was planted directly in front of
the center. All these preparations were made in darkness, and the
belligerents were ignorant of each others' movements. In the plan here
given, copied from Stedman, the black parallelograms denote the British
troops, and the open ones the Americans.

The first beam of morning was the signal for attack. While the British
were maneuvering to gain a better position, the American artillery
opened its volleys upon them. At the same moment, Colonel Williams, with
a band of volunteers, pressed forward upon the enemy's right, followed
by Stevens, with his Virginians, who were urged to rely upon the
bayonets with which they had been furnished the day before. Webster
immediately brought the British right to bear upon Williams and Stevens,
with such

[[[Battle at Sander's Creek.--General William Smallwood.]]]

{673}force, as to break the Virginia column and scatter it to the winds.
They delivered only a single fire, and then, panic-stricken, threw away
their arms, and fled in great confusion. The North Carolina militia
(except Dixon's regiment, which was next to the Continentals) followed
the shameful example, and the exertions of Stevens, Caswell, and even of
Gates himself, to stop or rally the fugitives, were unavailing.

[Illustration: 8683]

Only the Continental troops, with Dixon's regiment, were now left to
oppose the enemy. Upon the Maryland and Delaware troops fell the weight
of battle, and for a while they nobly sustained it. On the right, De
Kalb and Gist maintained their ground, though sorely pressed by Rawdon
and his regulars.

Lieutenant-colonel Howard (the subsequent "hero of the Cowpens"),
with Williams's regiment, charged the enemy with great vigor, and
disconcerted them. Inch by inch the Marylanders gained ground, and, had
the militia stood firm, and kept Webster employed, the British must have
been routed and driven in confusion across Sander's Creek. That skillful
officer had detached Tarleton in pursuit of the fugitives, and when
Smallwood * came forward with his reserve to fill the place of the
scattered militia, Webster brought his regiments to bear upon him.

Finally, the battle raged along the whole line, and victory was
uncertain. Firm as a rock the phalanx of De Kalb and Gist remained At
length, perceiving an advantage, De Kalb ordered a bayonet charge.
The slaughter was great; the enemy recoiled, and fifty men became the
prisoners of the Americans.

Smallwood, in the mean time, sustained himself gallantly; but at length
Webster gained his flank, and his brigade receded. It soon regained its
position; was again driven back, and speedily it rallied to the combat.
Cornwallis perceived the point of strength to be with De Kalb and Gist,
and, concentrating his whole force, he made a terrible charge there. It
was the decisive stroke which smote down the American strength and won
the victory. Another charge was made; the brave Marylanders gave way,
and, with the Delaware regiment, broken and maimed, fled to the swamps.
They were hotly pursued, and many were killed in the flight. The militia
fell in great numbers under the sabers of Tarleton's cavalry, and for
more than two miles the open wood was strewn with the dead and dying.
Arms, artillery, horses, and baggage were scattered in every direction.
More than a third of the Continental troops were killed; and of the
wounded, one hundred and seventy men were made prisoners. The Delaware
regiment was nearly annihilated, and Colonel Vaughn and Major Patten
being taken prisoners, the remanent, less than two companies, were placed
under the command of the brave Kirkwood, the senior captain, who had
been with Washington at Trenton and Princeton. De Kalb, while trying to
keep his troops firm when the

* William Smallwood was a native of Maryland, and was among the patriots
of that colony who earliest expressed their attachment to Republican
principles. He was appointed a brigadier by the Continental Congress,
in October, 1776, and major general in September, 1780. He was in
the battle near Brooklyn, in August 1776, where his command suffered
severely. It was chiefly composed of young men from Maryland, many of
them members of the most respectable families of that state. He was in
the Brandywine and Germantown battles in 1777. He accompanied Gates to
the South, and shared in the mortifications of defeat near Camden.
It was a month after that event that Congress promoted him to major
general. He was elected a delegate in Congress, for Maryland, in 1785,
and the same year was chosen to succeed William Penn as governor of the
state. He was succeeded in office by John Eager Howard, in 1788. General
Smallwood died in February, 1792.

[[[Death of the Baron de Kalb.--Flight of the Americans.--British
Victorious.--The Armed Neutrality.]]]

{674}last charge was made, fell, pierced with eleven wounds. His
lieutenant, Du Buysson, threw his arms around him, gave his name and
rank, and while saving him from instant death, was terribly wounded
himself by British bayonets. In the mean while Gates had fled, "borne
off the field by a current of dismayed militia," who "constituted so
great a part of his army, that when he saw them break and flee, he lost
all hope of victory." * With Caswell, he hastened to Clermont, hoping
to cheek and rally the militia at their old encampment, near Rugeley's
Mill. This hope was vain, for the further the dismayed troops fled,
the more they became dispersed, and the generals giving up all as lost,
proceeded, with a few attendants, to Charlotte, where they arrived in
the evening of the same day, though about eighty miles distant. On his
way, Gates heard of the success of Sumter at the Wateree Ford, but that
triumph came too late to afford him aid, and, as we have seen (page
660), two days afterward,[[Aug 18, 1780]] Sumter and his band were
surprised and dispersed at Fishing Creek. General Rutherford surrendered
to a party of the British legion. The other generals escaped, but were
separated from their respective commands. The rout was complete, and
only Major Andrus, of the third Maryland regiment, succeeded in rallying
any part of the fugitives. Most of the Virginia militia retired to
Hillsborough by the road they came to camp, and there General Stevens
gathered many of them together. Their time of service soon expiring,
they were discharged. **

The victory of Cornwallis was complete, and for a moment the hopes of
the patriots, particularly at the South, were crushed; their only chance
of success seemed to be the intervention of European nations. *** Within
the space of three months, two armies had been almost annihilated by
capture and dispersion, and the most active partisan corps scattered to
the winds. **** Cornwallis considered the subjugation of South Carolina
accomplished, and,

* Gordon, iii., 104.

** Ramsay, ii., 145-152. Gordon, iii., 98-107. Marshall, i., 344-348.
Lee. 92-100.

*** It was during the summer of 1780, that Roehambeau and his army
arrived at Newport; an auspicious event for the Americans. A movement in
Europe, known in history as the Armed Neutrality, at about the same time
threatened to cripple the power of England, and promised indirect aid
to the Americans. The Empress Catharine, of Russia, with the duplicity
which has ever marked the diplomacy of that government, professed great
friendship toward England, and abhorrence of the rebellion in America.
She even entered into negotiations for sending Russian troops to America
to assist the British. All this while she was building a navy, and the
English were made to believe it was to aid them. As soon as she felt
strong enough to set England at defiance, her tone and, policy were
changed, and on the twenty-sixth of February, 1780. she issued a
manifesto, in which she declared the international doctrine (with a
qualification) so eloquently promulged and advocated by Kossuth in
America, in 1851-2, namely, that neutral states have a right to carry
on their commerce with belligerent powers unmolested, and even to convey
from one port to another of a belligerent power, all goods whatsoever,
except what could be deemed contraband in consequence of previous
treaties.* Hitherto ports were blockaded, not always by squadrons of
ships, but by a simple proclamation. Catharine declared that no port
should be considered blockaded, unless there was a sufficient force
present to maintain a blockade, and this was the qualification of the
doctrine concerning the rights of neutral nations; a qualification which
contains the essential maxim of despotism, "Might makes right." This
doctrine was contrary to the maritime policy of England, and inimical to
her interests. In the course of the summer, Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden
became parties to the policy declared by the Czarina, and entered into
a league with her; and in November the States General of Holland acceded
to the measure. Spain and France acquiesced in the new maritime code,
and at one time a general Continental war against England appeared
inevitable. But the personal caprices of Catharine, and her known
faithlessness, made the other powers hesitate, and the next year the
alliance resulted in inaction.

**** The exact loss sustained by the Americans in the engagement on
the sixteenth, and Sumter's surprise on the eighteenth, was never
ascertained. The estimated loss was as follows: exclusive of Dc Kalb
and General Rutherford, four lieutenant colonels, three majors, fourteen
captains, four captain lieutenants, sixteen lieutenants, three ensigns,
four staff, seventy-eight subalterns, and six hundred and four rank and
file. They also lost eight field-pieces, and other artillery, more than
two hundred baggage wagons, and the greater part of their baggage. That
of Gates and De Kalb, with all their papers, was saved. The loss of the
British was severe. Gates estimated that more than five hundred of the
enemy were killed and wounded; Stedman (ii., 210) says the British loss
was three hundred less than the Americans. A great many of the fugitive
militia were murdered in their flight. Armed parties of Tories, alarmed
at the presence of the Americans, were marching to join Gates. When they
heard of his defeat, they inhumanly pursued the flying Americans, and
butchered a large number in the swamps and pine barrens.

* See Florida Blanca's Representation, as cited by Arch-deacon Coxe in
his Memoirs of the Kings of Spain, of the Throne of Bourbon.

[[[Confidence of the British.--Rendezvous at Hillsborough.--Governor
Nash.--Colonel Buncombe.]]]

{675}confident of future success, moved toward the North State to
establish royal rule there. His march to, and retreat from Charlotte;
the defeat of his detachments at King's Mountain and the Cowpens; the
pursuit of Greene; the battle at Guilford; the retreat of the British
to Wilmington; their march into Virginia; and the final capture of
Cornwallis's army at Yorktown, have been considered in preceding
chapters.

General Gates was much censured on account of the defeat of the
Americans on Sander's Creek, because he provided for no place of
rendezvous in the event of being obliged to retreat; for not having his
baggage and stores at a proper distance from the scene of action; and
because of an improper arrangement of his army for attack, placing
his unskilled militia on the right, opposite the British veterans of
Webster. Armand spoke harshly of Gates, and even intimated that he was
a coward or a traitor. Gates's great fault appears to have been a too
sanguine belief that he could easily crush the inferior force of his
enemy. His vanity was always the source of his greatest trouble. In this
instance he was too confident of success, and made no provision for
the contingencies of adversity; and hence his utter weakness when the
victorious blow was struck by the British, and he was obliged to flee.

On the seventeenth and eighteenth, [[August 1780]]Smallwood and Gist
arrived at Charlotte, with several other officers, and there they found
more than one hundred regular infantry, Armand's cavalry, Major Davie's
partisan corps from the Waxhaw settlement, and a few militia. Gates
began to hope that another army might be speedily reorganized, when
intelligence of the disaster of Sumter at Fishing Creek reached him. He
retreated to Hillsborough, where the Provincial Congress was in session,
with Governor Abner Nash * at its head. That officer exerted all the
power and influence of his station to

[Illustration: 8685]

* Abner Nash was a member of the Provincial Council of North Carolina,
and an active politician. When the war of the Revolution broke out, he
and his brother Francis* were found in the ranks of the patriots; Abner
in the council, Francis in the field. Their father emigrated from Wales,
and settled in Prince Edward county, Virginia, where Abner was born. At
an early age he went to North Carolina, where he was educated for the
bar. He was the first speaker of the North Carolina Legislature under
its Republican Constitution; and in 1779, succeeded Caswell, the first
governor, in the office of chief magistrate of the state. He represented
a constituency in the Assembly, from 1782 to 1785, and was a member of
the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1786. He resided for many years
at Newbern, where he died, greatly respected for his public and private
virtues. His memory is perpetuated in the state by a county called
by his name. Governor Nash's first wife was the young widow of the
venerable Governor Dobbs.

[Illustration: 9685]

[Illustration: 6685]

* I have noticed the death of General Francis Nash at Germantown, on
page 320. Since writing that account, I have been in formed that his
wound consisted of a laceration of the flesh and the fracture of the
bone of his thigh by a cannon-ball, which killed his horse, and also his
aid, Major Witherspoon, son of Dr. Witherspoon, of Princeton College.
His remains lie in the Mennonist Burying-ground, at Kulpsville,
twenty-six miles from Philadelphia. Through the patriotic endeavors
of John F. Watson, Esq., the annalist, the citizens of Germantown and
Norristown have erected a neat marble monument to the memory of General
Nash, upon which is the following inscription: "In memory of General Nash
of North Carolina, mortally wounded at the battle of Germantown, here
interred, October 17, 1777, in presence of the army here encamped. J. F.
W."

* Among the gallant officers who accompanied General Nash to the North,
and fought at Brandywine and Germantown, was Colonel Edward Buncombe. He
was wounded and made a prisoner at Germantown, and died soon afterward
at Philadelphia. His character for generous hospitality may be inferred
from the following distich, which he affixed over the door of his
mansion, in Washington county, North Carolina

                              "Welcome, all,
                              To Buncombe Hall."

*In 1791. his name was given to a county in North Carolina. From 1817 to
1823, the district which includes Buncombe was represented in Congress
by one, not an orator. On one occasion, he attempted to address the
House in favor of a bill providing pensions for militiamen; but a
determination not to hear him was manifested. He appealed to the late
Mr. Lowndes to interpose in his behalf, intimating that he would be
satisfied with the allowance of five minutes for a speech that might be
published in the newspapers, and assuring him that his remarks were not
intended for the House, but for Buncombe. He was gratified, and spoke
under the five minutes' rule. To the astonishment of the good people
of Buncombe, the speech of their representative (a curious specimen of
logic and oratory) appeared in the Washington City Gazette, covering
nearly a broadside of that paper. "Speaking for Buncombe" (not Bunkum)
is a term often applied since to men who waste the time of legislative
bodies in making speeches for the sole purpose of receiving popular
applause.

* This parole (Alexandria) and countersign (Bedford, Colchester), upon
a small slip of paper, is in the handwriting of Washington. The original
is in the possession of J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of Boston. It is
the practice in camps for the command er-in-chief to issue a parole and
countersign every morning. It is given in writing to his subordinates,
and by them communicated to those who wish to leave the camp and return
during the day and evening, &c. The object is to guard against the
admission of spies into the camp.


[[[Partial Organization of an Army.--Hobkirk's Hill.--View at the
Spring.--Gates's Order.--Parole.]]]

{676}aid the discomfited general. The Legislature provided for procuring
arms, ammunition, and stores; ordered militia drafts, and took other
vigorous measures for the defense of the state. Salisbury, toward
which it was believed Cornwallis would march, was made the place of
rendezvous.

[Illustration: 9686]

The fragments of the army broken at Sander's Creek were collected
together at Hillsborough early in September, and on the sixteenth
of that month, Colonel Buford, having recruited his corps so cruelly
handled by Tarleton, reached head-quarters, from Virginia. There he was
joined by sixty Virginia militia, and about fifty of Porterfield's light
infantry. All of these, with the Maryland and Delaware regiments, were
formed into brigade, under Smallwood. The intervening events, from this
time until 1780. Greene succeeded Gates in the command of the Southern
army,[[Dec. 3, 1780]] have already been considered. *

An hour's ride from Sander's Creek, over a very sandy and gently rolling
country, brought me to the summit of Hobkirk's Hill, a high ridge
overlooking the plains of Camden. Upon the table-land of its summit is
a beautiful village, composed of many fine houses, the residences of
wealthy inhabitants of that region, who have chosen this spot for its
salubrity in summer. It was just at sunset when I first looked from this
eminence upon the town below and the broad plain around it. Although
it was midwinter, the profusion of evergreens gave the landscape the
appearance of early autumn. Here was fought one of the memorable battles
of our War for Independence; and yonder, stretching away toward the
high hills of Santee, is the plain once red with British legions, and
glittering with British bayonets. Before descending to Camden, a mile
distant, let us open the old

* The irritation which Gates exhibited when he was succeeded by General
Schuyler in the command of the Northern army, in 1777, was not visible
when Greene reached Charlotte, and gave him the first notification of
his having been superseded. On the contrary, he received Greene with the
utmost courtesy, and expressed his warmest thanks for the tender
manner in which that officer announced the action of Congress and the
commander-in-chief. On the morning after Greene's arrival, Gates issued
the following order:

[Illustration: 9686]

*"Head-quarters, Charlotte, 3d December, 1780. Parole, Springfield;
countersign. Greene. The Honorable Major-general Greene, who arrived
yesterday afternoon in Charlotte, being appointed by his excellency,
General Washington, with the approbation of the Honorable Congress, to
the command of the Southern army, all orders will, for the future, issue
from him, and all reports are to be made to him. General Gates returns
his sincere thanks to the Southern army for their perseverance,
fortitude, and patient endurance of all the hardships and sufferings
they have undergone while under his command. He anxiously hopes their
misfortunes will cease therewith, and that victory and the glorious
advantages attending it maybe the future portion of the Southern army."

* The site of this spring, the source of one of the tributaries of Pine
Tree Creek, is denoted in the map, on page 676. It is at the head of
a ravine, scooped out of the northeastern slope of Hobkirk's Hill. The
noble trees which shadow it are tulips, poplars, and pines. The house
seen on the top of the hill, toward the left, is the residence of
William E. Johnson, Esq., president of the Camden Bank. A few yards
below the spring a dike has been cast up, across the ravine, by which a
fine duck pond is formed, and adds beauty to the scene, in summer.

[[[Greene's Movements toward South Carolina.--His Encampment near
Camden.--Lee's Legion and Wolves.]]]

{677}chronicle, and peruse an interesting page. It is a balmy
evening[[Jan. 17, 1859]] birds are chirping their vespers among the
dark-green foliage of the wild olives in the gardens, and buds are
almost bursting into blossoms upon every tree. Here, upon a bench by the
babbling spring, where General Greene was at breakfast when surprised by
Lord Rawdon, we will read and ponder in the evening twilight.

We left General Greene and his broken army on their march from
Cornwallis's camp, on the Deep River,[[April 6, 1781]] toward Camden.
(See page 613.)

[Illustration: 8687]

Greene had determined to strike a blow for the recovery of South
Carolina. To secure the provisions which grow upon the borders of the
Santee and Congaree Rivers, and to keep a communication with the Indians
on the frontier, the British had established military posts at several
points, the most important of which was Fort Watson, upon Wright's
Bluff, in the present Sumter District. These, with the more remote post
of Ninety-Six, Greene resolved to attack almost simultaneously with
his movement against Lord Rawdon, then at Camden. He dispatched
Lieutenant-colonel Lee with his legion, to join Marion, then encamped
in the swamps on Black River, in Williamsburg District. * These brave
partisans met on the fourteenth,[[April 1781]] and immediately prepared
to march against Fort Watson. Brigadiers Sumter and Pickens were
informed of the intended movement, and refused to co-operate. Greene
desired Sumter to join him at Camden, while Pickens was directed to
assemble the western militia and invest Ninety-Six, or, at least,
to prevent a re-enforcement marching from that post to the relief of
Rawdon.

With only about fifteen hundred men (after detaching Lee's force),
Greene descended the Southern slope of Hobkirk's Hill[[April 19]] and
encamped at Log Town, within half a mile a mile of the enemy's works, at
Camden.

Lord Rawdon, who had been left in command of the

* Lee in his Memoirs (page 215), relates an amusing circumstance which
occurred while he was on Ins way to join Marion among the swamps on
Black River, in Williamsburg District. Lee's detachment had reached
Dimming Creek, a branch of the Pedee, and were encamped for the night.
Toward morning, the officer of the day was informed that noises, like
the stealthy movements of a body of men, were heard in front of the
pickets, toward the creek. Presently a sentinel fired, the bugles
sounded for the horse patroles to come in, and soon the whole detachment
were on the alert for the approaching enemy. Soon another sentinel fired
in a different direction, and intelligence came that an invisible enemy
were in the swamp. The troops were formed in accordance with the latest
information of the whereabouts of the secret foe. With great anxiety
they awaited the approach of dawn, not doubling that its first gleam
would be the signal for a general assault, by ihe enemy. Suddenly the
line of sentinels in their rear, upon the great road they had traversed,
fired in quick succession, and the fact that the enemy had gained their
rear in force could not be doubted. Lee went cautiously along his line;
informed his troops that there was no alternative but to fight; reminded
them of their high reputation, and enjoined them to be firm throughout
the approaching contest. He conjured the cavalry to be cautious, and
not allow any partial success to tempt them to pursue, for no doubt
the enemy would ambuscade. At break of day, the whole column advanced
cautiously to the great road, infantry in front, baggage in the
center, and cavalry in the rear. No enemy appeared, and the van officer
cautiously examined the road to find the trail of the foe. He soon
discovered the tracks of a large pack of wolves! These animals
had attempted to pass along their accustomed path, but finding it
obstructed, had turned from point to point when met by the fire of the
sentinels. The circumstance occasioned great merriment among the troops.
Each considered himself a dupe. The poor pickets, patroles, and officer
of the day were made the butt of severest ridicule.

* Francis Rawdon, son of the Earl of Moira, was born in 1754, and
entered the army in 1771. He was distinguished for his bravery during
his first campaign in America, and in 1778 was appointed adjutant
general of the British forces. He was at the storming of Forts Clinton
and Montgomery in 1777, and was with Sir Henry Clinton at the battle of
Monmouth. He was promoted to brigadier, and was succeeded in his office
of adjutant general by Major Andre. Rawdon afterward received the
commission of a major general. In 1812, he was appointed Governor
General of British India, which office he held until 1822. During his
administration, the Nepaulese, Pindarees, and other native powers, were
subjugated, and the British authority made supreme in India. During
his absence in the East, he was created Marquis of Hastings. He died in
1825.

[[[Lord Rawdon at Camden.--Greene's Camp on Hobkirk's Hill.--Rawdon's
Preparations to Attack Greene.]]]

{678}Southern division of the royal army when Cornwallis marched into
North Carolina, was now at Camden. He was apprised of Greene's approach,
and notwithstanding his force was inferior (about nine hundred men), he
was too strongly intrenched to fear an attack. Greene perceived that his
little army was unequal to the task of carrying the place by storm,
or even of completely investing it. * Hoping to be joined by a
re-enforcement of militia, he withdrew to Hobkirk's Hill, and encamped.
On the twenty-first, he received the startling information that Colonel
Watson, with between four and five hundred men, was marching up the
Santee to join Rawdon. To prevent this junction, it was necessary
to intercept Watson some distance from Camden. To this task Greene
immediately applied himself. He crossed Sand Hill Creek, and encamped
on the east of Camden,[[April 22]] upon the Charleston road. It being
impossible to transport the artillery across the marshes on the borders
of that creek, Lieutenant-colonel Carrington was directed to return
with it toward Lynch's Creek, where it would be safe from the patrolling
parties of the enemy. Finally, convinced that the intelligence of the
approach of Watson was false, ** Greene hastened back to Hobkirk's
Hill, and ordered Carrington to join him, with the artillery
immediately.[[April 24]] The hill was then completely covered with a
forest, and the Americans were so strongly posted, with the swamp on
Pine Tree Creek in their rear, that they felt no fear of an attack from
the enemy. Yet the ever-cautious Greene had the army encamped in battle
order, ready to repel a sortie of Rawdon, should he have the temerity to
attempt one. During the day, he had received information of the capture
of Fort Watson by Marion and Lee, and just at evening the prisoners were
brought into camp, among whom were several American soldiers, previously
captured, and who, as they said, had enlisted in the British service as
the best means of escaping to their friends.

During the night of the twenty-fourth, a drummer, named Jones, one of
the Americans taken at Fort Watson, deserted, and made his way to the
British camp. He informed Rawdon of the detachment of the artillery from
the main army, the lack of provisions in the American camp, and the fact
that Sumter had not arrived. Rawdon resolved to strike a blow at this
favorable moment, for his own provisions were almost exhausted; and
before daylight his garrison was in marching order. The country between
Hobkirk's Hill and Camden was so thickly wooded that the movements of
the enemy were not discerned until his van-guard approached the American
pickets. The patriots were unsuspicious of danger. Greene and his
officers were leisurely taking breakfast under the shade of the trees
at the spring, pictured on page 676 (for it was a clear, warm morning);
some of the soldiers were washing their clothes, and the horses of
Washington's cavalry were unsaddled. Rawdon did not march directly for
the American camp, on the Waxhaw road, but took a circuitous route,
toward the Pine Tree Creek. At about ten o'clock, the American advanced
guard discerned the approach of the enemy. Their pickets were commanded
by Captain Benson, of Maryland, and Captain Morgan, of Virginia,
supported by Captain Kirkwood, *** with the re-

* Camden, the capital of Kershaw District, stands upon a gentle
elevation, covered on the southwest by the Wateree at a mile distant,
and on the east by Pine Tree Creek, a considerable stream. The country
around it was heavily wooded at the lime in question, and the town
itself (formerly ealled Pine Tree, but then named in honor of Lord
Camden) was but a small village of a few houses.

** Colonel Watson had really commenced his march up the Santee, but
was obliged to turn back because Marion and Lee, after capturing Fort
Watson, had got in front of him, and effectually guarded all the passes
and ferries.

*** That portion of Hobkirk's Hill, on its southeastern slope, where
the first of the battle commenced, is now called Kirkwood. It is covered
with fine residences and beautiful gardens, and is valued as a healthful
summer resort by the people of Camden.

[[[Disposition of the Two Armies.--Battle on Hobkirk's Hill.--Yielding
of Maryland Troops.]]]

{679}mains of the Delaware regiment. These, at a distance of about a
quarter of a mile from the camp, gallantly received and returned the
fire of the British van, and kept them at bay while Greene formed his
army in more complete battle order.

Fortunately for Greene, Carrington, with the artillery, had joined
him early in the morning, and brought to camp a competent supply of
provisions.

[Illustration: 8689]

The line was soon formed, and so confident was Greene of success,
that he unhesitatingly ordered Lieutenant-colonel Washington, with his
cavalry, to turn the right flank of the British, and to charge in their
rear. The American line was composed of the Virginia brigade on the
right, under Brigadier Huger, with Lieutenant-colonels Campbell and
Hawes; the Maryland brigade, led by Colonel Williams, seconded by
Colonel Gunby, and Lieutenant-colonels Ford and Howard, occupied the
left; and in the center was Colonel Harrison, with the artillery. The
reserve consisted of Washington's cavalry, and a corps of two hundred
and fifty North Carolina militia, under Colonel Reade. (See the map.)

The skirmish of the van-guards was severe for some time, when Rawdon,
with his whole force, pressed forward, and drove Kirkwood and his
Delawares back upon the main line. The King's American regiment was on
his right; the New York Volunteers in the centre; and the 63d regiment
composed the left. His right was supported by Robertson's corps, and his
left by the Irish Volunteers. (See map.) The British presented a narrow
front, which was an advantage to Greene. As they moved slowly up the
slope, Campbell and Ford were ordered to turn the flanks of the British,
while the first Maryland regiment, under Gunby, was ordered to make an
attack in front. Rawdon perceived this movement, and, ordering the Irish
corps into line, strengthened his position by extending his front. The
battle opened from right to left with great vigor. The two Virginia
regiments, led by Greene in person, aided by Huger, Campbell, and Hawes,
maintained their ground firmly, and even gained upon the enemy. At the
same time, Washington, with his cavalry, was sweeping every thing before
him upon the right flank of the British. The artillery was playing upon
the center with great execution, and Gunby's veteran regiment rushed
forward in a deadly charge with bayonets. Notwithstanding their
inferiority of numbers and disadvantage of position, the British
maintained their ground most gallantly until Gunby's charge, when they
faltered. Hawes was then descending the hill to charge the New York
Volunteers, and the falchion that should strike the decisive blow of
victory for the Americans was uplifted. At that moment, some of Gunby's
veterans gave way, without any apparent cause. Colonel Williams, who was
near the center, endeavored to rally them, and Gunby and other officers
used every exertion to close their line. In this attempt, Colonel
Ford was mortally wounded and carried to the rear. Gunby, finding it
impossible to bring them into order, directed them to rally by retiring
partially in the rear. This order was fatal. Perceiving this retrograde
movement, the British advanced with a shout, when a general retreat of
the Amer-

* Note.--Explanation of the Plan.--This plan of the battle on Hobkirk's
Hill is copied from Stedman, a a, are the American militia, on the
Waxhaw road, leading from Camden to Salisbury; b b, the Virginia line;
c c, the Maryland line; d. the reserve, with General Greene; e, British
light infantry, approaching the American camp from Pine Tree Creek; f
volunteers from Ireland; g, South Carolina Loyalists; h, 63d regiment;
New York Loyalists; /, King's American regiment; k, convalescents; l,
with swords crossed, the place where the first attack was made; m m,
British dragoons. The spring was known as Martin's.

[[[Greene's Retreat.--Washington's Charge upon the Pursuers.--Marion and
Lee against Watson]]]

{680}cans took place. Greene, with his usual skill and energy, conducted
the retreat in such order that few men were lost after this first
action. Washington had been eminently successful; and at the moment when
the retreat began, he had two hundred prisoners. He hastily paroled the
officers, and then, wheeling, made a secure retreat, with the loss
of three men, and took with him fifty of his prisoners. The action
continued at intervals until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when
the Americans had retreated four or five miles, closely pursued by
parties of the enemy. Washington, with cavalry and infantry, then turned
upon the pursuers, and charging the mounted New York Volunteers with
great intrepidity, killed nine and dispersed the rest. This terminated
the battle. The British returned to their works at Camden, and Greene,
with his little army, encamped for the night on the north side of
Sander's Creek. The dead, alone, occupied the battle-field. So well was
the retreat conducted, that most of the American wounded (including six
commissioned officers), and all of their artillery and baggage,
with Washington's fifty prisoners, were carried off. The loss of the
Americans in killed, wounded, and missing, according to Greene's return
to the Board of War, was two hundred and sixty-six; that of the enemy,
according to Rawdon's statement, two hundred and fifty-eight. The killed
were not very numerous. Greene estimates his number at eighteen; among
whom was Ford and Beatty, of the Maryland line. * Rawdon's loss in
killed was thirty-eight, including one officer. **

This defeat was very unexpected to General Greene, and for a moment
disconcerted him, for, with the exception of the success of Marion
and Lee, in capturing Fort Watson, he did not know how the Southern
partisans were proceeding. *** The Maryland troops, so gallant and firm
on all former occasions, had now failed; his provisions were short;
Sumter, the speedy partisan, had not joined him; and supplies came
in tardily and meager. Yet Greene was not the man to be crushed by
adversity. On the contrary, he seemed to rise with renewed strength,
after every fall. Accordingly, on the morning succeeding the battle,

[[April 26, 1781]] he retired as far as Rugeley's, and after detaching a
small force with a six pounder under Captain Finley, to Nelson's Ferry,
to join Marion and Lee, and prevent Watson from re-enforcing Rawdon, he
crossed the Wateree, and took a strong position, where he could not
only cut off supplies for the garrison at Camden from that quarter, but
prevent the approach of Watson in that direction. In the mean while,
Marion and Lee were closely watching Colonel Watson. That officer had
now approached near to the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree, in
Orangeburg District; where he would cross it was difficult to tell; and
the vigilant partisans, fearing he might elude them if they took post on
the north side of the Congaree, crossed over, and endeavored to overtake
him. But Watson, who was "equally vigilant and active, crossed the
Congaree,[[May 6, 1781]] near its junction with the Wateree, and on the
seventh of May passed the latter stream and joined Rawdon at Camden.

Greene was early apprised of this junction, and, persuaded that Rawdon
would resume offensive operations at once, withdrew from the vicinity of
Camden Ferry to the high ground

* Marshall (ii., 6) says that the fall of Captain Beatty, of Gunby's
regiment, was the cause of its defection. His company and the one
adjoining it were thrown into contusion, and dropped out of the line,
and then the fatal disorder ensued.

** Marshall, ii., 1-8. Ramsay, ii., 230-31. Gordon, iii., 189-91. Lee,
220-24. Stedman, ii., 356-58.

*** The momentary despondency of Greene is expressed in the following
extract from a letter which he wrote to the Chevalier Luzerne, three
days after the battle: "This distressed country, I am sure, can not
struggle much longer without more effectual support. They may struggle a
little while longer, but they must fall; and I fear their fall will lay
a train to sap the independence of the rest ol America.... We fight, get
beaten, rise and fight again. The whole country is one continued scene
of blood and slaughter." To La Fayette he wrote, on the first of May:
"You may depend upon it, that nothing ean equal the sufferings of our
little army but their merit." in others he wrote in a similar strain,
imploring prompt and decisive action for supplying his handful of troops
with sustenance for the summer campaign, and with re-enforcements. It
must be remembered, that at this time the French army, under Rochambeau,
was lying idle in New England; and through Luzerne (the French minister)
and La Fayette, Greene hoped to hasten their advent in the field of
active operations. To Governor Read, of Pennsylvania, he wrote, on the
fourth of May: "If our good friends, the French, can not lend a helping
hand to save these sinking states, they must and will fall."

[[[British Evacuation of Camden.--Destruction of Property.--Fall of
British Posts.--Sale of Traveling Establishment.]]]

{681}beyond Sawney Creek, on the border of Fairfield District. He was
not mistaken. On the eighth,[[May]] Rawdon crossed the Wateree, at the
ferry below Camden, * and proceeded toward Greene's encampment. The
two armies were now equal in numbers; about twelve hundred each. On the
approach of the British, Greene retired to Colonel's Creek; at the same
time, Rawdon became alarmed at the intelligence of the increase of the
American army and of Greene's strong position, and returned to Camden.
Believing it impossible to drive Greene from his neighborhood, and
anxious for the safety of his menaced posts between him and Charleston,
Rawdon resolved to evacuate Camden, and with it all the country north
of the Congaree. He sent, orders to Lieutenant-colonel Cruger to abandon
Ninety-Six, and join Lieutenant-colonel Brown at Augusta, and also
directed Major Maxwell to leave Fort Granby (near the present city
of Columbia), and fall back upon Orangeburg, on the bank of the North
Edisto. He then burned the jail, mills, and several private houses at
Camden; destroyed all the stores which he could not carry with him, and
on the tenth left that place for Nelson's Ferry, hoping to cross there
in time to drive off Marion and Lee, then besieging Fort Motte. He took
with him almost five hundred negroes; and the most violent Loyalists,
fearing the vengeance of the patriots, followed him in great numbers. **
Within six days afterward, Orangeburg,[[May 11]] Fort Motte,[[May 12]]
the post at the post at Nelson's Ferry,[[May 14]] and Fort Granby,[[May
15]] fell into the hands of the Americans.

Greene, in the meanwhile, had marched toward Ninety-Six, where he
arrived on the twenty-second of May. The military events at these
several places will be noticed presently, in the order in which I
visited them.

It was almost dark when I rode into Camden and alighted at Boyd's
Hotel. Here was the end of my tedious but interesting journey of almost
fourteen hundred miles with my own conveyance; for, learning that I
could reach other chief points of interest at the South easier
and speedier by public conveyance, I resolved to sell my traveling
establishment. Accordingly, after passing the forenoon of the next
day[[Jan 18, 1849]] in visiting the battle-ground on Hobkirk's Hill,
sketching the scenery at the Spring, and the monument erected to the
memory of De Kalb, on the green in front of the Presbyterian church in
Camden, ** I went into the market as a trafficker. A stranger both to
the people and to the business, I was not successful. I confess there
was a wide difference between my "asking" and my "taking" price. My
wagon was again broken, and, anxious to get home, I did not "dicker"
long when I got an offer, and Charley and I parted, I presume, with
mutual regrets. He was a docile, faithful animal, and I had become much
attached to him. A roll of Camden bank-notes soothed my feelings, and
I left the place of separation at dawn the next morning in the cars for
Fort Motte and Columbia, quite light-hearted.

* There is now a fine bridge across the Wateree at this place, which
cost twenty thousand dollars.

** Many of these, who had occupied their farms near Camden, were reduced
to the most abject poverty. Outside of the lines at Charleston, men,
women, and children were crowded into a collection of miserable huts,
which received the name of Rawdontown.--Simms's History of South
Carolina. 223.

*** I was informed, after I left Camden, that the house in which
Cornwallis was quartered, while there, was yet standing, and very little
altered since the Revolution. It was one of the few saved when Rawdon
left the place. I was not aware of this fact while I was in Camden.

[[[Departure from Camden.--The High Hills of Santee.--Passage of the
Wateree Swamp.]]]

{682}




CHAPTER XXVI.


```Marion. Friends! fellow-soldiers! we again have heard

```The threats of our proud enemies; they come.

```Boasting to sweep us, like the chaff, away.

```Shall we yield? shall we lie down like dogs beneath

```The keeper's lash? Then shall we well deserve

```The ruin, the disgrace that must ensue.

```Ne'er dream submission will appease our foes;

```We shall be conquered rebels, and they'll fear

```The spirit of liberty may rouse again;

```And therefore will they bind us with strong chains,

```New cords, green willies, like those which Samson bound,

```And we, alas! shall have been shorn and weak,

```On Folly's lap, if we yield up our freedom.

````Mrs. S. J. Hale's Tragedy,

`````"Ormond Grovesnor." Act IV.=

[Illustration: 9692]

T was a brilliant, frosty morning when I left Camden to visit the scenes
of some of the exploits of Marion and his partisan compatriots. Soon
after crossing the Big Swift and Rafting Creeks, we reached the high
hills of Santee, whereon General Greene encamped before and after the
battle at the Eutaw Springs. They extend southward, in Sumter District,
from the Kershaw line, twenty-two miles, parallel with the Wateree. They
are immense sand hills, varying in width on the summit from one to five
miles, and are remarkable for the salubrity of the atmosphere and for
medicinal springs. Just at sunrise, while swiftly skirting the base
of these hills, with the Wateree Swamp between us and the river on
the west, we saw the sharp pencilings of the few scattered houses ol
Statesburg against the glowing eastern sky.

[Illustration: 8692]

There was the residence of General Sumter after the war, and in his
honor the surrounding district was named. * After skirting the Wateree
Swamp some distance, the road passes through a high sand bluff, and then
crosses the great morass to the river, a distance of four miles. Beyond
that stream, it joins the rail-way from Columbia. Through the swamp,
the iron rails are laid upon a strong wooden frame-work, high enough
to overtop a cane-brake. The passage is made at a slow rate to avoid
accidents. The scenery was really grand, for below were the green canes
waving like billows in the wind, while upon either side of the avenue
cut for the road, towered mighty cypresses and gum-trees, almost every
branch draped with long moss. Clustered around their stalely trunks were
the holly, water-oak, laurel, and gall-hush, with their varied tints of
green; and among these, flitting in silence, were seen the gray murk-

* I was informed that the house of General Sumter and several others,
with a large tract of land, was owned by a mulatto named Ellison, who,
with his wife and children, were once slaves. He was a mechanic, and
with the proceeds of his labor he purchased the freedom of himself and
family. He is now ( 1850) about sixty years of age, and owns a large
number of slaves. His sons and daughters are educated, and the former
occupy the position of overseers on his plantation. Mr. Ellison is
regarded as one of the most honorable business men in that region.

** This little sketch is from the pencil of J. Addison Richards, one of
our most accomplished landscape-painters. The cypress "knees," as they
are called, are here truthfully shown. They extend from the roots of the
trees, sometimes as much as two feet above the earth or the water,
but never exhibit branches or leaves. They appear like smooth-pointed
stumps.

[[[Fort Motte.--Remains of the Revolution.--Position of the Americans
there.--General Marion]]]

{683}ing-biril and the brilliant scarlet tanniger. Here, I was told,
opossums and wild eats abound, and upon the large dry tracts of the
swamp wild deers are often seen.

We arrived at the junction station at a little past eight o'clock, and,
crossing a narrow part of the Congaree Swamp and River, reached Fort
Motte Station, on the southern side of that stream, before nine, a
distance of forty-four miles from Camden.

The plantation of Mrs. Rebecca Motte, whose house, occupied and
stockaded by the British, was called Fort Motte, lies chiefly upon a
high rolling plain, near the Buck's Head Neck, on the Congaree, a little
above the junction of that river with the Wateree, thirty-three miles
below Columbia, the capital of the state.

[Illustration: 8693]

This plain slopes in every direction, and is a commanding point of view,
overlooking the vast swamps on the borders of the Congaree. It is now
owned by William H. Love, Esq., with whom I passed several hours very
agreeably. His house (seen in the engraving) is built nearly upon the
site of Mrs. Motte's mansion, desolated by fire at her own suggestion,
while occupied by the British. The well used by that patriotic lady is
still there, close by the oak-tree seen on the right; and from it to the
house there is a slight hollow, which indicates the place of a covered
way, dug for the protection of the soldiers when procuring water.

[Illustration: 9693]

The other large tree seen in the picture is a blasted sweet-gum, and in
the extreme distance is seen the Congaree Swamp. This house was built by
Mrs. Motte immediately after the close of the war. The Americans, whose
exploits we shall consider presently, were stationed upon an eminence
about a quarter of a mile northeast of the house, toward the Congaree,
in the direction of M'Cord's Ferry. A little eastward of the house
there was an oval mound, when I was there in 1849, about twelve feet in
height, and dotted with the stumps of trees recently cut down. This is
the vestige of a battery, upon which the assailants planted a field-We
shall better understand these localities after consulting piece to
dislodge the British, the oracle of history.

Among the bold, energetic, and faithful patriots of the South, none
holds a firmer place in the affections of the American people than
General Francis Marion. ** His adventures were

* The Congaree is formed by the junction of the Broad and Saluda
Rivers at Columbia. Its junction with the Wateree (Lhe Catawba of North
Carolina), at the lower end of Richland District, forms the Santee,
which name is borne by the whole volume of united waters from that point
to the ocean. Buck's Head Neck is formed by a sweep of the Congaree,
of nearly eight miles, when it approaches itself within a quarter of a
mile. The swamp land of this neck has been reclaimed in many places,
and now bears good cotton. At the rundle of this bow of the river is the
ancient M'Cord's Ferry, yet in use.

** Francis Marion was born at Winyaw, near Georgetown, South Carolina,
in 1732. He was so small at his birth, that, according to Weems, "he was
not larger than a New England lobster, and might easily enough have
been put into a quart pot." Marion received a very limited share
of education, and until his twenty-seventh year (1759), he followed
agricultural pursuits. He then became a soldier, by joining an
expedition against the Cherokees and other hostile tribes (see page 646)
on the Western frontier of the Carolinas. When the Revolution broke out,
he was found on the side of liberty, and was made captain in the
second South Carolina regiment. He fought bravely in the battle at Fort
Sullivan, on Sullivan's Island, He was afterward engaged in the contest
at Savannah, and from that period until the defeat of Gates, near
Camden, in the summer of 1780, he was an active soldier. Soon after that
affair, he organized a brigade, having passed through the several grades
to that of brigadier of the militia of his state. While Sumter was
striking heavy blows, here and there, in the northwestern part of North
Carolina, Marion was performing like service in the northeastern part,
along the Pedee and its tributaries. In 1781, he was engaged with Lee
and others in reducing several British posts. After the Battle at Eutaw,
Marion did not long remain in the field, but took his seat as senator
In the Legislature. He was soon again called to the field, and did not
relinquish his sword until the close of the war. When peace came, Marion
retired to his plantation, a little below Eutaw, where he died on the
twenty-ninth of February, 1795, in the sixty-third year of his age. His
last words were, "Thank God, since I came to man's estate I have never
intentionally done wrong to any man."

* Marion's remains are in the church-yard at Belle Isle, in the parish
of St. John's, Berkeley. Over them is a marble slab, upon which is
the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Brigadier-general
Francis Marion, who departed this life on the twenty-ninth of February,
1795, in the sixty-third year of his age, deeply regretted by all of his
fellow-citizens. History will record his worth, and rising generations
embalm his memory, as one of the most distinguished patriots and heroes
of the American Revolution; which elevated his native country to Honor
and Independence, and secured to her the blessings of liberty and peace.
This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected in commemoration
of the noble and disinterested virtues of the citizen, and the gallant
exploits of the soldier, who lived without fear and died without
reproach."

[[[The Song of Marion's Men.]]]

{684}full of the spirit of romance, and his whole military life was an
epic poem. The followers of Robin Hood were never more devoted to their
chief than were the men of Marion's brigade to their beloved leader.

[Illustration: 8694]

Bryant has sketched a graphic picture of that noble band, in his

````SONG OF MARION'S MEN.

````Our band is few, but true and tried,

`````Our leader frank and bold;

````The British soldier trembles

`````When Marion's name is told.

````Our fortress is the good green wood,

`````Our tent the cypress-tree;

````We know the forest round us,

`````As seamen know the sea.

````We know its walls of thorny vines,

`````Its glades of reedy grass;

````Its safe and silent islands

`````Within the dark morass.=

````Woe to the English soldiery,

`````That little dread us near!

````On them shall light at midnight,

`````A strange and sudden fear;

````When, waking to their tents on fire,

`````They grasp their arms in vain.

````And they who stand to face us

`````Are beat to earth again;

````And they who fly in terror deem

`````A mighty host behind,

````And hear the tramp of thousands

````Upon the hollow wind.=

````Then sweet the hour that brings release

`````From danger and from toil;

````We talk the battle over,

`````And share the battle's spoil.

````The woodland rings with laugh and shout,

`````As if a hunt were up,

````And woodland flowers are gather'd

`````To crown the soldier's cup.

````With merry songs we mock the wind

`````That in the pine-top grieves,

````And slumber long and sweetly.

`````On beds of oaken leaves.=

````Well knows the fair and friendly moon

`````The band that Marion leads--

````The glitter of their rifles,

`````The scampering of their steeds.

````'Tis life to guide the fiery barb

`````Across the moonlight plain;

````'Tis life to feel the night wind

`````That lifts his tossing mane.

````A moment in the British camp--

`````A moment--and away

````Baek to the pathless forest.

`````Before the peep of day.=

````Grave men there are by broad Santee;

`````Grave men with hoary hairs,

````Their hearts are all with Marion,

`````For Marion are their prayers.

````And lovely ladies greet our band

`````With kindliest welcoming,

````With smiles like those of summer,

`````And tears like those of spring.

````For them we wear these trusty arms,

`````And lay them down no more,

````Till we have driven the Briton

`````Forever from our shore.=


[[[Marion in Gates's Camp.--Description of his Regiment.--Rebecca
Motte.--Her House fortified and garrisoned]]]

{685}When Gates was pressing forward toward Camden, Marion, with about
twenty men and boys, were annoying the Tories in the neighborhood of
the Pedee. With his ragged command, worse than Falstaff ever saw, he
appeared at the camp of Gates, and excited the ridicule of the well-clad
Continentals. * Gates, too, would doubtless have thought lightly of
him, if Governor Rutledge, who was in the American camp, and knew the
partisan's worth, had not recommended him to the notice of that general.
Gates listened to his modestly-expressed opinions respecting the
campaign, but was too conceited to regard them seriously, or to offer to
Marion a place in his army.

[Illustration: 8695]

While he was in Gates's camp, the Whigs of Williamsburg District,
who had arisen in arms, sent for him to be their commander. Governor
Rutledge gave him the commission of a brigadier on the spot, and he
hastened to organize that _brigade_, which we shall hereafter
meet frequently among the swamps, the broad Savannahs, and by the
water-courses of the South. **

Fort Motte, where the brave Marion exhibited his skill and courage, was
the principal depot of the convoys between Charleston and Camden, and
also for those destined for Granby and Ninety-Six.

The British had taken possession of the fine large mansion of Mrs.
Rebecca Motte, *** a widow of fortune, which occupied a commanding
position. They surrounded it with a deep trench (a part of which is yet
visible), and along the interior margin of it erected a high parapet.

Mrs. Motte and her family, known to be inimical to the British, were
driven to her ton with dispatches for Lord Rawdon. They were on the
point of leaving, when Marion and Lee appeared upon the height at the
farm-house where Mrs. Motte was residing.

After cautiously reeonnoitering, Lee took position at the farm-house,
and his men, with the field-piece sent to them by Greene, occupied the
eastern declivity of the high plain on which Fort Motte stood. This
gentle declivity is a little southwest of the rail-way station, in full
view of passengers upon the road. Marion immediately cast up a mound
upon a hill north of the mansion, and their place was supplied by a
garrison of one hundred and fifty men, under Captain M'Pherson, a brave
British officer. After Colonel Watson eluded the pursuit of Marion and
Lee, and crossed the Congaree (see page 681), those indefatigable
partisans moved upon Fort Motte. A few hours before their arrival at
that place,

M'Pherson was re-enforced by a small detachment of dragoons sent from
Charles-

* Colonel Otho H. Williams, in his Narrative of the Campaigns of 1780,
thus speaks of Marion and his men, at that time: "Colonel Marion, a
gentleman of South Carolina, had been with the army a few days, attended
by a very few followers, distinguished by small leather caps and the
wretchedness of their attire; their numbers did not exceed twenty men
and boys, some white, some black, and all mounted, but most of them
miserably equipped; their appearance was, in fact, so burlesque, that
it was with much difficulty the diversion of the regular soldiery was
restrained by the officers; and the general himself was glad of an
opportunity of detaching Colonel Marion, at his own instance, toward
the interior of South Carolina, with orders to watch the motions of the
enemy, and furnish intelligence.

** So certain was Gates of defeating Cornwallis, that when Marion
departed, he instructed him to destroy all the boats, flats, and scows,
which might be used by the British in their flight.

*** Rebecca Brewton was the daughter of an English gentleman. She
married Jacob Motte, a planter, in 1758, and was the mother of six
children. General Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, married in
succession her two eldest daughters; the third married Colonel William
Alston, of Charleston. Her other three children did not live to reach
maturity. Mrs. Motte died in 1815, at her plantation on the Santee. The
portrait here given is copied, by permission of the author, from Mrs.
Ellet's Women of the-Revolution. The original is in the possession of
Mrs. Motte's descendants.

[[[American Battery.--Siege of Fort Motte.--Lee's Expedient.--Patriotism
of Mrs. Motte.]]]

{686}ton which he planted the six-pounder, in a position to rake the
northern face of the parapet of the fort, against which Lee prepared
to approach. M'Pherson had no artillery, and his safety depended upon
timely extraneous aid, either from Camden or Ninety-Six.

Between the height on which Lee was posted and Fort Motte is a narrow
vale, which allowed the assailants to approach within four hundred
yards of the fort. From that vale they began to advance by a _parallel_,
which, by the assistance of some negroes from neighboring plantations,
was sufficiently advanced by the tenth[[May 1781]] to warrant the
Americans demanding a surrender. A flag was accordingly dispatched,
with a formal summons, but M'Pherson gallantly refused compliance. That
evening, intelligence of Rawdon's retreat from Camden toward Nelson's
Ferry was communicated to the Americans, and in the course of the night
a courier from Greene confirmed the report. Delay would be dangerous,
for Rawdon, with his superior force, could easily repulse them. Early on
the morning of the eleventh, the light of his beacon-fires were seen
on the high hills of Santee, and that night their gloamings upon the
highest ground of the country, opposite Fort Motte, gave great joy
to the beleagured garrison. To batter down the enemy's works with the
field-piece, or to approach by a trench, was too slow for the exigency
of the case. The fertile mind of Lee, full of expedients, suggested a
quicker plan for dislodging the garrison. The mansion of Mrs. Motte,
in the center of the enemy's works, was covered with shingles, now very
dry, for no rain had fallen for several days, and the rays of the sun
were powerful. To communicate fire to this mansion was Lee's expedient.
That officer had enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. Motte during the siege,
and her only marriageable daughter was then the wife of his friend,
Major Thomas Pinckney. These circumstances made it a painful duty
for him to propose the destruction of her property. Her cheerful
acquiescence, and even patriotic desire to be able to serve her country
by such a sacrifice, gave him joy; and, communicating his plan to
Marion, they hastened to execute it. It was proposed to hurl ignited
combustibles upon the roof of the house, by arrows. These were prepared,
when Mrs. Motte, observing their inferiority, brought out a fine bow
and a bundle of arrows which had been brought from the East Indies, and
presented them to Lee. On the morning of the twelfth,[[May 1781]]
Lee sent Dr. Irvine, of his cavalry, with a flag, to state truly the
relative positions of the belligerents; that Rawdon had not yet
crossed the Santee, and that immediate surrender would save many lives.
M'Pherson still refused compliance; and at meridian, when the ditch was
advanced within bow-shot of the fort, several arrows from the hand of
Nathan Savage, a private in Marion's brigade, winged their way, with
lighted torches, toward the house. Two struck the dry shingles, and
instantly a bright flame crept along the roof. Soldiers were ordered up
to knock off the shingles and put out the fire, when one or two shots
from Marion's battery, raking the loft, drove them below. M'Pherson hung
out a white flag, the firing ceased, the flames were extinguished, and
at one o'clock the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war. By
invitation of Mrs. Motte, both the victorious and the captive officers
partook of a sumptuous dinner from her table, while she presided with
all the coolness and easy politeness for which she was remarkable when
surrounded by friends in the enjoyment of peace. *

* Lee's Memoirs, 229-32. Simm's Life of Marion, page 236, 239. In this
siege Marion lost two of his brave men, Sergeant M'Donald and Lieutenant
Cruger. The British did not lose a man killed, and the prisoners were
all paroled. Colonel Horry, in his narrative, mentions some pleasing
incidents which occurred at the table of Mrs. Motte on this occasion.
Among the prisoners was Captain Ferguson, an officer of considerable
reputation. Finding himself near Horry, Ferguson said, "You are Colonel
Horry, I presume, sir." Horry replied in the affirmative, when Ferguson
continued, "Well, I was with Colonel Watson when he fought your General
Marion on Sampit. I think I saw you there with a party of horse, and
also at Nelson's Ferry, when Marion surprised our party at the house.
But," he continued, "I was hid in high grass, and escaped. You were
fortunate in your escape at Sampit, for Watson and Small had twelve
hundred men." "If so," replied Horry, "I certainly was fortunate, for
I did not suppose they had more than half that number." "I consider
myself," added the eaptain, "equally fortunate in escaping at Nelson's
Old Field." "Truly you were," answered Horry drily, "for Marion had
but thirty militia on that occasion." The officers present could not
suppress laughter. When Greene inquired of Horry how he came to affront
Captain Ferguson; he answered, "He affronted himself by telling his own
story."--Horry's MS. Narrative, quoted by Simms, Life of Marion, p. 239.

[[[Rawdon's Retreat.--Belleville.--A Slave Market.--Trial of a
Slave.--Columbia.]]]

{667}The prisoners were treated with great humanity, notwithstanding
some of them were Tories of a most obnoxious stamp. As soon as paroled,
they were sent off to Lord Rawdon, then crossing the Santee at Nelson's
Ferry, near Eutaw Springs. The fall of Fort Motte greatly alarmed that
officer, and two days afterward,[[May 14]] he blew up the fortifications
at Nelson's Ferry, and hastened toward Charleston. During the day of the
capitulation, Greene arrived with a small troop of cavalry, being
anxious to know the result of the siege, for he was aware Rawdon was
hastening to the relief of the garrison. Finding every thing secure, he
returned to his camp, then on the north side of the Congaree, after
ordering Marion to proceed against Georgetown, toward the head of Winyaw
Bay, near the coast, and directing Lee with his legion, and Captain
Finley with his six pounder, to attack Fort Granby, thirty-two miles
above Fort Motte, near the present city of Columbia. Thither we will
presently proceed.

About a mile eastward of Fort Motte is the residence of Charles Thomson,
Esq., known as _Belleville_. It was taken possession of, stockaded, and
garrisoned by the Loyalists for a while. The fine old mansion, which I
am told exhibits many bullet-marks made by some Whigs, who attacked a
party of Tories stationed in the house, was owned by William Thomson,
who, next to Moultrie, was most conspicuous in the battle on Sullivan's
Island, at the entrance to Charleston harbor, in 1776. I intended to
visit Belleville, but it was so late when I had finished dinner with Mr.
Love, that I was obliged to mount one of his horses and hasten to the
station to take passage for Columbia. While waiting for the cars, the
overseer of a plantation near requested me to write a _pass_ for a sick
female slave, whom he was about to send to her master at Columbia for
medical aid. Regardless of the penalty, ** I wrote upon a card from my
port-folio, "Pass Dido to Columbia, January 19, 1849. J. Smoke." Two
hours afterward I was there also, but did not again see the namesake of
the Queen of Carthage.

Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, is a fine town, handsomely
located upon a high plain three or four miles in extent, a little
below the junction of the Broad and Saluda Rivers, where they form the
Congaree. It was laid out in 1787, when the region around it was very
sparsely populated. The Legislature first met there in 1790. There was
a settlement on each side of the river, about two miles below, called
Granby, which was a point of departure for the wilderness of the
Cherokee country. The climate is mild and salubrious; and Columbia
promises to be, from its geographical and political situation, a large
inland city. It is the favored seat of learning in the state, the South
Carolina College and Theological Seminary of South Carolina and Georgia
being located there.

The morning after my arrival in Columbia was very inclement. A cold
drizzle, which iced every thing out of doors, made me defer my visit
to Fort Granby until noon, when, seeing no prospect of abatement, I
procured a conveyance, and crossing the great bridge over

* Some writers attribute Greene's presence at Fort Motte on this
occasion to other motives than here represented. An unsatisfactory
correspondence had recently taken place between Greene and Marion, the
former having blamed the latter for not furnishing cavalry horses
when in his power to do so. Marion, conscious of having been eminently
faithful, felt deeply wronged, and tendered the resignation of his
commission to Greene. The latter soon perceived the injustice of
his suspicions, and took this, the first opportunity, for a personal
interview to heal the wound.

** A slave found in the streets of a town after dark, without a pass,
is liable to be locked in prison until morning, and this was written
to prevent such an occurrence. The laws of South Carolina inflict the
penalty of fine and imprisonment upon a person found guilty of writing
a pass for a slave without authority. I was informed of a curious
circumstance connected with this fact, which occurred near Fort Motte, a
few days previous to my visit there. Two slaves, carpenters, had escaped
from their home, and were found near Camden with well-written passes or
permits to find work, signed by the name of their master. Who wrote the
forged passes, was a question which puzzled the neighborhood. A mulatto
on the plantation was suspected, and, on being accused, confessed that
he wrote them, having been secretly taught to write by an overseer.
A jury was called to try him for the offense, but as the law did not
contemplate the ability of a slave to write, and as the term person did
not apply to a negro, no punishment could be legally awarded. The jury
simply recommended his master to flog him.

[[[Fort Granby and its Garrison.--Mr. Friday and Colonel
Maxwell.--Capture of Fort Granby.]]]

{688}the Congaree, rode to the house of James Cacey, Esq., the "Fort
Granby" of the Revolution, two miles below.

[Illustration: 9698]

It is a strong frame building, two stories in height, and stands upon
an eminence near the Charleston road, within three fourths of a mile of
Friday's Ferry, upon the Congaree. It overlooks ancient Granby and the
country around. Several houses of the old village are there, but the
solitude of desolation prevails, for not a family remains. Mr. Cacey
was a hopeless invalid, yet he was able to give me many interesting
reminiscences connected with that locality, * and I passed an hour very
pleasantly with him and his family.

The dwelling of Mr. Cacey was originally built by some gentlemen of
Pine Tree (Camden) as a store-house for cotton and other products of
the country, whence they were sent upon flat-boats down the river to the
sea-board. When the chain of military posts from Camden to Charleston
was established, this building, eligibly located, was fortified, and
called Fort Granby. A ditch was digged around it; a strong parapet was
raised; bastions were formed; batteries were arranged; and an _abatis_
was constructed. The garrison consisted of three hundred and fifty men,
chiefly Loyalists, with a few mounted Hessians, under the command of
Major Maxwell (a refugee from the eastern shore of Maryland), of the
Prince of Wales's regiment. He was neither brave nor experienced, and
the want of these qualities of the commandant being known to Lee, he
felt no hesitation in attacking him in his strong position. Detaching a
small troop of cavalry, under Captain Armstrong, to watch the movements
of Rawdon, Lee pushed forward with his usual celerity, to the investment
of Fort Granby. Sumter, instead of joining Greene before Camden, had
made a demonstration against Fort Granby, a few days before, but finding
it too strong for his small arms, had retired, and marched to attack
the British post at Orangeburg, fifty miles below. Lee arrived in the
vicinity of the fort on the evening of the fourteenth of May,[[1781]]
the day on which Sumter took possession of Orangeburg; and in the edge
of a wood, within six hundred yards of the fort, he began the erection
of a battery. A dense fog the next morning enabled him to complete it,
and mount the six pounder brought by Captain Finley from Fort Motte,
before they were discovered by the garrison. When the fog rolled away,
Captain Finley discharged his cannon, and, at the same moment, the
legion infantry advanced, took an advantageous position, and opened a
fire upon the enemy's pickets. This sudden annunciation of the presence
of an enemy, and his imposing display, alarmed Maxwell excessively,
and he received Captain Eggleston, who was sent with a flag to demand
a surrender, with great respect. After a brief consultation with his
officers, the major agreed to surrender the fort, on condition that
private property of every sort, without an investigation of title,
should be left in the hands of its possessors; ** that the garrison
should be per-

* Mr. Friday, the father-in-law of Mr. Cacey, and his brother, were the
only Whigs of that name in the state, and often suffered insults from
their Tory kinsman. Mr. Friday owned mills at Granby, and also a ferry
called by his name: and when the British fortified that post, the
garrison supplied themselves with flour from his establishment. He gave
the British the credit of dealing honorably, paying him liberally for
every thing they took from him--flour, poultry, cattle, &e. On one
occasion, when ealled to the fort to receive his pay, Major Maxwell, the
commandant of the garrison, said to him, "Mr. Friday, I hope you are as
clever a fellow as those of your name who are with us." "No!" shouted
his Tory uncle, who was standing near, "he's a damned rebel, and I'll
split him down!" at the same time rushing forward to execute his brutal
purpose. Colonel Maxwell protected the patriot, but dared not rebuke
the savage, for fear of offending his Tory comrades. After the battle at
Eutaw, Colonel Maxwell, and two or three other officers, passing through
Granby, stopped one night at Mr. Friday's. Early in the morning, Maxwell
said to Mr. Friday, "You Dutchmen are celebrated for fine gardens;
let us go and look at yours." When a little distance from the other
officers, the colonel remarked, "Mr. Friday, you are a friend to your
country. Remain so. We have not conquered it yet, and never will, and
your name will yet be honored, while those of your countrymen who are
with us will be despised." I gladly record the patriotism of Mr. Friday,
in fulfillment of this prediction.

** Lee says, in his Memoirs (page 234), that. Maxwell, "zealous to
fill his purse, rather than to gather military laurels, had, during his
command, pursued his favorite object with considerable success, and held
with him in the fort his gathered spoil." This fact accounts for the
major's desire to have all private properly confirmed to its possessors
"without investigation of title."

[[[Terms of Surrender.--Greene's Army at Fort Granby.--The
Locality.--Ninety-Six.]]]

{689}mitted to retire to Charleston as prisoners of war, until
exchanged; that the militia should be held in the same manner as the
regulars; and that an escort, charged with the protection of persons
and property, should attend the prisoners to Rawdon's camp.
Lieutenant-colonel Lee's practice was always to restore plundered
property, when captured, to the rightful owners; yet, knowing the danger
of delay, with Rawdon so near, he acquiesced, on the condition that all
the horses fit for public service should be left. To this the mounted
Hessians objected, and the negotiations were suspended. During this
suspense, Captain Armstrong arrived with the intelligence that Rawdon
had crossed the Santee, and was moving upon Fort Motte. Lee waved the
exception; the capitulation was signed, and before noon Captain Rudulph
raised the American flag on one of the bastions, and the captive
garrison marched, with its escort, for Rawdon's camp. * Among the spoils
of victory were two pieces of cannon, and a considerable quantity
of ammunition, salt, and liquor. It was a glorious, because almost a
bloodless victory, for no life was lost.

On the surrender of the fort, Lee dispatched a messenger to Greene, who
with great expedition had pressed forward, and was within a few miles
of Friday's Ferry. He crossed that ferry, and on the evening of the
fifteenth[[May 1781]] encamped upon Ancram's plantation, near the river,
where the victors and the main army had a joyous meeting.

During the night a courier from Fort Motte announced the fact that
Rawdon had retreated, after a day's march, toward that post, destroyed
the works at Nelson's Ferry, and was pushing on toward Charleston. Early
in the morning another courier came with the cheering intelligence of
Sumter's success at Orangeburg,[[May 14]] and the seventeenth of May was
a day of rejoicing by the little American army at Fort Granby.

Resting one day, General Greene moved toward Ninety-Six, which place he
reached on the twenty-second of May. In the mean while, he strengthened
Lee's legion by the addition of some North Carolina levies under Major
Eaton, and then directed him to hasten toward Augusta, on the Savannah
River, to join Pickens, who, with a body of militia, was in the vicinity
of that post. We will follow them presently.

The house of Mr. Cacey yet bears many "honorable scars" made by the
bullets of Lee's infantry; and in the gable toward the river, between
the chimney and a window (indicated by a black spot in the engraving),
is an orifice, formed by the passage of a six-pound ball from Finley's
field-piece. In one of the rooms are numerous marks made by an ax when
cutting up meat for the use of the garrison; and an old log barn near,
which stood within the intrenchments, has also many bullet scars.

I returned to Columbia at four o'clock, where I remained until Monday
morning.

While at Columbia, I met a gentleman from Abbeville District, in the
vicinity of old Fort Ninety-Six. He informed me that the traveling was
wretched, and quite dangerous in that direction, and that nothing of
Revolutionary interest worth visiting yet remained at that military
post, now the pleasant village of Cambridge, seventy-nine miles westward
of Columbia. He also informed me that a gentleman of Cambridge, who
was familiar with every historical event in his neighborhood, would
cheerfully communicate all I could possibly learn by a personal visit.
Willing to avoid a long and tedious journey unless it was necessary,
I wrote to that gentleman, and by his kind and prompt compliance I am
furnished with all necessary details respecting the locality, together
with the plan of the fortification, printed on page 691. We will here
consider the events which render Ninety-Six historically famous.

Old Ninety-Six was so called because it was within ninety-six miles of
the frontier fort, Prince George, which was upon the Keowee River, in
the present Pickens District. Its locality is in the eastern part of
Abbeville District, near the borders of Edgefield, and within six miles
of the Saluda River. No portion of the state suffered more during the
war than

* The garrison had only sixty regulars (the Hessians); the remainder
were Tory militia.

[[[Ninety Six Fortified.--Its Garrison and Works.--Capture of Fort
Galphin.--The "Galphin Claim."]]]

{690}the district around Ninety-Six. Like the neutral ground in West
Chester, New York, Whig nor Tory could dwell there in peace, for armed
bands of each were continually disturbing the inhabitants, and in close
proximity were the hostile Cherokees, ready, when they dared, to scourge
the settlers.

The little village of Ninety-Six was stockaded to defend it from the
incursions of the Indians; and when, after the fall of Charleston, the
British established several posts in the interior, its location and
salubrity indicated it as an important point for a fortification. It
was in a position to maintain a communication with the Indians, keep in
check the Whig settlements west of it, and cover those of the Loyalists
in other directions; and it afforded an excellent recruiting-station for
the concentration of Tory material in that quarter.

Ninety-Six was garrisoned by about five hundred and fifty Loyalists,
three hundred and fifty of whom were from New York and New Jersey, * and
the remainder were South Carolina Tories, under Colonel King, the whole
commanded by Lieutenant-colonel John Cruger, a native of the city of
New York. Cruger was an energetic officer, and possessed the entire
confidence of his superiors in the royal army. He did not receive
instructions from Rawdon when that officer abandoned Camden, for Sumter
cut off all communications; therefore, he had not prepared to evacuate
Ninety-Six and join Colonel Browne at Augusta, as Rawdon desired him
to do. When he learned that Greene was approaching Camden, he began to
strengthen his works; and when informed that Lee, with his legion, had
got between him and the post at Augusta, and that Greene was approaching
to besiege him, his garrison labored night and day still further to
strengthen the defenses. Already he had built a stockade fort on
the borders of the village, in addition to a star redoubt. This was
strengthened; a parapet was raised; a ditch was dug around it, and a
covered way, communicating with the palisaded village, was prepared.
Block-houses, formed of notched logs, were erected on the northeastern
side of the village, near where a star redoubt was constructed. Before
Greene reached there, Cruger's energy and skill had so directed the
efforts of the garrison, under the superintendence of Lieutenant
Haldane, one of Cornwallis's aids, that the place presented an
apparently insurmountable strength against the attacks of Greene's
little army of a thousand men.

In the mean while, Marion and Sumter were directed to keep watch between
the Santee and Edisto Rivers, and hold Rawdon in check, if he should
attempt to march to the relief of either Ninety-Six or Augusta, now
menaced by the Americans; while Lee, who left Fort Granby, with his
legion, in the evening after its capture, was scouring the country
between those two posts, and proceeding to form a junction with Pickens.
Informed that quite a large quantity of powder, balls, small arms,
liquor, salt, blankets, and other articles, intended for the Indians,
and much wanted by the Americans, were deposited at Fort Galphin
(sometimes called Fort Dreadnought), a small stockade at Silver Bluff,
upon the Carolina side of the Savannah, twelve miles below Augusta, **
he hastened thither to capture them.

On the morning of the twenty-first of May,[[1781]] he reached the
vicinity, and Captain Rudulph, with some of the legion infantry,
gallantly rushed upon the fort, while a

* According to M'Kenzie, in his Strictures on Tarleton's History, there
were one hundred and fifty men of Delancey's battalion (Loyalists of New
York), and two hundred Jersey volunteers. Lieutenant-colonel Cruger was
Colonel Delancey's son-in-law. Colonel Cruger died in London in 1807,
aged sixty-nine. His widow died at Chelsea, England, in 1822. at the age
of seventy-eight years.

** The house of George Galphin, deputy superintendent of Indian affairs,
inclosed within stockades, was used for barracks, and as a store-house
for various Indian supplies. The land is now owned by Ex-governor
Hammond, of South Carolina. Previous to 1773, Galphin, by his dealings
with the Creek Indians, had made them indebted to him in the sum of
$49,000. To secure the payment of this and other debts, the Creeks
conveyed to the British government, in 1773, a large tract of land lying
within the present limits of Georgia. At the close of the Revolution,
this land belonged to that state, and to the local Legislature Galphin
applied for the payment of his claim. It was refused. In 1847, Milledge
Galphin, surviving heir and executor of the Indian agent, petitioned
Congress for a payment of the claim, principal and interest; and in
1850, the general government allowed what the local government had
pronounced illegal. The "Galphin claim" took a large sum from our
National Treasury, for interest had been accumulating for about seventy
years.

[[[Greene before Ninety Six.--Siege commenced by Kosciuszko.--A
Sally.--Plan of the Siege.]]]

{691}small body of militia attacked the garrison from another quarter.
With the loss of only one man, the fort, with all its contents, was
captured by the Americans. After resting a few hours, Lee ordered Major
Eggleston, who was a Continental officer, to cross the Savannah, join
bodies of militia in that neighborhood, proceed to Augusta with a flag,
inform Colonel Browne of the approach of Greene, and demand an instant
surrender of Forts Cornwallis and Grierson, at that place. The events
which followed will be detailed in another chapter.

Greene arrived before Ninety-Six on the twenty-second of May,[[1781]]
with less than one thousand regulars * and a few undisciplined militia.

[Illustration: 8701]

He found quite a strong fort, well situated. On the left of the village,
in a valley, was a spring and rivulet, which furnished water to the
garrison. On the western side of this rivulet, upon an eminence, was
a stockade fort, and upon the other side, near the village, was a
fortified jail. These were to defend the water of the rivulet, for
none could be had within the town. Eastward of the village stood the
principal work, a star redoubt, consisting of sixteen angles, salient
and re-entering, with a ditch and _abatis_, and furnished with three
pieces of cannon. Every thing was judiciously arranged for defense, and
Lieutenant-colonel Cruger defied Greene when he appeared.

Colonel Kosciuszko was with Greene, and under his direction the
besiegers began approaches by parallels. They broke ground near the star
redoubt on the evening of the twenty-seeond. Perceiving this, Cruger
placed his three cannons upon a platform, in that direction, before
noon the next day, and manned the parapet with infantry. Under cover
of these, a sally party, under Lieutenant Roney, rushed out upon the
besiegers, drove the guards back toward the lines, bayoneted all
who fell in the way, destroyed the American works as far as they had
progressed, and carried off all of the intrenching tools. Lieutenant
Roney was mortally wounded, and that was all the loss the enemy
sustained. All this was accomplished with great gallantry, before a
detachment sent by Greene to re-enforce Kosciuszko, arrived upon the
ground. Kosciuszko now commenced another approach to the star redoubt.
He broke ground on the night of the twenty-third, under cover of a
ravine, and day by day slowly approached the fortress. In the mean
while, Pickens and Lee besieged and captured Forts Cornwallis and
Grierson at Augusta, and hastened to the assistance of Greene. Lee
arrived on the eighth of June,[[1781]] and Pickens soon afterward joined
him. These active partisans were directed to attack the enemy's works on

* Colonel Williams, deputy adjutant general, in his returns stated
them thus: Fit for duty, rank and file, Maryland brigade, 427; Virginia
ditto, 431; North Carolina battalion, 66: Delaware ditto [under Captain
Kirkwood], 60; in all, 984. The number of the militia is not mentioned.

** This plan is from a sketch sent to me by James M.M'Craeken, Esq.,
of Cambridge, South Carolina; a indicates the spring, with a rivulet
running from it; 6, a stockade fort; c, the old jail, which was also
fortified: d. the court-house; e, star redoubt; f, first mine, traces
of which are yet visible; g g g y, lie besieging encampments; h h h,
stockades inclosing the village; the covered way from the stockade fort
to the lines around the village. Mr. M'Craeken observes, "The trees and
shrubbery on the battle-ground are considered by the inhabitants too
sacred to be molested. The land is now (1849) owned by John C. M'Gehee,
of Madison county, Florida. The present village of Cambridge is within a
few hundred yards of the battle-ground, and the road leading through
it, north and south, is the great thoroughfare from Hamburg (opposite
Augusta) to Greenville. I have three small cannons in my possession,
one six and two four pounders, taken from the enemy at the siege of
Ninety-Six."

[[[Rawdon informed of the Siege.--His march toward Ninety-Six.--Attempt
to destroy the Stockade.--Beale and Cunningham.]]]

{692}the west. They immediately commenced regular approaches to the
stockade to cut off the enemy's supply of water; and at a proper
distance from it erected a battery to cover further approaches, and
planted a six pounder upon it, under the direction of Lieutenant
Finn. Cruger saw the inevitable destruction of the garrison when these
parallels, made slowly, day by day, should be completed. He had found
means to inform Lord Rawdon of his critical situation, and hourly he
expected aid from him. To gain time for this succor to arrive, he made
nightly sallies, and bloody encounters frequently occurred, while almost
daily the American foraging parties were attacked by bands of Tories.
* Yet slowly and surely the Americans approached; and when the second
parallel was completed, Greene sent Colonel Williams to demand a
surrender, with promises of kind treatment. Cruger promptly replied that
he should defend the fort till the last extremity, and regarded neither
the threats nor the promises of the American general. A battery,
constructed in the second parallel, now opened upon the redoubt, and
under its cover Kosciuszko pressed forward his approach with vigor.
On the eleventh[[June, 1781]] Greene received a dispatch from Sumter,
announcing the startling intelligence that on the third, a fleet
arrived from Ireland with reenforcements for Rawdon, consisting of three
regiments, a detachment from the Guards, and a considerable body of
volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Gould. Rawdon
had been anxiously awaiting at Monk's Corner, near Charleston, this
propitious event. He had heard of the fall of Fort Cornwallis at Augusta
and the investment of Ninety-Six, but with his small force, and Marion
and Sumter before him, he dared not march to the aid of Cruger. On
the arrival of these troops, he repaired to Charleston, and on the
seventh[[June]] marched to the relief of Ninety-Six, with seventeen
hundred foot and one hundred and fifty horse. A few other troops from
his camp at Monk's Corner joined him, and with more than two thousand
men he proceeded toward Orangeburg. Greene dispatched Pickens to the
aid of Sumter, and ordered Marion from the lower country to join them in
retarding the advance of the royal army. They could do little to oppose
him, and Greene began to despair of reducing the garrison to submission
before Rawdon's arrival.

The besiegers now deplored the fact that earlier attention had not been
bestowed upon attempts on the western side to deprive the garrison of
water, and thus force a capitulation. To this object the chief efforts
were now directed, and the most effectual step to accomplish it was to
destroy the stockade. The method of approaches was too slow, and it was
resolved to endeavor to burn it. A dark storm was gathering, and
toward evening, covered by its impending blackness, a sergeant and nine
privates, with combustibles, cautiously approached, and four of them
gained the ditch. While in the act of applying the fire, they were
discovered. A volley of musketry was immediately opened upon them, and
the sergeant and five of his party were killed; the other four escaped.
The attempt was unsuccessful.

On the evening of the nineteenth, a countryman was seen riding along the
American lines south of the town, talking familiarly with officers and
soldiers. It was a circumstance too common to excite special notice. At
length, reaching the great road leading directly into the town, he put
spurs to his horse, and, amid a storm of bullets, rode safely to the
gate, holding a letter in his raised hand. He was received with the
greatest joy, for he was the

* Amoung the most active of these parties was the "Bloody Scout," under
the notorious Bill Cunningham. They hovered around the American lamp
like vultures, and picked off the patriots in detail. The most active,
opponent of this scoundrel was William Beale, of Ninety-Six. He formed a
scouting party of Whigs, and soon they became a terror to the Tories.
On one occasion, Cunningham and his party plundered the house of Beale's
mother, during his absence. On his return, Beale went in pursuit,
and approaching Cunningham, that marauder wheeled and fled. The race
continued for almost three miles, when Cunningham turned, and with a
pistol, shot Beale's horse dead. Beale retreated backward, daring the
Tory to follow. The latter fearing a Whig ambush, rode off. On another
occasion, Cunningham and his party surrounded a house where Beale and a
Whig were stopping. They heard the approach of the Tories, when, rushing
to their horses and rattling their swords, Beale gave command as if to a
troop. It was dark, and Cunningham, who had thirteen men with him, fled
in great haste. Cunningham was so mortified, when he learned that they
had been frightened away by a couple of Whigs, that he swore vengeance
against Beale.--Letter of James M'Crarken, Esq

[[[Cruger advised of Rawdon's approach.--Assault on the Star
Redoubt.--Capture of the Stockade.--A bold Prisoner.]]]

{693}bearer of a dispatch from Lord Rawdon, announcing his approach
with a large force. The beleaguered garrison, almost on the point of
surrendering (for this was the first intelligence Cruger had received
from Rawdon since his evacuation of Camden), were animated with fresh
hope, while the besiegers, aware of the approach of succor for the
besieged, were nerved to greater exertions. They completed their
parallels, and commenced the erection of a Mayham Tower, * from which to
fire into the star redoubt. To guard against this advantage of height,
Major Greene, the commander of the redoubt, piled bags of sand upon the
parapets. On the morning of the seventeenth, a general fire was opened
upon the works, and so effectual was it upon the stockade and its
vicinity, that the garrison was deprived of water from the rivulet. Had
this advantage been maintained, and Rawdon been delayed thirty hours
longer, Cruger must have surrendered.

Rawdon managed to elude the vigilance of Sumter, after passing
Orangeburg, and now approached Ninety-Six. Greene perceived that he must
either storm the works at once, fight Rawdon, or retire. He determined
upon the former; and at noon on the eighteenth,[[June 1781]] the Mayham
Tower being completed, and two trenches and a mine nearly let into the
enemy's ditch, the center battery opened upon the star, as a signal for
a general attack. Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, of the first Virginia
regiment, with a detachment from the Maryland and Virginia brigades,
led the attack on the left; Lieutenant-colonel Lee, with Kirkwood's
Delawares, advanced on the right; Lieutenants Duval, of Maryland, and
Selden, of Virginia, commanded the forlorn hope of Campbell; and Captain
Rudolph that of Lee. Riflemen were stationed in the tower, fascines were
constructed to fill the ditch, and long poles, with iron hooks, were
prepared to pull down the sand-bags from the parapets. Campbell and Lee
rushed to the assault simultaneously. Cruger received the attack with
firmness, and, from apertures between the sand-bags, Colonel Greene's
riflemen did great execution. Duval and Selden boldly entered the ditch,
and commenced pulling down the sand-bags. The parapet bristled with
pikes and bayonets, yet they could not reach the assailants. Rapidly the
bags were disappearing in the ditch below, and Campbell was pressing
to ascend the parapet and fight hand to hand with the garrison, when
Captain French, of Delancey's corps, and Captain Campbell, of New
Jersey, issued from a sally-port of the star redoubt with a few men,
and taking opposite directions in the ditch, fiercely assailed Duval and
Selden, at the same time, with bayonets. Terrible was the conflict which
followed. The brave patriots were assailed both in front and overhead,
yet they maintained their ground for some minutes. At length both
leaders of the forlorn hope were wounded, and the whole party retreated
to the trenches.

While this bloody scene was transpiring at the star redoubt, one more
successful effort for the besiegers occurred at the stockade. Rudulph
made his way into the fort, and the enemy, with some prisoners, **
hastily retreated to the main works. This advantage Lee intended to
follow up, by entering the town, assailing the fortified jail, and then
to assist in reducing the star redoubt; but General Greene, perceiving
the slaughter in the ditch, and desirous of saving his troops, ordered
Lee to do nothing more than to hold the stockade he had gained. Greene
then sent a flag to Cruger, proposing a cessation of hostilities for the
purpose of burying the dead. Cruger refused, claiming that service for
the victor, whoever he might be. Believing the reduction of the post
to be doubtful before the arrival of Rawdon, and unwilling to encounter
that general's superior force, Greene withdrew the detachment from the
stockade, and prepared for a general retreat. Thus ended the siege of

* For description of the Mayham Tower, and the origin of its name, see
an account of the attack upon Fort Watson, page 707.

** Mr. M'Cracken relates, that among the prisoners in one of the
redoubts was one named Benjamin Eddins. Lieutenant-colonel Cruger
frequently visited him, and often importuned him to eschew Republicanism
and join the British army. Eddins at length became tired of these
importunities, and one day said to Cruger, '' Sir, I am a prisoner in
your power; you may cut out my heart (baring his bosom), or you may drag
my limbs and body asunder with ropes and horses; all this will I endure
rather than desert my country's flag." Charmed by his boldness and
patriotism, Colonel Cruger replied, "Sir, you are too true a rebel to
remain here; you are liberated from this moment."

[[[Raising of the Siege of Ninety-Six.--Arrival of Rawdon.--His pursuit
of Greene.--Movements of the two Armies.]]]

{694}Ninety-Six, which continued twenty-seven days. During this siege,
the Americans lost about one hundred and fifty men in killed, wounded,
and missing. Captain Armstrong, of the Maryland line, a most valuable
officer, was shot through the head, during the assault on the
eighteenth, and fell dead. He was the only American officer who was
killed. Captain Benson, also of the Maryland line, was severely wounded
in the neck and shoulder. The exact loss of the besieged was not
reported.

On the evening of the nineteenth, Greene raised the siege, crossed the
Saluda,[[June 20, 1781]] and rapidly retreated toward the Ennoree. *
He had communicated to Sumter notice of the events of the eighteenth,
advised him of the route of his retreat, and ordered the corps in
his front, with the cavalry of Washington, to join him as speedily as
possible.

On the morning of the twenty-first, Rawdon and his army reached
Ninety-Six, and were welcomed with every expression of joy. Cruger
was greatly and justly applauded for his gallant defense. On the same
evening, when their mutual congratulations had ceased, and his army,
after forced marches for fourteen days, were rested, Rawdon started
in pursuit of Greene. He was eager to strike and utterly destroy or
disperse his little army; regain the various posts he had lost; scatter
the partisan forces of Marion and Sumter; revive the hopes and energies
of the Loyalists, and thus strengthen the power of Cornwallis, who at
this time was devastating Lower Virginia. Rawdon crossed the Saluda in
quest of Greene (who had now got beyond the Tyger, in Union District),
and gained the banks of the Eunorec, where he acquired information
which convinced him that further pursuit would be useless, and with his
wearied troops he returned to Ninety-Six.

When Greene heard of the retrograde movement of Rawdon, he halted, and
ordered Lieutenant-colonel Lee to follow the enemy with his corps, for
the purpose of obtaining intelligence. Greene had intended to retreat
to Charlotte, but now his future movements depended upon those of his
adversary. Lee soon ascertained that Rawdon had determined to abandon
Ninety-Six, and to join a force under Colonel Stewart, whom he had
ordered to advance from Charleston to Friday's Ferry at Granby; while
Colonel Cruger, with his garrison and those Loyalists, with their
property, who might choose to follow, were to march directly to
Orangeburg. While Rawdon was thus preparing to abandon the upper
country, Sumter intercepted a letter to that officer from Colonel
Balfour at Charleston, informing him that he had recalled Stewart after
he had commenced his march for Friday's Ferry. This letter was sent to
Greene, who immediately directed his hospital and heavy baggage, then
at Winnsborough, to be forwarded to Camden, while he prepared to pursue
Rawdon with all his force. He sent Lee to gain the front of the British
army before it should reach Friday's Ferry, and dispatched messages
to Marion and Sumter, ordering them to lake a similar position. ** Lee
accomplished his purpose, and in a skirmish with a part of

* The wives of Lieutenant-colonel Cruger and Major Greene were at a
farm-house in the neighborhood of Ninety-Six when the American army
arrived. General Greene soon quieted their fears, and as they preferred
to remain where they were, to joining their husbands in the beleaguered
town, he placed a guard there to protect them. This kindness Mrs. Cruger
reciprocated on the day when the Americans left, by informing some light
troops who had been out scouting, and were passing by the farm-house
toward the post, of the termination of the siege and the direction taken
by General Greene in his retreat. Without this timely information, they
would have been captured.

** It is related that the message to Sumter from Greene was conveyed by
Emily Geiger, the daughter of a German planter in Fairfield District.
He prepared a letter to Sumter, but none of his men appeared willing
to attempt the hazardous service, for the Tories were on the alert,
as Rawdon was approaching the Congaree. Greene was delighted by the
boldness of a young girl, not more, than eighteen years ol age, who came
forward and volunteered to carry the letter to Sumter. With his usual
caution, he communicated the contents of the letter to Emily, fearing
she might lose it on the way. The maiden mounted a fleet horse, and
crossing the Wateree at the Camden Ferry, pressed on toward Sumter's
camp. Passing through a dry swamp on the second day of her journey,
she was intercepted by some Tory scouts. Coming from the direction of
Greene's army, she was an object of suspicion, and was taken to a house
on the edge of the swamp, and confined in a room. With proper delicacy,
they sent for a woman to search her person. No sooner was she left
alone, than she ate up Greene's letter piece by piece. After a while,
the matron arrived, made a careful search, but discovered nothing. With
many apologies, Emily was allowed to pursue her journey. She reached
Sumter's camp, communicated Greene's message, and soon Rawdon was flying
before the Americans toward Orangeburg. Emily Geiger afterward married
Mr. Thurwits, a rich planter on the Congaree. The picture of her
capture, here given, I copied from the original painting by Flagg, in
possession of Stacy G. Potts, Esq., of Trenton, New Jersey.

[[[Courage and Arrest of Emily Geiger.--Rawdon foiled.--Camp at
Orangeburg.--Greene on the Santee Hills.]]]

{695}his corps, under Captain Eggleston, a foraging party of fifty or
sixty dragoons, with some wagons, were captured and sent to Greene's
camp, then on the banks of the Saluda, near its junction with the Broad
River at Columbia.

[Illustration: 0705]

Rawdon, not meeting with Stuart, and ignorant of the cause of his
delay, was baffled, and turning southward, pushed on toward Orangeburg,
unwilling now to encounter the Americans, for he had only a thousand men
with him. In the mean while, Stuart had again marched from Charleston;
and Marion and Lieutenant-colonel Washington being engaged in retarding
his progress, did not join Lee until the morning of the tenth of July,
when that officer and his corps were upon Beaver Creek, in the present
Lexington District.

Rawdon halted at Orangeburg, with the intention of establishing a post
there, and awaiting the arrival of Cruger and his Loyalists. Greene,
advancing rapidly, approached that place with a force now augmented to
almost two thousand men, before the British general had time properly to
arrange his camp and cast up defenses. Rawdon's force, though inferior
to Greene's, was so strongly posted and furnished with artillery, that
the latter was unwilling to hazard an assault, particularly as Cruger
was hourly expected at Orangeburg. As the heat of the season was
oppressive, provisions scarce, and sickness increasing among his troops,
he crossed the Congaree, and encamped upon the high hills of Santee,
where salubrious air and excellent water soon restored the vigor of his
army. Sumter, Marion, and Lee were ordered to make rapid marches toward
Charleston, beat up the British quarters at Dorchester and Monk's
Corner, cut off convoys between Rawdon and the capital, and then join
the main army upon the Santee Hills. Here we will leave the belligerents
for the present.

I left Columbia at seven o'clock on Monday morning,[[Jan. 23, 1849]]
and was at Orangeburg, fifty-one miles distant, at half past nine. The
weather was delightful. A dreamy haziness was in the atmosphere, and
the air was as mild as early June. Leaving my baggage at the rail-way
station, I strolled over that village and vicinity, for an hour, with
a gentleman from Columbia, who was familiar with its historical
localities. The village (which

[[[Orangeburg.--Old Court house.--Orangeburg taken by Sumter.--Sumter
and Lee.--Rawdon's Departure]]]

The Old Court-house. {696}was settled as early as 1735) is beautifully
situated upon a gently-rolling plain, near the banks of the Edisto
(which is here skirted with swamps), and contains about four hundred
inhabitants. There are several elegant dwellings standing upon each
side of the broad street extending from the rail-way to the heart of
the village, all shaded by lofty trees. It is about eighty miles west of
Charleston, and being the seat of justice, is the largest town in Orange
District.

[Illustration: 9706]

It has a handsome court-house and jail, and is regularly laid out. The
old jail, which the British fortified while they occupied the place, was
built of brick, in 1770, and stood upon the crown of the gentle hill, a
few yards northwest of the old court-house (represented in the picture),
which is yet standing. The court-house is a frame building, and was used
for a blacksmith's shop when I was there. The two trees seen on the left
are venerable _Pride-of-Indias_, choice shade-trees of the South. This
edifice exhibited several bullet-marks, the effect of Sumter's
assault in 1781. After sketching this--the only remaining relic of the
Revolution at Orangeburg, except some vestiges of the works east up by
Rawdon, half a mile westward, near the Edisto--I hired a horse and gig
to visit Eutaw Springs, about forty miles distant, near the south bank
of the Santee. It was with great difficulty that I could ascertain their
probable distance from Orangeburg; and the person from whom I procured a
conveyance supposed it to be twenty-five or thirty miles. His price
was determined by the distance, and he was agreeably surprised, on my
return, to learn that I had traveled eighty miles. Before departing
on this journey, let us consider for a moment the Revolutionary events
which distinguish Orangeburg.

Orangeburg was one of the chain of military posts established by the
British after the fall of Charleston.[[May 1780]] The jail was fortified
and garrisoned by about seventy militia and a dozen regulars. Sumter,
when marching to join Greene at Camden, according to orders, conceived
a plan for capturing Fort Granby, and therefore did not re-enforce his
general. He began the siege successfully, when, learning the fact
that Raw-don had ordered the evacuation of Orangeburg, he left Colonel
Taylor, with a strong party, to maintain the siege of Fort Granby, while
he should strike the garrison at the former place, before it should
retire. By a rapid march he reached Orangeburg on the morning of the
eleventh of May,[[1780]] and, after one or two volleys, the garrison
surrendered themselves unconditional prisoners of war. Paroling his
prisoners, Sumter hastened toward Fort Granby; but before his arrival,
Lee had invested and reduced it, allowing, as we have seen (page 689),
the most favorable terms. Sumter was incensed at the conduct of Lee, for
he felt that he had not only snatched from him the laurels he had almost
won, but that he had hastened the capitulation, and allowed favorable
terms, in order to accomplish the surrender before Sumter could arrive.
No doubt the garrison would have surrendered unconditionally, if
besieged a day or two longer. Sumter sent an indignant letter of
complaint to Greene, inclosing his commission. Greene, knowing his
worth, returned it to him with many expressions of regard, and Sumter,
sacrificing private resentment for the good of the cause, remained in
the army.

On the day after Rawdon's arrival at Orangeburg, he was joined by
Lieutenant-colonel Stewart, with the third regiment from Ireland, called
the Bulls, whom Rawdon had ordered from Charleston. The retirement of
Greene to the high hills of Santee, and the rendezvous there of the
several corps of Marion, Sumter, and Lee, indicating a present cessation
of hostilities, Lord Rawdon proceeded to Charleston, and embarked for
Europe, for the purpose of recruiting his health. * The command of all
the troops in the field now devolved

* While Rawdon was in Charleston preparing to sail for Europe, the
execution of Colonel Hayne occurred. This foul stain upon the character
of Rawdon and Colonel Balfour, the commandant at Charleston, we shall
consider hereafter.

[[[Movements of the two Armies toward Eutaw.--Journey
thither.--Four-hole Swamp.--General Sumner.]]]

{697}upon Colonel Stuart. That officer soon left Orangeburg, and, moving
forward, encamped upon the Congaree, near its junction with the Wateree.
The two armies were only sixteen miles apart by air line, but two rivers
rolled between, and they could not meet without making a circuit of
seventy miles. Stuart's foraging parties soon spread over the country.
Marion was detached toward the Combahee Ferry, and Washington went
across the Wateree to disperse them. Many brisk skirmishes ensued. In
the mean time, Greene was re-enforced by a brigade of Continental troops
from North Carolina, under General Sumner. * Intent upon the recovery
of South Carolina, he determined, with his augmented strength, to
attack the enemy. He left the Santee Hills on the twenty-second of
August,[[1781]] with about twenty-six hundred men (only sixteen hundred
of whom were fit for active service), crossed the Wateree at the Camden
Ferry, and made rapid marches to Friday's Ferry, on the Congaree. There
he was joined by General Pickens, with the militia of Ninety-Six, and
a body of South Carolina state troops recently organized, under Colonel
Henderson. On hearing of Greene's approach, Stuart decamped from
Orangeburg, and pitched his tents at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below,
vigorously pursued by the Americans. Thither let us proceed, where we
shall meet the two armies in terrible conflict.

I left Orangeburg for Eutaw Springs at eleven o'clock.[[Jan. 26,
1849]] The day was so warm that the shade of the pine forests was
very refreshing. My horse was fleet, the gig light, the road level
and generally fine, and at sunset I arrived at the house of Mr. winger
(Vances's Ferry post-office), thirty miles distant. About fourteen miles
from Orangeburg I crossed the Four-hole Swamp, ** upon a narrow causeway
of logs and three bridges. The distance is about a mile, and a gloomier
place can not well be imagined. On either side was a dense undergrowth
of shrubs, closely interlaced with vines; and above, draped with moss,
towered lofty cypresses and gums. At two o'clock I passed one of those
primitive school-houses, built of logs (for portrait, see next page),
which the traveler meets occasionally in the South. It stood in the edge
of a wood, and in front was a fine _Pride-of-India-Tree_, under which
the teacher sat listening to the efforts of half a dozen children in the
science of orthography. The country is very sparsely populated, and many
of the children, living four or five miles away from the school-house,
are conveyed on horseback by the negro servants. I stopped a moment in
conversation with the pedagogue, who was a Vermonter, one of those New
England people described by Halleck as=

```"Wandering through the Southern countries, teaching

````The ABC from Webster's Spelling-book;

```Gallant and godly, making love and preaching."=

He appeared satisfied with his success in each vocation, and hinted that
the daughter of a

[Illustration: 9707]

* Although the name of General Jethro Sumner does not appear very
conspicuous in the general histories of the War for Independence, his
services in the Southern campaigns were well appreciated by his peers
and compatriots in the field. He was a native of Virginia, and as
early as 1760 his merits caused him to be appointed a paymaster in the
provincial army of that slate, and commander of Fort Cumberland. In
1776, he lived in North Carolina, was appointed colonel of a regiment of
Continental troops, and joined the army at the North, under Washington.
He went South with General Gates, and was in the battle at Sander's
Creek (Camden) when the Americans were defeated. He was actively
engaged when Greene took command of the army, and continued in North
Carolina until he marched to re-enforce Greene upon the High Hills of
Santee. When Greene heard of the abduction of Governor Burke, after the
battle at Eutaw, in which Sumner was engaged, he sent that officer into
North Carolina to awe the Tories and encourage the Whigs. After the war,
General Sumner married a wealthy widow at Newbern. He died in Warren
county, North Carolina, and was buried near old Shocco Chapel, and Bute
old Court House. The following inscription is upon his tomb-stone: "To
the memory of General Jethro Sumner, one of the heroes of '76."--See
Wheeler's History of North Carolina, page 425.

** This swamp derives its name from the fact that the deep and sluggish
stream, a branch of the South Edisto, which it skirts, disappears from
the surface four times within this morass. Plunging into one pit,
the water boils up from the next; disappearing again in the third, it
reappears in the fourth, and then courses its way to the Edisto. These
pits are about half a mile apart, and are filled with remarkably fine
fish which may be taken with a hook and line at the depth of thirty
feet.

[[[A Yankee Schoolmaster.--Road to Eutaw.--Locality and Appearanee of
the Springs.]]]

{698}neighboring planter had promised him her heart and hand. When
obtained, he intended to cultivate cotton and maize, instead of the dull
intellects of other people's children.

[Illustration: 9708]

I passed the night at Mr. Avinger's, and very early in the morning
departed for Eutaw, ten miles distant. I was now upon the Congaree road,
and found the traveling somewhat heavier than upon ways less used. About
three miles from winger's, I passed Burdell's plantation, where the
American army encamped the night before the battle of Eutaw. It was
another glorious morning, and at sunrise I was greeted with the whistle
of the quail, the drum of the partridge, the sweet notes of the robin
and blue-bird, and the querulous cadences of the cat-bird, all summer
tenants of our Northern forests. They appeared each to carol a brief
matin hymn at sunrise, and were silent the remainder of the day. I
saw several mocking-birds, but they flitted about in silence, taking
lessons, I suppose, from their Northern friends, to be sung during their
absence.=

```"Winged mimic of the woods! thou motley fool!

````Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe?

```Thine ever ready notes of ridicule

````Pursue thy fellows still with jest and gibe:

````Wit, sophist, songster, Yorick of thy tribe,

```Thou sportive satirist of Nature's school!"

`````Richard Henry Wilde.=

Occasionally a wild turkey would start from a branch, or a filthy
buzzard alight by the wayside, until, as I came suddenly upon a
water-course, a wild fawn that stood lapping from the clear stream
wheeled and bounded away among the evergreens of the wood.

At about eight o'clock, I arrived at the elegant mansion of William
Sinkler, Esq., upon whose plantation are the celebrated Eutaw Springs.
It stands in the midst of noble shade-trees, half a mile from the
high-way, and is approached by a lane fringed with every variety of
evergreen tree and shrub which beautify Southern scenery in winter. I
was courteously received by the proprietor; and when the object of my
visit was made known, he ordered his horse and accompanied me to the
springs and the field of battle, which are about half a mile eastward of
his mansion. The springs present a curious spectacle, being really but
the first and second apparition of the same subterranean stream. They
are a few rods north of the forks of the Canal and the Monk's Corner
roads, at the head of a shallow ravine. The first spring is at the foot
of a hill, twenty or thirty feet in height. The water bubbles up, cold,
limpid, and sparkling, in large volumes, from two or three orifices,
into a basin of rock-marl, and, flowing fifty or sixty yards, descends,
rushing and foaming, into a cavern beneath a high ridge of marl
* covered with alluvium and forest-trees. After traversing its
subterraneous way some thirty rods, it reappears upon the other side,
where it is a broader stream, and flows gently over a smooth rocky bed
toward the Santee, its course marked by tall cypresses, draped with
moss. The whole length of the Eutaw Creek, in all its windings, is only
about two miles. Where it first bubbles from the earth there is suffi-

* This marl appears to be a concretion of oyster-shells, and is said
to be an excellent fertilizer when crushed to powder. In this vicinity,
many bones of monsters, like the mastodon, have been found.

[[[Remains of the "Citadel" at Eutaw.--Greene joined by
Marion.--American Encampment before the Battle.--Captain Coffin.]]]

{699}cient volume to turn a large mill-wheel, but the fountain is so
near the level of the Santee at Nelson's Ferry, where the Eutaw enters,
that no fall can be obtained;

[Illustration: 8709]

on the contrary, when the Santee is filled to the brim, the waters flow
back to the springs.

Just at the forks of the road, on the side toward the springs, was a
clump of trees and shrubbery, which marked the spot where stood a strong
brick house, famous as the citadel of the British camp, and a retreat
for some of the warriors in the conflict at Eutaw. Nothing of it now
remains but the foundation, and a few broken bricks scattered among some
plum-trees. Let us sit down here, in the shadow of a cypress, by the
bubbling spring, and consider the event when human blood tinged the
clear waters of the Eutaw, where patriots fought and died for a holy
principle.=

```"They saw their injured country's woe;

````The flaming town, the wasted field;

```Then marched to meet the insulting foe;

````They took the spear, but left the shield!

`````Led by thy conquering standards, Greene,

````The Britons they compelled to fly:

```None distant viewed the fatal plain,

````None grieved in such a cause to die;

```But, like the Parthians, famed of old,

````Who, flying, still their arrows threw;

```These routed Britons, full as bold,

````Retreated, and retreating, slew.--Philip Freneau.=

At Orangeburg, General Greene was informed that Stuart had been
re-enforced by a corps of cavalry, under Brevet-major John Coffin **
(whose real rank was captain), which Rawdon had formed on his arrival at
Charleston. He immediately issued an order[[Sept. 4, 1781]] for Marion
(who was then, with his command, scouring the country toward the Edisto,
in rescuing Colonel Harden from the toils of Major Fraser) to join him,
and then pressed forward toward Eutaw. Marion, by a forced night march,
reached Laurens's plantation, *** a few miles from Eutaw, in advance of
the American army, on the fifth. In the mean while, Greene's army slowly
approached the British camp, preceded by Lee's legion and Henderson's
South Carolina corps. The main army reached Burdell's plantation, on
the Congaree road, within seven miles of Eutaw, on the afternoon of the
seventh[[Sept. 1781]] and there it encamped for the night.

* This is a view of the reappearance of the stream (or lower spring)
from the marl ridge thirty feet in height. These springs are in
Charleston District, near the Orangeburg line, about sixty miles
northwest of Charleston. It is probable that a subterranean stream here
first finds its way to the surface of the earth.

** John Coffin was a native of Boston, and brother of Admiral Sir Isaac
Coffin, of the Royal Navy. He accompanied the British army in the action
on Breed's Hill. He soon obtained a commission, rose to the rank of
captain in the Orange Rangers, and finally, effecting an exchange into
the New York Volunteers, went with that corps to Georgia in 1778. In
the campaigns of 1779 and 1780, his conduct won the admiration of his
superiors. His behavior in the battle of Eutaw attracted the attention
of Greene and his officers. He retired to New Brunswick at the close
of the contest. In the war of 1812, he commanded a regiment. He filled
several civil offices in the province until 1828, when he retired from
public life. He had been a member of the Assembly, chief magistrate
of King's county, and a member of the council. He died at his seat in
King's county in 1838, at the age of eighty-seven years. He held the
rank of lieutenant general at the time of his death.--Sabine's Lives of
the Loyalists.

*** This plantation belonged to Henry Laurens, who was one of the
presidents of the Continental Congress.

[[[Deserters.--Stuart's fancied Security.--Arrangement of the Americans
for Battle.--Colonel William Polk.]]]

{700}While the Americans were reposing, two men of Sumner's North
Carolina conscripts deserted to the British lines, and gave Colonel
Stuart the first intimation of the close proximity of the Republican
army. Stuart regarded them as spies, and would not listen to their
information, for his scouts, who were out upon the Congaree road the
day before, brought him no intelligence of the approach of Greene. His
feelings of security were not disturbed by the deserters, and he sent
out his foraging parties in the morning,[[Sept. 8]] as usual, to collect
vegetables. Prudence, however, dictated caution, and he detached Captain
Coffin, with his cavalry, as a corps of observation, and, if necessary,
to call in the foraging parties.

At dawn on the morning of the eighth, the Americans moved from Burdell's
in two columns, each composed of the troops intended to form the
respective lines of battle.

[Illustration: 8710]

Greene's whole force, according to Lee, * amounted to twenty-three
hundred men, of whom the Continentals, horse, foot, and artillery,
numbered about sixteen hundred. The front or _first line_ was composed
of four small battalions of militia--two of North, and two of South
Carolinians. One of the South Carolinians was under the immediate
command of Brigadier Marion, who commanded the whole front line. The two
North Carolina battalions, under the command of Colonel Malmedy, were
posted in the center; and the other South Carolina battalion, under
the command of General Pickens, was placed on the left. The second line
consisted of three small brigades of Continental troops, one each from
North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The North Carolinians were
formed into three battalions, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel
Ashe, and Majors Armstrong and Blount; the whole commanded by General
Sumner, and posted on the right.

The Virginians consisted of two battalions, commanded by Major Snead and
Captain Edmonds, and the whole by Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, and were
posted in the center.

The Marylanders also consisted of two battalions, commanded by
Lieutenant-colonel Howard and Major Hardman, the whole brigade by
Colonel Otho II. Williams, the deputy adjutant general, and were posted
on the left. Lieutenant-colonel Lee, with his legion, covered the
right flank; and Lieutenant-colonel Henderson, with the State troops,
commanded by Lieutenant-colonels Polk,2 Wade Hampton, and Middleton, the
left. Lieutenant-colonel Washington, with his horse, and the Delaware
troops, under Captain Kirkwood, formed a reserve corps. Two three
pounders, under Captain-lieutenant Gaines, advanced with the front line,
and two sixes, under Captain Brown, with the second. The legion and the
State troops formed the advance.

* Memoirs, 331. See. also, Greene's Dispatch to the President of
Congress, September 11, 1781.

** William Polk, son of Colonel Thomas Polk, of Mecklenburg, North
Carolina, was born in that county in 1759. He was present at the
celebrated Mecklenburg convention, in May, 1775. He joined the army
early in 1777, and went to the North with General Nash, who was
killed at Germantown. He was in the battles on the Brandywine and at
Germantown, and was wounded at the latter place. He went South with
General Gates, and was with him in the battle at Sander's Creek, near
Camden. He was with Greene at Guilford and Eutaw. In the latter battle
he received a wound, the effects of which he felt until his death. At
the close of the war, he returned to Charlotte, his native place, and
in 1787 represented his county in the North Carolina Legislature. He
subsequently removed to Raleigh, where he resided until his death. In
1812, President Madison offered him the commission of a brigadier,
but, being opposed to the war, he declined the honor. He died on the
fourteenth of January, 1835, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
Colonel Polk was the last surviving field officer of the North Carolina
line. Bishop Leonidas Polk, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of
Louisiana, and General Thomas G. Polk, of Mississippi, are his sons.

[[[Arrangement of the British Forces.--The
Citadel.--Skirmishes.--Commencement of the Battle at Eutaw.]]]

{701}The British army, under Stuart, at Eutaw, was drawn up in a line
extending from the Eutaw Creek, north of the Congaree or Charleston
road, near Mr. Sinkler's mansion, across that high-way and the road
leading to Roche's plantation, an eighth of a mile southward. The Irish
Buffs (third regiment) formed the right; Lieutenant-colonel Cruger's
Loyalists the center; and the 63d and 64th veteran regiments the left.
Near the creek was a flank battalion of grenadiers and infantry, under
Major Majoribanks. These were partially covered and concealed by a
thicket on the bank of the stream. To the cavalry of Coffin, and a
detachment of infantry held in reserve in the rear, were assigned the
support of the left. The artillery was distributed along the front of
the line. About fifty yards in the rear of the British line, at the
forks of the present Canal and Monk's Corner roads, was a cleared field.
There was their camp, and so certain was Stuart of victory, that he left
his tents all standing. Close by the road was a two-story brick house
(mentioned on page 699), with servant's huts around it. This was
palisaded, and so likewise was the garden, extending to the Eutaw Creek.
* This house was intended as a citadel if their line should be forced
back. Such was the situation of the two armies at sunrise on the morning
of the eighth of September, 1781.

At about eight o'clock, when the Americans were within four miles of
Eutaw, Lee fell in with Captain Coffin, who was acting as an escort for
a foraging party of about four hundred men. Ignorant of the proximity
of the main army of Greene, Coffin attacked Armstrong, who led Lee's
advance. Armstrong fell back to the van, and Lee and Henderson received
the assault with spirit. A severe skirmish ensued, when Lee's cavalry,
under Major Eggleston, gained Coffin's flank, and attacked him in the
rear. The firing drew out the foraging party into the road, when the
whole fled precipitately, pursued by Lee's dragoons. Many of Coffin's
infantry were killed, and the captain and forty men were made prisoners.
Some of the cavalry were also slain, and many of the foraging party were
captured.

This little success inspirited the Americans, and they pushed forward
with vigor. Within a mile of the British camp they encountered another
detachment of the enemy, whom Stuart had sent out to aid Coffin and
the foragers. It was a surprise for both. While the British fell back a
little, Greene quickly prepared for battle, and, pressing forward,
the action commenced with spirit in the road and fields, very near the
present entrance gate to the seat of Mr. Sinkler. The enemy's cannon
swept the road with a destructive fire until Colonel Williams brought
up the artillery of Gaines, in full gallop, and returned their fire with
severe effect. The British detachments soon yielded and fell back to
their lines, dividing right and left, and taking position on the flanks.
The Americans, with their line extended on either side of the road,
continued to advance, and at a little past nine opened a sharp fire with
musketry and artillery upon the British line. The latter received the
attack with great gallantry, and a bloody conflict ensued. The artillery
of both parties played incessantly, and a continual fire ran from flank
to flank, along the whole line of the militia, while it continued to
advance. Stuart was now fully convinced that Greene and his whole army
were upon him, and every portion of his line was brought into action.
In the mean while, Lee's legion infantry were warmly engaged with the
veteran 63d of the enemy, when the 64th advanced with a part of the
center and fell furiously upon Malmedy and his corps. They soon yielded
to the pressure, and the enemy's left pushed forward. Now the corps,
under Henderson, sustained not only the fire of the British right, but
also of the flank battalion, under Majoribanks. At this moment one
of the British field pieces was disabled, and both of Gaines's three
pounders were dismounted. Yet the militia, even when unsupported by
artillery, fought with all the skill and bravery of veterans. They
faced the storm of grape-shot and bullets until they had fired seventeen
rounds, when the 64th and center, who had borne down Malmedy, pressed so
powerfully upon inferior numbers, that the militia gave way, while Lee
and Henderson continued fighting manfully upon the wings of the retiring
patriots.

* Stuart's dispatch to Lord Cornwallis, September 9th, 1781: Sledman,
ii., 378; Lee, 333.

[[[Williams's Bayonet Charge.--Death of Campbell and Duval.--Defeat and
Capture of Washington.--Retreat of the British.]]]

{702}Greene now ordered up the second line, under General Sumner, to
fill the space occupied by the militia. At the same time, the British
reserved infantry were brought into action, and these fresh troops
fought each other desperately. Colonel Henderson received a wound that
disabled him, and temporary confusion ensued. Order was soon restored by
Hamilton, Polk, and Middleton; but Sumner's brigade, which was composed
chiefly of recruits from the militia, gave way before the fire of
superior numbers, and retreated in much confusion. The British pursued
so eagerly that their ranks became disordered. The vigilant eye of
Greene perceived this, and he instantly issued the order, "Let Williams
advance and sweep the field with bayonets." Like a full-winged storm,
pregnant with destruction, the Virginians and Marylanders advanced, the
former led by Colonel Campbell, the latter by Colonel Williams. When
within forty yards of the British, these Continentals delivered their
fire, and the whole second line of the Americans rushed forward, with
trailed arms and loud shouts, to a bayonet charge.

[Illustration: 9712]

The confusion of the British was increased by this blow; and as the
smoke rolled away and exposed their broken lines, Captain Rudulph,
of Lee's legion, wheeled upon its flank, and swept down many with
an enfilading fire. In the mean while, a corps of Marylanders, under
Howard, were closely contending with the Buffs; so close that some of
the combatants were mutually transfixed with bayonets. The Marylanders,
under Williams, with the Virginians, now pressed upon the British right
and center so furiously that the line gave way, and they retreated in
confusion. Loud arose a shout of victory from the Americans; but there
was, at the same time, occasion for a voice of wail. In the shock which
scattered the British line, Colonel Campbell fell, mortally wounded.
Informed of the rout of the enemy, he exclaimed, with a faltering voice,
like Wolfe at Quebec, "I die contented!" and expired.

When the second line advanced, Majoribanks was ordered to the conflict,
and terribly annoyed the American flank. Colonel Washington, with the
reserve, and Colonel Wade Hampton, with his corps, were directed to
dislodge him. The thicket behind which Majoribanks was covered was
impervious to cavalry. Washington perceived a small space between him
and Eutaw Creek, and determined, by a quick movement, to gain his rear
at that point. Without waiting for Hampton, he divided his cavalry into
sections, and, ordering them to wheel to the left, attempted this bold
enterprise. It was a fatal step to many of his brave horsemen, for they
were brought within range of the enemy's fire. A terrible volley from
behind the thicket rolled many horses and their riders in the dust. They
laid strewn upon the ground in every direction. Lieutenant Stuart, of
Maryland, who commanded the first section, was badly wounded, and many
of his corps were killed or maimed. Lieutenants Simmons and King were
also wounded. Washington's horse was shot dead under him, and as he fell
himself, he was cruelly bayoneted. A moment more, and he would have been
sacrificed. A British officer kindly interposed, saved his life, and
made him prisoner. Of his whole cavalry corps, one half were killed or
wounded, with all the officers except two.

Hampton, in the mean time, covered and collected the scattered cavalry;
and Kirkwood, with his Delawares, fell upon Majoribanks. The whole
British line were now retreating, and Majoribanks fell back to cover the
movement. They abandoned their camp, destroyed their stores, and many
fled precipitately along the Charleston road; while some rushed
for immediate safety into the brick house near the great springs.
Majoribanks halted behind the palisades of the garden, with his right
upon Eutaw Creek; and Captain Coffin, with his cavalry, took post in the
road below, to cover the British left. During the retreat, the Americans
captured more than three hundred prisoners and two pieces of cannon.
Upon one of these field pieces, Lieutenant Duval, who fought so bravely
in the _fossé_ of the star redoubt at Ninety-Six (see page 693), leaped,
and, taking off his hat, gave three hearty cheers. A bullet from a
retreating soldier brought him to the ground, and he expired, within
half an hour afterward.

[[[Folly of the Americans.--Bravery of Lee's Legion.--Contest at the
"Citadel."--Retreat of Greene.]]]

{703}Although a large portion of the British had retreated, yet the
victory was far from complete. Majoribanks was at the garden; a large
number of Cruger's New York Volunteers, under Major Sheridan, were in
the brick house; and Stuart was rallying the fugitives in considerable
force a little below, on the Charleston road. The American soldiers,
considering the conflict over, could not be made to think otherwise by
their officers; and instead of dislodging Majoribanks, and pursuing the
enemy far away from his camp, they stopped to plunder the stores, drink
the liquors, and eat the provisions found in the tents. Many became
intoxicated; and others, by over-indulgence in eating, and drinking
cold water (for the day was very warm), were disabled. Irretrievable
confusion followed; and before order could be restored, the British were
forming to regain their lost advantage. A heavy fire was poured from
the house upon the Americans in the British camp, and at the same time
Majoribanks moved from his covert upon the right, and Coffin upon the
left of the disordered Americans.

Fortunately, Lee and his legion had not been tempted to indulge in the
sensualities of the camp; and so closely had they followed upon those
who fled to the house, that the fugitives prevented the entrance of the
Americans only by shutting the doors upon them. By so doing, several of
their own number were shut out, among whom were two or three officers.
Those of the legion who had followed to the door seized each a prisoner,
and interposing him as a shield, retreated back beyond the fire from the
windows. * The two six pounders belonging to the second line were now
brought to bear upon the house, but, being in range of a swivel in the
second story, and of the muskets, a large portion of the artillerymen
were soon killed or wounded, and they were obliged to withdraw the
cannons. At the same time, Coffin was advancing on the left. He had
fallen upon Captain Eggleston, and drove him back, and was about to
attack those who yet lingered among the British tents, when Colonel
Hampton, who had been ordered up to the support of Eggleston, charged
upon him so vigorously that he was compelled to retreat. The legion
cavalry pursued with so much eagerness that they were in front of
Majoribanks, and received a murderous volley from his ranks before they
were aware of danger. A great number fell, and the remainder were thrown
into confusion. Majoribanks perceived this, sallied out, seized the two
field-pieces, and ran them under the windows of the house. One of these
was soon rescued by Lieutenant Gaines, and remained with the Americans,
a trophy of victory.

At every point success now seemed to be turning against the Americans.
Colonel Howard, who had just commenced an attack upon Majoribanks with
Oldham's company, was wounded near the Great Spring, and his troops fell
back. At the same time, the broken ranks of Stuart had been united, and
were marching up the Charleston road to renew the battle. Despairing of
success in the present crippled condition of his army, his battalions
all broken, his artillery gone, his cavalry shattered, and many of his
best officers wounded,2 Greene deemed it prudent to retreat. Leaving
Colonel Hampton near the British camp with a strong picket, he withdrew,
with the remainder of the army, to Burdell's plantation, seven miles in
the rear. The British were contented to repossess themselves of their
camp, and did not attempt a pursuit. Both parties claimed the honor
of victory; it belonged to neither, but the advantage was with the
Americans. The conflict lasted four hours, and was one of the most
severely contested battles of the Revolution. Congress and

* Major Garden relates an amusing anecdote in connection with this
affair. Among the prisoners captured outside the house was Captain
Barré, a brother of the celebrated Colonel Barré, of the British
Parliament. He was taken by Captain Manning, who led the legion
infantry. In the terror of the moment, Barré began solemnly to recite
his titles: I am Sir Henry Barré," he said, "deputy adjutant general
of the British army, captain of the 52d regiment, secretary of the
commandant at Charleston--" "Are you, indeed?" interrupted Manning; "you
are my prisoner now, and the very man I was looking for; come along with
me." He then placed his titled prisoner between himself and the fire of
the enemy, and retreated.

** Colonel Otho H. Williams and Lieutenant-colonel Lee were the only
officers, of six Continental commanders of regiments, who were not
wounded. Washington, Howard, and Henderson were wounded, and Campbell
was killed.

[[[Honors awarded to Greene and his Officers.--The Loss.--Retreat of
Stuart.--Attacked by Marion and Lee.]]]

{704}the whole country gave warm expressions of their appreciation of
the valor of the patriots. * The skill, bravery, caution, and acuteness
of Greene was highly applauded; and Congress ordered a "gold medal,
emblematical of the battle, to be struck in honor of the event, and
presented to him, together with a British standard. **

[Illustration: 0714]

The loss of both parties, considering the number engaged, was very
heavy. The Americans had one hundred and thirty rank and file killed,
three hundred and eighty-five wounded, and forty missing; in all, five
hundred and fifty-five. There were twenty-two officers killed, and
thirty-nine wounded. The loss of the British, according to their own
statement, was six hundred and ninety-three men, of whom eighty-five
were killed on the field. Including seventy-two wounded, whom they left
in their camp when they abandoned it the day after the battle, Greene
took five hundred prisoners.

On the day succeeding the battle, Lieutenant-colonel Stuart, confident
that he could not maintain his position, decamped for Charleston,
after destroying a great quantity of his stores So precipitate was his
retreat, that he left seventy-two of his wounded to be taken care of by
the Americans. He also left behind him one thousand stand of arms. He
was pursued for some distance, when intelligence being received that
Major M'Arthur was advancing with re-enforcements for Stuart, the
Americans returned to their camp. It was fortunate for M'Arthur that he
met Stuart[[Sept. 10, 1781]] as soon as he did, for Marion and Lee had
been dispatched to fall upon any detachment coming up from Charleston,
and were then only a few miles off. Even with this re-enforcement Stuart
did not feel strong enough to meet Greene in battle, and he continued
his retreat to Monk's Corner, twenty-five miles from Charleston, leaving
the Americans the acknowledged victors at Eutaw.

When Greene was apprised of the positive retreat of Stuart, he followed
and pursued

* On the twenty-ninth of October, Congress adopted a series of
resolutions, expressive of its high appreciation of the services of
Greene and his officers and soldiers. In these resolutions, the various
corps engaged in the battle were named; also Captains Pierce and
Pendleton, Major Hyrne, and Captain Shubrick, his aids-de-camps. Marion
was also thanked for the part he had taken in this battle, and also for
his gallant conduct on the thirtieth of August, in attacking the British
at Parker's Ferry. Congress ordered the Board of War to present a sword
to Captain Pierce, who bore Greene's dispatches to that body.--See
Journals of Congress, vii., 166. On the same day, Congress adopted
the complimentary resolutions in honor of the defeat of Cornwallis at
Yorktown.

** This is a representation of each side of the medal, the full size of
the original. On one side is a profile of Greene, with the words, "The
American Congress to Nathaniel Greene, the distinguished leader." Upon
the other side is a figure of Victory, lighting upon the Earth, and
stepping upon a broken shield. Under her feet are broken weapons,
colors, and a shield. The legend is, "The Safety of the Southern
Department." "The Foe conquered at Eutaw, 8th of September, 1781."

*** Journals of Congress, vii., 167.

[[[Retirement of the Americans to the Santee Hills.--Mutiny.--Relic from
the Battle-field.--Nelson's Ferry.]]]

{705}him almost to Monk's Corner. Perceiving the strength of the enemy
there, he returned to Eutaw, and having a vast number of his troops
sick, he proceeded from thence, by easy marches, to his favorite retreat
upon the high hills of Santee.* [[Sept. 18, 1781]] There he remained
until the eighteenth of November, when the health of his army being
recruited, he marched into the low country, where he might obtain an
abundance of food. In the mean while, the army of Cornwallis had been
captured at Yorktown;[[Oct. 19]] St. Clair had driven the British from
Wilmington; and the whole upper country of the Carolinas and Georgia
were in possession of the patriots.

[Illustration: 8715]

Nothing now remained but to drive in the British outposts, and hem them
within the narrow precincts of their lines at Charleston and Savannah.
With this view, Greene, at the head of his cavalry, and about two
hundred infantry, proceeded toward Dorchester, a British post in the
neighborhood of Charleston, while the main army, under Colonel Williams,
crossed the Santee, and marched to the fertile plains upon the Four-hole
Creek, a tributary of the Edisto. Here we will leave the two armies
for the present, to meet many of the troops again upon other fields of
conflict.

As there were no works of consequence thrown up at Eutaw, not a vestige
of the camp or of the battle remained when I visited the spot in 1849,
except the few scattered bricks of the "citadel" already referred to. On
returning to his house, Mr. Sinkler showed me a gold watch which one of
his negroes found ten years before, while making holes with a stick in
planting cotton seed, in the field where Washington was defeated. The
negro hit a hard substance, and as there are no stones in the field, he
had the curiosity to search for the obstruction, when he drew forth the
watch. The hands were almost destroyed by rust; otherwise the watch is
well preserved.

Guided by one of Mr. Shindler's servants, I crossed the Eutaw Creek, near
his house, and rode down to Nelson's Ferry, at the mouth of the stream,
about a mile and a half distant. At its entrance into the Santee, the
bateau of the ferryman was moored, and almost filled its narrow channel.
Beneath the moss-draped trees upon the bank of the river, some negro
women were washing clothes, and when they found themselves portrayed
in my drawing, in all the dishabille of a washing-day, they wanted to
arrange their dresses and caps, and be sketched in better plight. Time
was too precious to allow compliance, for I wished to get as far toward
Orangeburg that evening as possible. Promising to improve their toilet
when I got home, I closed my port-folio, and, taking the reins, hastened
toward Vance's Ferry.

Nelson's Ferry, the spot here portrayed, was an important locality
during the Revolution. It was the principal crossing-place of the Santee
for travelers or troops passing between Camden and Charleston, and as
such, commanded the attention of the British after they captured the
latter city. A redoubt was cast up there upon the north side of the
Santee, and garrisoned by a small detachment; and to that point, as we
have seen, Lord Rawdon retreated from Camden.

We have noticed, on page 685, that Marion, while in the camp of Gates,
was called to

* A mutinous spirit was soon manifested in the camp upon the hills,
chiefly among the Marylanders. They wished to go home, complained of
want of pay and clothing, and in petitions to Greene set forth their
various grievances. Finally, some stole away from the camp with their
arms, when stringent measures were deemed necessary to prevent open
disorder. Things were brought to a crisis by a South Carolina soldier,
named Timothy Griffin. He had heard whispers of disaffection, and one
day, while drunk, went up to a group of soldiers who were talking to
an officer, and said, "Stand to its boys--damn my blood if I'd give an
inch!" He supposed they were altercating with the officer, which was not
the fact. Griffin was instantly knocked down by Captain M'Pherson, of
the Maryland line, and then sent to the provost. The next day he was
tried for mutinous conduct, found guilty, and at five o'clock in the
evening was shot in the presence of the whole army. This terrible
example suppressed all mutinous proceedings.--Gordon, iii., 246

[[[Success of Marion at Nelson's Ferry.--Site of Fort Watson.--Movements
of Colonel Watson.]]]

{706}the command of the patriots of Williamsburg District, and went to
duty in the lower country. Ignorant of the operations of the Americans
under Gater that brave partisan was striking successful blows against
the enemy here and there, while his commander-in-chief was becoming
ensnared in the net of disaster which gathered around him near Camden.

On the day after Gates's defeat,[[Aug. 17, 1780]] Marion had placed
Colonel Peter Horry in command of four companies of cavalry, which he
had just formed and sent to operate against the British in the vicinity
of Georgetown, while he, with a small band of followers, marched rapidly
toward the Upper Santee. On his way, he was informed of the defeat
of Gates, but withheld the sad intelligence from his men, fearing its
effects upon their spirits. That night his scouts advised him of the
approach to Nelson's Ferry of a strong British guard, with a large body
of prisoners from Gates's army. Though much inferior in numbers, he
resolved to attack them.

[Illustration: 9716]

Just before daylight, he detached Colonel Hugh Horry, with sixteen
resolute men, to occupy the road at the Horse Creek Pass, in a broad
swamp, while with the remainder he should fall upon the enemy's rear.
The maneuver was successfully performed at dawn,[[Aug. 20, 1780]] and
on that day the brave partisan wrote the following dispatch to Colonel
Peter Horry: "On the 20th instant, I attacked a guard of the 63d and
Prince of Wales's regiment, with a number of Tories, at the Great
Savannah, near Nelson's Ferry; killed and took twenty-two regulars and
two Tories prisoners, and retook one hundred and fifty Continentals of
the Maryland line one wagon and a drum; one captain and a subaltern were
also captured. Our loss is one killed; and Captain Benson is slightly
wounded on the head."

It was past meridian when I reached Vance's Ferry, about ten miles above
Eutaw, and one from Mr. Avinger's, where I lodged the night before. I
crossed the Santee into Sumter District in a bateau; and driving about
five miles up the river, reached Scott's Lake, an expansion of the
Santee, a few miles below the junction of the Congaree and Wateree.
Upon the north side of the lake, upon the land of Mr. Rufus Felder, at
Wright's Bluff Postoffice, is an ancient tumulus, almost fifty feet
in height, and now covered with trees. Upon the top of this mound the
British erected a stockade; and in honor of Colonel Watson, under
whose direction it was built, it was called Fort Watson. Its elevated
position, and its close proximity to the water, made it a strong post,
yet not sufficiently impregnable to resist the successful assault of
Marion and Lee in April, 1781. Let us consider that event.

We have noticed the junction of the forces of Marion and Lee, in the
swamps of the Black Hiver, in Williamsburg District.[[Illustration:
April 14, 1781]] Lee immediately laid the plans of General Greene before
Marion; and a scheme of operations was decided upon within a few hours.
Colonel Watson, with about five hundred infantry, was near the site of
the present town of Marion, on Cat-fish Creek, in Marion District. He
had received orders to re-enforce Lord Rawdon at Camden. For some time
he had been greatly annoyed by Marion, who would appear on his flank
or rear, strike a severe blow, and then as suddenly disappear among the
interminable swamps of the low country. Marion was preparing to smite
Watson once more, when he was informed of the approach of Lee. He sent
a guide to conduct that partisan over the Pedee, in boats which he kept
concealed; and on the day after their forces were united, they started
toward Fort Watson[[April 15]]leaving Captain Gavin Witherspoon on the
trail of Watson, then fleeing

* "It will scarcely be believed," says Simms (Life of Marion, page 126),
that, of this hundred and fifty Continentals, but three men consented to
join the ranks of the liberator. It may be that they were somewhat loth
to be led, even though it were to victory, by the man whose ludicrous
equipments and followers, but a few weeks before, had only provoked
their amusement." The reason they gave was, that they considered the
cause of the country to be hopeless, and that they were risking life
without an adequate object.

** Marion was very anxious to pursue Watson, who, to facilitate his
march toward Camden, had sunk his two field-pieces in Cat-fish Creek,
burned his baggage, and was making forced marches toward Georgetown.
It was evident, from the circuitous direction of his march, that Watson
feared Marion excessively, for, instead of making a direct line westward
toward Camden, across the Great Pedee, he crossed the Little Pedee
eastward; marched southward through the present Horry District; crossed
the Waccamaw at Greene's Ferry, and Winyaw Bay where it was three
miles wide; traversed its western border to Georgetown, and from thence
crossed the country toward the Santee, following that stream up as far
as the junction of the Congaree and Wateree. Greene's instructions to
operate against the British posts below Camden prevented a pursuit.

[[[Fort Watson attacked by Marion and Lee.--Mayham Tower.--Sketch of
Colonel Mayham.]]]

{707}toward Georgetown. They sat down before Fort Watson on the evening
of the same day.

Fort Watson was garrisoned by eighty regulars and forty Loyalists, under
the command of Lieutenant M'Kay, a brave and active young officer of the
British army. Marion immediately sent a flag demanding the unconditional
surrender of the fort and the garrison. M'Kay promptly refused, for he
doubtless hourly expected the approach of Watson with his large force,
who, he knew, was on his march thither from Georgetown. Perceiving the
garrison to be well supplied with water from Scott's Lake, that resource
was cut off by the besiegers; but M'Kay and his men opened another
communication with the lake three days afterward. They sunk a well
within the stockade to a depth below the level of the lake, and dug a
trench at the base of the mound from the well to the water, and secured
it by an _abatis_. This circumstance perplexed the assailants, for they
had no cannons, and the stockade was too high to be seriously affected
by small arms. To the fertile genius of Lieutenant-colonel Maham, * of
Marion's brigade, this disadvantage was overcome. Near the fort was a
small wood. The trees were cut down, carried upon the shoulders of
the men within rifle shot of the fort, and piled up so as to form a
quadrangular tower of sufficient height to overlook the stockades. Upon
the top of this, a parapet was made of smaller trees, for the defense
of those upon the top of the tower. All of this work was accomplished
during the darkness of the night, which was intensified by a cloudy sky;
and at dawn the garrison were awakened by a deadly shower of balls
from a company of sure marksmen upon the top of the tower. At the same
moment, a party of volunteers of Marion's militia, under Ensign Johnson,
and another from the Continentals, of Lee's legion, ascended the mound
and attacked the _abatis_ with vigor. Resistance was vain; and the fort
thus assailed was untenable. M'Kay had anxiously awaited the approach
of Watson, but that officer, unwilling to allow any thing to impede his
progress toward Camden, left this post to its fate. The garrison, no
longer able to hold the fort, surrendered by capitula-

* Hezekiah Maham was born on the twenty-sixth of June, 1739. We have
no record of his early life. He was a member of the first Provincial
Congress of South Carolina; and in the spring of 1776 was elected a
captain in Colonel Isaac Huger's regiment. He was with that officer at
the siege of Savannah, and at the battle of Stono. As lieutenant colonel
of an independent corps of cavalry, he performed many daring exploits in
the low country of the Carolinas. At the close of the campaign of 1781,
he was obliged to leave active service on account of sickness. While at
home, he was made a prisoner and paroled, by which he was not allowed
to enter the army again during the war. He died in 1789, at the age of
fifty years. His descendant, J. J. Ward, Esq., living near Georgetown,
erected a handsome monument to his memory in 1845, upon which are the
following inscriptions: Front side.--"Within this Cemetery, and in the
bosom of the homestead which he cultivated and embellished while on
earth, lie the mortal remains of Colonel Hezekiah Maham. He was born
In the parish of St. Stephen's, and died A.D. 1789, aet. fifty years;
leaving a name unsullied in social and domestic life, and eminent for
devotion to the liberties of his country, and for achievements in
arms, in the Revolution which established her independence." Right
side.--"Impelled by the spirit of freedom which animated his countrymen,
he devoted himself to its support, and promoted the cause of American
Independence, by his service in the state committees, instituted by
recommendation of the General Congress, in the Jacksonborough Assembly,
and in various other civil capacities." Left side.--"Successively a
captain in the first rifle regiment, a commander of horse in Marion
s brigade, and lieutenant colonel of an independent corps of cavalry,
raised by authority of General Greene, he bore an efficient and
conspicuous part in the capture of the British posts, and in the series
of skillful maneuvers and gallant actions, which resulted in the final
extinction of the British dominion in South Carolina, and secured to
her and to the confederacy the blessings of Peace, Liberty, and
Independence." On the back.--"His relative, Joshua John Ward, of
Waccamaw, unwilling that the last abode of an honest man, a faithful
patriot, and a brave and successful soldier, should be forgotten and
unknown, has erected this memorial, A.D. 1845."

[[[Marion's Residence.--The Wife of Marion.--Return to
Orangeburg--Sketch of Marion's House.]]]

{708}tion,[[April 23, 1781]] and Marion with his prisoners and booty,
pushed forward and encamped upon the high hills of Santee, to await
further orders from Greene, while Lee turned his attention to the
movements of Watson. The loss of the Americans was only two killed,
and three Continentals and three militia-men wounded. The subsequent
movements of Marion and Lee, in efforts to prevent Watson's junction
with Rawdon, have been noticed in the preceding chapter.

I tarried at the site of Fort Watson only long enough to make the sketch
on page 706, when I hastened back to Vance's Ferry, and pushed on toward
Orangeburg. Late in the evening I reached the house of Mr. M'Ance,
within fifteen miles of Orangeburg, where I was hospitably entertained.

[Illustration: 9718]

There I met an elderly lady who had been very intimate with the wife
of Marion for several years previous to her death. She informed me that
Mrs. Marion (whose maiden name was Videau, one of the Huguenot families)
was much younger than the general. She was a large woman, weighing,
a year or two before her death, two hundred and thirty pounds. My
informant had often visited her at her residence, built by the
general at Fond Bluff-, on the Santee (near the Nelson's Ferry road to
Charleston), about three miles below Eutaw Springs. Miss Videau brought
wealth to her husband, and their dwelling was always the abode of
liberal hospitality.

I left M'Ance's before daylight on the following morning, traversed the
narrow causeway across the Four-hole Swamp by the feeble light of the
stars, and arrived at Orangeburg in time to enter the cars for Augusta,
on the Savannah River, eighty-five miles distant.

* This mansion was demolished a few years before my visit to Eutaw and
vicinity (1849). and this drawing was made from a minute description
given me by a gentleman with whom I rode in the mail-coach from Augusta
to the Ninety-mile station, on the great central rail-way, in Georgia.
His brother had resided there for many years and he was perfectly
familiar with its appearance. At the station I made this sketch, and my
informant pronounced it an excellent representation of the residence of
General Marion.

[[[From Orangeburg to Augusta.--A Turkish
Traveler.--Augusta.--Hamburg.--Liberty Hill.]]]

{709}




CHAPTER XXVII.


[Illustration: 9719]

HE rail-way journey from Orangeburg to Augusta was extremely monotonous
in scenery and incident. At Branchville, on the banks of the Edisto,
where the rail-way from Charleston connects, the immobility into which
the passengers were subsiding was disturbed by the advent among us of a
"turban'd Turk," in full Oriental costume. His swarthy complexion, keen
eye, flowing black beard, broad turban, tunic, and trowsers, made him
the "observed of all observers," and kept the passengers awake for an
hour, for "Yankee curiosity" was too busy to allow drowsiness. "Whence
I came, and whither I go, ye know not," were as plain as a written
phylactery upon his imperturbable features, and I presume the crowd
who gathered around him in the street at Augusta knew as little of his
history and destiny as we. It is pleasant sometimes to see curiosity
foiled, even though=

```"It came from heaven--it reigned in Eden's shades--

```It roves on earth, and every walk invades:

```Childhood and age alike its influence own;

```It haunts the beggar's nook, the monarch's throne;

```Hangs o'er the cradle, leans above the bier,

```Gazed on old Babel's tower--and lingers here."

`````--Charles Sprague.=


The scenery by the way-side alternated between oozy swamps embellished
with cypresses, cultivated fields, and extensive forests of oak and
pine, garnished occasionally by a tall broad-leaved magnolia. The country
was perfectly level through Barnwell District, until we passed Aiken
into Edgefield, and turned toward Silver Bluff, on the Savannah River, *
when we encountered the sand hills of that region. These continued until
we reached the termination of the road at Hamburg, on the northern
bank of the Savannah, opposite Augusta.' There we were packed into huge
omnibuses, and conveyed to the city across Schultz's bridge.[[January
24, 1849]] It was sunset--a glorious sunset, like those at the north in
September--when we reined up at the _United States_. A stroll about the
city by moon-light that evening, with a Northern friend residing there,
was really delightful; for the air was balmy and dry, and the moon and
stars had nothing of the crisp, piercing, and glittering aspect which
they assume in a clear January night in New England.

Early on the following morning we rode over to Hamburg, and ascended to
the summit of Liberty Hill, a lofty sand bluff, three fourths of a mile
from the river. Flowers were blooming in the gardens on its brow; and
over its broad acres green grass and innumerable cacti were spread. The
view from this eminence was charming. At our feet lay the little village
of Hamburg, and across the shining Savannah was spread out in panoramic
beauty the city of Augusta--the queen of the inland towns of the South.
Like a sea in repose, the level country extended in all directions; and
city, river, forest, and plain were bathed in the golden haziness which
characterizes our Indian summer at the North. From that point the eye
could survey the whole historic arena around Augusta, where Royalists
and Republicans battled, failed, and triumphed during our war for
independence. While the spirit is charmed with associations awakened by
the gleanings of sensuous vision, let us for a moment open the tome of
history, and give inquiring thought free wing.

* For an account of the capture of Fort Galphin or Dreadnought, at
Silver Bluff, see page 690.

** This village was projected by a German named Schultz, who called it
Hamburg, in honor of the "free city" of that name in his native land.
He also built the noble bridge across the Savannah at that place,'
delineated on page 715.

[[[Local History of Augusta.--Growth of Democratic
Principles.--Republican Legislature and Governor.]]]

{710}Augusta has a history anterior to the Revolution. Her local
historians have preserved but little of it which is of general interest,
and its records do not bear date back to that period. It was founded in
1735, under the auspices of Oglethorpe; and in 1736, a small garrison
was stationed there, in a stockade fort, as a protection for the
settlers against any enemy that might appear. Warehouses were built, and
quite an extensive trade was opened with the friendly Indians upon the
Savannah and its tributaries. Fort Augusta became a general resort for
the Indian traders; and there, and at Fort Moore, on the bluff near
Sand-bar Ferry, all the Indian treaties were held, down to the year
1750. In 1751, several Quaker families settled there and at a place
called Quaker Springs. When French emissaries, about 1754, stirred up
the Indian tribes against the English, the fort was strengthened, its
magazine was well supplied, and the men were "mustered and drilled for
service." Nothing of importance occurred to disturb the quiet of the
people, and the settlement flourished. Living in almost unrestrained
freedom, far away from the sea-board and its varieties, the agitations
wrought throughout the colonies by the Stamp Act and kindred measures,
scarcely elicited a thought from the quiet people of this region; but
when, month after month, intelligence arrived that chains were forging
to fetter their free spirits, they were aroused, and all through the
region between the Alatamaha and Savannah Rivers, and especially in the
vicinity of Augusta, the Tree of Liberty budded and blossomed, green,
vigorous, and beautiful as the native magnolia. Although Georgia was not
represented in the first Continental Congress, yet her children were not
less alive to the teachings of the spirit of liberty; and the _American
Association_ was early approved, and its operations efficiently
established. The lines between Whigs and Tories were distinctly drawn,
and the requirements of the association were promptly enforced. *

When the British attacked Savannah, in March, 1776, the Legislature,
a majority of which was inimical to the royal government, adjourned
to Augusta, where the people were generally friendly. On the fall of
Savannah, in 1779, the Legislature was dispersed. John Wereat, then
president of the executive council, issued a proclamation, ordering an
election of legislators, who were to assemble at Augusta. That town now
became the center of Republican power in Georgia, and thither the most
active friends of the patriot cause at Savannah fled. George Walton, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen governor
under the Constitution (adopted in 1777), ** notwithstanding Sir James
Wright had now[[1779]] re-established royal rule in the province.
William Glascock was chosen speaker, and the Legislature transacted
business without reference to the existence of any other power in the
state. ***

For the encouragement and support of the Loyalists in the interior,
and to awe the Republicans in that quarter after the fall of Savannah,
Colonel Campbell, who commanded at

* At about mid-summer in 1775, Thomas Brown and William Thompson having
openly reviled the cause of the Whigs, and at a dinner-party gave toasts
in which the friends of that cause were ridiculed, the Parish Committee
of Safety ordered their arrest. Thompson escaped into South Carolina,
but Brown, who attempted to flee with him, was captured and brought
back. He was tried, and sentenced to be tarred and feathered, and
publicly exposed in a cart, to be drawn three miles, or until he was
willing to confess his error, and take his oath that he would espouse
the cause of the Republicans. He chose the latter course; but he was not
a very warm Republican long. His course illustrated the fact that

          "He who's convinced against his will,
          Remains to be convinced still."

for he joined the British army, was made lieutenant colonel, and
afterward, while commandant of Augusta, fiercely retaliated upon the
Whigs.

** John Adam Trueitlen was chosen the first governor under the new
Constitution. He was succeeded in 1778, by John Houstoun; and after the
fall of Savannah, Sir James Wright, the last of the royal governors,
re-established British rule in the state.

*** A curious legislative act occurred during this session. A resolution
was passed censuring Governor Walton for having transmitted a letter
to the President of Congress, "containing unjust and illiberal
representations respecting General M'Intosh." The attorney general was
ordered to prosecute the governor. On the day preceding the passage
of these resolutions, the same Legislature had elected Governor Walton
chief justice of Georgia. He was thereby made president of the only
tribunal competent to try him! To have condemned himself would have been
an exercise of "Roman virtue" hardly to be expected.

[[[Tories under Colonel Boyd.--Augusta in possession of the
British.--Partisan Skirmishes.--General Elbert.]]]

{711}the siege of that city, was ordered by General Prévost to advance
with about two thousand regulars and Loyalists,[[Jan. 1779]] upon
Augusta.' Already he had sent emissaries among the South Carolina Tories
to encourage them to make a general insurrection; and he assured them
that, if they would cross the Savannah and join him at Augusta, the
Republicans might be easily crushed, and the whole South freed from
their pestilential influence. Thus encouraged, about eight hundred
Loyalists of North and South Carolina assembled westward of the Broad
River, under Colonel Boyd, and marched along the frontier of South
Carolina, toward the Savannah. Like a plundering banditti, they
appropriated every species of property to their own use, abused the
inhabitants, and wantonly butchered several who opposed their rapacious
demands. While these depredators were organizing, and Campbell was
proceeding toward Augusta, General Elbert ** crossed the Savannah,
joined Colonels Twiggs and Few, and skirmished with the British
van-guard at Brier Creek and other places, to impede their progress.
They effected but little, and on the twenty-ninth of January[[1779]]
Campbell took possession of Augusta, and placed the garrison under
Lieutenant-colonel Brown, the Loyalist just mentioned, who, with
Lieutenant-colonel M'Girth, had preceded him thither. Campbell then
proceeded to establish military posts in other parts of Western Georgia.

[Illustration: 9721]

The Whigs who could leave with their families crossed the Savannah
into Carolina. The oath of allegiance was every where administered;
the habitations of those who had fled into Carolina were consumed; and
Georgia seemed, for the moment, permanently prostrate at the feet of
the invaders. The quiet that ensued was only the calm before a gathering
storm. Colonel John Dooly collected a body of active militia on the
Carolina shore, thirty miles above Augusta, while Colonel M'Girth,
with three hundred Loyalists, was watching him on the other side. Dooly
crossed over into Georgia, and these partisans had several skirmishes.
Finally, Major Hamilton, an active officer under M'Girth, drove Dooly
across the Savannah, a short distance below the mouth of Broad River,
and encamped at Waters's plantation, about three miles below the present
town of Petersburg, in Elbert county. Dooly took post opposite to
Hamilton, where he was joined by Colonel Pickens. Their united forces
amounted to about three hundred and fifty men.

Colonel Pickens, who was the senior officer, assumed the command of
the whole, and with Dooly crossed the river at Cowen's Ferry, to attack
Hamilton.[[Feb. 10, 1779]] That officer had broken up his encampment and
marched to Carr's Fort, not far distant, to examine its condition and
administer the oath of allegiance to the surrounding inhabitants. The
Americans besieged the fort, and were confident of capturing it, having
cut off the supply of water for the garrison, when, at ten o'clock at
night, a message came to Colonel Pickens, from his brother, informing
him of the march of Boyd and his banditti through the district of
Ninety-Six. Unwilling to distress the families who had taken shelter
within the fort, Pickens declined a proposition to burn it, and raising
the siege, he hastened to confront Boyd, the more important foe. He
crossed the Savannah near Fort Charlotte, when Boyd, hearing of his
approach, hastened toward the Cherokee Ford. At that ford was a redoubt,
garrisoned by eight men, with two swivels. They successfully disputed
the passage of Boyd,

* General Prévost had come from St. Augustine, captured the fort at
Sunbury on the way, and, with Campbell's troops, had a force of about
three thousand regulars and one thousand militia.

** Samuel Elbert was born in South Carolina in 1740. He became an orphan
at an early age, went to Savannah, and there subsequently engaged in
commercial pursuits. He joined the Continental army in Georgia early
in 1776, as lieutenant colonel, having been a few months previously a
member of the Savannah Committee of Safety. He was promoted to colonel
in the autumn of 1776, and in May, 1777, commanded an expedition against
the British in East Florida. In the following year he was actively
engaged in the neighborhood of Savannah, and behaved bravely when it
was attacked by Campbell at the close of December. He was promoted to
brigadier, and was with Colonel Ashe at Brier Creek, where he was made
prisoner. After his exchange, he went to the North, joined the army
under Washington, and was at the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
At the close of the war, he was commissioned a major general. He was
elected governor of the state in 1785. General Elbert died at Savannah,
on the second of November, 1788, at the age of forty-five years. His
remains were buried in the family cemetery on the mount, at Rae's Hall,
five miles above Savannah. Elbert county, in Georgia, was named in honor
of the general.

[[[Dispersion of Boyd's Tories.--Alarm of Campbell.--Ashe ordered to
Brier Creek.--General Williamson.]]]

{712}and he marched five miles up the river, crossed on rafts, and
pushed on toward Augusta. He was pursued by a detachment of Americans,
under Captain Anderson, who attacked him in a cane-brake. A severe
skirmish ensued. Boyd lost one hundred men in killed, wounded, and
missing; the Americans lost sixteen killed, and the same number taken
prisoners.

Boyd hastened forward, and on the morning of the thirteenth[[Feb. 1779]]
crossed the Broad River, near the fork, in Oglethorpe county, closely
pursued by Pickens, with about three hundred militia. The latter
marched in battle order. Colonel Dooly * commanded the right wing;
Lieutenant-colonel Clark the left; and Colonel Pickens the center. Boyd,
ignorant of the proximity of his pursuers, halted on the north side
of Kettle Creek, turned his horses out to forage upon the reeds of a
neighboring swamp, and proceeded to slaughter cattle for his army. In
this condition he was attacked[[Feb. 14]] by the Americans. The Tory
pickets fired, and fled to the camp. The utmost confusion prevailed,
and Boyd and his followers began to retreat in great disorder, while
skirmishing with the assailants. The contest lasted almost two hours.
About seventy of the Tories were killed, and seventy-five were made
prisoners. The Americans lost nine killed and twenty-three mortally
wounded. Colonel Boyd was severely wounded, and expired that night. His
whole force was scattered to the winds. The seventy prisoners were taken
to South Carolina, tried for high treason, and condemned to death. Five
of the most active ones were hanged, the remainder were pardoned. **
This was one of the severest blows which Toryism in the South had yet
received.

Encouraged by this success, General Lincoln, then in command of the
Southern army, determined to drive the British from their posts in the
interior, back to Savannah. He formed encampments at Black Swamp, and
nearly opposite Augusta, while small detachments of militia took post at
various points on the Savannah, above Augusta. Lincoln ordered General
John Ashe, then in the neighborhood of Purysburg, to march up the
easterly side of the Savannah with about fifteen hundred North Carolina
militia, and the remains of the Georgia Continentals, to re-enforce
General Williamson opposite Augusta. Ashe arrived at Williamson's camp
on the evening before the defeat of Boyd.[[Feb. 13, 1779]] This imposing
display opposite Augusta, and intelligence of the close pursuit of Boyd,
alarmed Campbell, and he speedily decamped that same night with all
his force, and hastened toward the sea-coast. He left behind him a
considerable quantity of provisions, ammunition, and some arms. At
Hudson's Ferry, fifty miles below Augusta, Lieutenant-colonel Prevost
had constructed a fortified camp and mounted some light artillery.
There Campbell halted, with the determination to attempt to regain
the advantage he had just lost, but finally continued his retreat to
Savannah.

General Lincoln, who was then encamped at Purysburg, in Beaufort
District, about twenty-five miles above Savannah, with three thousand
men, sent orders to Colonel Ashe[[Feb. 16]] to cross the Savannah, and
proceed as far as Brier Creek in pursuit of Campbell. At this time,
General Rutherford, of North Carolina, was encamped at Black Swamp,
on the Carolina side of the Savannah, a few miles above the mouth of
Ebenezer Creek, with seven hundred men; and General Williamson, *** with
twelve hundred men, was opposite

* Colonel John Dooly entered the Continental army in Georgia, as
captain, in 1776, and, rising to the rank of colonel, was very active
in the neighborhood of the Savannah, until 1780, when a party of Tories,
sent out from Augusta by Colonel Brown, entered his house, in Wilkes
county, at midnight, and barbarously murdered him in the presence of his
wife and children.--M'Call, ii., 306.

** See M'Call's History of Georgia, i., 190-203.

*** We have already noticed the services of this gentleman while colonel
of militia in the District of Ninety-Six, against the Indians. (See page
647.) Andrew Williamson was born in Scotland, and when young was taken
by his parents to Ninety-Six, in South Carolina. He was a very active
lad, and it is believed that he attended Montgomery in his expedition
against the Indians in 1760. He was with Colonel Grant in a similar
expedition in 1761. He early espoused the Whig cause, and, as we have
seen, was active in opposition to the Cunninghams and other Tories. He
was promoted to brigadier, and in that capacity was employed in opposing
the inroads of Prévost from Florida into Georgia. After the fall of
Savannah, he was engaged in watching the movements of the enemy upon the
Savannah River. He took possession of Augusta when Campbell retreated
from it, and was for some time engaged against the Tories in that
vicinity, in co-operation with General Elbert. He was afterward engaged
in the battle at Stono Ferry, below Charleston, and was at the siege
of Savannah when D'Estaing aided the Americans. After that, his conduct
awakened suspicions that he was becoming unfriendly to the American
cause. When Lincoln was besieged in Charleston, he withheld efficient
aid; and when that city surrendered, he accepted a British protection.
Williamson was called the "Arnold of the South," in miniature. It is
generally conceded that he was a double traitor; for while he was with
the British in Charleston, he communicated valuable information to
General Greene. The time and place of his death is not certainly
known. He lived in obscurity and poverty after the war.--See Johnson's
Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, 144: Charleston, 1851.

[[[The Americans at Brier Creek.--Preparations for Battle.--The
Attack.--Retreat of the Carolinians.]]]

{713}Augusta. General Ashe crossed the river on the twenty-fifth, and
proceeded toward Brier Creek, a considerable stream, which flows into
the Savannah in Severn county, about forty-five miles below Augusta.
He reached Brier Creek on Saturday morning, the twenty-seventh,[[Feb.
1779]] and discovered that the bridge across the stream (which is there
skirted with a deep swamp three miles wide) was completely destroyed by
the enemy.

General Rutherford, with part of his brigade, was at Mathew's Bluff five
miles above, on the opposite side of the Savannah; and Colonel Marbury,
of the Georgia horse, lay a few miles up Brier Creek. Ashe's force
consisted of General Bryan's brigade, Lieutenant-colonel Lyttle's light
infantry, and some Georgia Continentals; in all about twelve hundred
men. His artillery consisted of one four pound brass field-piece, and
two iron two pound swivels, mounted as field-pieces. Bryant and Elbert
were instructed to form the camp, while Ashe crossed the river to confer
with General Lincoln. A guard was dispatched to conduct the baggage
across to Mathew's Bluff, in case it was found necessary to retreat;
and other guards were stationed at the fords of the creek above, while
fatigue-parties were detailed to construct bridges, and to make a road
to the river for the passage of Rutherford's troops with two brass
field-pieces.

Ashe returned on the evening of the third,[[March 1779]] and was
chagrined at not finding the bridge which Campbell had destroyed,
repaired. Early the following morning workmen were employed in that
duty, but it was too late, and the Americans were quite unprepared for
offensive or defensive operations. While in this exposed situation,
intelligence came from General Williamson, then on his march from
Augusta, that the enemy, under the general command of Prevost, was
within eight miles of the American camp above, approaching in full
force. Already Marbury, with his dragoons, had encountered the British
van, but his express to Ashe had been intercepted. Reconnoitering
parties had approached the American pickets, yet they produced neither
apprehension nor vigilance. That indifference proved fatal. Prevost,
with about eighteen hundred men, had crossed Brier Creek, fifteen miles
above Ashe's camp, made a wide circuit, and, unperceived, had gained his
rear. To retreat was now impossible. The drums immediately beat to arms;
the troops were formed for action, and cartridges were distributed among
them. * They then advanced about a quarter of a mile; General Elbert and
his command, with Colonel Perkins's regiment, forming the advance. The
British formed their line when within one hundred and fifty yards of
the Americans, and at the moment of their advance, Elbert and Perkins,
opened a severe fire upon them. The Georgians, after delivering two or
three rounds, unfortunately inclined to the left, by which the fire
of the advancing Newbern regiment was impeded. At the same moment, the
Edenton regiment, moving to the right, left a vacancy in the line. This
the enemy perceived, and pushed forward on a run, with a loud shout. The
Halifax regiment on the left, panic-stricken, broke and fled, without
firing a gun. The Wilmington regiment, except a small part under
Lieutenant-colonel Young, advanced and delivered two or three volleys,
wheeled, and retreated. The Newbern and Edenton regiments followed their
example, and in a few minutes the whole of the North Carolina troops
were flying to the coverts of the swamps. The Georgia Continentals
maintained their

* M'Call and others censure General Ashe for not having the soldiers
served with cartridges much sooner. Ashe in his letter to Governor
Caswell on the seventeenth of March, says, that "prudence forbade
a distribution of cartridges until they were wanted; for, lacking
cartouch-boxes, the men had already lost a great many." He says that
when they marched to meet the enemy, some carried their cartridges
"under their arms; others in the bosoms of their shirts; and some tied
up in the corner of their hunting-shirts."--MS. Letter of General Ashe
to Governor Caswell.

[[[Defeat of the Americans.--The Loss.--Ashe Censured.--Acquitted by
Court martial.--His Public Life.]]]

{714}ground gallantly for some time; but they, too, were finally
repulsed, and General Elbert and a large number of his men were
made prisoners. General Ashe tried in vain to reach the front of the
fugitives and rally them. They had scattered in all directions; took
shelter in the swamps; and, on reaching the Savannah, escaped across
it, some by swimming, and others upon rafts. In this retreat many
were drowned, and others were lost in the swamps. General Ashe reached
Mathew's Bluff in safety, and afterward collected the remnants of
his little army at Zubley's Ferry,[[March 16, 1779]] two miles above
Purysburg. The loss of the Americans in this action was estimated at
one hundred and fifty killed and drowned; twenty-seven officers, and one
hundred and sixty-two non-commissioned officers and privates, were taken
prisoners; and seven pieces of artillery, a quantity of ammunition,
provisions, and baggage, with five hundred stand of arms, were either
lost or fell into the hands of Prevost. The British lost only one
commissioned officer, and fifteen privates killed and wounded. *

General Ashe" was much censured by contemporary opinion and early
historians; and modern compilers have repeated those censures, because
he allowed himself to be surprised. Viewing the whole affair from this
remote point, and in the light of calm judgment, he appears no more
censurable than most other men who were losers instead of winners. Had
he succeeded in becoming a victor, his alleged remissness would never
have been mentioned; the unfortunate are always blamed. Conscious of
having exercised both courage and vigilance, General Ashe appealed
from the voice of public opinion to a court-martial, of which General
Moultrie *** was president.[[March 9, 1779]] The court acquitted him
of every charge of cowardice and deficiency of military skill, but gave
their opinion that he did not take all necessary precautions to secure
his camp and watch the movements of the enemy. It was an unfortunate
affair, for it deprived Lincoln of about one third of his available
force, and opened a free communication between the British, Indians, and
Tories, in Florida, Western Georgia, and the Carolinas.

We have observed that after the fall of Charleston,[[May 12, 1780]]
and the dispersion of Lincoln's army, royal power in South Carolina and
Georgia was fully established. The Republican governor of Georgia and
part of his council fled into North Carolina, and narrowly escaped being
captured on the way. Lieutenant-colonel Thomas Brown, whom Campbell
placed in command of Augusta early in 1779, now proceeded to that place
and

* MS. Letter of General Ashe to Governor Caswell; Ramsay, ii., 16;
Gordon, ii., 415; M'Call, ii, 206.

** John Ashe was born in England in 1721. He came to America with his
father in 1727, who settled on the Cape Fear River, in North Carolina.
He served his district in the Colonial Legislature for several years,
and was speaker of the Assembly from 1762 to 1765. He warmly opposed
the Stamp Act in 1765, and, with others, announced to Governor Tryon
his determination to resist its operations. Assisted by General Hugh
Waddell, Ashe, then colonel of the militia of New Hanover, headed an
armed force, and compelled the stamp-master to resign. He accompanied
Tryon against the Regulators in 1771; but when royal rule became odious,
and he saw the liberties of his country in peril, he was one of the
most zealous advocates, in the North Carolina Assembly, of Republican
principles. As a member of the Legislature, and of the Committee of
Correspondence and of Safety at Wilmington, he was exceedingly active
and vigilant. He was one of the first projectors of a Provincial
Congress, and became the most aetive opponent of Governor Martin, for
he was exceedingly popular as a man. With five hundred men, he destroyed
Fort Johnston in 1775, and was denounced as a rebel against the crown.
He was a member of the first Provincial Congress, convened that year.
When he returned home, he raised and equipped a regiment at his own
expense; and throughout the whole region around Wilmington, his eloquent
words and energetic acts inspired the people with burning patriotism.
In 1776, the Provincial Congress appointed him a brigadier of Wilmington
District. He was actively engaged in military and civil duties in his
district, until the close of 1778, when he joined Lincoln in South
Carolina, with regiments from Halifax, Wilmington, Newbern, and
Edenton. After his surprise and defeat at Brier Creek, he returned
home. Wilmington became a British post in 1781, and Colonel Ashe and
his family suffered much at their hands. He was made a prisoner,
and suffered a long confinement, during which time he contracted the
small-pox. He was released on parole while sick, and died of that
disease in October, 1781, at the age of sixty years, while accompanying
his family to a place of quiet, in Duplin county.

*** The other members of the court were General Rutherford, Colonels
Armstrong, Pinckney, and Locke, and Edmond Hyrne, deputy adjutant
general.--See Moultrie's Memoirs, i., 338.

[[[Cruelty of Brown.--Forts Cornwallis and Grierson.--March toward
Augusta, of Clark and M'Call.]]]

{715}garrisoned the fort with a strong force. Brown, as we have seen
(page 710), was an early victim of Whig indignation at Augusta, his
native place, and he used his power, while in command there, with a
fierceness commensurate with his wrath. He sent out detachments to burn
the dwellings of patriots in his vicinity, and dispatched emissaries
among the Indians to incite them to murder the inhabitants on the
frontier. * His command at Augusta consisted of two hundred and fifty
men, of several corps, principally of Florida rangers; two hundred and
fifty Creek and fifty Cherokee Indians; in all, five hundred and fifty.
The defenses consisted of a strong fort, situated on the northwest side
of the town, upon a bank about one hundred yards from the river.

[Illustration: 9725]

This was the main work, and was called Fort Cornwallis. A little less
than half a mile westward of Fort Cornwallis, was a swampy ravine
extending up from the river, with a stream running through it. On the
western margin of this lagoon, between the present Upper Market and the
river, was a smaller work called Fort Grierson, so named in honor of the
militia colonel who commanded its garrison.

About the first of September,[[1780]] Colonel Elijah Clark, a brave
partisan of Wilkes county, Georgia, and Lieutenant-colonel M'Call, made
efforts to raise a sufficient force to capture the fort at Augusta, and
drive the British from the interior of the state to the sea-coast. These
were the brave partisans who fought at the Cowpens a few months later.
Clark recruited in his own county, and M'Call went to the district
of Ninety-Six and applied to Colonel Pickens for aid. He wanted five
hundred men, but procured only eighty. With these he marched to Soap
Creek, forty miles northwest of Augusta, where he was joined by Clark,
with three hundred and fifty men. With this inadequate force they
marched toward Augusta. So secret and rapid were their movements, that
they reached the outposts before the garrison was apprised of their
approach.[[Sep. 14, 1780]] The right was commanded by M'Call, the
left by Major Samuel Taylor, and the center by Clark. The divisions
approached the town separately. Near Hawk's Creek, on the west,
Taylor fell in with an Indian camp, and a skirmish ensued. The Indians
retreated toward the town, and Taylor pressed forward to get possession
of a strong trading station called the

* Brown's authority was a letter which Cornwallis had sent to the
commanders of all the British outposts, ordering that all those who had
"taken part in the revolt should be punished with the utmost rigor; and
also that those who would not turn out should be imprisoned, and their
whole property taken from them or destroyed." Every militia-man who had
borne arms in the king's service, and afterward joined the Whigs, was to
be "immediately hanged." This letter was a foul stain upon the character
of Cornwallis. It was a "lash of scorpions" in the hands of cruel men
like Brown. "Officers, soldiers, and citizens," says M'Call (ii., 319),
were brought up to the place of execution, without being informed
why they had been taken out of prison. The next morning after this
sanguinary order reached Augusta, five victims were taken from the jail
by order of Colonel Brown, who all expired on the gibbet.

** Fort Cornwallis occupied the ground in the rear of the Episcopal
church, now a grave-yard. This view is from within the inclosure,
looking northeast, and includes a portion of Schultz's bridge, the
Savannah River, and Hamburg upon the opposite bank. In the foreground is
seen portions of the church-yard wall, and upon the brink of the river
below are negroes employed in placing bales of cotton upon the wharves
for transportation, to the sea-coast. The wharves are two stories in
height, one to be used at low water, the other when the river is "up."
There were remains of the ditch and embankments of the fort within the
grave-yard when I was there; and the trench leading to the water-gate,
where the "Pride-of-India" tree is seen, was very visible.

[[[Skirmish at the White House.--Brown wounded.--Defeat of the
Americans. Fate of Prisoners.]]]

{716}White House, a mile and a half west of the town. The Indians
reached it first, and were joined by a company of King's Rangers, under
Captain Johnson. Ignorant of the approach of other parties, Brown and
Grierson went to the aid of Johnson and the Indians. While absent, the
few men left in garrison were surprised by Clark and M'Call, and Forts
Cornwallis and Grierson fell into their hands. A guard was left to take
charge of the prisoners and effects in the fort, and Clark, with the
remainder, hastened to the assistance of Taylor. Brown and Grierson,
perceiving their peril, took shelter in the _White House_. The Americans
tried in vain to dislodge them. A desultory fire was kept up from eleven
o'clock in the morning until dark, when hostilities ceased. During the
night the besieged cast up a slight breast-work around the house,
made loop-holes in the building for musketry, and thus materially
strengthened their position. Early in the morning,[[Sept. 15]] Clark
ordered field-pieces to be brought from Grierson's redoubt, to be
placed in a position to cannonade the _White House_. They were of little
service, for Captain Martin, of South Carolina, the only artillerist
among the besiegers, was killed soon after the pieces were brought to
bear upon the building.

No impression was made upon the enemy during the fifteenth. On that
morning, before daylight, the Americans drove a body of Indians from the
river bank, and thus cut off the supply of water for those in the house.
Colonel Brown and others had been severely wounded, and now suffered
great agony from thirst. On the night of the fifteenth, fifty Cherokee
Indians, well armed, crossed the river to re-enforce Brown, but were
soon repulsed. Little was done on the sixteenth, and on the seventeenth
Clark summoned Brown to surrender. He promptly refused; for, having sent
a messenger to Colonel Cruger at Ninety-Six, on the morning when the
Americans appeared before Augusta, Brown confidently expected relief
from that quarter. Nor was he disappointed. On the night of the
seventeenth, Clark's scouts informed him of the approach of Colonel
Cruger with five hundred British regulars and Loyalists, and on the
morning of the eighteenth this force appeared upon the opposite side of
the river. Clark's little army was greatly diminished by the loss of men
who had been killed and wounded, and the desertion of many with plunder
found in the forts. At ten o'clock he raised the siege, and departed
toward the mountains. The American loss on this occasion was about sixty
killed and wounded; that of the British is not known. Twenty of the
Indians were killed. Captain Ashby and twenty-eight others were made
prisoners. Upon these Brown and his Indian allies glutted their thirst
for revenge. Captain Ashby and twelve of the wounded were hanged upon
the stair-way of the _White House_, so that the commandant might have
the satisfaction of seeing their sufferings. Others were given up to the
Indians to torture, scalp, and slay. Terrible were the demoniac acts
at Augusta on that beautiful autumnal day, when the white and the red
savage contended for the meed of cruelty!

The British remained in possession of Augusta until the spring and
summer of 1781, when their repose was disturbed. After the battle at
Guilford Court House, and when the determination of Greene to march into
South Carolina was made known, Clark and M'Call proceeded to co-operate
with him by annoying the British posts in Georgia. M'Call soon afterward
died of the small-pox, and Clark suffered from the same disease. After
his recovery, he, with several other partisans, were actively engaged at
various points between Savannah and Augusta, and had frequent skirmishes
with the British and Tory scouts. In an engagement near Coosawhatchie,
in Beaufort District, South Carolina, where Colonel Brown then
commanded, the Americans were defeated; and several who were taken
prisoners were hanged, and their bodies given to the Indians to scalp
and otherwise, mutilate. *

* Among the prisoners taken on this occasion was a young man named
M'Koy, the son of a widow, who, with her family, had fled from Darien,
in Georgia, into South Carolina. She went to Brown and implored the life
of her son, who was only seventeen years of age. The miscreant's heart
was unmoved, and the lad was not only hanged, but his body was delivered
to the Indians to mutilate by scalping and otherwise. All this occurred
in the presence of the mother. Afterward, when Brown, as a prisoner,
passed where Mrs. M'Koy resided, she called to his remembrance his
cruelty, and said, "As you are now a prisoner to the leaders of my
country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts of revenge, but if you
resume your sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satisfaction
at the point of it for the murder of my son.--See M'Call's Georgia, ii.,
365; Garden's Anecdotes.

[[[Siege of Augusta.--Colonel Pickens.]]]

{717}This was Brown's common practice, and made his name as hateful at
the South as that of "Bloody Bill Cunningham."

On the sixteenth of April,[[1781]] the Georgia militia, under Colonels
Williams, Baker, and Hammond, Major James Jackson (afterward governor of
the state), and other officers, assembled near Augusta, and placed the
garrison in a state of siege. Williams, who had the general command
during Clark's sickness, encamped within twelve hundred yards of Forts
Cornwallis and Grierson, and fortified his camp.

[Illustration: 8727]

Colonel Brown, who was again in command at Augusta, deceived respecting
the numbers did not attack them; and in this position the respective forces
remained until the middle of May, when Clark came with one hundred new
recruits and resumed the command. About that time, Major Dill approached
Augusta with a party of Loyalists to force the Americans to raise the
siege.

A detachment of Carolina mountaineers and Georgians, under Shelby and
Carr, sent by Clark, met them at Walker's bridge, on Brier Creek, killed
and wounded several.

Pickens could not immediately comply, for the Indians having recommenced
hostilities on the frontiers of Georgia and Carolina, he had sent part
of his force in that direction. Perceiving the importance of seizing
Augusta, Pickens informed Greene of the situation of affairs there.
That general, then advancing upon Ninety-Six, immediately ordered
Lientenant-colonel Lee, with his legion, to join Pickens and Clark in
besieging Augusta. The rapid march of Lee, the capture of Fort Galphin
and its stores, and his arrival at Augusta, have been noticed on page
691.

The capture of Fort Galphin[[May 21, 1781]] was an important prelude
to the siege of Augusta. Other little successes made the Americans at
Augusta feel so strong that Clark determined to attempt an assault. An
old iron five pounder, which he had picked up, was mounted within four
hundred yards of Fort Grierson, and other dispositions for an attack
were made. Powder was scarce, and he sent a message to Colonel Pickens,*
who was maneuvering between Augusta and Fort Ninety-Six, asking for a
supply.

* Andrew Pickens was born in Paxton township, Pennsylvania, on the
nineteenth of September, 1739. His parents were from Ireland. In
1752, he removed, with his father, to the Waxhaw settlement, in South
Carolina. He served as a volunteer in Grant's expedition against the
Cherokees, in which he took his first lessons in the art of war. He
beeame a warm Republican when the Revolution broke out, and, as we have
seen in preceding pages of this work, he was one of the most active of
the military partisans of the South. From the close of the war until
1794, he was a member of the South Carolina Legislature, when he was
elected to a seat in Congress. He was commissioned major general of the
South Carolina militia in 1795, and was often a commissioner to treat
with the Indians. President Washington offered him a brigade of
light troops under General Wayne, to serve against the Indians in the
northwest, but he declined the honor. He died at his seal in Pendleton
District, South Carolina--the scene of his earliest battles--on the
seventeenth of August, 1817, at the age of seventy-eight years. His
remains lie by the side of his wife (who died two years before), in the
grave-yard of the "Old Stone Meeting-house" in Pendleton. In 1765, he
married Rebecca Calhoun, aunt of the late John C. Calhoun, one of the
most beautiful young ladies of the South. Mrs. Ellet, in her Women of
the Revolution (iii., 302), gives some interesting sketches of this lady
and her life during the Revolution. Her relatives and friends were very
numerous, and her marriage was attended by a great number. "Rebecca
Calhoun's wedding" was an epoch in the social history of the district in
which she resided, and old people used it as a point to reckon from.

[[[Junction of American Troops before Augusta.--Plan of Attack.--Maykam
Tower.--The Garrison subdued.]]]

{718}Colonel Brown was deprived of a considerable body of reserved
troops and of valuable stores.

[Illustration: 9728]

The latter were of great importance to Greene, then approaching
Ninety-Six. After the capture of this redoubt, Lee allowed his troops
to repose a few hours, and then ordered Major Eggleston, with Captains
O'Neal and Armstrong, to cross the Savannah with the cavalry, a little
below Augusta, and join Pickens and Clark. On the same evening, Lee,
with the field-piece of Captain Finley, crossed the river, and on the
morning of the twenty-third joined the besiegers.

Eggleston, on his arrival, summoned Brown to surrender, at the same time
informing him of the approach of a strong force from General Greene's
army. Brown did not credit the information, treated the flag with
contempt, and declined giving a written answer. Lee had now arrived,
and an immediate assault on Fort Grierson was determined upon. The first
measure attempted was to cut off his retreat to Fort Cornwallis. Pickens
and Clark were to attack Fort Grierson on the northwest, with the
militia; Major Eaton's battalions and some Georgia militia, under Major
Jackson, were to pass down the river and attack it on the northeast;
while Lee, with his infantry, took a position south of the fort, so as
to support Eaton, or check Brown if he should make a sortie in favor of
Grierson. In the skirt of the woods south of Lee, Eggleston, with the
cavalry, was stationed. When Brown discovered the peril of Grierson,
he made a sortie with two field-pieces, but was soon checked by Lee.
Grierson, at the same time, endeavored to evacuate his redoubt, and
attempt to throw his command into Fort Cornwallis. Passing down the
ravine on the margin of the lagoon, some of the garrison effected their
purpose; but thirty of them were slain, and forty five were wounded and
taken prisoners. Grierson was captured, but was instantly killed by a
Georgia rifleman, who, on account of cruelties inflicted upon his family
by his victim, could not be restrained from dealing a blow of vengeance.
* In this assault Major Eaton was slain.

The Americans now turned their attention to Fort Cornwallis. They were
without artillery, except the old iron piece in possession of Clark, and
Finley's grasshopper; and their rifles had but little effect upon the
fort. Lee suggested the erection of a Mayham tower, which was used so
efficiently at Fort Watson and Ninety-Six. This was done, under cover
of an old frame house which stood directly in front of the present
Episcopal church. This procedure made Brown uneasy, and on the night of
the twenty-eighth he sent out a detachment to drive the Americans from
their labor. After a severe skirmish, the enemy were driven into the
fort at the point of the bayonet. On the succeeding night, a similar
attempt was made, with the same result. The tower was completed on the
first of June, and for its destruction Brown used every effort in his
power. Sallies were made under cover of night, and some severe conflicts
ensued. He tried stratagem, ** and failed in that.

On the thirty-first of May, Brown was summoned to surrender. He refused,
and that night a six pounder, brought from Fort Grierson, was placed in
battery on the tower. Toward noon, riflemen stationed upon it opened a
galling fire upon the garrison, which was continued throughout the day.
The guns were soon unmanned by the rifle balls, and the six pounder
dismounted them. The garrison dug vaults within the fort to save
themselves from the murderous fire of the assailants, and thus the siege
went on until the morning of the fourth,[[June, 1781]] when a general
assault was agreed upon. While the Americans were forming tor attack,
Brown, perceiving the maintenance ot his post to be im-

* This rifleman was Captain Samuel Alexander, whose aged father had been
a prisoner in Fort Cornwallis for some time, and was cruelly treated by
both Brown and Grierson. The son was the deliverer of his father soon
after he dispatched Grierson.

** Brown opened a communication with a house in front of the tower, and
placed a quantity of powder in it. He then sent a Scotchman, under the
cloak of a deserter, who advised the Americans to burn that old house,
as it stood in their way. Had they done so, the explosion of the powder
might have destroyed the tower. Lee suspected the man, and had him
confined. Brown finally applied a slow match and blew up the house, but
the tower was unharmed.

[[[Surrender of the Forts at Augusta.--Liberty Hill.--Departure for
Savannah.--A Night Journey.]]]

{719}possible, sent out a flag and offered to make a conditional
surrender to Pickens and Lee. The day was spent in negotiations, and
early the next morning the fort was surrendered to Captain Rudulph, who
was appointed to take possession. The garrison marched out and laid down
their arms, and Brown and his fellow-prisoners were paroled to Savannah
under a sufficient guard, who marched down the river on the Carolina
side. * Pickins and Lee soon hastened to the aid of Greene, then
investing Ninety-Six. In this siege of Augusta, the Americans had
sixteen killed and thirty-five wounded; seven of them mortally. The loss
of the British was fifty-two killed: and three hundred and thirty-four,
including the wounded, were made prisoners of war. ** The British never
had possession of Augusta after this event.

Let us close the chronicle for a while.

It was toward noon when we descended Liberty Hill, looked in upon the
slave-market at Hamburg (the first and last I ever saw), and crossed
Shultz's bridge to Augusta. After dinner I visited the site of Fort
Cornwallis, and made the sketch on page 715; also the site of Fort
Grierson, of which no vestiges remain. The rivulet is still there, and
the marshy lagoon on the brink of the river; but the "gulley" mentioned
in the local histories was filled, and houses and gardens covered the
site of the redoubt and its ravelins. At the office of the mayor, I
saw (and was permitted to copy) a sketch of the proposed monument to be
erected in the middle of the broad and beautifully shaded Greene Street,
directly in front of the City Hall, in honor of the Georgia Signers
of the Declaration of Independence. It is to be a granite obelisk,
forty-five feet in height, composed of square blocks of stone. The base
of the obelisk will be six feet eight inches square at the bottom, and
gradually tapered to the top. It will rest upon a base twelve feet eight
inches square, elevated two feet above the ground. The corner-stone is
already laid, and it is to be hoped that another will soon be added
to the few monuments already erected to the memory of Revolutionary
patriots.

I left Augusta on the evening of the twenty-fifth[[Jan. 1849]] with real
regret, for the beauty of the city, ornamented with water-oaks, wild
olives, holly, palmettoes, magnolias, and other evergreens; the gardens
blooming; the orange-trees budding in the bland air, and the courtesy
of the citizens whom I met, wooed me to a longer tarry. But "home, sweet
home," beckoned me away, and at eight o'clock I entered a mail-coach,
with a single fellow-passenger, for a ride of fifty-two miles to the
"Ninety-mile Station," on the Great Central Railway. I had a pleasant
companion while he kept awake, and we whiled away the tedious night
hours by agreeable conversation until we reached Waynesborough, ***
where we exchanged horses and the mails. After leaving the village, I
endeavored to sleep. My companion complained that he never could slumber
in a coach; and I presume his loud snoring always keeps him awake,
for in ten minutes after leaving the post-office his nasal pipes were
chanting bass to the alto of the coach-wheels.

We breakfasted at sunrise at a log-house in the forest, and arrived at
the rail-way, on the upper border of Severn county, near the banks
of the Great Ogeeche, at eleven o'clock, where we dined, and at one
departed for Savannah. Swamps, plantations, and forests, with scarcely
a hill, or even an undulation, compose the monotonous scenery. While
enjoying the pleasing anticipation of an early arrival in Savannah, our
locomotive became disabled by the breaking of a piston-rod. We were yet
forty miles from our goal, in the midst of a vast swamp, ten miles from
any habitation, near the road. The sun went down; the twilight faded
away, and yet we were immovable. At intervals the engineer managed to
start his steed and travel a short distance, and then stop. Thus we
crawled along, and at eleven

* The brother of young M'Koy, who was hanged and scalped by Brown's
orders, and who, thirsting for revenge, had joined Clark before Augusta,
endeavored to kill Brown, but was prevented by the guard. It was during
this march to Savannah, when at Silver Bluff, that Brown encountered
Mrs. M'Koy, as related on page 716.

** M'Call, ii., 370; Lee, 238; Ramsay, ii., 238.

*** Waynesborough is the capital of Burke county. It is upon a branch of
Brier Creek, about thirty-five miles above the place of General Ashe's
defeat.

[[[Detention in a Swamp.--Picturesque Scenery.--Savannah.--Greene and
Pulaski Monument]]]

{720}o'clock at night we reached the thirty mile station, where we
supped at the expense of the rail way company. At our haltings we
started light-wood fires, whose blaze amid the tall trees draped with
moss, the green cane-brakes, and the dry oases, garnished with dwarf
palmettoes, produced the most picturesque effects.

[Illustration: 8730]

A hand-car was sent down to Savannah for another engine, and at six
o'clock in the morning we entered that city. I breakfasted at the
_Pulaski House_, a large building fronting upon Johnson Square, amid
whose noble trees stands a monument erected by the citizens of Savannah
to the memory of General Greene and the Count Pulaski. *

Savannah is pleasantly situated upon a sand-bluff, some forty feet above
low-water-mark, sloping toward swamps and savannahs, at a lower altitude
in the interior. It is upon the south side of the river, about eighteen
miles from the ocean. The city is laid out in rectangles, and has ten
public squares. The streets are generally broad and well shaded, some
of them with four rows of Pride-of-India trees, which, in summer, add
greatly to the beauty of the city and comfort of the inhabitants. With
interest in Savannah and suburbs, let us open the interesting pages of
its history, and note their teachings respecting Georgia in general,
and of the capital in particular, whose foundations were laid by General
Oglethorpe.

We have already considered the events which led to the settlement of the
Carolinas, within whose charter limits Georgia was originally included,
and we will here refer only to the single circumstance connected
with the earlier efforts at settlement, which some believe to be well
authenticated, namely, that Sir Walter Raleigh, when on his way to the
Orinoco, in South America, entered the Savannah River, and upon the
bluff where the city now stands stood and talked with the Indian king.
** There are reasonable doubts of the truth of this statement.

As late as 1730, the territory lying between the Savannah and Alatamaha
Rivers was entirely uninhabited by white people. On the south the
Spaniards held possession, and on the west the French had Louisiana,
while the region under consideration, partially filled with powerful
Indian tribes, was claimed by Great Britain. To prevent France and Spain
from occupying it (for the latter already began to claim territory even
north of the Savannah), and as a protection to the Carolina planters
against the encroachments of their hostile neighbors, various schemes of
emigration thither were proposed, but without being effected. Finally,
in 1729, General James Oglethorpe, a valorous soldier and humane
Christian, then a member of Parliament, made a proposition in that body
for the founding of a colony to be composed of poor persons who were
confined for debt and minor offenses in the prisons

* In March, 1825, at a meeting of the citizens of Savannah, it was
determined to take the occasion of the expected visit of General La
Fayette to that city to lay the corner-stones of two monuments, one to
the memory of Greene, in Johnson Square; the other in memory of Pulaski,
in Chippewa Square. These corner-stones were accordingly laid by La
Fayette on the twenty-first of March, 1825. Some donations were made;
and in November, 1826, the State Legislature authorized a lottery, for
the purpose of raising $35,000 to complete the monuments. The funds
were accumulated very slowly, and it was finally resolved to erect one
monument, to be called the "Greene and Pulaski Monument." The structure
here delineated is of Georgia marble upon a granite base, and was
completed in 1829. The lottery is still in operation, and since
this monument was completed has realized a little more than
$12,000.--Bancroft's Census and Statistics of Savannah, 1848. The second
monument, a beautiful work of art, will soon be erected in Chippewa
Square. Launitz, the sculptor, of New York, is intrusted with its
construction.

* See M'Calfs History of Georgia, note, i., 34.

[[[Oglethorpe's Colonial Plan.--Charter for Georgia.--First
Emigrants.--Interview with the Indian King.]]]

{721}of England. * He instituted an inquiry into their condition, which
resulted in the conviction that their situation would be more tolerable
in the position of a military colony, acting as a barrier between
the Carolinians and their troublesome neighbors, than in the moral
contamination and physical miseries of prison life.

[Illustration: 8731]

The class of persons whom he designed to transplant to America were
not wicked criminals, but chiefly insolvent debtors. Oglethorpe also
proposed to make the new colony an asylum for the persecuted Protestants
of Germany and other Continental states, and in this religious idea he
included the pious thought of spiritual benefit to the Indian tribes.
The Earl of Shaftesbury (the fourth bearing that title) and other
influential men warmly espoused the scheme, and a general enthusiasm
upon the subject soon pervaded the nation. A royal charter was
obtained in 1732 for twenty-one years; ** large sums were subscribed
by individuals; and in the course of two years, Parliament voted one
hundred and eighty thousand dollars in support of the scheme. ****

Oglethorpe volunteered to act as governor of the new colony, and to
accompany the settlers to their destination. Accordingly, in November,
1732, he embarked with one hundred and twenty emigrants, and in
fifty-seven days arrived off the bar of Charleston. He was warmly
welcomed by the Carolinians, and on the thirteenth of January he sailed
for Port Royal. While the colonists were landing, Oglethorpe, with a few
followers, proceeded southward, ascended the Savannah River to the high
bluff, and there selected a spot for a city, the capital of the future
state. With the Yamacraw Indians, half a mile from this bluff, dwelt
_Tomo Chichi_, the grand sachem of the Indian confederacy of that
region. Oglethorpe and the chief both desired friendly relations; and
when the former invited the latter to his tent, _Tomo Chichi_ came,
bearing in his hand a small buffalo skin, appropriately ornamented, and
addressed Oglethorpe in eloquent and conciliatory terms. (v) Friendly
rela-

* In 1728, Oglethorpe's attention was drawn to the condition of debtors
in prison by visiting a gentleman confined in the Fleet Jail, who
was heavily ironed and harshly treated. He obtained a parliamentary
commission to inquire into the state of debtor-prisoners throughout
England, of which he was made chairman. They reported in 1729, and
efforts at reform were immediately made. The most popular proposition
was that of Oglethorpe, to use the prison materials for founding a new
state in America.

** This charter was unlike all that had preceded it. Instead of being
given for purposes of private advantage, as a money speculation, it was
so arranged that the administrators of the affairs of the new colony
could derive no profit from it whatever; they acted solely "in trust for
the poor." It was purely a benevolent scheme. They were to manage the
affairs of the colony for twenty-one years, after which it was to revert
to the crown. In honor of the king, who gave the scheme his hearty
approval, the territory included within the charter was called Georgia.
The seal of the new province bore a representation of a group of silk-
worms at work, with the motto "Not for themselves, but for others."

*** James Edward Oglethorpe was born in Surrey, England, on the
twenty-first of December, 1698. He entered the army at an early age, and
served under Prince Eugene as his aid-de-camp. He was for many years a
member of Parliament, and while in that position successfully advocated
a scheme for colonizing Georgia. He founded Savannah in 1733. In
prosecution of his benevolent enterprise, he crossed the ocean several
times. He performed a good deal of military service in Georgia and
Florida. He returned to England in 1743, and was married in 1744. In
1745, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier in the British army, and
in 1747 to major general. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland,
against the Pretender, during 1745. When General Gage went to England
in 1775, the supreme command of the British army in North America was
offered to Oglethorpe. His merciful conditions did not please ministers,
and General Howe received the appointment. He died at Grantham Hall, on
the thirtieth of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years, and was
buried in Grantham Church, Essex, where his tomb bears a poetic epitaph.

**** Graham, iii., 180-184.

* (v) "Here," said the chief, "is a little present; I give you a
Buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an
Eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the Eagle is an emblem of
speed, and the Buffalo of strength. The English are swift as the bird,
and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they flew over vast
seas to the uttermost parts of the earth; and like the latter, they are
so strong that nothing can withstand them. The feathers of an Eagle
are soft, and signify love; the Buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies
protection; therefore, I hope the English will love and protect our
little families."

[[[Founding of Savannah.--Progress of the Colony.--Methodists.--Defenses
against the Spaniards.]]]

{722}tions were established, and on the twelfth of February[[1732]] the
little band of settlers came from Port Royal and landed at the site of
the future city of Savannah.

For almost a year the governor lived under a tent stretched upon pine
boughs, while the streets of the town were laid out, and the people
built their houses of timber, each twenty-four by sixteen feet in size.

[Illustration: 9732]

In May following, a treaty with the Indian chiefs of the country was
held; and on the first of June, it was signed, by which the English
obtained sovereignty over the lands of the Creek nation, as far south
as the St. John's, in Florida. Such was the beginning of one of the
original thirteen states of our confederacy.

Within eight years after the founding of Savannah, twenty-five hundred
emigrants had been sent out to Georgia, at an expense of four hundred
thousand dollars. * Among these were one hundred and fifty Highlanders,
well disciplined in military tactics, who were of essential service to
Oglethorpe. Very strict moral regulations were adopted; ** lots of land,
twenty-five acres each, were granted to men for military services,
and every care was exercised to make the settlers comfortable. Yet
discontent soon prevailed, for they saw the Carolinians growing rich
by traffic in negroes; they also saw them prosper commercially by trade
with the West Indies. They complained of the Wesleyans as too rigid,
and these pious Methodists left the colony and returned home. Still,
prosperity did not smile upon the settlers, and a failure of the scheme
was anticipated.

Oglethorpe, who went to England in 1734, returned in 1736, with three
hundred emigrants. A storm was gathering upon the southern frontier of
his domain. The Spaniards at St. Augustine regarded the rising state
with jealousy, and as a war between England and Spain was anticipated,
vigilance was necessary. Oglethorpe resolved to maintain the claim of
Great Britain south to the banks of the St. John's, and the Highlanders,
settled at Darien, volunteered to aid him. With a few followers, he
hastened in a scout-boat to St. Simon's Island, where he laid the
foundations of Frederica, and upon the bluff near by he constructed a
fort of _tabby_ *** the ruins of which may still be seen there. He also
caused forts to be erected at Augusta, Darien, on Cumberland Island,
and near the mouth of the St. Mary's and St. John's. Perceiving these
hostile preparations, the Spanish authorities at St. Augustine sent
commissioners to confer with Oglethorpe. They demanded the evacuation
of the whole of Georgia, and even of the region north of the Savannah to
St. Helena Sound. This demand was accompanied by a menace of war in the
event of non-compliance. Thus matters stood for several months.

In the winter of 1736--7, Oglethorpe again went to England, where he
received the commission of brigadier general, with a command extending
over South Carolina as well as

* Among those who went to Georgia during this period were John and
Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist sect. Also in 1733, quite
a large body of Moravians, on the invitation of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, left the Old Continent for the New, and
pitched their tents near Savannah, after a long voyage. They soon made
their way up the Savannah to a beautiful stream, where they settled down
permanently, and called the creek and their settlement, Ebenezer, a
name which they still bear. Whitfield came in 1740, and established an
orphan-house at Savannah. He sustained it for a while, by contributions
drawn from the people of the several provinces by his eloquence; but
when he was asleep in the soil of New England, it failed. All Christians
were admitted to equal citizenship, except Roman Catholics; they were
not allowed a residence there.

** The importation of rum was prohibited, and, to prevent a contraband
trade in the article, commercial intercourse with the West Indies was
forbidden. The importation of negroes was also forbidden.

*** Tabby is a mixture of lime with oyster-shells and gravel, which,
when dry, form a hard rocky mass.

**** This is from a sketch made by W. W. Hazzard, Esq., in 1851. Mr.
Hazzard writes: "These ruins stand on the left bank or bluff of the
south branch of the Alatamaha River, on the west side of St. Simon's
Island, where the steamers pass from Savannah to Florida." This fort was
a scene of hostilities during the war of the Revolution, and also that
of 1812; and is one of the most interesting military relics of our
country. Mr. Hazzard states that, in his field in the rear of it, his
men always turn up "bomb-shells and hollow shot whenever they plow
there." The whole remains are upon his plantation at West Point.

[[[Expedition against St. Augustine.--Return of Oglethorpe to
England.--Georgia a Royal province.]]]

{723}Georgia. There he remained a year and a half, when he returned
to his colony with a regiment of six hundred men to act against the
Spaniards. England declared war against Spain in the latter part of
1739, and Oglethorpe immediately planned an expedition against St.
Augustine. The St. Mary's was then considered (as it remains) the
boundary between Georgia and Florida. Over that line Oglethorpe marched
in May, 1740, with four hundred of his regiment, some Carolinians, and
a large body of friendly Indians. He captured a Spanish fort within
twenty-five miles of St. Augustine. A small fortress, within two miles
of that place, was surrendered on his approach, but a summons to give up
the town was answered by defiant words. The invaders maintained a siege
for some time, when the arrival of re-enforcements for the garrison,
and the prevalence of sickness in the camp, obliged them to withdraw and
return to Savannah.[[July, 1740]]

In 1742, the Spaniards invaded Georgia. A fleet of thirty-six sail, with
more than three thousand troops from Havana and St. Augustine, entered
the harbor of St. Simons,[[July 16, 1742]] and a little above the town
of the same name, erected a battery of twenty guns. Oglethorpe, with
eight hundred men, exclusive of Indians, was then on the island. He
withdrew to his fort at Frederica, and anxiously awaited re-enforcements
from Carolina. He skirmished successfully with attacking parties, and
arranged for a night assault upon the enemy's battery. A deserter (a
French soldier) defeated his plan; but the sagacity of Oglethorpe used
the miscreant's agency to his subsequent advantage, by bribing a Spanish
prisoner to carry a letter to the deserter, containing information that
a British fleet was about to attack St. Augustine. Of course the letter
was handed to the Spanish commander, who arrested the Frenchman as
a spy. The intelligence contained in Oglethorpe's letter alarmed
the garrison, and the Spaniards determined to assail the English
immediately, and then return to St. Augustine as speedily as possible.
On their march to the attack of Frederica, they fell into an ambuscade.
Great slaughter ensued, and they retreated precipitately. The place of
conflict is called Bloody Marsh to this day. On their retreat, by water,
they attacked Fort William, at the southern extremity of Cumberland
Island, but were repulsed with loss. The expedition was disastrous to
the Spaniards in every particular, and the commander was tried by a
court-martial at Havana, and dismissed from the service in disgrace.

After ten years of service in and for the colony of Georgia, Oglethorpe
returned to England, and his feet never again pressed the soil of
America. His rule had been chiefly military. A civil government was now
established,[[1743]] under the control of a president and council,
who were instructed to administer it as the trustees should dictate.
Prosperity did not yet gladden the settlers, and the colony had a sickly
existence. At length the moral and commercial restrictions began to be
evaded; slaves were brought from Carolina, and hired first for a few
years, and then for a hundred years, or during life. This was equivalent
to a purchase, and was so considered by the parties; for a sum, equal to
the value of the slave, was paid in advance. Finally, slave ships came
directly to Savannah from Africa; slave labor was generally introduced,
and Georgia, like Carolina, became a planting state. In 1752, the
trustees, wearied with the complaints of the colonists, resigned the
charter into the hands of the king, and from that period until the war
of the Revolution, Georgia was a royal province. * When the treaty of
Paris in 1763 guarantied, as far as possible, general peace in America,
the province, for the first time, began to flourish and take an
important place among the Anglo-American colonies; and in the
hostilities against the Indians on the frontiers its people performed
their part well in furnishing provisions and men for the armies.

The inhabitants of Georgia first began to feel the hand of British
taxation, when, in 1767, Governor Wright communicated his instructions
from the king to require implicit obe-

* John Reynolds was the first royal governor. He was appointed in 1754.
and was succeeded in 1757 by Henry Ellis. Sir James Wright, who was the
last royal governor of Georgia, succeeded Ellis in 1760, and held the
office until 1776.

[[[Political Agitation.--Committee of Correspondence.--Movements of the
Sons of Liberty.--Their names]]]

{724}dience to the Mutiny Act. * They were compelled to acquiesce, but
it was with reluctance They had not realized the practical iniquity of
the Stamp Act; and when, in 1768, the Assembly at Savannah appointed
Dr. Franklin an agent to attend to the interests of the colony in Great
Britain, they had no formal special complaint to make, nor difficulties
with government for him to adjust. They generally instructed him to use
efforts to have the acts of Parliament repealed, which were offensive
to all the colonies. To a circular letter from the speaker of the
Massachusetts Assembly,[[1768]] proposing a union of the colonies, an
answer of approval was returned. In 1770,[[Feb, 1770]] the Legislature
spoke out boldly against the oppressive acts of the mother country, by
publishing a Declaration of Rights, similar in sentiment to that of the
"Stamp Act Congress" at New York. Governor Wright was displeased, and
viewing the progress of revolutionary principles within his province
with concern, he went to England[[1771]] to confer with ministers.
He remained there about a year and a half. During his absence, James
Habersham, president of the council, exercised executive functions.

The republicans of Georgia had become numerous in 1773, and committees
of correspondence were early formed, and acted efficiently. A meeting
of the friends of liberty was called in Savannah in the autumn of that
year, but Sir James Wright, supported by a train of civil officers,
prevented the proposed public expression of opinion. The wealthy feared
loss of property by revolutionary movements, while the timid trembled at
the thought of resistance to royal government. Selfishness and fear kept
the people comparatively quiet for a while. In the mean time, a
powerful Tory party was organizing in South Carolina and in Georgia,
and emissaries were sent by the governors of these provinces among the
Indians on the frontiers, to prepare them to lift the hatchet and go out
upon the war-path against the white people, if rebellion should
ensue. Such was the condition of Georgia when called upon to appoint
representatives in the Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia
in 1774. Half encircled by fierce savages, and pressed down by the heel
of strongly-supported royal power in their midst, the Republicans needed
stout hearts and unbending resolution. These they possessed; and in
the midst of difficulties they were bold, and adopted measures of
co-operation with the other colonies in resistance to tyranny.

On the fourteenth of July,[[1774]] the Sons of Liberty were requested
to assemble at the liberty pole at Tondee's tavern, ** in Savannah, on
Wednesday, the twenty-seventh instant, in order that publie matters may
be taken under consideration, and such other _constitutional measures_
pursued as may then appear most eligible." *** The call was signed by
Noble W. Jones (who in 1780 was a prisoner in Charleston), Archibald
Bullock, John Houstoun, and George Walton. A meeting was accordingly
held at the watch-house in Savannah.[[July 27, 1774]] where letters from
Northern committees were read, and a committee to draft resolutions
was appointed. **** These proceedings were published, and the governor,
alarmed at the progress of rebellion around him, issued a countervailing
proclamation.[[August]] He called upon the people to discountenance
these seditious men and measures, and menaced the disobedient with the
penalties of stern British law.

On the tenth of August another meeting was held, when it was resolved to
concur with their sister colonies in acts of resistance to oppression.
After strongly condemning the Boston Port Bill, they appointed a
committee to receive subscriptions for the suffering peo-

* A proviso of this act, as we have elsewhere noticed, required the
colonists to provide various necessaries lor soldiers that might be
quartered among them.

** The first liberty-pole was erected in Savannah, on the fifth of June,
1775, in front of Peter Tondee's tavern. His house stood upon the spot
now (1849) occupied by Smet's new stores.

*** M'Call, ii., 16.

**** John Glenn was chosen chairman of the meeting. The following-named
gentlemen were appointed the committee to prepare the resolutions: John
Glenn, John Smith, Joseph Clay, John Houstoun, Noble W. Jones, Lyman
Hall, William Young, Edward Telfair, Samuel Farley, George Walton,
Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Jonathan Cochran, George M'Intosh,
Sutton Banks, William Gibbons, Benjamin Andrew, John Winn, John Stirle,
Archibald Bullock, James Seriven, David Zubley, Henry Davis Bourguin,
Elisha Butler, William Baker, Parminus Way, John Baker, John Mann, John
Benefield, John Stacey, and John Morel. These were the leading Sons of
Liberty at Savannah in 1774.

[[[Contributions for Boston.--Tory Influence.--Whig Boldness.--Spiking
of Cannon.--Tar and Feathers.]]]

{725}ple of that city, and within a few hours after the adjournment
of the meeting, five hundred and seventy-five barrels of rice were
contributed and shipped for Massachusetts. The governor assembled
his friends at the court-house a few days afterward, and their
disapprobation of the conduct of the Republicans was expressed in strong
terms. Agents were sent throughout the province to obtain the signatures
of the people to a printed denunciation of the Whigs; and by means of
menaces and promises, an apparent majority of the inhabitants declared
in favor of royal rule. * So powerfully did the tide of opposition
against the Whigs flow for a while, that they did not appoint delegates
to the Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in
September, and Georgia was not represented in that first Federal
Republican council, ** yet they heartily approved of the measure, and
by words and actions nobly responded to that first great resolution,
adopted by the Continental Congress on the eighth of October, 1774, ***
which approved of the resistance of Massachusetts.

The Republicans continued to assemble during the winter of 1774--5, and
in May following they determined to anticipate an act on the part of
Governor Wright similar to that of Gage at Boston. Accordingly, on the
night of the eleventh of May,[[1775]] six of the members of the Council
of Safety, **** and others, broke open the magazine, (v) took out the
powder, sent a portion of it to Beaufort, South Carolina, and concealed
the remainder in their garrets and cellars. The governor offered a
reward of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the apprehension of
the offenders, but the secret was never revealed till the patriots used
the powder in defense of their liberties.

On the first of June, Governor Wright and the Loyalists of Savannah
prepared to celebrate the king's birth-day. On the night of the second,
some of the leading Whigs spiked the cannon on the battery, and hurled
them to the bottom of the bluff. Nineteen days afterward, a meeting
was called for the purpose of choosing a committee to enforce the
requirements of the _American Association_, put forth by the Congress of
1774. (vi) The first victim to his temerity in opposing the operations
of the committee was a man named Hopkins. He ridiculed the Whigs, and
they, in turn, gave him a coat of tar and feathers, and paraded him in a
cart through the town for four or five hours. About this time, a letter
from Governor Wright to General Gage was intercepted by the vigilant
Whigs of Charles-

* The only newspaper in the province (the Georgia Gazette, established
in 1762) was under the control of Governor Wright, and through it he
disseminated much sophistry, and sometimes falsehoods among the people.

** The committees of St. John's parish convened on the ninth of
February, 1775, and addressed a circular letter to the committees
of other colonies, asking their consent to the reception of a
representative in Congress from that particular parish. Encouraged by
the answer they received, they met again on the twenty-first of
March, and appointed Dr. Lyman Hall to represent them. When he went
to Philadelphia, he took with him, from Sunbury, one hundred and sixty
barrels of rice, and two hundred and fifty dollars, as a present to the
people of Boston.

*** The whole record of the proceedings of Congress on that day is
as follows: "Saturday, October 8, 1774.--The Congress resumed the
consideration of the letter from Boston, and, upon motion, Resolved,
That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of
Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late Acts of Parliament; and
if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in
such case, all America ought to support them in their opposition." The
proceedings of that one day should be written in brass and marble; for
the resolution then adopted was the first Federal gauntlet of defiance
cast at the feet of the British monarch. The eighth of October, 1774,
should be placed by the side of the fourth of July, 1776, as one of the
most sacred days in the calendar of Freedom.

**** These were Noble Wimberly Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair,
William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, and John Milledge.

* (v) The magazine was at the eastern extremity of the town. It was sunk
about twelve feet under the ground, inclosed with brick, and secured
by a door in such a way that the governor did not consider a guard
necessary.

* (vi) This committee consisted of sixteen leading men of Savannah,
among whom was Samuel (afterward General) Elbert, and George Walton, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. M'Call (ii., 45)
says that, after the meeting adjourned, "a number of gentlemen dined at
Tondee's tavern, where the Union flag was hoisted upon the liberty-pole,
and two pieces of artillery were placed under it." The Union flag,
of thirteen red and white stripes, was not adopted until the first of
January, 1776, when it was first unfurled in the American camp, near
Boston.

[[[Intercepted Letter.--Seizure of Powder.--Imprisonment of the
Governor.--His Escape.--A Traitor.]]]

{726}ton. It contained a request for Gage to send some British troops to
suppress the rebellious spirit of the Georgians. *

[Illustration: 9736]

The Republicans were exceedingly indignant; and when, a day or two
afterward, it was known that Captain Maitland had arrived at Tybee
Island, at the mouth of the Savannah, with thirteen thousand pounds of
powder and other articles for the British and Indians, it was determined
to seize the vessel. The Georgia Assembly was then in session. ** The
leading Whigs approved of the enterprise, and on the night of the tenth
of July, thirty volunteers, under Commodore Bowen and Colonel Joseph
Habersham, embarked in two boats, took possession of the ship,
discharged the crew, and placed the powder in the magazine in Savannah,
except five thousand pounds, which they sent to the army then investing
Boston, under General Washington. ***

[Illustration: 8736]

The Indian hostilities, which occurred at this time on the western Miles
frontiers, we have considered in preceding chapters.

The spirit of resistance waxed stronger and stronger during the
autumn of 1775. In January, 1776, it assumed a form of strength and
determination hitherto unknown in Georgia. On the eighteenth of that
month, Colonel Joseph Habersham, **** who was a member of the Assembly,
raised a party of volunteers, took Governor Wright a prisoner, and
paroled him to his own house, (v) before which a sentinel was placed,
and forbid all intercourse between him and persons inimical to the
Republican cause. On the night of the eleventh of February,[[1776]]
during a storm, the governor escaped from a back window of his house,
with John Muloyne, and went down the river five miles, to Bonaventure,
the residence of that gentleman. There a boat and crew were waiting for
him, and he was conveyed to Tybec Sound, and took shelter on board the
armed ship Scarborough.

Royal rule had now actually ceased

* The Secret Committee at Charleston, who intercepted this letter,
placed another in the cover, with Governor Wright's name counterfeited,
and sent it on to Gage. In that letter they said (as if Governor Wright
was penning it), "I have wrote for troops to awe the people, but now
there is no occasion for sending them, for the people are again come to
some order." Gage was thus misled.

** They met on the fourth of July. On the fifteenth, they elected
Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, John Joachim Zubley, Noble Wimberly
Jones, and Lyman Hall, to represent that province in the Continental
Congress. These were the first delegates elected by the representatives
of the whole people, for Hall represented only the parish of St. John's.
Fifty-three members signed their credentials. Zubley afterward became
a traitor. While the subject of independence was being debated in 1776,
Samuel Chase, of Maryland, accused Zubley of communicating with Governor
Wright. Zubley denied the charge, but while Chase was collecting proof,
the recusant fled.

*** One of the men engaged in this adventure was Ebenezer Smith Platt.
He was afterward made a prisoner, and being recognized as one of this
daring party, was sent to England, where he lay in jail many months,
under a charge of high treason. He was eventually considered a prisoner
of war, and was exchanged.

**** Joseph Habersham was the son of a merchant of Savannah, who died at
New Brunswick, in New Jersey, in August, 1775. Joseph Habersham held the
rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental army. In 1785, he was a
member of Congress from Savannah; and in 1795, Washington appointed him
postmaster general of the United States. He held that office until 1800,
when he resigned. He was made president of the Branch Bank of the United
States, at Savannah, in 1802, which position he held until his death, in
November, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. The name of his brother
James, late President of the Council, appears upon the first bill of
credit issued by the Provincial Congress of Georgia in 1776.

* ( v) Governor Wright's house was on the lot in Heathcote Ward, where
the Telfair House now stands. The Council House was on the lot where
George Schley. Esq., resided in 1849.

[[[Congressional Delegates.--Savannah Menaced.--British Repulsed.--Party
Lines.--Lee's Expedition.]]]

{727}in Georgia, and the Assembly assumed governmental powers. They
elected new delegates to the Continental Congress;[[1776]] passed a
resolution to raise a battalion of Continental troops;[[Feb. 4]] and
issued bills of credit in the form of certificates, and ordered them to
be received at par in payment of debts and for merchandise.

Governor Wright wrote a letter to the Assembly[[Feb. 13]] very
conciliatory in its tone, but receiving no answer, he resolved to allow
the armed vessels at the mouth of the river to force their way to the
town, and procure such supplies as they needed. Eleven merchant vessels,
laden with rice, were then at Savannah ready to sail. These were
seized by the war ships, and Majors Maitland and Grant landed, with
a considerable force, upon Hutchinson's Island, opposite Savannah,
preparatory to an attack upon the town[[March 6, 1776]] The patriots
were on the alert, and sent a flag to Maitland, warning him to desist.

This flag was detained, and another was fired upon. Further parley was
deemed unnecessary, and the next day two merchant vessels, lying in
the stream, were set on fire by the patriots. Floating down to the one
containing Maitland and Grant, with their men, great consternation was
produced. Some of the soldiers jumped overboard and swam ashore; some
stuck in the mud, and many lost their fire-arms; while the officers
escaped in boats to Hutchinson's Island. At this critical moment,
four hundred Carolinians, under Colonel Bull, arrived, and aided the
Georgians in repulsing the assailants. Three of the merchant vessels
were burned, six were dismantled, and two escaped to sea.

The breach between the Whigs and Tories was now too wide to be closed,
and the line was very distinctly drawn by stringent measures on the part
of the former. *** These tended to winnow the chaff from the wheat, and
many Tories, possessed of no property, left Georgia and took refuge in
East Florida, where Governor Tonyn was actively engaged in fitting out
privateers to prey upon the infant commerce of the Southern colonists,
and to ravage their coasts. The Tories there organized under the title
of the _Florida Rangers_, and were led by Thomas Brown, the Augusta
Loyalist, who afterward commanded the garrison at that place. A fort
built by Governor Wright's brother, on the St. Mary's, was their place
of rendezvous, whence they went out and levied terrible contributions,
in the way of plunder, upon the people of Southern Georgia, who were
thinly scattered over the country.

The war had now fairly commenced, and the flame of patriotism which
burned so brightly at the North was not less intense in Georgia. The
Declaration of Independence was received in Savannah with great
joy. **** [[August 10, 1776]] Pursuant to the recommendation of
the Continental Congress, the people turned their attention to the
organization of civil government, upon the basis of independence, and in
strengthening their military power. To weaken the British and Tories in
the South, an expedition against St. Augustine (then in possession of
the English) was planned, and General Charles Lee, then at Charleston,
was invited to take the command of troops that might be sent. Lee
perceived the advantages to be derived from such a measure, and
acquiescing, he immediately ordered Brigadier Robert Howe to proceed to
Savannah with troops. Howe had marched as far as Sunbury, at the mouth
of the Midway River,[[August, 1776]] when sickness, want of artillery
and

* Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, and
George Walton.

** Lachlin Mflntosh was appointed colonel; Samuel Elbert, lieutenant
colonel; and Joseph Habersham, major.

*** When the British first appeared in the attitude of assailants, the
Committee of Safety appraised such houses in Savannah as were owned by
Republicans, with the determination of applying the torch if they could
not repulse the enemy. The houses of the Tories were not noticed; and
therefore, in the event of a general conflagration, their property would
not be accounted for.

**** Archibald Bullock, president of the council, convened that body,
on the receipt of the Declaration (which came by express in thirty-five
days from Philadelphia), when they ordered it to be publicly read
in front of the council-chamber. There, under a military escort, the
council proceeded to the liberty-pole, where they were saluted by
thirteen cannon-peals and small arms from the first Continental
battalion, under Colonel M'Intosh. Proceeding to the haltery, another
salute of thirteen guns was fired. The people then partook of a dinner
in a grove, where thirteen toasts were given. In the afternoon, there
was a funeral procession, and the royal government was buried, with
the customary ceremonies. In the evening, the town was brilliantly
illuminated.--M'Call, ii., 90.

[[[Boldness of the Tories.--Organization of Civil Government.--M'Intosh
and Gwinnett.--A Duel.]]]

{718}other necessaries for the campaign, caused Lee to abandon the
enterprise. The effect of this movement was disastrous to the Whigs.

[Illustration: 8738]

The Tories gained confidence; and on the seventh day of February, 1777,
they attacked Fort M'Intosh. * The garrison was commanded by Captain
Richard Winn, of South Carolina. After holding out for two days, he was
obliged to surrender.

The officers and privates of the garrison were all paroled except two
young officers, who were taken to St. Augustine and kept as hostages.

During the autumn of 1776, a convention was held in Savannah to form
a state Constitution, with a bullet in the thigh. M'Intosh recovered;
Gwinnett died, murder, at the instance of Gwinnett's friends, and was
acquitted.

It was adopted on the 5th of February following: Button Gwinnett, one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen president of
the council, an office equivalent in its functions to that of governor.
In consequence of military rivalry, a serious difficulty arose between
Gwinnett and Colonel M'Intosh, ** who had just been elected brigadier
general of the Georgia Continental troops. A duel ensued, when both were
wounded, each M'Intosh was tried for This quarrel produced a serious
local agitation, which at one time menaced the Republican stability of
Georgia, and the true friends of the cause were alarmed. To allay party
feeling, General M'Intosh consented to accept of a station at the
North; and Washington appointed him commander-in-chief of the Western
Department, with his head-quarters at Pittsburg, where we have already
met him. (See page 500.)

During the summer and autumn of 1777, Colonels Elbert, Scriven, Baker,
and others, attempted to dislodge the Tories from East Florida, and
several skirmishes occurred. These expeditions were fruitless of
advantage to the patriots, and much suffering ensued. Frederica was
attacked by the enemy; some Americans and negroes were captured,
and considerable property was carried off. Often, during the autumn,
predatory excursions were made

* This was a small stockade, one hundred feet square, with a block-house
in the center, and a bastion at each corner. It was situated upon the
northeast side of Saltilla River, in the present Camden county.

** Lachlin M'Intosh was born near Inverness, in Scotland, in 1727. He
was the son of John M., who was at the head of the Borlam branch of the
clan M'Intosh. He came to Georgia with General Oglethorpe in 1736, when
Lachlin was nine years of age. His father being made a prisoner and sent
to St. Augustine, Lachlin was left to the care of his mother at the age
of thirteen years. His opportunities for education were small, yet his
strong mind overcame many difficulties. Arrived at maturity! he went to
Charleston, where, on account of his fine personal appearance and the
services of his father, he commanded attention. He and Henry Laurens
became friends, and he entered that gentleman's counting-room as clerk.
He left commercial pursuits, returned to his friends on the Alatamaha,
married, and engaged in the profession of a land surveyor. He made
himself acquainted with military tactics, and when the War for
Independence broke out, he was found, when needed, on the side of
the Republicans. He was first appointed colonel, and in 1776 was
commissioned a brigadier. He was persecuted by his rival, Button
Gwinnett, until he could no longer forbear; and finally, pronouncing
that gentleman a scoundrel, a duel ensued, and Gwinnett was killed.
M'Intosh afterward commanded in the Western Department, and led an
expedition against the Indians. (See page 500). He returned to Georgia
in 1779, and was at the siege and fall of Savannah. He was with Lincoln
at Charleston, where he was made prisoner. After his release, he went
with his family to Virginia, where he remained until the close of the
war. When he returned to Georgia, he found his property nearly all
wasted; and in retirement and comparative poverty, he lived in Savannah
until his death, which occurred in 1806, at the age of seventy-nine.
General M'Intosh, when young, was considered the handsomest man in
Georgia.

[[[Expedition to Florida.--Troops under General Howe.--His public
Life.--Duel with Gadsden.]]]

{729}upon the southern frontiers of Georgia, the marauders frequently
penetrating as far as the Alatamaha and even beyond, and the settlements
suffered terribly.

During the winter and spring of 1778, the opponents of the new
government became formidable, and indications of an invasion of Georgia,
from Florida and from the Indian territory in the West, was perceived.

[Illustration: 8739]

Tories gathered at Ninety-Six] and crossed the Savannah, while those of
Florida, joined by the Indians, continued to scatter desolation along
the southern frontier. Robert Howe, * of North Carolina, now promoted
to the rank of major general, was in the chief command of the Southern
army, and favored the yet cherished design to march into Florida
and disperse the Loyalists. In fact, this measure had become a chief
desideratum, for the gathering storm on the frontier of that state was
pregnant with evil omens for the whole South. The Loyalists were
gaining strength on the St. Mary's, St. John's, and at Pensacola,
and re-enforcements of British troops were expected at St.
Augustine.[[April, 1778]] Howe moved his head-quarters from Charleston to
Savannah.

His regulars, who were in a condition to take the field, did not
exceed five hundred and fifty men. These were joined by the commands
of Colonels C. C. Pinckney, Bull, and Williamson. Governor Houstoun, of
Georgia, who was requested to furnish three hundred and fifty militia,
cheerfully complied.

[Illustration: 9739]

Thus prepared, Howe marched toward the Alatamaha, when he was informed
that a body of British regulars, under General Augustine Prévost, a
large force of Loyalists, under Colonel Brown, and numerous Indians,
were moving toward the St. Mary's for the purpose of invading Georgia.
Already Colonel Elbert had been victorious at Frederica, ** and Howe
felt certain of success, when, on the twentieth of May,[[1778]] he
reached the Alatamaha, and learned how rumors of his expe-

* Robert Howe was a native of Brunswick, North Carolina. History bears
no record of his private life, and his biography has never been written.
He appears to have been one of the earliest and most uncompromising of
the patriots of the Cape Fear region, for we find him honored with an
exception, together with Cornelius Harnett, when royal clemency was
offered to the rebels by Sir Henry Clinton, in 1776. He was appointed
colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, and with his command went
early into the field of Revolutionary strife. In December, 1775, he
joined Woodford at Norfolk (see page 536), in opposition to Lord Dunmore
and his motley army. For his gallantry during this campaign, Congress,
on the twenty-ninth of February, 1776, appointed him, with five others,
brigadier general in the Continental army, and ordered him to Virginia.
In the spring of 1776, British spite toward General Howe was exhibited
by Sir Henry Clinton, who sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to
ravage his plantation near old Brunswick village. He was placed in
chief command of the Southern troops in 1778, and was unsuccessful in an
expedition against Florida, and in the defense of Savannah. His conduct
was censured, but without just cause. Among others whose voice was
raised against him, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charleston. Howe
required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel
ensued. They met at Cannonsburg, and all the damage either sustained was
a scratch upon the ear of Gadsden by Howe's ball. *

** Colonel Elbert, who was stationed at Fort Howe, on the Alatamaha,
early in the spring of 1778, went with three hundred men to Darien,
where he embarked on board three galleys, accompanied by a detachment
of artillery on a flat-boat, and proceeded to attack a hostile party at
Oglethorpe's Fort. He was successful. A brigantine was captured, and
the garrison, alarmed, fled from the fort to their boats, and escaped,
leaving Elbert complete victor. On board of the brigantine were three
hundred uniform suits, belonging to Colonel Pinckney's regiment,
which had been captured while on their way, in the sloop Hatter, from
Charleston to Savannah.

* Major André wrote a humorous account, in rhyme, of this affair, in
eighteen stanzas. Bernard Elliott was the second of Gadsden, and
General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of Howe. The duel occurred on the
thirteenth of August, 1778. After this affair, Howe and Gadsden were
warm friends.

[[[March toward Florida.--Divided Commands.--Failure of the
Expedition.--Minor Expeditions.]]]

{730}dition had alarmed the Tories of East Florida. His enterprise was
exceedingly popular, and the sympathy of the whole Southern people, who
were favorable to Republicanism, was with him. With scanty supplies, he
pushed forward in the midst of many difficulties, to Fort Tonyn, on
the St. Mary's,[[June, 1778]] which the enemy abandoned and partly
demolished on his approach. Here he ordered a general rendezvous of
all the troops, and of the galleys, under Commodore Bowen, preparatory
to making an assault upon St. Augustine.

On the day of his arrival at Fort Tonyn, Howe was informed that twelve
hundred men had marched from St. Augustine for the St. John's, and that
two galleys, laden with twenty-four pounders, had been sent to the
mouth of that river, to co-operate with the land force in opposing the
Americans. He was also informed by a deserter that the whole force of
the enemy was about fifteen hundred men fit for duty. Sudden, united,
and energetic action was now necessary, but Howe experienced the
contrary on the part of his compatriots. The governor of Georgia was
at the head of his own militia, and refused to be commanded by Howe;
Colonel Williamson (the imputed traitor) look the same course with
his volunteers; and Commodore Bowen would not be governed by any land
officer. The necessary consequence was tardy, divided, and inefficient
operations.

Sickness soon prostrated almost one half of the troops, for, unprovided
with sufficient tents, they slept exposed to the deadly malaria of the
night air among the swamps; and Howe clearly perceived that failure must
result in future movements unless the forces could be united under one
commander. He called a council of war, and ascertained that Houstoun
would not be governed by another, and that the army was rapidly melting
away. A retreat was unanimously agreed upon. Pinckney and the remains
of his command returned by water to Charleston, while Howe, with the
remnants of his force, reduced by sickness and death from eleven hundred
to three hundred and fifty, returned to Savannah by land. Thus ended an
expedition upon which the South had placed great reliance. Howe was much
censured, but the blame should properly rest upon those who, by proud
assumption of separate commands, retarded his movements and weakened his
power. No expedition was ever successful with several commanders.

The British, emboldened by this second failure of the Americans to
invade Florida, and counting largely upon the depressing influence
it would have upon the patriots, hastened to invade Georgia in turn.
Savannah was the chief point of attack. It was arranged that a naval
force, with land troops from the North, should enter the river and
invest the city; while General Prevost, who commanded in East Florida,
should march toward the same point from St. Augustine, with his whole
motley band of regulars, Tories, and Indians, to awe the people in
that direction, and by preliminary expeditions weaken the Americans. *
Hitherto the British arms had been chiefly directed against the Northern
and Middle States, but with little effect. The patriots had steadily
maintained their ground, and the area actually out of possession of the
Americans was very small. Sir Henry Clinton was master of New York city,
but almost every where else the Americans held possession. To the South
he looked for easier and more extensive conquests; and against
Savannah, the apparently weakest point he directed his first operations.
Lieutenant-colonel Campbell,

* Soon after the return of Howe, some regulars and Loyalists had made
a rapid incursion into Georgia, and menaced the fort at Sunbury, at
the mouth of the Midway River. The little garrison was commanded bv
Lieutenant-colonel John M'Intosh (a brother of General Mflntosh). The
enemy approached in two divisions, one with artillery, in boats, under
Lieutenant-colonel Fuser; the other by land, under Lieutenant-colonel
Mark Prévost, consisting of six hundred regulars. Fuser approached the
fort and demanded its surrender. M'Intosh replied, "Come and take it!"
The promptness and brevity of the reply indicated security, and Fuser
withdrew, although he could easily have captured the fort. In the mean
while, General Seriven, with others, were skirmishing with Colonel
Prevost, who had been joined by a band of Tories, under M'Girth, in one
of which the latter was mortally wounded. The invaders pressed forward
until within three miles of Ogeechee Ferry, where they were confronted
by Colonel Elbert and two hundred Continentals, at a breast-work thrown
up by a planter named Savage. Unable to proceed further, they retraced
their steps toward the Alatamaha, plundering and burning houses, and
laying the whole country waste. Midway church was destroyed, rice barns
were burned, and the people were made houseless.

[[[British Expedition against Savannah.--Preparations to receive
them.--Landing of the British.]]]

{731}an efficient and reliable officer, sailed from Sandy Hook on the
twenty-seventh of November,[[1778]] with more than two thousand land
troops, * covered by a small squadron, under Commodore Parker. The
fleet arrived at Tybee Island (see map, page 726), near the mouth of
the Savannah, on the twenty-third of December. Six days afterward, the
vessels and transports had crossed the bar, and the troops were landed
at daybreak[[Dec. 29]] without much opposition, three miles below the
town, above Five-fathom Hole, opposite Brewton's Hill. **

General Howe, whose army was now augmented to a little less than seven
hundred men, was at Sunbury when intelligence was received at Savannah
of the approach of the British fleet. Governor Houstoun immediately
sent an express to Howe with the information. At the same time, another
messenger arrived at Sunbury from the South, informing Howe that General
Prevost, with all his force, was on his way from St. Augustine to
invade Georgia. All was alarm and confusion when the latter intelligence
reached Savannah. The governor sent the public records to Purysburg for
safety, from whence they were afterward carried to Charleston. The small
battery on the eastern extremity of the city was strengthened, and the
people aided the soldiers in casting up intrenchments. ***

Howe hastened to his camp at Savannah to prepare for the invasion.
His little army was encamped southeast of the town, near the eastern
extremity of the present remains of the French works. There he anxiously
awaited promised re-enforcements from South Carolina, under General
Lincoln. The militia from the surrounding country came in very slowly,
day after day; and on the morning of the battle which ensued, his whole
force was about nine hundred men. Believing the British army to be
really weaker than it appeared, he resolved to defend the town; and
when, on the morning of the twenty-eighth, the fleet appeared at
Five-fathom Hole, where Fort Jackson now is, he prepared for battle. On
that morning, Colonel Elbert, perceiving the necessity of keeping the
enemy from the advantageous position of Brewton's Hill, offered to
defend it with his regiment; but Howe, believing they would march
immediately toward the town, rejected the proposition. He placed his
center at the head of the causeway; his left, under Colonel Elbert,
fronted the rice-fields, and was flanked by the river: and his right,
commanded by Colonel Isaac Huger, covered the morass in front, and
was flanked by the wooded swamp and one hundred Georgia militia, under
Colonel George Walton. Having made this disposition, he detached Captain
J. C. Smith, of South Carolina, to occupy and defend Brewton's Hill. His
little force proved inadequate; and soon after landing, the British took
possession of that eminence. Howe now perceived the superiority of the
British force, and at ten o'clock in the morning called a council of war
to consider the expediency of abandoning the town. It was then too late
to deliberate, for the enemy were forming for attack. It was resolved
first to fight, and then to retreat, if necessary.

After Campbell had formed his army on Brewton's Hill, he moved forward,
and took a position within eight hundred yards of the American front,
where he maneuvered in a man-

* These troops consisted of the 71st regiment of foot, two battalions of
Hessians, four of provincials, and a detachment of the royal artillery.

** From the landing-place (which was the nearest the ships could
approach) a narrow causeway, with a ditch on each side, led through a
rice swamp six hundred yards, to firm ground. The 7lst regiment of
royal Scots led the van across the causeway, and was attacked by some
Americans. Captain Cameron and two of his company were killed, and five
were wounded. The Highlanders were made furious, and, rushing forward,
drove the Americans into the woods.

*** More clearly to understand the nature of the attack, defense, and
result, it is necessary to know the position of the town at that time.
It is situated upon a high bluff of forty feet altitude, and then, as
now, was approachable by land on three sides. From the high ground of
Brewton's Hill and Thunderbolt on the east, a road crossed a morass upon
a causeway, having rice-fields on the north side to the river, and
a wooded swamp, several miles in extent, on the south of it. It was
approached from the south by the roads from White Bluff, on Vernon
River, and from the Ogeechee Ferry, which unite near the town; and from
the westward by a road and causeway over the deep swamps of Musgrove's
Creek, where, also, rice-fields extend from the causeway to the river
on the north. From the western direction, the Central Rail-way enters
Savannah. From the eastern to the western causeway was about three
fourths of a mile.

[[[Battle.--Defeat of the Americans.--Disastrous Retreat.--The Loss.]]]

{732}ner to excite the belief that he intended to attack the center and
left. This was at three o'clock in the afternoon. This movement was
only a diversion in favor of a body of infantry and New York volunteers,
commanded by Sir James Baird, who, under the guidance of an old negro
named Quamino Dolly, withdrew unperceived, and by a by-path through
the swamp at the South, were gaining the American rear. To this by-path
Walton had called Howe's attention in the morning, but knowing its
obscurity, the general did not think it worthy of regard. Sir James
and his party reached the White Bluff' road unperceived, and pressing
forward, attacked Walton's Georgia brigade on flank and rear. Walton was
wounded and taken prisoner, and such was the fate of a large portion of
his command. At the same moment Campbell moved forward and attacked the
Americans in front. The patriot line was soon broken, and, perceiving
the growing panic and confusion, Howe ordered a retreat over the
causeway across Musgrove's Swamp, west of the town. To that point
Colonel Roberts, in obedience to early orders, if the contingency should
occur, hastened with the artillery, to cover the retreat. Already the
enemy was there in force to dispute the passage. By great exertions, the
American center gained the causeway and escaped without loss. The right
flank also retreated across, but suffered from an oblique enfilading
fire; while to Colonel Elbert, with the left, the passage was closed
after a severe conflict. He and his troops attempted to escape by the
rice-fields, but it being high water in the creek, none but those who
could swim succeeded, and these lost their guns and accoutrements. Many
were drowned, and the remainder were taken prisoners. While the British
were pursuing the Americans through the town toward Musgrove's Creek,
many citizens, some of whom had not been in the battle, were bayoneted
in the streets; but when the action was over, life and property were
spared. Campbell's humanity and generosity as a man were equal to his
skill and bravery as a soldier, and the active terrors of war in the
city ceased with the battle. * Yet deep sadness brooded over Savannah
that night, for many bereaved ones wept in bitter anguish over relatives
slain or mortally wounded. ** Those few who escaped across Musgrove's
Swamp, retreated up the Savannah and joined Howe, who, with the center,
fled as far as Cherokee Hill, eight miles distant, and halted. The whole
fugitive force then pushed up the Savannah to Zubley's Ferry, where
they crossed into South Carolina. Howe saved three field-pieces in his
flight. ***

When Lieutenant-colonel Campbell had secured his prize by garrisoning
the fort at Savannah, and by other measures for defense, he prepared to
march against Sunbury, the only post of any consequence now left to
the Americans, near the Georgia sea-board. He issued orders to the
commanders of detachments in the lower part of the state to treat
the people leniently, and by proclamation he invited them to join the
British standard. These measures had their desired effect, and timid
hundreds, seeing the state under the heel of British power, proclaimed
their loyalty, and rallied beneath the banner of St. George.

While arranging for his departure southward, Campbell received
intelligence that the garrison at Sunbury had surrendered to General
Prevost. That officer had left St. Augus-

* Like credit can not be given to Commodore Parker. For want of other
quarters the prisoners were placed on board of ships, where disease
made dreadful havoc daily during the succeeding summer. Parker not only
neglected the comforts of the prisoners, but was brutal in his manner.
Among those confined in these horrid prison ships, was the venerable
Jonathan Bryan, aged and infirm. When his daughter pleaded with Hyde
Parker for an alleviation of the sufferings of her parent, he treated
her with vulgar rudeness and contempt. The bodies of those who died were
deposited in the marsh mud, where they were sometimes exposed and eaten
by buzzards and crows.--See M'Call's History of Georgia, ii., 176.

** About one hundred Americans were either killed in the action or
drowned in the swamp, and thirty-eight officers and four hundred and
fifteen privates were taken prisoners. The fort; which only commanded
the water, and was of no service on this occasion, with forty-eight
pieces of cannon, twenty-three mortars and howitzers, eight hundred and
seventeen small arms, ninety-four barrels of gunpowder, fifteen hundred
and forty-five cannon shot, one hundred and four ease ditto, two hundred
shells, nine tons of lead, military stores, shipping in the river, and
a large quantity of provisions, fell into the hands of the victors.
The British lost only seven killed and nineteen wounded. The private
soldiers who refused to enlist in the British army were confined in
prison ships; the Continental officers were paroled to Sunbury.

*** Ramsay, ii., 4: Gordon, ii.. 403; Marshall, i., 293; M'Call, ii.,
168; Stedman. ii., 66.

[[[Sunbury taken by the British.--Sketch of the Public Life of General
Lincoln.]]]

{733}tine with about two thousand men (including Indians) and several
pieces of artillery, on the day when Campbell reached Tybee Island. One
division took a land route, the other proceeded in armed boats. They
reached the vicinity of Sunbury on the sixth of January, and proceeded
to attack the fort.

[Illustration: 9743]

The garrison consisted of about two hundred Continental troops and
militia, under Major Lane, who, when Prevost demanded an unconditional
surrender on the morning of the ninth, promptly refused compliance.
Prevost then placed his cannon in battery and opened upon the fort. Lane
soon perceived the folly of resistance, and after considerable parleying
he surrendered. The spoils of victory were twenty-four to the command in
the Southern department where we find him in the summer of 1779 pieces of
artillery, with ammunition and provisions; and the men of the garrison
were made prisoners of war. The Americans lost one captain and three
privates killed, and seven wounded. The British loss was one private
killed and three wounded. Two American galleys in the river were taken
by their crews to Assabaw Island, stranded, and burned. The crews
escaped in a sloop, but, while on their way to Charleston, were captured
and carried prisoners to Savannah.

The fall of Sunbury was the death-blow to Republican power in East
Georgia, and the conquest of the whole state now appeared an easy thing.
The march of Campbell to Augusta, under the direction of Prevost, who
proceeded from Sunbury to Savannah; the establishment of military
posts in the interior; Campbell's sudden retreat from Augusta, and the
subsequent battle at Brier Creek, we have already considered. Previous
to these events, and soon after the failure of Howe's summer campaign
against East Florida, General Lincoln * had been appointed [[Sept. 26,
1778]] and Howe was ordered to the North, at Verplanck's Point.

* Benjamin Lincoln was born on the third of February, 1733. He was
trained to the business of a farmer, and had few educational advantages.
He continued in his vocation in his native town (Hingham, Massachusetts)
until past forty years of age, when he engaged in civil and military
duties. He was a local magistrate, representative in the Colonial
Legislature, and held the appointment of colonel of militia, when, in
1774, he was appointed a major general of militia. He was very active
until the close of 1776, in training the militia for the Continental
service, and in February, 1777, he joined Washington, at Morristown,
with a re-enforcement. On the nineteenth of that month, Congress
appointed Lincoln, with Lord Stirling, St. Clair, Mifflin, and Stephen,
major general in the Continental army. He was active during the summer
and autumn of that year in opposition to Burgoyne, while on his march
toward Saratoga. He was severely wounded on the seventh of October, at
Saratoga, which kept him from active service until August, 1778, when he
joined Washington. He was appointed to the chief command in the Southern
department, in September, and arrived at Charleston in December. By
judicious management he kept Prévost and his troops below the Savannah
River most of the time, until October, when, in concert with D'Estaing,
he laid siege to Savannah. The effort was unsuccessful. In May
following, he, with the largest portion of the Southern army, were made
prisoners at Charleston by the British, under Sir Henry Clinton. He was
permitted to return to Hingham on parole. In November he was exchanged,
and the following spring he joined Washington on the Hudson. He was at
the surrender of Cornwallis, and was deputed to receive that commander's
sword. He was elected Secretary of War a few days after this event,
which office he held for three years, and then retired to his farm.
In 1786-7 he commanded the militia in the suppression of Shays's
insurrection. He was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in
1787. He was appointed collector of the port of Boston in 1789, which
office he held for twenty years, when he was succeeded by General
Dearborn. He died in Hingham, on the ninth of May, 1810, at the age of
seventy-seven years. He lived with his wife fifty-five years. General
Lincoln was temperate and religious. No profane word was ever heard
uttered by his lips. A great part of his life he was a deacon in the
Church.

* The signature of Howe on page 729 is from a letter written by him
under date of "Verplanck's Point, July, 1779."

[[[Royal Government re-established.--Appearance of the French
Fleet.--Alarm of the British.--Savannah strengthened.]]]

{734}Several minor expeditions were planned and executed both by
Prevost and Lincoln, but they had little effect. The latter arrived
at Purysburg, upon the Savannah, on the third of January, 1779, and
established his head-quarters there. His force consisted of about
twenty-five hundred effective men, and it continually augmented by
recruits from the militia. The marches and counter marches of
these generals in attempts to foil each other will be noticed while
considering the attack upon Charleston in May following, and its
immediate antecedent events. *

On the twentieth of July,[[1779]] Sir James Wright returned from England
and resumed the government of Georgia. It had been under military rule
since the fall of Savannah. Governor Wright did not long remain in
quiet, for the strong arm of our French ally held the falchion over
the head of British power in the South. Early in September, the Count
D'Estaing, with twenty ships of the line and eleven frigates, having on
board six thousand soldiers, suddenly appeared off the Southern coasts.
He had battled successfully with Admiral Byron in the West Indies, and
now he came to assist in driving the British out of the Southern States.
So sudden was his appearance off Tybee Island[[Sept. 3, 1779]] that four
British vessels fell into his hands without a contest. A plan was soon
arranged between Lincoln and D'Estaing to besiege Savannah. The latter
urged the necessity of early departure from our coast as a reason for
prompt action, and he entreated Lincoln to press forward with his army
as rapidly as possible.

From the moment when the French fleet appeared off Tybee, Provost
felt uneasy. He recalled his detachments from the advanced posts, and
directed Colonel Maitland, who, with eight hundred men, was stationed at
Beaufort, to be in readiness to leave that post. He began in earnest
to strengthen the fortifications of the city; and Colonel Moncrief, the
talented chief of the engineers, pressed into his service every hand not
otherwise employed, including three hundred negroes collected from the
neighboring plantations. Thirteen redoubts and fifteen batteries, with
lines of communication, were speedily completed, with strong _abatis_ in
front. Upon these batteries seventy-six pieces of cannon were placed, of
six, nine, and eighteen pounds caliber. These were manned by seamen from
the vessels of war in the harbor. Several field-pieces were placed in
reserve, to be used at any required point at a moment's warning, and
intrenchments were opened to cover the reserved troops and artillery.

On the evening of the fourth of September the French fleet disappeared,
and Prevost rejoiced in the belief that Savannah was not its
destination. Still, he continued his preparations for attack. The works
on Tybee Island were strengthened, and the garrison there was increased
by one hundred infantry under Captain Moncrief. On the sixth the fleet
reappeared with increased force; and on the ninth it anchored off
Tybee Island, and landed some troops on the south side of it. Moncrief,
perceiving resistance to be useless, spiked the guns, embarked the
troops, and fled to Savannah. The English shipping near Tybee sailed up
to Five Fathom Hole, and the whole British land force in Georgia was
now concentrated at Savannah. The next day all the cannons of the
armed vessels, except a few which were left to defend the channel, were
brought on shore and placed in battery. Every thing was now ready for an
attack.

Lincoln marched from Charleston to Zubley's Ferry, where he concentrated
his troops on the twelfth of September. Count Pulaski, with his legion,
and General M'Intosh, with his

* On one occasion two American galleys went down the Savannah and
captured and destroyed two vessels belonging to the English. Prevost on
another occasion sent a party to surprise Beaufort, and capture
stores there; and on the fourth of June, Colonel Cruger (who afterward
commanded at Ninety-Six), with a party of Loyalists, while celebrating
the king's birth-day at a plantation at Belfast, on the Midway, was
captured by Captain Spencer. Cruger was afterward exchanged for Colonel
John M'Intosh. On the south side of the Ogeeehee, at a place called
Hickory Hill, a party, under Colonel Twiggs, had a skirmish with some
British soldiers, who attacked them. The enemy lost seven killed, ten
wounded, and the remainder were taken prisoners. The Americans had two
wounded. Major Baker, with thirty men, attacked and defeated a party of
British soldiers near Sunbury, on the twenty-eighth of June, the same
dav when Twiggs had his engagement near the Ogeeehee. These were Georgia
Loyalists.

[[[American Army at Savannah.--Pulaski.--D'Estaing's summons to
Surrender refused.--His Error]]]

{735}command, were dispatched toward Savannah, a little in advance of
the main army, to attack the British outposts. Both parties had several
skirmishes with the enemy before they reached the French army, already
landed at Beaulieu, or Beuley.

[Illustration: 8745]

This junction effected, M'Intosh returned to Miller's plantation, three
miles from Savannah, where Lincoln, with the main army, arrived on the
sixteenth, and made his headquarters.

While Lincoln and his force were approaching, the French effected a
landing at Beuley and Thunderbolt, without opposition. M'Intosh linked
D'Estaing to make an immediate upon the attack British works. D'Estaing
would not listen, but advanced within three miles of Savannah,
[[Sept. 16, 1779]]  and demanded an unconditional surrender to the
King of France. Prevost refused to listen to any summons which did not
contain definite provisions, and asked for a truce until the next day
to consider the subject. This was granted by D'Estaing, and, in the
meanwhile, twelve hundred white men and negroes were employed in
strengthening the fortifications, and mounting additional ordnance.
This truce Lincoln at once perceived was fatal to the success of the
besiegers, for he had ascertained that Maitland, with eight hundred men,
was on his way

* Count Casimir Pulaski was a native of Lithuania, in Poland. He was
educated for the law, but stirring military events had their influence
upon his mind, and he entered the army. With his father, the old Count
Pulaski, he was engaged in the rebellion against Stanislaus, king of
Poland, in 1769. The old count was taken prisoner, and put to death.
In 1770, the young Count Casimir was elected commander-in-chief of
the insurgents, but was not able to collect a competent force to act
efficiently, for a pestilence had swept off 250,000 Poles the previous
year. In 1771, himself and thirty-nine others entered Warsaw, disguised
as peasants, for the purpose of seizing the king. The object was to
plaee him at the head of the army, force him to act in that position,
and call around him the Poles to beat back the Russian forces which
Catharine had sent against them. They succeeded in taking him from his
carriage in the streets, and carrying him out of the city; but were
obliged to leave him, not far from the walls, and escape. Pulaski's
little army was soon afterward defeated, and he entered the service
of the Turks, who were fighting Russia. His estates were confiscated,
himself outlawed. He went to Paris, had an interview there with
Dr. Franklin, and came to America in 1777. He joined the army under
Washington, and, as we have seen, was placed in command of cavalry.

[Illustration: 9745]

* His legion did good service at the North. Early in the spring of 1778
he was ordered to Little Egg Harbor, on the New Jersey coast. His
force consisted of cavalry and infantry, with a single field-piece from
Proctor's artillery. While on his way from Trenton to Little Egg Harbor,
and when within eight miles of the coast, he was surprised by a party
of British, and a large portion of his infantry was bayoneted. Julien,
a deserter from his corps, had given information of his position;
the surprise was complete. His loss was forty men, among them
Lieutenant-eolonel Baron De Botzen. Pulaski was ordered to the South in
February, 1779, and was in active service under Lincoln until the siege
of Savannah, in October of that year, where he was mortally wounded. His
banner, as we have noticed on page 392, was preserved, and carried to
Baltimore. He was taken to the United States brig Wasp, where he died,
and was buried under a large tree on St. Helen's Island, about fifty
miles from Savannah, by his first lieutenant and personal friend,
Charles Litomiski. Funeral honors were paid to his memory at Charleston,
and, on the 29th of November, Congress voted the erection of a monument
to his memory. Like other monuments ordered by the Continental Congress,
the stone for Pulaski's is yet in the quarry. The citizens of Savannah
reared the one delineated on page 720, in commemoration ot the services
of Greene and Pulaski.

[[[Arrival of Maitland--Victory lost by Delay.--Plan of the Siege of
Savannah.]]]

{736}from Beaufort, to re-enforce Prevost, and that his arrival within
twenty-four hours was the object hoped to be gained by a truce for that
length of time. Such proved to be the fact; Maitland, under cover of a
fog, eluded the vigilance of the French cruisers, and entered the town
on the afternoon of the seventeenth. * His arrival gave Prevost courage,
and toward evening he sent a note to D'Estaing bearing a positive
refusal to capitulate. The golden opportunity was now lost to the
combined armies. **

[Illustration: 0746]

* Finding the French in possession of the only channel at the mouth
of the Savannah which was navigable, when he arrived at Dawfuskie,
Maitland, conducted by a negro fisherman, passed through a creek with
his boats, at high water, and, concealed by a fog, eluded the French.
D'Estaing, ignorant of the geography of the country about Savannah, had
no idea that there was any other way than by the regular channel for
boats to reach the town.

** Lee, in his Memoirs, says, "Any four hours before the junction of
Lieutenant-colonel Maitland was sufficient to have taken Savannah."

* Explanation of the Plan.--1, Georgia volunteers, under Major Wright.
2, Picket of the 71st. 3, First Battalion of Delancey's corps, under
Lieutenant-colonel Cruger. 4, Georgia militia. 5, Third battalion Jersey
volunteers, under Lieutenant-colonel Allen. 6, Georgia militia.
7, Picket of the line and armed negroes. 8, General's quarters;
convalescents of the line. 9, South Carolina Royalists. 10,
Georgia militia and detachment of the fourth battalion of the 60th,
Lieutenant-governor Graham. 11, Fourth battalion 60th dismounted
dragoons and South Carolina Royalists, Captain Taws. 12, North Carolina
Loyalists, Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, Governor Sir James Wright. 13,
14, King's rangers, Lieutenant-colonel Brown. A, First battalion of
the 71st, Major M'Arthur. B, Regiment of Trombach. C, Second battalion
Delancey's corps, Lieutenant-colonel Delancey. D, New York volunteers,
Major Sheridan. E. Light infantry, Major Graham. F, Weisenbach's
regiment. G, Second battalion 71st, Major M'Donald. II, 60th Grenadiers,
three companies and one of marines, Lieutenant-colonel Glazier. I, North
Carolina Loyalists, under Colonel Maitland. The working of the artillery
during the siege was under the direction of Captain Charlton. This map
is copied from one in Stedman's History, drawn under the direction of
Colonel Moncrief. Neither the French nor Americans made any drawings,
and hence we are unable to give the positions of the various parts of
the combined armies, in detail. The city extended, at the time of the
siege, on the west to the present Jefferson Street, on the east to
Lincoln Street, on the South to South Broad Street, and contained six
squares and twelve streets. There were about four hundred and thirty
houses in the city.

[[[Operations of the Siege.--D'Estaing's Proposition to Storm the
Works.--Remains of the French Lines.]]]

{737}It was now perceived that the town must be taken by regular
approaches, and not by assault. To that end all energy was directed. The
heavy ordnance and stores were brought up from the landing-place of
the French, and on the morning of the twenty-third,[[Sept. 1779]] the
combined armies broke ground. The French frigates, at the same time,
moved up to the sunken vessels within gunshot of the town, and compelled
the British ships to take shelter under the guns of the battery. Night
and day the besiegers applied the spade, and so vigorously was the work
prosecuted, that in the course of twelve days fifty-three pieces of
battery cannon and fourteen mortars were mounted. Prevost, cautious and
skillful, did not waste his strength in opposing the progress of the
besiegers by sorties, but reserved all for the decisive moment.

[Illustration: 9747]

During the twelve days, only two sorties were made; one under Major
Graham,[[Sept. 24]] and the other under Major M'Arthur.[[Sept. 27]]
Several were killed on each occasion, but the general operations were
not affected.

On the morning of the fourth of October, the batteries being all
completed and manned, a terrible cannonade and bombardment was opened
upon the British works and the town. The French frigate Truite also
opened a cannonade from the water. Houses were shattered, some women
and children were killed or maimed, and terror reigned supreme. Families
took refuge in the cellars, and in many a frame the seeds of mortal
disease were planted while in those damp abodes during the siege. There
was no safety in the streets, for a moment. Day and night an incessant
cannonade was kept up from the fourth until the ninth; but, while many
houses were injured, not much impression was made upon the British
works. Slowly but surely the sappers and miners approached the batteries
and redoubts. The beleaguered began to be alarmed, for their guns made
very little impression upon the works or camp of the combined armies,
and the hope that Admiral Byron would follow and attack D'Estaing's
vessels, lying off Tybee, faded away.

Another promised victory was now before the besiegers, and almost within
their grasp, when D'Estaing became impatient. He feared the autumn
storms, and the British fleet which rumor said was approaching. A
council was held, and when his engineers informed him that it would
require ten days more to reach the British lines by trenches, he
informed Lincoln that forthwith, or an attempt be made to carry the
place by storm. The latter alternative was chosen, and the work began
on the morning of the following day.[[Oct. 9]] To facilitate it, the
_abatis_ were set that afternoon by the brave Major L'Enfant and five
men, while exposed to heavy volleys of musketry from the garrison, but
the dampness of the air checked the flames, and prevented the green wood
from burning.

Just before dawn on the morning of the ninth, about four thousand five
hundred men of the combined armies moved to the assault in the midst of
a dense fog, and under cover of a heavy fire from all the batteries. **
They advanced in three columns, the principal one

* These remains are in the southeastern suburbs of the city, about half
way between the Negro Cemetery and the residence of Major William Bowen,
seen toward the right of the picture. The banks have an average height,
from the bottom of the ditch, of about five feet, and are dotted with
pines and chineapins or dwarf chestnuts, the former draped with moss.
The ground is an open common, and although it was mid-winter when I
was there, it was covered with green grass, bespangled with myriads of
little flowers of stellar form. This view is from the direction of the
town looking southeast.

* Three thousand five hundred were French, a little more than six
hundred were American regulars (chiefly North Carolinians), and about
three hundred were militia from Charleston.

[[[Storming of the Spring Hill Redoubt.--D'Estaing Wounded.--Death of
Pulaski and Jasper.]]]

{738}commanded by D'Estaing in person, assisted by General Lincoln;
another main column by Count Dillon. The first was directed against the
Spring Hill redoubt * (between 11 and 12 on the right side of the map);
the second was to move silently along the edge of a swamp, pass the
redoubts and batteries, and assail the rear and weakest point of the
British lines, toward the river on the east; the third column, under
General Isaac Huger, was to make a feigned attack in front, to attract
attention from the other two. Fog and darkness allowed D'Estaing and
Lincoln to approach very near the Spring Hill redoubt before they were
discovered. Terrible was the conflict at this point just as the day
dawned. The French column led to the assault, and were confronted by
a blaze of musketry from the redoubt and by a cross-fire from the
adjoining batteries. Whole ranks were mowed down like grass before the
scythe. D'Estaing was wounded in the arm and thigh early in the
action, and was carried to his camp. The Americans pressed forward:
Lieutenant-colonel Laurens led the light troops on the left of the
French, while General M'Intosh, with another column, passed the
_abatis_, and entered the ditch north of the Spring Hill redoubt.
Regardless of the destructive storm, the gallant troops leaped the
ditch, and planted the crescent ** and the _lily_ upon the parapet.
The gallant and accomplished Maitland commanded this right wing of the
besieged, and was prepared for a vigorous assault. *** His practiced eye
at once perceived the peril of the garrison, if this lodgment should
be sustained. He united the grenadiers and marines nearest the point
of attack, and ordered Lieutenant-colonel Glazier to lead them to a
recovery of the lost ground. Within five minutes after receiving this
order, Glazier, at the head of his men, rushed to the parapet, and
made a furious charge with the bayonet upon the worried ranks of the
assailants. This blow by flesh and vigorous men, could not be withstood.
The standards of France and of our Carolina were torn down, and the
gallant men who had assisted in planting them there were pressed from
the parapet into the ditch, and driven through the _abatis_.

While the carnage was occurring at the Spring Hill redoubt, Huger and
Pulaski were endeavoring to force the enemy's works on different sides
of the town; Huger, with his party, waded almost half a mile through
rice-fields, and assailed the works on the east. They were received with
a sharp fire of cannon and musketry, and, after losing twenty-eight men,
retreated. Pulaski, at the same time, with about two hundred horsemen,
endeavored to force his way into the town a little eastward of the
Spring Hill redoubt. At the head of his troops he had passed the
_abatis_, banner in hand, and was pressing forward, when a small cannon
shot struck him in the groin, and he fell to the ground. His first
lieutenant seized the banner, and for a few minutes kept the troops
in action; but the iron hail from the seamen's batteries and the field
artillery, traversing the columns of the assailants in all directions,
compelled the whole force of the combined armies to yield, and they
retreated to the camp. Back through the smoke, and over the bodies
of the dead and dying, some of Pulaski's soldiers returned, found the
expiring hero, and bore him from the field. Already the French had
withdrawn, and the Continentals, under Lincoln, were retreating. At
ten o'clock, after about five hours' hard fighting, the combined armies
displayed a white flag, and asked a truce in order to bury the dead.
Prevost granted four hours, and during that

* The Spring Hill redoubt was at the entrance of the Augusta road into
the town, on the western side. The buildings of the rail-way station now
cover its site.

** The American standards were those of the second South Carolina
regiment, embroidered and presented to them by Mrs. Susanna Elliott,
three days after the battle at Fort Moultrie, in 1776, and were planted
by Lieutenants Hume and Bush. The French standard was raised by one of
D'Estaing's aids, who, with Hume and Bush, soon fell, mortally wounded,
leaving their colors fluttering in the breeze. Lieutenant Gray, of
the South Carolina regiment, seeing his associates fall, seized the
standards and kept them erect, when he, too, was prostrated by a bullet.
Sergeant Jasper, whom we shall meet hereafter, sprang forward, secured
the colors, and had just fastened them upon the parapet, when a rifle
ball pierced him, and he fell into the ditch. He was carried to the
camp, and soon afterward expired. Just before he died, he said to Major
Horry, "Tell Mrs. Elliott I lost my life supporting the colors she
presented to our regiment."

*** A sergeant of the Charleston grenadiers deserted during the night
of the eighth, and communicated the general plan of attack, to Prevost.
This gave the garrison a great advantage, for they strengthened the
points to be attacked.

[[[The Siege raised.--Withdrawal of the combined Armies.--Effect of the
Movement.--Colonel Jackson.]]]

{739}interval D'Estaing and Lincoln consulted in relation to further
operations. The latter, although his force was greatly diminished by the
action just closed, wished to continue the siege; but D'Estaing, whose
loss had been heavy, resolved on immediate departure. * The siege was
raised, and on the evening of the eighteenth[[Oct. 1779]]the combined
armies withdrew; the Americans to Zubley's Ferry, and the French to
Caustin's Bluff, whence they repaired to their ships at Tybee[[Oct. 20]]
Lincoln and his little army hastened to Charleston, where we shall meet
them again, besieged and made prisoners of war. These events closed the
campaigns in the South for that year. **

The result of the siege was a death-blow to the hopes of the South, and
never since the beginning of hostilities had such gloom gathered over
the prospects of the future, or so much real distress prevailed in
Georgia. *** Toward the sea-board every semblance of opposition to royal
power was crushed, and only in the interior did the spirit of armed
resistance appear. This increased during the following winter and
spring, and at last disturbed the quiet of the royal forces in Savannah.
These events, sometimes trivial in themselves, but important in the
great chain of circumstances, are related in detail by M'Call, Stevens,
White, and other chroniclers of the state. The most important we have
already considered; let us now glance at the closing events of the war
in Georgia.

When General Greene raised the siege of Ninety-Six, Major James Jackson
**** was appointed to the command of the garrison at Augusta. Greene
also ordered a legionary corps (composed of part cavalry and part
infantry) to be raised in Georgia, and appointed Major Jackson its
colonel. As soon as it was organized, Jackson went out with it upon
active service.

* The whole force of the combined armies was four thousand nine hundred
and fifty, of which two thousand eight hundred and twenty-three
were French. The whole British force in Savannah, including a few
militia, some Indians, and three hundred negroes, was two thousand eight
hundred and fifty. The French lost, in killed and wounded, six hundred
and thirty-seven men, and the Americans four hundred and fifty-seven.
The whole loss of the British did not exceed one hundred and twenty.
Lieutenant-colonel Maitland was attacked with a bilious disease during
the siege, and died a few days afterward.

** Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Moultrie, Steelman, M'Call. Lee.

*** Indescribable were the sufferings of the people of Savannah,
particularly the families of the Whigs. The females were exposed to
daily insults from the brutal soldiery, and many, reduced from affluence
to poverty, unable to bear the indignities heaped upon them, traveled
away on foot, some of them even without shoes upon their feet, and took
refuge in the Carolinas.

**** James Jackson was born in the county of Devon, England, on the
twenty-first of September, 1757. In 1772, he came to America, and began
the study ot the law in Savannah. At the age of eighteen, he shouldered
a musket and prepared to resist British power. He was active in
repulsing the British at Savannah in 1776. In 1778, he was appointed
brigade major of the Georgia militia, and was wounded in the skirmish
when General Scriven was killed. He participated in the defense of
Savannah at the close of the year, and when it fell into the hands of
Campbell, he was among those who fled into South Carolina, where he
joined General Moultrie's command. While on his way, so wretched was his
appearance, that some Whigs arrested, tried, and condemned him as a spy.
He was about to be executed, when he was recognized by a gentleman of
reputation from Georgia. Major Jackson was in the siege of Savannah
in October, 1779. In August, 1780, he joined Colonel Elijah Clark's
command, and was at the battle at Blackstocks. In 1781, General Pickens
made Jackson his brigade major, and his fluent speech often infused new
ardor into the corps of that partisan. He was at the siege of Augusta,
and was left in command of the garrison after the expulsion of the
British. He subsequently commanded a legionary corps, with which he
did good serviee. He joined Wayne at Ebenezer, and was active with that
officer until the evacuation of Savannah by the British. The Georgia
Legislature gave him a house and lot in Savannah at the close of the
war. He married in 1785; was made brigadier in 1786; and in 1788 was
elected governor of Georgia, but modestly declined the honor on account
ol his youth and inexperience, being only about thirty years of age.
He was one of the first representatives in Congress under the Federal
Constitution. He was elected a major general in 1792, and during the
three succeeding years was a member of the United States Senate. He was
chiefly instrumental in framing the Georgia Constitution in 1798. From
that year till 1801, he was governor of the state, when he again took a
seat in the Senate of the United States. He held that office until his
death, which occurred on the nineteenth of March, 1806. He was buried
about four miles from Washington City. Subsequently, his remains were
deposited in the Congressional burial-ground. The inscription upon
the stone which covers them was written by John Randolph, his personal
friend and admirer. There never lived a truer patriot or more honest man
than General James Jackson.

[[[Operations of Captain Howell.--Chastisement of the Indians.--Arrival
of Wayne.--Skirmish near Savannah.]]]

{740}During the spring of 1781, Captain Howell, the Hyler of the Georgia
Inlets, captured several British vessels lying in the bays and the
mouths of the rivers on the coast, and finally compelled all that
escaped to take refuge in the Savannah.

[Illustration: 9750]

Military matters in Georgia were very quiet during that summer; but
in the autumn, the volunteers collected by Colonel Twiggs and his
associates became so numerous, that he determined to attempt the capture
of British outposts, and confine them within their lines at Savannah,
until the arrival of General Wayne, then march-ins from the North.

Twiggs marched toward the sea-board, preceded by Jackson and his legion,
who skirmished with patroles all the way to Ebenezer. Jackson
attempted the surprise and capture of the garrison at Sun-bury, but was
unsuccessful, and returned, when he found Twiggs ready to march westward
to quell the Indians and Tories then assembling on the frontier. Twiggs
halted at Augusta on learning that Pickens had marehed on the same
errand.[[Jan. 1782]]

That brave partisan chastised the Indians severely. Every village and
settlement eastward of the mountains was laid in ashes, and nothing
but a heavy fall of snow prevented his crossing the great hills and
spreading desolation over a wide extent of country.

General Wayne arrived early in February,[[1782]] and established his
head-quarters at Ebenezer. His force was inferior to that of the British
in Savannah, then commanded by Brigadier-general Alured Clarke, * and
he was obliged to content himself with petty warfare upon outposts and
foraging parties, while watching an opportunity to attack Savannah at
night. Fearing this, Clarke summoned his detachments to the city, to man
the extensive fortifications. They came with provisions plundered from
the inhabitants, and applying the torch on the way, left a broad track
of desolation behind them.

General Clarke, perceiving the gathering strength of the Republicans,
and that he was likely to be shut up within the narrow limits of his
lines, sent for the Creeks and Cherokees to come in a body to his
relief. They were yet smarting under the chastisement of Pickens, and
hesitated. A party sent out to keep a way open to the city were attacked
by Major Jackson. Colonel Brown was sent to their aid. He was attacked
and defeated by Wayne, after a severe skirmish, but he retreated by
by-paths in safety to Savannah.

On the night of the twenty-second of June,[[1782]] three hundred Creek
Indians, led by Guristersigo, a powerful warrior, approached Wayne's
encampment. He intended to fall upon the American pickets, but
ignorantly attacked the main body at three o'clock in the morning.[[Jan.
23]] The infantry seized their arms; the artillery hastened to their
guns. Wayne was at a house a short distance from camp, when intelligence
came that the whole British force from Savannah was upon him. He leaped
into his saddle, rode to the aroused camp, and shouting, "Death or
Victory!" ordered a bayonet charge. At that moment his horse was shot
dead under him, and he saw his cannons seized by the savages. With sword
in hand, at the head of Parker's infantry, he led to the recapture of
his field-pieces. A terrible struggle ensued. Tomahawk and rifle were
powerless against bayonets, and Guristersigo and seventeen of his chief
warriors and white guides were slain. The Indians fled when they saw
their leader fall, leaving behind them one hundred and seven-

* General Clarke was governor of Canada in 1807.

[[[Treaty with the Indians.--Cessation of Hostilities.--Evacuation
of Savannah.]]]

{741}teen pack-horses loaded with peltry. Wayne pursued the fugitives
far into the forest, captured twelve of them, and at sunrise they were
shot. The Americans lost only four killed and eight wounded.

In September,[[1782]] Pickens and Clarke again chastised the Indians,
and completely subdued them.

[Illustration: 9751]

Tired of the conflict, and fearful of the scourge which Pickens still
held in his hand, they gladly made a treaty by which all the lands
claimed by the Indians south of the Savannah Rivcr and east of the
Chattahoochie were surrendered to the Slate of Georgia, as the price of
peace. This established the boundary line between the State of Georgia
and the Indian domain.

Early in 1782, the British Parliament, perceiving the futility of
attempts hitherto to subdue the Americans, now began to listen to
the voice of reason and of humanity, and steps were taken toward the
establishment of peace, between the United States and Great Britain,
upon the basis of the independence of the former. On the fourth of
March,[[1782]] the House of Commons passed a resolution in favor of
peace, and active hostilities ceased. Preparations were now made for
the evacuation of Savannah, and on the eleventh of July the British army
evacuated it, after an occupation of three years and a half. Wayne, in
consideration of the services of Colonel James Jackson, appointed him to
"receive the keys of Savannah from a committee of British officers."
He performed the service with dignity, and on the same day the American
army entered Savannah, when royal power ceased in Georgia forever. * A
few days afterward, Colonel Posey, with the main body of the Americans,
marched to join Greene in South Carolina. Wayne soon followed with the
remainder; hostilities ceased, *** and the beams of peace shed their
mild radiance over the desolated state, and gave promise of that
glorious day of prosperity and repose which speedily followed.

Governor Martin called a special meeting of the Legislature in
Savannah,[[Aug. 1782]] about three weeks after the evacuation. They
assembled in the house of General M'Intosh, which is yet (1852) standing
on South Broad Street, between Drayton and Abercorn Streets. The
session was short, but marked by decision and energy. On the first
Monday in January following, the constitutional session commenced at the
same place. Every branch of the new government was speedily organized,
and the free and independent State of Georgia began its Career. *

* Between the twelfth and the twenty-fifth of July, seven thousand
persons, according to British accounts, left Savannah, consisting of
twelve hundred British regulars and Loyalists, five hundred women and
children, three hundred Indians, and five thousand negroes. Governor
Wright, and some of the civil and military officers, went to Charleston;
General Clarke and part of the British regulars to New York; Colonel
Brown's rangers and the Indians to St. Augustine; and the remainder,
under convoy of the Zebra frigate, the Vulture sloop of war, and other
armed vessels, to the West Indies. It is estimated that nearly seven
eighths of the slaves in Georgia were carried off now, and on previous
occasions, by the British.

** Colonel Jackson had a skirmish with some forces on Skidaway Island,
below Savannah, on the twenty-fifth of July, and this was the last
fought battle for independence, in Georgia.

*** This house is the third eastward from Drayton Street, and is said
to be the oldest brick house in Savannah. Broad Street, upon whieh it
stands, is a noble avenue, shaded by four rows of Pride-of-India-Trees.

**** Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
was chosen governor in January, 1784; George Walton, chief justice;
Samuel Stirk, attorney general; John Milton, secretary of state; John
Martin, treasurer; and Richard Call, surveyor general.

[[[Revolutionary Remains.--Visit to Jasper's Spring.--Its historical
Associations.]]]

{742}




CHAPTER XXVIII.


[Illustration: 9752]

HERE are but few remains of Revolutionary localities about Savannah.
The city has spread out over all the British works; and where their
batteries, redoubts, ramparts, and ditches were constructed, public
squares are laid out and adorned with trees, or houses and stores cover
the earth. Not so with the works constructed by the French engineers
during the siege in the autumn of 1779. Although the regular forms are
effaced, yet the mounds and ditches may be traced many rods near the
margin of the swamp southeast of the city. These I visited early on the
morning of my arrival in Savannah, after an instructive interview with
the Honorable J. C. Nicoll, to whom I am indebted for a knowledge of
the several historical localities in and near the city. Their present
appearance and description are delineated on page 737. After sketching
General M'Intosh's house, printed on the preceding page, I procured a
saddle-horse and rode out to "Jasper's Spring," a place famous as the
scene of a bold exploit, which has been the theme of history and song.*

[Illustration: 7752]

It is near the Augusta road, two and a half miles westward of the city.
The day was very warm. The gardens were garnished with flowers; the
orange-trees were blooming; blossoms covered the peach-trees, and
insects were sporting in the sunbeams.

Jasper's Spring is just within the edge of a forest of oaks and gums,
and is remarkable only on account of its historical associations. It is
in the midst of a marshy spot partially covered with underwood, on the
northern side of the road, and its area is marked by the circumference
of a sunken barrel. Being the only fountain of pure water in the
vicinity, it is resorted to daily by travelers upon the road. One

* We have already met Sergeant William Jasper while securing the
Carolina flags upon the parapet of the Spring Hill redoubt at Savannah
(see page 738), and there sealing his patriotism with his life's blood.
Jasper was one of the bravest of the brave. After his exploits at Fort
Moultrie, which we shall consider hereafter, his commander, General
Moultrie, gave him a sort of roving commission, certain that he would
always be usefully employed. Jasper belonged to the second South
Carolina regiment, and was privileged to select from his corps such men
as he pleased to accompany him in his enterprises. Bravery and humanity
were his chief characteristics, and while he was active in the cause of
his country, he never injured an enemy unnecessarily. While out upon
one of his excursions, when the British had a camp at Ebenezer, all the
sympathies of his heart were aroused by the distress of a Mrs. Jones,
whose husband, an American by birth, was confined in irons for deserting
the royal cause after taking a protection. She felt certain that he
would be hanged, for, with others, he was to be taken to Savannah for
that purpose the next morning. Jasper and his only companion (Sergeant
Newton) resolved to rescue Jones and his fellow-prisoners. Concealing
themselves in the thick bushes near the spring (at which they doubted
not the guard of eight men would halt), they awaited their approach. As
expected, the guard halted to drink. Only two of them remained with the
prisoners, while the others, leaning their muskets against a tree,
went to the spring. Jasper and his companion then leaped from their
concealment, seized two of the guns, shot the two sentinels, and took
possession of the remainder of the muskets. The guards, unarmed, were
powerless, and surrendered. The irons were knocked off the wrists of
the prisoners, muskets were placed in their hands, and the custodians
of Jones and his fellow-patriots were taken to the American camp at
Purysburg the next morning, themselves prisoners of war. Jones was
restored to his wife, child, and country, and for that noble deed
posterity blesses the name of Sergeant Jasper. That name is indelibly
written on the page of history, and the people of Savannah have
perpetuated it by bestowing it upon one of the beautiful squares of
their city.

[[[Departure from Savannah.--Night Voyage.--Arrival at
Charleston.--Early Settlement.]]]

{743}of them, a wagoner, came, knelt, and quaffed when I opened my
port-folio, and, as he arose from the spring I sketched him, as seen
in the preceding picture. He knew nothing of the event which makes it
famous.

After lingering for half an hour in the cool shade at the spring, I
returned to Savannah. A slight haziness began to overspread the sky,
which deepened toward evening, and descended in gentle rain when I left
the city at eight o'clock in a steam-packet for Charleston. We passed
the lights at Fort Pulaski at half past eight, and an hour later glided
by the beacons of Tybee and breasted the rising waves of the Atlantic.
Like Yellow Plush, I soon discovered the "use of basins," and at an
early hour turned into my berth to prevent a turning out of my supper.
During the night we passed through Port Royal entrance, touched at
Beaufort, stuck in the mud in the channel between Ladies' and St. Helena
Islands, and at daylight emerged again into the Atlantic through St.
Helena's Sound. The breeze was hourly stiffening, and every "landlubber"
on board preferred the berth to breakfast, until we approached
Charleston bar, when the wind died away, the sun gleamed through the
breaking clouds, and upon the bosom of long, heaving swells, we were
wafted into Charleston harbor.

[Illustration: 8753]

We landed at one o'clock, dined at two, and at three I called upon the
Reverend Samuel Smythe, D.D., with a letter of introduction, with whom
I passed the remainder of the afternoon in visiting places of interest
upon the banks of the Cooper River, above the city. To the kind courtesy
of Dr. Smythe I am indebted for much of the interest, pleasure, and
profit of my visit at Charleston and vicinity.

Here, upon the spot where the first permanent English settlement in
South Carolina was accomplished, let us glance at the record of history.

In the Introduction to this work (page xxxii.), I have referred to the
first attempt at permanent settlement on South Carolina soil, and the
result. As it was only an _attempt_, proved unsuccessful, and does
not illustrate the growth of popular liberty, except so far as the
_principles_, of the Huguenots (those first emigrants) had influence in
the political opinions of the people in after years, we will not stop
to consider the details, but pass on to the period of permanent
settlements.

For a hundred years after the first attempt at colonization in South
Carolina was made, no settlements were undertaken, and no white man
walked in her forests, except a few Spaniards, who penetrated the
wilderness from St. Augustine in search of a fancied region of gold.
At length the English, who had formed settlements on the Cape Fear and
vicinity, turned their attention to more southerly regions.

In January, 1670, two ships, with materials fora permanent settlement,
sailed from England, under the command of Sir William Sayle, who had
previously visited and explored the South Carolina coast. He entered
Port Royal, planted his colony upon Beaufort, and soon afterward died
there.

The jurisdiction of Sir John Yeamans, of the Northern colony, was then
extended over this settlement, and in 1671 he was chosen their governor.
The people were easily induced, "for the convenience of pasturage and
tillage," to remove to the south bank of the Ashley River, further
north, and there they laid the foundation of old Charlestown ** (at
present called Old Town, or the Landing); and there was planted the
first fruitful seed a gift of the commonwealth of South Carolina. The
colony, in honor of Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors, was
called the Carteret County Colony. ** Nine years afterward, the settlers
abandoned this spot, and upon Oyster Point, nearer the sea, at the
confluence of the

* There were about fifty families who went from the Fort Royal
settlement to the Ashley River, and about the same number from the
Northern colony accompanied Governor Yeamans thither.

** Governor Yeamans caused a number of African slaves to be brought from
Barbadoes, and in the year 1672 the slave system in South Carolina was
commenced

[[[Founding of Charleston.--Increase of Settlers.--Their
Character.--Difficulties with the Indians.]]]

{744}Ashley and Cooper Rivers * (so called in compliment to Ashley
Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury), a place more eligible for commercial
pursuits, they founded the present city of Charleston,[[1680]] and in
the course of the year built thirty houses. *** The city retained its
original name of Charles _Town_ until after the Revolution, when it was
called Charleston. The general early history of South Carolina we have
already considered in its connection with the North State; we have,
therefore, only a few particular points to notice in its progress prior
to the separation in 1729.

The beauty of the climate and the freedom which then prevailed made
South Carolina a chosen refuge for the oppressed and the discontented
of all lands. Several Dutch families of New York went to South Carolina
when that city passed into the hands of the English, and settled on the
southwest side of the Ashley, near the English colony, from whence they
spread over the state, and were joined by many from "fader-land."
In 1679, Charles the Second sent quite a number of French Protestant
refugees (Huguenots) thither; and when, in 1685, the Edict of Nantes
(see page 386, volume i.) was revoked, large numbers of the Huguenots
crossed the Atlantic, and sought refuge in South Carolina from the fires
of persecution about to be relighted in France. Ten years later,[[1696]]
a colony of Congregationalists, from Dorchester, in Massachusetts,
ascended the Ashley almost to its head, and founded the town of
Dorchester, in the present parish of St. George, Dorchester. This was
a village of considerable note during the Revolution, but it is now
deserted, and little remains of the past but the primitive church and
the graves around it.

Under various leaders, men of every creed and of various countries went
to South Carolina; "and the Santee, the Congaree, the Wateree, and the
Edisto now listened to the strange voices of several nations, who in the
Old World had scarcely known each other, except as foes. There, for a
while, they mingled harmoniously with the natives. The French Huguenot
and the German Palatine smoked their pipes in amity with the Westo
and the Serattee; and the tastes and habits of the Seine and the Rhine
became familiar to the wandering eyes of the fearless warriors along the
Congaree. It was not long before a French violinist had opened a school
for dancing among the Indians on the Santee River." ***

For some time the colonists were obliged to depend, in part, upon
the bounty of the proprietors for subsistence, and the calls of this
dependence being generally answered, idle and improvident habits
were begotten, highly inimical to the prosperity of a new state. The
proprietors perceived the bad tendency of such indulgence, and in a
letter to the colonists declared that they would "no longer continue to
feed and clothe them, without expectation or demand of any return." This
resolve, so unkind to the apprehension of the Carolinians, was of great
benefit to the colonists. Ultimately the people, compelled to work or
starve--to be provident or to be beggars--turned to their own resources,
and their development began. Independence of action begat independence
of thought and feeling, and in this first broken fallow, turned up to
the vivifying influence of the sun and shower of free civil, political
and religious life, the seed of Republican liberty, which subsequently
bore such generous fruit in the Carolinas, was planted and took firm
root..

In addition to the diseases incident to the climate, and the privations
always attendant upon first settlement, the Carolinians were soon
called upon to resist powerful foes--the Indian tribes upon whose
hunting-grounds they were settling. These difficulties have been noticed
in a preceding chapter. The red men were hardly quieted before internal
troubles menaced the colony with a more terrible blow. Food had become
scarce, discontents were

* The Indian name for the Ashley was Ke-a-wah; for the Cooper, E-li-uan.
The city has a tine sheltered harbor, with the sea six miles distant.

** The city of Charleston was laid out in 1680 by John Culpepper, who
had been surveyor general of the Northern colony of the Carolinas,
but was then a fugitive, on account of his participation in an
insurrectionary movement there. The streets were laid out nearly at
right angles, and the town site was completely inclosed with a line of
fortifications. A plan of these fortifications, and of the city at that
time, is published in Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the
Revolution, page 3.

*** Simm's History of South Carolina, page 64.

[[[An Insurrection.--Legislative Assembly.--French and English.--Church
Liturgy adopted]]]

{745}heard on every side, and an insurrectionary movement occurred. The
rebellion was promptly suppressed, and some supplies just then arriving
from England with some new settlers, the people were quieted and became
loyal. This difficulty had just passed by, when the Spaniards menaced
the English, and ships of war with land troops appeared. Before their
arrival, vessels which had been sent to Virginia and Barbadoes for
provisions and munitions of war reached the harbor of Charleston.
Governor Yeamans at once acted on the offensive, and drove the Spaniards
back to St. Augustine.

Yeamans left the colony in 1674, and was succeeded by Joseph West, a man
of republican tendencies. He called the freemen of the colony together
in convention at Charleston to make laws for their government. This was
the first legislative assembly convened in South Carolina. It might have
been an auspicious event, had not the jarring interests of classes and
creeds, there represented, produced discord and confusion. Cavaliers and
Puritans, Churchmen and Dissenters, each strenuous for the prevalence
of their respective opinions, presented, in this first attempt at
representative legislation, powerful arguments in favor of absolutism.
Anarchy prevailed, and in the midst of the dissensions in Charleston,
the Stono Indians swept along the frontiers of the settlements, and
plundered a great quantity of grain and numerous cattle. The inhabitants
armed themselves, defeated the Stonos in several skirmishes, took
many of them prisoners, and sent them to the West Indies to be sold as
slaves. After other obstinate conflicts, the Stonos were subdued and
almost exterminated. They have never had a tribal existence since, and
it is believed that they have no living representative upon the earth.

A Legislative Assembly met in Charleston in 1682, and enacted laws for
the civil and military operations of the colony. The spirit of freedom
had begun to work in the hearts of the people, and when the collection
of rents, the great cause of discontent in the Northern colony,
was pressed, they rebelled. The public records were seized, and the
Assembly, assuming the functions of government, imprisoned the secretary
of the province. The governor (Colleton) declared martial law. The
exasperated people clamored for his impeachment. The Assembly complied,
and he was banished from the province. Turbulence and misrule continued
until the scheme of government of Locke and Shaftesbury was abandoned;
a better day then dawned. John Archdale, the good Quaker, came, and
his policy was like oil poured upon troubled waters. Only one great
difficulty remained--the troubles arising from the antipathy of the
English to the French. The general excellence of character possessed by
the latter soon disarmed prejudices; their political disabilities were
removed; they were no longer excluded from participation in governmental
affairs, and the last fountain of disquietude was dried up. During the
whole of Archdale's administration, and that of Blake, his successor,
peace and prosperity prevailed.

James Moore succeeded Blake in 1700. He sent an expedition against
the Spaniards at St. Augustine, in 1702, which proved unsuccessful.
A subsequent expedition against the Apalachian Indians, undertaken by
Moore, has been considered in a previous chapter.

Nathaniel Johnson, a pliant servant of Lord Granville, one of the
proprietors, succeeded Moore in 1703, and, pursuant to a plan long
cherished by that nobleman and his friends, he proceeded to the
establishment of the Church of England in Carolina. This was the first
budding of religious intolerance there. The Dissenters were excluded
from the Colonial Legislature, and suffered other disabilities. They
laid their grievances before the English Parliament. There they received
encouragement, and the law of disfranchisement was soon repealed by the
Colonial Assembly, but the Liturgy of the Church of England remained the
established form of religion in the province until the Revolution.

England was now at war with France and Spain. Her enemies coalesced, and
joined in an expedition against South Carolina in 1706. A squadron of
five ships came from Havana and appeared before Charleston. The governor
called upon the people to repel the invaders, and they cheerfully
responded. The invading troops were compelled to fly to their ships, and
these, in turn, being attacked by some vessels which had been speedily
armed in the harbor, retreated in haste across the bar, and departed.
This was the first

[[[Revolution.--Royal Government established.--Separation of the
Colonies.--Extension of Settlements.]]]

{746}_naval victory_ of the South Carolinians. Of eight hundred of the
enemy, almost three hundred were killed or taken prisoners.

In 1710 a speck of civil war appeared in Charleston, when two claimants
to the office of acting governor, on the death of Tynte, the successor
of Johnson, disputed for the honor. A compromise was effected, by
referring the case to the proprietors for a decision. They wisely
discarded both candidates, and appointed Charles Craven, brother of one
of the proprietors, governor of the province. Under his administration
the colony prospered, settlements extended, and the power of a dangerous
Indian confederacy against the Carolinas was effectually broken. *

Craven was succeeded by Robert Johnson, a son of the former
governor,[[1717]] and during his administration a revolution occurred
in South Carolina which changed the government from a proprietary to a
royal one. The remote causes of this change may be found in the desire
of the people for a simple and inexpensive government responsible only
to the crown, and not to be subjected to the caprices, avarice, and
inefficiency of a Board of Control composed of private individuals,
intent only upon personal gain. The immediate and ostensible cause was
the refusal of the proprietors to pay any portion of the debt incurred
by the Indian war so promptly suppressed by Governor Craven; and the
severity with which they enforced the collection of rents. The people
looked to the crown for relief, aid, and protection. A scheme for a
revolution was secretly planned, and on the twenty-eighth of November,
1719, Governor Johnson was deposed. The people proceeded to elect
James Moore governor. The militia, on whom Johnson looked for aid, were
against him, and finding himself entirely unsupported, he withdrew to
his plantation. Moore was proclaimed governor of the province in
the king's name, and royal authority was established. During the
administration of Francis Nicholson, the successor of Moore, and that
of Arthur Middleton, acting governor, little of political importance
occurred in relation to the colony, except the legal disputes in England
concerning the rights of the proprietors. These were finally settled
in 1729, by a royal purchase of both colonies (see page 562) from
the proprietors, and during that year North and South Carolina became
separate royal provinces.

The colony was now very prosperous, and from the period of the
separation until the Revolution, nothing occurred to impede its general
progress but the troubles with the Indians, detailed in preceding
chapters, and difficulties with the Spaniards. Soon all alarm on account
of the latter subsided, for Oglethorpe had established a barrier on
the Southern border, by laying the foundation of the commonwealth of
Georgia, and preparing means for keeping the Spaniards south of the St.
John's. When this barrier was made secure, the treaties with the Indians
were accomplished, the war with France ended, and universal peace
reigned in the Carolinas. Emigration flowed thither in a broad and rapid
stream. Immigrants came from all parts of Europe. Up the Pedee, Santee,
Edisto, and Savannah Rivers, settlements spread rapidly, and soon the
ax and the plow were plying with mighty energy upon the banks of the
Wateree, the Broad, and the Saluda Rivers, and their tributaries. *** At
one time six hundred German settlers came in a body; and from the North
of Ireland such numbers of the Protestant inhabitants (Scotch-Irish
chiefly) departed for Carolina that the depopulation of whole districts
was menaced. Immigrants came, too, from the other colonies. Within
a single year,[[1764]] more than a thousand families with their
effects--their cattle, hogs, and horses--crossed the Alleghanies
from the Eastern settlements, and pitched their tents in the bosom of
Carolina. Far removed from the po-

* See page 562.

** Previous to this period, some important settlements were made.
Between the years 1730 and 1740, an Irish settlement was planted near
the Santee, to whieh was given the name of Williamsburg township. At
the same time, some Swiss emigrants, under John Pury, settled upon the
northeast side of the Savannah, and founded the village of Purysburg.
From 1748 to 1755, great numbers of Palatines (Germans) were introduced,
and settled Orangeburgh and other places upon the Congaree and Wateree.
After the battle of Culloden in 1745, many Scotch Highlanders came over.
Some of them settled in South Carolina, but a larger portion located at
Cross Creek (Fayetteville), in North Carolina. The greatest influx of
settlement was after the treaty of Paris, in 1763.

[[[Discontents.--Disputes with the Governor.--Effects of the Stamp
Act.--Boldness of the People.]]]

{747}litical power they had been taught to reverence they soon
became alienated. They felt neither the favors nor the oppressions of
government, and in the free wilderness their minds and hearts became
schooled in that sturdy independence which developed bold and energetic
action when the Revolution broke out.

While the people of New England were murmuring because of Writs of
Assistance and other grievances, the Carolinians were not indifferent
listeners, especially those upon the seaboard; and before the Stamp
Act lighted the flame of general indignation in America, leading men in
South Carolina were freely discussing the rights and privileges of
each colony, and saw in day-dreams a mighty empire stretching along
the Atlantic coast from the Penobscot to the St. John's. Already their
representatives had quarreled with the governor (William Boone), because
he had presumed to touch, with official hands, one of their dearest
privileges (the elective franchise), and refused to hold intercourse
with him. In these disputes, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, Henry
Laurens, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the Rutledges, and other stanch
patriots in the stormy strife ten years later, were engaged. A spirit of
resistance was then aroused, which brought South Carolina early into the
arena of conflict when the war began.

When intelligence of the Stamp Act came over the sea, the Assembly of
South Carolina did not wait to consult the opinions of those of other
colonies, but immediately passed a series of condemnatory resolves.
When, soon afterward, the proposition for a Colonial Congress came from
Massachusetts, a member of the Assembly ridiculed it, * others thought
the scheme chimerical, yet a majority of them were in favor of it, and
delegates were appointed to represent South Carolina in the Congress
which was held at New York.[[Oct. 7, 1765]] The iniquitous character of
the Stamp Aet was freely discussed by the Carolinians, and as the day
approached[[Nov. 1]] when it was to go into operation, the people
became more and more determined to resist it. When the stamps arrived in
Charleston, no man was found willing to act as distributor, and Governor
William Bull (who had succeeded Boone) ordered them to be placed in Fort
Johnson, a strong fortress on James's Island, then garrisoned by a very
small force. When the place of deposit became known, one hundred and
fifty armed men, who had secretly organized, went down to the fort
at midnight, in open boats, to destroy the stamps. They surprised
and captured the garrison, loaded the cannons, hoisted a flag, and
at sunrise proclaimed open defiance of the power of the governor. The
captain of the armed ship which brought the stamps opened a parley with
the insurgents, and agreed to take away the obnoxious articles, and
"not land them elsewhere in America." ** This was agreed to, and the men
returned to the city. So universal was the opposition to the Act, that
no attempt was made to arrest the men concerned in this overt act of
treason.

* "If you agree to the proposition of composing a Congress from the
different British colonies," said the member, "what sort of a dish will
you make. New England will throw in fish and onions; the Middle States
flax-seed and flour; Maryland and Virginia will add tobacco; North
Carolina pitch, tar, and turpentine; South Carolina rice and indigo;
and Georgia will sprinkle the whole composition with saw-dust. Such an
absurd jumble will you make if you attempt to form a union among such
discordant materials as the thirteen British provinces." A shrewd
country member replied, "I would not choose the gentleman who made the
objection for my cook, but, nevertheless, I would venture to assert that
if the colonies proceed judiciously in the appointment of deputies to a
Continental Congress, they would prepare a dish fit to be presented to
any crowned head in Europe."--Ramsay.

** In a letter from Charleston, published in Weyman's New York Gazette,
it is stated that on the morning of the nineteenth of October a gallows
was discovered in the middle of Broad Street, where Chinch Street
intersects (then the central part of the town), on which were suspended
an effigy representing a stamp distributor, and another to impersonate
the devil. Near by was suspended a boot (Lord Bute), with a head upon
it, covered by a blue Scotch bonnet. To these effigies labels were
affixed. Upon one was the warning, "Whoever shall dare to pull down
these effigies had better been born with a mill-stone about his neck,
and cast into the sea." At evening they were taken down, and paraded
through the street by about two thousand persons, until they came to the
house of George Saxby, in Tradd Street, an appointed stamp distributor,
where they made a great noise, and injured his windows and other
portions of his house, to "the value of five pounds sterling." No other
riotous feelings were manifested. Nine day's afterward, Saxby and Caleb
Lloyd made oath at Fort Johnson that they would have nothing more to do
with the stamps.

[[[Liberty Tree.--Charleston Sons of Liberty.--Pitt's
Statue.--Christopher Gadsden]]]

{748}Under a wide-spreading live oak, a little north of the residence
of Christopher Gadsden--the Samuel Adams of South Carolina--the patriots
used to assemble during the summer and autumn of 1765, and also the
following summer, when the Stamp Act was repealed. There they discussed
the political questions of the day. From this circumstance the green
oak was called, like the great elm in Boston, _Liberty Tree_. * There
Gadsden assembled some of his political friends after the repeal of
the Stamp Act in 1766, and, while bonfires were blazing, cannons were
pealing for joy, and the Legislature of South Carolina was voting a
statue in honor of Pitt, ** he warned them not to be deceived by
this mere show of justice. *** His keen perception comprehended the
Declaratory Act in all its deformity, and while others were loud in
their praises of the king and Parliament, he ceased not to proclaim the
whole proceeding a deceptive and wicked scheme to lull the Americans
into a dangerous inactivity. And more; it is claimed, and generally
believed in South Carolina, that under Liberty Tree Christopher Gadsden
first spoke of American Independence. How early is not known, but
supposed to be as early as 1764. ****

The people of Charleston cheerfully signed non-importation agreements in
1769 and

* This tree stood within the square now bounded by Charlotte,
Washington, Boundary, and Alexander Streets. This continued to be
the favorite meeting-place until the Revolution was in full progress.
Beneath that tree the Declaration of Independence was first read to
the assembled people of Charleston. Its history and associations were
hateful to the officers of the crown, and when Sir Henry Clinton took
possession of the eity in 1780, he ordered it to be cut down, and a fire
lighted over the stump by piling its branches around it. Many cane heads
were made from the remains of the stump in after years. A part of it was
sawed into thin boards and made into a neat ballot-box, and presented to
the "'76 Association." This box was destroyed by fire, at the rooms of
the association, during the great conflagration in 1838.

** This statue was of marble, and stood at the intersection of Broad
and Meeting Streets. During the siege of Charleston, in April, 1780, a
British cannon-ball from James's Island passed up Meeting Street, struck
this statue, and broke off its left arm. Several years after the war,
the statue, being considered an obstruction, was rudely pulled down by
some workmen employed for the purpose, when the head was broken off, and
it was otherwise mutilated. Good taste would have restored the arm, and
kept the statue in its place until this day.

[Illustration: 9758]

*** The following are the names of the Sons of Liberty of Charleston,
who met with Gadsden, under Liberty Tree, in 1766, and with linked
hands pledged themselves to resist when the hour for resistance should
arrive. They are published by Johnson from the original record of George
Flagg, one of the party: General Christopher Gadsden, William Johnson,
Joseph Verre, John Fullerton, James Brown, Nathaniel Libby, George
Flagg, Thomas Coleman, John Hall, William Field, Robert Jones, John
Lawton, Uzziah Rogers, John Calvert, Henry Bookless, J. Barlow, Tunis
Tebout, Peter Munclear, William Trusler, Robert Howard, Alexander
Alexander, Edward Weyman, Thomas Searl, William Laughton, Daniel Cannon,
and Benjamin Hawes. The last survivor, George Flagg, died in 1824.

**** Christopher Gadsden was born in Charleston in 1724. He was educated
in England, where he became accomplished in the learned languages.
He returned to Ameriea at the age of sixteen, and entered the
counting-house of a merchant in Philadelphia, where he remained until he
was twenty-one years of age. He then went to England, and on his return
engaged in mercantile pursuits in Charleston. He was successful, and was
soon able to purchase all of the properly known as Ansonborough, which
his father lost in play with Lord Anson. His house was upon the lot now
(1848) owned by Mrs. Isaac Ball, and the kitchen is yet standing on the
lot at the northeast corner of East Bay and Vernon Streets. Mr. Gadsden
was one of the earliest opponents of Great Britain in South Carolina,
and, as the Revolution advanced, was one of its firmest supporters. He
was a delegate in the first Continental Congress in 1774, and his name
is attached to the American Association agreed to by that body. In 1775,
he was elected senior colonel and commandant of three South Carolina
regiments, and was subsequently made a brigadier. He was in the
engagement at the siege of Charleston in 1776. He was one of the framers
of the Constitution of South Carolina, adopted in 1778. He resigned his
commission in 1779, and when Charleston was taken by Clinton, in 1780,
he was lieutenant governor; as sueh, he signed the capitulation. Three
months afterward, he was taken, with others, and cast into the loathsome
prison at St. Augustine (an act in open violation of the terms of
capitulation), because he would not submit to indignity at the hands of
Governor Tonyn. There he suffered for eleven months, until exchanged
in June, 1781, when he sailed to Philadelphia with other prisoners. He
returned to Charleston, and was a member of the Assembly convened at
Jacksonburg in the winter of 1782. He opposed the confiscation of the
property of the Loyalists, and thereby won their esteem. He was elected
governor of the state in 1782, but declined the honor, and went into
the retirement of private life. He died on the twenty-eighth of August,
1805, at the age of eighty-one years.

[[[Tea repudiated.--Sympathy for Bostonians.--Provincial Convention and
Congress.--Seizure of Dispatches.]]]

{749}1770, and faithfully adhered thereto; and when the Continental
Congress of 1774 adopted the _American Association_, its recommendations
were very generally complied with in South Carolina. When tea was sent
to America, under the provisions of a new act of 1773 (see page 495,
volume i.), the South Carolinians were as firm in their opposition to
the landing of the cargoes _for sale_, as were the people of Boston.
It was stored in the warehouses, and there rotted, for not a pound was
allowed to be sold.

The closing of the port of Boston, by act of Parliament, on the first
of January, 1774, aroused the indignation and sympathy of the South
Carolinians, and substantial aid was freely sent to the suffering
inhabitants of that city. When the proposition for a General Congress
went forth, the affirmative voice of South Carolina was among the first
heard in response. In an assembly of the people, held in Charleston, on
the sixth, seventh, and eighth of July, 1774, it was declared that the
Boston Port Bill was "most cruel and oppressive," and plainly showed
that "if the inhabitants of that town are intimidated into a mean
submission of said acts, that the like are designed for all the
colonies; when not even the shadow of liberty to his person, or of
security to his property, will be left to any of his majesty's subjects
residing on the American continent." The same convention approved of the
proposition for a General Congress, chose delegates to represent them in
Federal Council, * and closed their proceedings by the appointment of a
committee of ninety-nine, "to act as a general committee, to correspond
with the committees of other colonies, and to do all matters and things
necessary to carry the resolutions of the convention into execution."
Henry Laurens was appointed chairman of this large committee, and it was
agreed that twenty-one should constitute a business quorum. **

In defiance of the remonstrances and menaces of Lieutenant-governor
Bull, a Provincial Congress of delegates, chosen by the people, met at
Charleston on the eleventh of January, 1775. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
was chosen president. That Assembly approved of the proceedings of
the General Congress, and appointed a committee of inspection and
observation to see that its recommendations were complied with. *** Now
began those coercive measures of the Whigs which were often wrong and
oppressive, but frequently necessary and salutary. The non-importation
measures were rigorously enforced, and royal power was boldly defied.
The people of Charleston formed themselves into volunteer companies to
practice the use of fire-arms, and the boys, catching the spirit of the
hour, banded together, and with mimic weapons imitated the discipline of
their seniors.

On the nineteenth of April, 1775, the day when the first blow was
struck for liberty at Lexington, the packet ship _Swallow_ arrived
at Charleston, bringing dispatches for the governors of the Southern
colonies. Among others was a dispatch for the acting governor of South
Carolina, William Bull. His disputes with the Committee of Safety and
the Provincial Congress had risen to a high pitch of acrimony, and the
public mind was greatly excited. Yet all hoped for reconciliation, and
few could believe that civil war would actually ensue. The arrival of
the _Swallow_ extinguished these hopes, for a secret committee who had
been appointed to seize the next mail that should arrive from England,
performed their duty well. **** On opening the dispatches to the
governor, it was found that the British

* Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, and
Edward Rutledge, were appointed delegates.

** Ramsay's History of South Carolina, i., 18; Moultrie's Memoirs, i.,
10. The place of meeting was at a large tavern on the northeast corner
of Broad and Church Streets, commonly called, at that day, "The Corner."

*** The following gentlemen composed the Charleston committee:
Christopher Gadsden, Isaac Huger, William Gibbes, William Parker, Aaron
Locock, Roger Smith, Maurice Simons, John Poang, Thomas Legarc, Sen.,
Edward Simons, Edward Blake, Samuel Prioleau, Jr., Hugh Swinton, John
Champneys, William Host, John Brewton, Alexander Chisholme, Alexander
Chovin, William Livingston, and John Baddeley.

**** This committee consisted of William Henry Drayton, John Neufville,
and Thomas Corbett. After the mail was carried to the post-office, and
before it could be opened, this committee went thither, and demanded it
from Stevens, the postmaster, in the name of the Provincial Congress.
Stevens allowed them to take it, under protest. It was then carried to
the State House and opened. The packages for the governors were retained
and opened; the private letters, with seals unbroken, were returned to
the post-office.

[[[Intentions of the Ministry.--Condition of the People.--Seizure of
Arms and Powder.--Civil Government organized.]]]

{750}ministry had resolved to coerce the colonies into submission. The
royal governors were ordered to seize the arms and ammunition belonging
to the several provinces, raise provincial troops, if possible, and
prepare to receive an army of British regulars to aid them. Gage and
Dunmore, we have seen, acted upon these instructions, but the patriots
of Lexington, Concord, and Williamsburg thwarted them; and the
Charleston Committee of Correspondence, giving those of North Carolina
and Georgia timely warning, enabled them to assume an attitude of
defense before it was too late. A messenger, with these dispatches, was
sent to the Continental Congress, and this was the first intelligence
which that body had of the real intentions of the British ministry.

A few days after the discovery of this scheme, intelligence of the
battle at Lexington arrived. Suspicion now yielded to demonstration;
there was no longer any uncertainty; the mother was arming against her
children; war was inevitable. While patriotism, gushing in full fountain
from the hearts of the people, made them proclaim boldly, We are ready!
sober reason saw the disparity in the strength of the oppressor and the
oppressed. England was then among the first powers of the earth; the
colonies were weak in material defenses. The savage tribes on their
whole western frontier might be brought, like thirsty blood-hounds,
upon them; they possessed not a single ship of war; they had very little
money; at the South, the slaves, by offers of freedom, might become
enemies in their midst; a large number of wealthy, influential,
and conscientious men were loyal to the king; the governors, being
commanders-in-chief, had control of the provincial military forces, and,
if their thoughts had for a moment turned to the Continental powers of
Europe for aid, they were pressed back by the reflection that republican
principles were at variance with the dominant sentiments of the Old
World. And yet they did not hesitate. Pleading the justice of their
cause, they leaned for support upon the strong arm of the God of
Battles.

Having resolved on rebellion, the people of Charleston were not afraid
to commit acts of legal treason. They justly considered that "all
statutes of allegiance were repealed on the plains of Lexington, and
the laws of self-preservation left to operate in full force." * They
accordingly concerted a plan, like their brethren in Savannah (see page
726), to secure the arms and ammunition in the city, and on the night
of the twentieth of April they seized upon all the munitions of war they
could find. This was the first overt act of resistance, and at that hour
began the Revolution, in earnest, in South Carolina.

A second session of the Provincial Congress commenced on the first
of June. An association, drawn up by Henry Laurens, was adopted; ** a
permanent Committee of Safety was appointed; an issue of six hundred
thousand dollars in paper money was ordered, and two regiments of
infantry, of five hundred men each, and a battalion of cavalry or
rangers, was directed to be raised. Some gentlemen were sent to the West
Indies in a fast-sailing vessel to procure powder, and were fortunate
enough to return with about ten thousand pounds.

After arranging military affairs, the attention of the Assembly was next
turned to the organization of civil government. A Council of Safety was
appointed to act during the recess of the Provincial Congress, to whom
all the powers of that body were delegated. *** They had the entire
control of the army; were clothed with power to contract debts for
the public service, and to issue coin and bills of credit. With this
organization, civil government, upon a republican basis, was begun.

During the session of the Congress, Lord William Campbell, **** who had
been appointed

* Ramsay, i., 30.

** The core of this document consisted in the declaration of those who
signed it, that they were "ready to sacrifice life and fortune to secure
the freedom and safety of South Carolina: holding all persons inimical
to the liberties of the colonies who shall refuse to subscribe to the
association."

*** This council consisted of Henry Laurens, Charles Pinckney, Rawlins
Lowndes, Thomas Ferguson, Miles Brewlon, Arthur Middleton, Thomas
Heyward, Jr., Thomas Bee, John Huger, James Parsons, William Henry
Drayton, Benjamin Elliott, and William Williams

**** Lord Campbell was the third brother of the Duke of Argyle. He had
married Sarah Izard, the sister of Ralph Izard, who belonged to the
richest family in the province. The residence of Lord Campbell was on
Meeting Street, now (1851) owned and occupied by Judge D. E. Huger.
Soon finding his residence in Charleston unsafe, he escaped to a British
vessel in the harbor, leaving his family behind. Lady Campbell was
treated with great respect, but finally she too went on board the
vessel, and was landed at Jamaica. The next year (1776), Campbell was on
board the Bristol in the attack upon Charleston, and, while fighting
on the quarter-deck, he was wounded. He died from the effects of his
wounds, two years afterward.

[[[Seizure of Powder at St. Augustine.--Expulsion of Lord Campbell and
the Garrison.--City Defenses.]]]

{751}governor, arrived at Charleston,[[July, 1775]] and was very
courteously received. He professed great love for the people of the
province, and assured them that he would use his best endeavors to
promote the welfare of the inhabitants.

[Illustration: 9761]

Taught by experience to suspect the promises of royalty or its
representatives, the people took measures to test his sincerity. The
hollowness of his professions was proven, and turning their backs upon
him, the patriots proceeded in their preparations for armed resistance.
A vessel was fitted out by the Committee of Safety to attempt the
capture of an English sloop laden with powder, then lying at St.
Augustine. The expedition was successful, and fifteen thousand pounds
of powder were brought safely into Charleston, though chased by cruisers
sent out by Campbell. Part of this powder, which was sent to the
Continental Congress for the use of the grand army, was used by Arnold
and his men in the siege of Quebec at the close of 1775.

Early in September,[[1775]] Colonel Moultriel proceeded to take
possession of the fort on Sullivan's Island, in Charleston harbor.

[Illustration: 8761]

The small garrison made no resistance, but fled to the British sloops of
war _Tamar_ and _Cherokee,_ then lying in Rebellion Roads, in front
of Fort Sullivan. Lord Campbell, perceiving the storm of popular
indignation against him daily increasing, particularly when it became
known that he was endeavoring to incite the Indians on the frontier to
lift the hatchet for the king, and was tampering with the Tories in the
interior, also fled to these vessels for shelter, and thus "abdicated"
royal power.[[Sept. 14]]

The Provincial Council now increased the defenses of the city, and
organized a company of artillery. They also took measures for fortifying
the harbor. Lieutenant-colonel Motte, accompanied by Captains Charles
Cotes worth Pinckney, Bernard Elliot, and Francis Marion, took
possession of Fort Johnson,-on James Island, and on the same evening,
Captain Heyward, with thirty-five of the Charleston artillery, went down
and mounted three guns in the place of those spiked by the garrison when
they fled.

Three days afterward, the first Republican flag displayed at the South
was floating over the main bastion of the fortress. **

* William Moultrie was a native of South Carolina. He was born in 1730.
We find him first in public-service as an officer, in the expedition
against the Cherokees in 1760. He was also in subsequent expeditions
against that unhappy people. When the Revolution broke out, he was among
the earliest in South Carolina to take the field on the Republican side.
His defense of the fort on Sullivan's Island in 1776. gave him great
eclat, and he was promoted to brigadier. He gained a battle over the
British near Beaufort in 1779, and in May, 1780, was second in command
when Charleston was besieged. He went to Philadelphia while a prisoner
of war, and did not return to South Carolina until 1782. He was several
times chosen governor of the state, and retired from public life only
when the infirmities of age demanded repose. He published his Memoirs
of the Revolution, relating to the war in the South, in two volumes, in
1802, printed by David Longworth, of New York. Governor Moultrie died
at Charleston on the twenty-seventh of September, 1805, at the age of
seventy-five years.

** Moultrie, in his Memoirs, says, "As there was no national flag at
the time, I was desired by the Council of Safety to have one made,
upon which, as the state troops were clothed in blue, and the fort was
garrisoned by the first and second regiments, who wore a silver crescent
on the front of their caps, I had a large blue flag made, with a
crescent in the dexter corner, to be in uniform with the troops. This
was the first American flag displayed in the South."--Vol. i., p. 90.

[[[Fortifications around Charleston.--Fort Moultrie.--Organization of
Civil Government.--John Rutledge.]]]

{752}Colonel Moultrie soon afterward mounted some heavy cannons
upon Haddrell's Point, and the troops in and around Charleston were
ordered[[Sept. 16, 1775]] to hold themselves in readiness, for it
was expected that the _Tamar_ and _Cherokee_ would, pursuant to Lord
Campbell's menaces, open a fire upon the town or the forts. A magazine
was built at Dorchester, and ten thousand pounds of powder were sent
thither. A small fort was also erected upon the Cheraw Hills, on the
Great Pedee, to give confidence to the Whigs in that region where
Campbell's emissaries had been. In December, Moultrie, with a
considerable force, took possession of Sullivan's Island and commenced
the erection of a fascine battery.

[Illustration: 9762]

This advantage, and a few long shots from Haddrell's Point (where a
battery had been erected), caused the _Tamar_ and _Cherokee_ to leave
the harbor. Lord Campbell, despairing of maintaining his power, sailed
to Jamaica. It was during these events upon the sea-board in the course
of the autumn of 1775 that the organization of the Tories in Ninety-Six
and other portions of the upper country, already noticed, occurred.

Colonel Gadsden assumed command of all the troops in Charleston early
in 1776, and the Council of Safety commissioned him a brigadier.
Colonel Moultrie was ordered[[March, 1776]] to build a strong fort upon
Sullivan's Island, large enough to accommodate one thousand men, and
to take the command there. * This measure was considered necessary, for
certain intelligence had arrived that a fleet and army were preparing to
assail Charleston, and a fort at the point designated would be a key
to the harbor, with the aid of Fort Johnson. The civil government
was revised; a temporary Constitution was formed ** (the first in the
colonies); and the Legislature was called the _General Assembly of South
Carolina_. It possessed all powers of supreme local government. John
Rutledge *** was chosen president, with the actual powers of governor; and
other executive officers, with a privy and a legislative council, were
elected by the new Assembly. ****

* This fort was constructed of palmetto logs, in sections, and filled in
with sand. The merlons were sixteen feet thick, and sufficiently high
to cover the men from the fire that might be directed upon them from the
tops of the British vessels. It was first called Fort Sullivan, being
upon the island of that name, but was named Fort Moultrie, after its
gallant defense by its commander, in June, 1776. When I visited its
site (a portion of which is covered by the modern strong works of Fort
Moultrie) in 1849, some of the palmetto logs were visible, imbedded in
the sand. The annexed engraving shows the plan of the fort when attacked
in June, 1776, before it was completed. The drawing of the fort in the
text is from a large plan by an English engineer, who was attached to
the British fleet.

** This Constitution was to remain in force until October of the same
year.

*** John Rutledge was the son of Doctor John Rutledge, who came to
America, from Ireland, in 1735. He studied law at the Temple in London,
and returned to Charleston in 1761. He espoused the republican cause
at an early period of the dispute, and was a member of the first
Continental Congress m 1774. When the temporary Constitution of South
Carolina was adopted in the spring of 1776, he was appointed president
and commander-in-chicf of the colony. When the new and permanent
Constitution was established two years later, he refused his assent,
because he thought it too democratic. His prejudices yielded, however,
and in 1779 he was chosen governor under it, with the temporary power of
a dictator. He took the field at the head of the militia, and with great
skill and energy managed the affairs of the state until the fall of
Charleston in May, 1780. After the war, he was made judge of the Court
of Chancery, and in 1789 a judge of the Supreme Court of the United
States. He was appointed chief justice of South Carolina in 1791, and in
1796 was elevated to the seat of chief justice of the United States. He
died in July, 1800.

**** Henry Laurens was elected vice-president, William Henry Drayton,
chief justice; * Alexander Moultrie, attorney general; John Huger,
secretary; Hugh Rutledge, judge of the admiralty; and James Parsons,
William H. Drayton, John Edwards, Charles Pinckney, Thomas Ferguson, and
Rawlins Lowndes, members of the Privy Council.

* In April, about a month after his appointment, Chief-justice
Drayton delivered an able charge to the Grand Jury on the subject of
independence. Its effects were powerful, salutary, and extensive. In
South Carolina its arguments convinced the dubious, and its boldness,
both of reason and expression, strengthened the feeble and upheld the
wavering. It was published in all of the Whig papers of the Northern
colonies; was commented upon by the London press, and received the
warmest expressions of approbation from the friends of the colonists
every where.

[[[Defenses of Charleston Harbor.--Arrival of Generals Armstrong and
Lee.--Arrival of the British.]]]

{753}After passing a few necessary laws, the Assembly adjourned,[[April
11, 1776]]the Council of Safety and General Committee were dissolved,
and a constitutional government began.

The president and privy council were vested with executive power to
administer the government during the recess of the Legislature.

Under the efficient direction of President Rutledge, Charleston and
vicinity were well prepared for defense in the spring of 1776.

[Illustration: 8763]

About one hundred pieces of cannon were mounted at various points
around the harbor, and a strong battery was erected at Georgetown.
Brigadier-general John Armstrong, of Pennsylvania, arrived in April,
and took the general command; and early in June,[[June 4]] Major-general
Charles Lee reached Charleston. He had been sent by General Washington,
after the expulsion of the British from Boston, to watch the movements
of General Sir Henry Clinton, and to command the troops for the defense
of the Southern sea-board. Lee's known experience, skill, and bravery
gave the people great confidence, and the alarm which had prevailed
since the appearance of a British squadron off Dewees Island, five days
before, soon subsided. Lee was indefatigable in his preparations for
the defense of Charleston, and was generally satisfied with all the
arrangements of the local authorities. The garrison at Fort Sullivan
worked day and night to complete it, and when the British fleet
appeared, about thirty heavy pieces of cannon were mounted upon it. *

The British fleet bearing a land force, and both designed to act against
the Southern colonies in the campaign of 1776, was commanded by
Admiral Sir Peter Parker (portrayed on the next page). Its approach was
providentially discovered in time ** to allow the Carolinians to prepare
for defense, and for Washington to dispatch Lee and Armstrong, officers
of experience, to aid them. Parker reached the Cape Fear early in May,
where he was joined by Sir Henry Clinton, from New York, who assumed
the chief command of all the land troops. On the fourth of June, the
day when General Lee arrived, the fleet appeared off Charleston bar, and
several hundred land troops took possession of Long Island, which lies
eastward of Sullivan's Island, and is separated from it only by a narrow
creek.

All was now activity among the patriots. The militia of the surrounding
country obeyed the summons of Governor Rutledge with great alacrity, and
flocked to the town. These, with the regular troops of South Carolina,
and those of the Northern colonies who had come with Armstrong and Lee,
made an available force of between five and six thousand men. Gadsden
commanded the first regiment of South Carolina regulars at Fort Johnson,
on James's Island, three miles from Charleston; Colonel Moultrie those
at Fort

* General Moultrie says that Lee ordered a bridge of boats to be
constructed for a retreat. There were not boats enough, and empty
hogsheads, with planks across, were tried, but without success. Lee
was very anxious on this point, and felt that in case of attack, the
garrison must be sacrificed. "For my part, says Moultrie, "I never was
uneasy on not having a retreat, because I never imagined that the enemy
could force me to that necessity."

** Early in April, Lord Dunmore sent a boat to Annapolis, with
dispatches for Governor Eden, from Lord Dartmouth. James Barron, then
cruising in the Chesapeake, captured this boat and conveyed the papers
to Williamsburg. Dartmouth's communication revealed the whole plan of
operations. It was dated December 23, 1775.

[[[Rutledge's rigorous Measures.--Clinton's Preparations for
Attack.--Commencement of the Action.]]]

{754}Sullivan; and Colonel Thomson, the advanced post on the east end
of Sullivan's Island. Thomson's troops were chiefly riflemen. There was
also a strong force at Haddrell's Point, under the immediate command of
General Lee. In the city, governor Rutledge, impelled by the necessities
of the hour, and under the belief that an attempt would be made to pass
the forts and land the troops in the city, pursued the rigorous course
of martial law.

[Illustration: 9764]

Valuable stores on the wharves were torn down, and a line of defenses
was made in their places. The streets near the water were barricaded,
and, on account of the scarceness of lead, many window-sashes of that
material were melted into bullets. He pressed into service seven hundred
negroes with tools, who belonged to Loyalists; and seized, for the
moment, the money and papers of the lukewarm. By these energetic
measures the city was made strong in moral and physical material, and
when the British fleet crossed the bar, all were ready to receive them.

While these preparations were in progress by the Republicans, Sir Henry
Clinton was busy in arranging for a combined attack with the land and
naval forces. He constructed two batteries upon Long Island, to confront
those of Thomson upon Sullivan's Island, and to cover the passage of his
troops in boats and in fording from the former to the latter, for Fort
Sullivan, the main work in the harbor, was the devoted mark for the
first blow.

[Illustration: 8764]

Its garrison consisted of only three hundred and forty-four regulars
and a few volunteer militia, and its only aid was an armed sloop, with
powder, which was anchored off Haddrell's Point, now Point Pleasant.

At half past ten o'clock on the morning of the twenty-eighth of June,
Sir Peter Parker, on board his flag-ship, the Bristol, made the signal
for attack. His fleet immediately advanced, and, with springs on their
cables, anchored in front of Fort Sullivan. * The Active, Bristol,
Experiment, and Solebay led to the attack, and anchored nearest the
fort. At the moment of anchoring, the fort poured a heavy fire upon
them, and each vessel returned the compliment by delivering a broadside
upon the little fortress, but with almost harmless effect upon the
spongy palmetto logs. ** It was a little before eleven o'clock when the
action began, and terrible to the people of Charleston, who looked upon
the contest from balconies, roofs, and steeples, was the roar of three
hundred cannons.

To the little garrison the peril seemed great, yet they maintained their
fire with precision and coolness. Perceiving the unfinished state of the
fort on the western side, toward

* The British vessels brought into action were the Bristol and
Experiment, of fifty guns each; the frigates Active, Solebay, Actseon,
Syren, and Sphynx, of twenty-eight guns each; the Thunder-bomb, and
Ranger, sloop, each of twenty-eight guns; and the Friendship, an armed
vessel of twenty-two guns.

** The palmetto is peculiar to the low sandy shores of the Southern
States. It grows from twenty to forty feet in height, without branches,
terminating in a large tuft of very long leaves. The wood is very
porous, and a bullet or cannon-ball, on entering it, makes no extended
fracture. It becomes buried, without injuring adjacent parts.

[[[Clinton Repulsed.--Cannonade of Fort Sullivan.--Fate of the British
Fleet.]]]

{755}Charleston, Parker ordered the Sphynx, Actæon, and Syren to take
a position in the channel on that side, so as to enfilade the garrison.
Had they succeeded, surrender or certain destruction must have been the
alternative for the Americans. The three vessels advanced to execute the
orders, when they all struck upon a shoal called the Middle Ground, and
while thus entangled a very destructive fire was poured upon them from
the fort. The Sphynx got off with the loss of her bowsprit, and the
Syren without much injury, and withdrew to another part of the harbor;
but the Actæon was too thoroughly grounded to be moved. Simultaneously
with the advance of the ships to the attack of Fort Sullivan, Clinton's
batteries upon Long Island, and some floating batteries in the creek,
opened upon those of Thomson; and a portion of the British land forces
embarked in boats under cover of their artillery, to force their way
to assail the fort on the west, where it was unfinished, or at least to
prevent Lee from sending re-enforcements or ammunition from Haddrell's
Point, across the bridge of boats which had now been constructed.
Clinton's whole regular force on Long Island was about two thousand
troops, and between five and six hundred seamen. Colonel Thomson had
only two cannons, but his riflemen were among the best marksmen in the
state. He allowed Clinton's flotilla to approach within musket shot,
when he opened a destructive fire upon them from his battery and small
arms. Several attempts to advance were made, and every time the sure
marksmen of Carolina swept many from the boats, and Clinton was obliged
to abandon his design. Lee, who had perceived the weakness of the fort
on its western side, and penetrated the design of Clinton, observed
this retrograde movement with joy; and when at about two o'clock, the
garrison ceased firing, on account of the exhaustion of ammunition, he
sent a sufficient supply from Haddrell's Point and a schooner, and the
defensive cannonade was resumed.

The fire from the ships was almost incessant, and yet the patriots in
the fort were firm. * Their shots were dreadfully effective, and the
ships were severely battered and maimed. Anxiously the seamen and
marines turned their eyes toward the East, expecting aid from Clinton,
but it did not appear. For ten long hours, while the iron storm from the
fort was beating their ships in pieces, and sweeping whole ranks from
the decks, scarcely a ray of hope appeared for the seamen; and when the
sun went down, its last gleams were upon the scarlet coats and burnished
arms of the British, yet upon Long Island, and kept at bay by Thomson's
batteries and sure-aimed riflemen. The contest continued without
intermission until sunset, when it slackened, and at half past nine in
the evening it entirely ceased. At eleven o'clock the shattered vessels
slipped their cables and withdrew to Five Fathom Hole, about two
miles northeastward of Fort Johnson, except the Actæon, which remained
aground. Early the next morning the garrison fired a few shots at her,
which were returned. At the same time, Clinton made another effort to
cross from Long Island to Sullivan's Island, but Thomson confronted
him with such hot volleys, that he was obliged to retreat behind his
batteries. Perceiving further efforts to reduce the fort, especially in
his

* Burke, in his Annual Register, gave the following graphic account of
the naval engagement and the fort: "While the continued thunder from the
ships seemed sufficient to shake the firmness of the bravest enemy, and
daunt the courage of the most veteran soldier, the return made by the
fort could not fail of calling for the respect, as well as of highly
incommoding the brave seamen of Britain. In the midst of that dreadful
war of artillery, they stuck with the greatest firmness and constancy to
their guns, fired deliberately and slowly, and took a cool and effective
aim. The ships suffered accordingly; they were torn to pieces, and the
slaughter was dreadful. Never did British valor shine more conspicuous,
and never did our marines, in an engagement of the same nature with
any foreign enemy, experience as rude an encounter. The springs of the
Bristol's cable being cut by the shot, she lay for some time exposed in
such a manner to the enemy's fire as to be most dreadfully raked. The
brave Captain Morris, after receiving a number of wounds, which would
have sufficiently justified a gallant man in retiring from his station,
still with a noble obstinacy disdained to quit his duty, until his arm
being at length shot off, he was carried away in a condition which did
not afford a possibility of recovery. It is said that the quarter-deck
of the Bristol was at one time cleared of every person but the
commodore, who stood alone, a spectacle of intrepidity and firmness
which have seldom been equaled, never exceeded. The others on that deck
were either killed or carried down to have their wounds dressed. Nor did
Captain Scott, of the Experiment, miss his share of the danger or glory,
who, besides the loss of an arm, received so many other wounds, that his
life was at first despaired of."

[[[Burning of the Actseon.--Effect of the Battle.--The Loss.--Bravery of
Sergeant Jasper.]]]

{756}crippled condition, to be futile, Parker ordered the crew of the
Actæon to set fire to and abandon her. They did so, leaving the colors
flying and guns loaded. When they had left, the Americans boarded her,
secured her colors as a trophy, carried off the ship's bell, fired her
guns at the Bristol, loaded three boats with stores, and set her on
fire. Within half an hour after they left her, she blew up.

This battle was one of the severest during the whole war, and while it
redounded to the military glory of the Americans, and greatly increased
the patriot strength at the South, it was regarded by the British as
peculiarly disastrous, aside from the actual loss of life and property
in the action. * This discomfiture occurred at a time when the British
were desirous of making the most favorable impression here and in
Europe, for Lord Howe was then on his way as a _commissioner_ to settle
all disputes, or as a _commander_ to prosecute the war. His course was
to be determined by circumstances. This was the first time that the
Americans had encountered a regular British fleet. The fact that it had
been terribly shattered and driven to sea was very humiliating to the
vanquished, and, at the same time, encouraging to the victors, at a
moment when a brilliant act like this was of immense moment to the
Republican cause.

On the morning after the battle, the British fleet left Charleston
harbor, and proceeded to Long Island to recruit. Almost every vessel
was obliged to remain for that purpose. On the thirty-first, General
Clinton, with Cornwallis and the troops, escorted by the Solebay
frigate, with Sir Peter Parker on board, sailed for New York with a
heavy heart.

The joy of the Americans on account of this victory was unbounded, and
the praises of the actors were upon all lips. On the day when Clinton
sailed,[[June 31]] the lady of Bernard Elliot ** presented Colonel
Moultrie's regiment with a pair of elegant colors.

* The loss on board of the ships was frightful. Every man stationed on
the quarter-decks of the vessels, at the beginning of the action, was
either killed or wounded. The commodore suffered a slight contusion.
Captain Morris soon afterward died of his wounds. Forty men were killed
and seventy-one wounded, on board the Bristol. The Experiment had
twenty-three killed and seventy-six wounded. Her commander, Captain
Scott, lost an arm. Lord William Campbell, the last royal governor
of the province, who served as a volunteer, was badly wounded at the
beginning of the action. The whole loss of the British, in killed and
wounded, was two hundred and twenty-five. The Bristol had not less than
seventy balls put through her. When the spring of her cable was cut, she
swung round with her stern toward the fort, and instantly every gun that
could be brought to bear upon her hurled its iron balls upon her. At the
beginning of the action, Moultrie gave the word, "Mind the commodore and
the fifty gun ships!" These were the principal sufferers. Although the
Thunder-bomb cast more than fifty shells into the fort, not one of them
did serious damage. There was a large moat, filled with water, in
the center of the fort, which received nearly all of the shells, and
extinguished the fusees before the fire reached the powder. Others
were buried in the sand, and did no harm. Only ten of the garrison were
killed and twenty-two wounded. Most of these were injured by shots which
passed through the embrasures. Moultrie says that, after the battle,
they picked up, in and around the fort, twelve hundred shot of different
calibre that were fired at them, and a great number of thirteen inch
shells.

* During the action, Sergeant William Jasper, whom we have already met
at the Spring, near Savannah, and witnessed his death while planting
the Carolina flag upon the parapet of the British works, at the siege of
that town, performed a daring feat. At the commencement of the action,
the flag-staff was cut away by a ball from a British ship, and the
Crescent flag of South Carolina, that waved opposite the Union flag upon
the western bastion, fell outside, upon the beach. Jasper leaped the
parapet, walked the length of the fort, picked up the flag, fastened it
upon a sponge staff, and in the midst of the iron hail pouring upon the
fortress, and in sight of the whole fleet, he fixed the flag firmly upon
the bastion. Three cheers greeted him as he ascended to the parapet and
leaped, unhurt, within the fort. On the day after the battle, Governor
Rutledge visited the fort, and rewarded Jasper for his valor by
presenting him with his own handsome small sword which hung at his
side, and thanked him in the name of his country. He offered him a
lieutenant's commission, but the young hero, who could neither read
nor write, modestly refused it, saying, "I am not fit to keep officer's
company; I am but a sergeant."

** Mrs. Elliot is represented as one of "the most busy among the
Revolutionary women, and always active among soldiers." She was a niece
of Mrs. Rebecca Motte, the patriot widow of Orangeburg, mentioned on
page 683, and during the whole war was a useful co-worker with her
republican husband. The wife of Charles Elliot, brother of Bernard
Elliot, was also a glorious Whig. Her wit and repartee often scathed
the proud feelings of the British officers, when the royal army occupied
Charleston. On one occasion, Colonel Balfour was walking with her in her
garden, when, pointing to a chamomile flower, he asked its name. "The
rebel flower," she replied. "And why is it ealled the rebel flower?"
asked the officer. "Because," replied Mrs. Elliot, "it always flourishes
most when trampled upon."

[[[Presentation of Standards.--Patriotism not sectional.--Declaration of
Independence.--Fort Sullivan.]]]

{757}These were the standards which were afterward planted on the walls
of Savannah by Bush, Hume, and Jasper. * They were afterward captured
when Charleston fell, and were seen years after the war, among other
British trophies, in the Tower of London. *** The Legislature of South
Carolina changed the name of the fort from Sullivan to Moultrie, in
honor of its brave defender; and on the twentieth of July,[[1776]]
the Continental Congress passed a resolution of thanks to General Lee,
Colonels Moultrie and Thomson, and the officers and men under their
command. ***

For three years after the repulse of the British from Charleston, South
Carolina enjoyed comparative quiet while the war was raging at the
North.

[Illustration: 9767]

Yet her sons were not idle listeners to the roar of cannons in New
England, New York, and Pennsylvania, but flocked thither in hundreds,
under brave leaders, to do battle for their common country. The patriots
of that war were not divided by sectional interests. There was no line
of demarkation over which men hesitated to pass. A desire for the
happiness of the New England people was a twin sentiment with love for
his own fireside, in the heart of the Carolinian and Georgian; and the
bosom of the "Green Mountain Boy" heaved as strongly with emotions of
joy when a blow for freedom was successfully dealt among the rice lands
of the South, as when the shout of victory went up from the heights of
Saratoga.

Upon the western frontiers of the South, the Indians, stirred up by
Tory emissaries, gave the people some trouble; but from the day when
the Declaration of Independence was read at Liberty Tree, **** until the
opening of the campaign of 1779, the people of Charleston continued
in quiet pursuit of lucrative commerce. Yet prosperity did not stifle
aspirations for freedom, nor the accumulation of riches cause hesitation
when danger drew nigh and demanded sacrifices. The spirit of liberty
burned with a light as steady and eternal as the polar star, even amid
the clouds and darkness of intensest sufferings which ensued.

I visited Sullivan's Island on the day of my departure from
Charleston,[[Jan. 29, 1849]] and sauntered for an hour upon the beach
where the old Palmetto Fort once stood.

Nothing of it now remains but a few of the logs imbedded in the drifting
sand. The modern Fort Moultrie is not a large, but a well-constructed
fortification. The island is sandy, and bears no shrub or tree
spontaneously except the Palmetto, and these are not seen in profusion.
On the northwestern

* See page 738.

** Moultrie, i., 182. One of them was of fine blue silk, and the other
of fine red silk, richly embroidered.

*** Journals, ii., 260.

**** Johnson (page 189) relates that on that occasion (fifth of August,
1776) the people of Charleston, young and old, of both sexes, assembled
around Liberty Tree (see page 748) with all the military of the city
and vicinity, drums beating and flags flying. The ceremonies were opened
with prayer. The Declaration was then read by Major Bernard Elliot
(whose lady presented the flags, mentioned on page 756), and were closed
by an eloquent address by the Reverend William Percy, of the Protestant
Episcopal Church It was a hot day, and Mr. Percy's black servant held
an umbrella over his head and fanned him during the delivering of his
address. Alluding to this, a British wag wrote: "Good Mr. Parson, it is
not quite civil To be preaching rebellion, thus fanned by the devil."

* (v) This view is from the southwestern angle of Fort Sullivan, looking
toward James's Island. That angle, with cannons, a portion of the
barracks, and the flag-staff, are seen on the right. The small building
toward the left marks the center of the old Palmetto Fort. In the
distance is seen Fort Sumter, and in the extreme distance, close by
the angle of the fort, is seen the village upon the site of old Fort
Johnson. Charleston bar, at the entrance of the harbor, is about six
miles from the city. The width of the inner harbor, at its mouth,
is about a mile wide. This is guarded by Forts Moultrie, Sumter, and
Johnson, and by Castle Pinckney, a handsome work in front of the city,
within the inner harbor.

[[[The British Lazaretto--Formation of an Army under Lincoln.--Major
Thomas Pinckney.]]]

{785}side of the island are the remains of an old causeway or bridge,
extending to the main, nearly upon the site of a bridge of boats,
which was used during the battle in 1776. It was constructed after that
conflict, at the cost of Christopher Gadsden, and was called Gadsden's
Bridge. The British, when they afterward possessed Charleston, used
it to pass over to their lazaretto, which they erected on Sullivan's
Island. This lazaretto was upon the site of the present Episcopal church
in Moultrieville. A part of the old brick wall was yet standing when I
visited the spot in 1849.

We have already considered the demonstration made by the British at the
South, in the capture of Savannah at the close of 1778, and also
the events in Georgia after the arrival of General Lincoln as
commander-in-chief of the Southern army.

[Illustration: 8768]

Lincoln reached Charleston on the fourth of December,[[1778]]and
proceeded immediately to re-enforce the scattered army
of Howe, after the fall of Savannah.[[Dec. 29, 1778]] On the first
intimation of the designs of the British upon the South, North Carolina
raised about two thousand men, and placed them under Generals Ashe and
Rutherford. They did not arrive in time to aid Howe at Savannah, but
helped to augment the small force of Lincoln. These had entered the
state; and to the concentration of these troops, and the raising of
South Carolina militia, Lincoln bent all his energies. He chose Major
Thomas Pinckney * as his chief aid, and on the twenty-sixth of December,
he marched from Charleston with about three hundred levies of that
vicinity, and about nine hundred and fifty levies and militia of North
Carolina, for the Georgia frontier. On the way, they met the flying
Americans from the disastrous battle at the capital of Georgia, and
on the third of January Lincoln established his head-quarters at
Purysburg, on the north side of the Savannah River. He had been
promised seven thousand men; he had only about fourteen hundred. He had
been promised supplies, instead of which the new levies, and militia
conscripts who were brought to head-quarters, were destitute of tents,
camp utensils, or lead, and had very little powder, and no field-pieces.
The South Carolina militia, under Richardson, were insubordinate, and
rapidly melted away by desertion, or became useless by actual refusal
to be controled by any but their immediate commanders. Happily, their
places were supplied by the arrival of General Ashe with eleven hundred
North Carolinians at the close of January.[[Jan. 31, 1779]]

* Thomas Pinekney was born at Charleston on the twenty-third of October,
1750. His early years were passed in England. At the close of his
studies there, he returned to Charleston, and, with his brother, Charles
Cotesworth Pinekney, was among the earliest and most efficient military
patriots in the provincial regiment raised there. Assured of his talents
and worth, Lincoln appointed him his aid, and in that capacity he served
at the siege of Savannah by the Americans and French in October,
1779. He distinguished himself in the battle at Stono Ferry. He was
aid-de-camp to General Gates in the battle near Camden, where he was
wounded and made a prisoner. When sufficiently recovered, he was sent
to Philadelphia. In 1787, Major Pinckney succeeded General Moultrie as
governor of South Carolina; and in 1792, was appointed by Washington,
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. In November, 1794,
he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Spanish court, and repaired
to Madrid the following summer. He effected a treaty by which the free
navigation of the Mississippi was secured to the United States. He
returned to Charleston in 1796. At the beginning of the war of 1812,
President Madison appointed him to the command of the Southern division
of the army, and it was under General Pinckney that General Andrew
Jackson distinguished himself. After the war, General Pinekney
retired into private life. He died on the 2d of November, 1828, aged
seventy-eight years. He married the daughter of Rebecca Motte.

[[[Battle on Port Royal Island.--Prevost's March toward
Charleston.--Preparations to receive him.]]]

{759}While Lincoln was recruiting and organizing an army near Purysburg,
General Prevost joined Campbell at Savannah, with seven hundred regular
troops from St. Augustine. Hoping to follow up Campbell's success by
striking Charleston, he sent forward Major Gardiner with two hundred
men, to take post on Port Royal Island, within about sixty miles of the
capital of South Carolina. General Moultrie, with about an equal number
of Charleston militia, and two field-pieces, attacked and defeated
Gardiner on the morning of the third of February.[[1779]] The British
lost almost all of their officers, and several privates were made
prisoners. The loss of the Americans was trifling. Gardiner, with the
remnant of his force, escaped in boats and fled to Savannah, while
Moultrie, crossing to the main, pressed forward and joined Lincoln at
Purysburg.

Strengthened by a party of Creeks and Cherokees, for whom a
communication with Savannah was opened by the defeat of General Ashe
on Brier Creek (see page 713), and informed that Lincoln, with his main
army, was far up the river, near Augusta, Prevost determined to attempt
the capture of Charleston. With about two thousand chosen troops, and a
considerable body of Loyalists and Indians, he crossed the Savannah at
Purysburg,[[April 25]] and pushed forward by the road nearest the coast,
toward Charleston.

When Lincoln was informed of this movement of Prevost, he considered
it a feint to draw him from Georgia. With that view he crossed the
Savannah, and for three days marched down its southern side, directly
toward the capital of that state, hoping either to bring Prevost back or
to capture Savannah. In the mean while, he detached Colonel Harris, with
three hundred of his best light troops, to re-enforce Moultrie, who was
retreating before Prevost, toward Charleston. Governor Rutledge, who had
gone up to Orangeburg to embody the militia, advanced at the same time
with six hundred men of that district, and when Lincoln recrossed the
Savannah in pursuit of Prevost, the interesting spectacle was presented
of four armies pressing toward Charleston. *

When Prevost commenced his invading march, Charleston was quite
unprepared for an attack by land. The ferries of the Ashley were not
fortified, and only some weak defenses guarded the Neck. Intelligence
of the invasion aroused all the energies of the civil and military
authorities in the city, and night and day the people labored in casting
up intrenchments across the Neck from the Ashley to the Cooper, under
the general direction of the Chevalier De Cambray, an accomplished
French engineer. The Assembly, then in session, gave Rutledge power only
a little less than was conferred upon him a few months afterward, when
he was made dictator for the time, and the utmost energy was every where
displayed. Lieutenant-governor Bee, with the council, aided the efforts
to fortify the town by necessary legal orders. All the houses in
the suburbs were burned, and within a few days a complete line of
fortifications with _abatis_ was raised across the Neck, on which
several cannons were mounted. Colonel Marion, who commanded the garrison
at Fort Moultrie, was re-enforced, and the battery on Haddrell's Point
was well manned. These arrangements were effected before the arrival
of Prevost, who halted, in hesitation, for three days at Pocataligo,
on account of conflicting intelligence. This delay was fatal to his
success, for it allowed the people of Charleston time to prepare for an
attack.

Lincoln's distance from Charleston with the main army, the retreat of
Moultrie, and the terror inspired by the torch of the invader, who
went on plundering and burning, caused great numbers to remain on their
plantations, and to take protection from Prevost. On the evening of the
ninth of May,[[1779]] he encamped on the south side of the Ashley Rivcr.
On that and the following day, Moultrie, Rutledge, and Harris arrived
with their respective forces. That of Moultrie had dwindled from one
thousand men to about six hundred. He immediately took command of
all the Continental troops, while Rutledge claimed the control of the
militia. This produced some confusion, but no serious misunderstanding.

On the morning of the eleventh of May, Prevost, with nine hundred
regulars, crossed the

* Rutledge, with the men of Orangeburg; Moultrie pursued by Prevost;
Prevost pursued by Lincoln; and Colonel Harris with his corps of light
troops.

[[[Prevost before Charleston.--Pulaski's Attack and Defeat.--Proposition
for Surrender refused.--Expected Attack.]]]

{760}Ashley and appeared before the works on Charleston Neck. He left
his main army and heavy baggage on the south side of the river, and
approaching within cannon shot of the lines, summoned the garrison to
surrender. During the forenoon, Count Pulaski, who was stationed at
Haddrell's Point with his legion, crossed the Cooper Priver and entered
the town, and at noon he led his infantry to attack the British advanced
guard. He was repulsed with great loss.

[Illustration: 0770]

A large portion of his infantry were killed, wounded, or made prisoners.
The commander himself escaped with difficulty to the American lines,
under cover of some discharges of cannon.

Prevost now advanced to within a mile of the American works, when his
progress was checked by a sharp cannonade. He renewed his demand for
a surrender, and the remainder of the day was spent in the passage
of flags. Aware of the approach of Lincoln, the Americans desired
procrastination, and asked time to deliberate. Prevost refused it, and
the city was filled with consternation in expectation of an assault. The
civil authorities, trembling in view of the horrors of a cannonade, sent
a proposition to Prevost to guarantee the neutrality of South Carolina
until the close of the war, and then allow it to follow the fate of its
neighbors, on condition that the royal army should withdraw. Prevost
rejected the proposition, and insisted that, as the garrison were in
arms, they should surrender prisoners of war. To this Moultrie and the
military objected, and every moment until past midnight a cannonade was
expected. * Not an eye closed in slumber, and at three o'clock

* During the evening, an unfortunate accident deprived the state of the
life and services of a brave officer. Having discovered a breach in the
_abatis_, Governor Rutledge, without the knowledge of the garrison, sent
out Major Benjamin Huger * and a small parly to repair it. The garrison
had lighted tar barrels in front of their lines to prevent a surprise,
and by their light Huger and his men were discovered, and believed to be
a party of the enemy. Immediately a fire of cannons, muskets, and rifles
ran along almost the whole line, and poor Huger and twelve of his men
were slain. The folly of having two commanders was perceived, and all
military authority was immediately given to Moultrie. The cannonade
alarmed the town, it being regarded as a prelude! to something more
dreadful.

* Benjamin was one of the five patriot brothers, who were active in
revolutionary scenes. He was the gentleman who first received La Fayette
on his arrival at Georgetown in 1777. His brother Isaac was a brigadier
in the army under Greene; John was Secretary of the Stale of South
Carolina; Daniel was a member of the Continental Congress; and Franeis
K. was quartermaster general of the Southern Department Major Huger's
son, Franeis K., married a daughter of General Thomas Pinekney, and was
that officer's adjutant general during the war of 1812.

[[[Death of Huger.--Withdrawal of the British Army.--Battle at Stone
Ferry.--Retreat of the British.]]]

{761}in the morning, at the solicitation of the civil authorities,
Moultrie sent a message to Prevost, renewing the proposition of the
previous day. It was rejected, and all anxiously awaited the dawn,
expecting a terrible assault. The morning broke clear and serene, but
the eyes of the sentinels upon the batteries, and of anxious watchers
upon the house tops, could perceive no traces of a beleaguing army. For
a moment it appeared as if all had been disturbed by a terrible dream,
but as the sun arose, the scarlet uniforms and burnished arms of the
invaders were seen south of the Ashley. The British host was crossing to
James's Island. The mystery was soon solved. During the night, Prevost
was informed that Lincoln, with four thousand men, was pressing on
toward Charleston, and he feared that his force, hardly sufficient to
attack the town with hopes of success, would be annihilated if placed
between two fires. * He prudently withdrew, and, perceiving his pathway
of approach intercepted by Lincoln, he essayed to escape back to
Savannah, by way of the islands along the coast.

Lincoln soon approached, and both armies encamped within thirty miles
of Charleston, the Americans upon the main, and the British upon John's
Island. ** There they continued for a month, Prevost fearing to move
forward, and Lincoln not feeling quite strong enough to pass over and
attack him. Finally, an attempt to dislodge the British was made. They
had cast up works at Stono Ferry, and garrisoned them with eight hundred
men, under Colonel Maitland, the brave officer who died at. Savannah a
few months later. These were attacked on the morning of the twentieth
of June by about twelve hundred of Lincoln's troops. The contest was
severe, and for an hour and twenty minutes the battle was waged with
skill and valor. A re-enforcement for Maitland appeared, and the
Americans perceived it to be necessary to retreat. When they fell back,
the whole garrison sallied out, but the American light troops covered
the retreat so successfully, that all of the wounded patriots were
brought off. The Americans lost in killed and wounded, one hundred and
forty-six, besides one hundred and fifty-five missing. Of the killed and
wounded twenty-four were officers. The British loss was somewhat less.
Three days afterward, the British evacuated the post at Stono Ferry, and
retreated from island to island, until they reached Beaufort, on Port
Royal. After establishing a post on Ladies' Island, between Port Royal
and St. Helena, they returned in boats to Savannah and St. Augustine.
*** The heat was now becoming intense, and Lincoln's army dispersed,
with the exception of about eight hundred men, with whom he retired to
Sheldon to prepare for the opening of another campaign in October. Thus
closed, ingloriously to the invaders, the second attempt of the British
to possess themselves of the capital of South Carolina.

* According to an imperfect estimate, the number of American troops in
the city was three thousand one hundred and eighty; the British force
numbered about three thousand three hundred and sixty.

** This island is separated from the main land by a narrow inlet, which
is called Stono River. Over this, at a narrow place, there was then (and
is still) a ferry, where the British cast up defensive works.

*** On their retreat across the fertile inlands, on the Carolina coast,
the British committed the most cruel depredations. The people hid their
treasures, but the negroes, who had been promised freedom, repaired in
great numbers to the British camp, and informed the soldiers where their
master's property was concealed. It is believed that in this incursion
three thousand negroes were carried out of the state, many of whom were
shipped to the West Indies and sold. Hundreds died of camp fever upon
Otter Island, and for years afterward their bleaching bones strewed the
ground thereon. The whole loss was more than four thousand, valued at
two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Houses were stripped of plate,
jewelry, clothing, money, and every thing of value that could be carried
away. Live-stock was wantonly slaughtered, and in a few cases females
were violated bv the brutal soldiery.

[[[Charleston after the Invasion.--Condition of South Carolina.--Arrival
of a British Armament.]]]

{762}




CHAPTER XXIX.


[Illustration: 9772]

HE season of repose enjoyed by Charleston after the invasion of Prevost
was brief. When the hot summer months had passed away, both parties
commenced preparations for a vigorous autumn campaign--the British to
maintain their position and extend their conquests, if possible; the
Americans to drive the invaders from the Southern States, or, at least,
to confine them to the sea-ports of Savannah and St. Augustine. The fall
of Savannah was a disastrous event. It was the initial step in those
strides of power which the royal army made a few months later, when
Charleston fell, when the patriot army of the South was crushed, and
when the civil institutions of South Carolina and Georgia, established
by the Republicans, were prostrated at the feet of the conquerors.

During the winter preceding the siege of Charleston, Lincoln's army
had dwindled to a handful, chiefly on account of the termination of the
enlistments, and the hesitation of the militia when, called to service,
because of the defeat at Savannah and the apparent hopelessness of
further resistance.

[Illustration: 8772]

The prison-ships at Savannah were crowded with the captives of the
Georgia regiments, and the heel of British power, planted firmly upon
the patriots of that state, made the Loyalists bold and active. All
along the Southern frontier of South Carolina the voice of rebellion was
subdued to a whisper, and a fearful cloud of hostile savages, gathered
by the emissaries of the crown, frowned sullenly and threatening upon
her western borders; while within her bosom, bands of unprincipled
Tories, encouraged by others more respectable but passive, were
endeavoring, by menaces and promises, to sap the foundation of
Republican strength. Such was the condition of South Carolina when
a British fleet, under Admiral Arbuthnot, bearing five thousand land
troops, commanded by Sir Henry Clinton,1 appeared off Edisto Inlet,
within thirty miles of Charleston, toward the close of the winter of
1780.[[Feb. 10, 1780]]

They came to subjugate the whole South, the chief feature in the
programme of operations for that year.

The Assembly of South Carolina was in session when the enemy appeared.
Governor Rutledge was immediately clothed with the powers of supreme
dictator, and with judgment

* Henry Clinton, K. B., was a son of George Clinton, governor of New
York in 1743, and grandson of the Earl of Lincoln. He served in the
British army on the Continent, during the Seven Years' War, and came to
America with General Howe in the spring of 1775, bearing the commission
of a major general. He was distinguished at the battle of Bunker Hill;
commanded in New York, and operated against the forts among the Hudson
Highlands in 1777; and in 1778, succeeded Sir William Howe in the
supreme command. After he evacuated Philadelphia, he went to New York,
where he continued his head-quarters until he left the country, in 1782.
He was appointed governor of Gibraltar in 1795, and died there on the
twenty-seeond of December, the same year. His signature is printed on
page 350.

[[[Tardiness of ihe Militia.--Clinton's Mistake.--Charleston
Strengthened.--Spaniards in Florida.]]]

{763}and vigor he exercised them for the defense of the capital. Yet he
did not accomplish much, for the militia were tardy in obeying his call
to hasten to the city. If Clinton had marched directly upon Charleston
when he landed his troops upon John's Island, he might have conquered
it within a week after his debarkation. * More cautious than wise, he
formed a depot at Wappoo, on James's Island, and tarried more than a
month in preparations for a siege.

General Lincoln was in Charleston with about fourteen hundred troops, a
large portion of them North Carolina levies, whose term of service was
almost expired. The finances of the state were in a wretched condition.

[Illustration: 9763]

The paper money was so rapidly diminishing, that it required seven
hundred dollars to purchase a pair of shoes; and in every department,
civil and military, the patriots were exceedingly weak. Lincoln's first
impulse was to evacuate the city, retire to the upper country, collect
a sufficient army, and then return and drive the invaders from it.
The tardy plans of Clinton changed Lincoln's views. Hoping for
re-enforcements, then daily expected, and also aid from the Spanish
West Indies, ** he resolved to maintain a siege. His first care was to
strengthen the works upon Charleston Neck, cast up the previous year
when Prevost menaced the town. Rutledge ordered three hundred negroes
to be brought from the neighboring plantations to work upon the
fortifications, and within a few days cannons and mortars were mounted;
a trench, filled with water, stretched across the Neck from the Ashley
to the Cooper, and two rows of _abatis_ protected the whole. Fort
Moultrie, the redoubts at Haddrell's Point and Hobcaw, the works
at South Bay, Hospital Point, and all along the city front, were
strengthened and manned. *** Charles Cotesworth Pinckney **** was
placed in command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie. Captain Daniel Horry
was sent to Ashley Ferry to watch the approach of the enemy, and General
Moultrie went southward to gather the militia, direct the movements ffi
the cavalry, and annoy the enemy on his approach.

* On the voyage from New York, one vessel, carrying heavy ordnance for
the siege, foundered and was lost, and nearly all the horses belonging
to the artillery and cavalry perished at sea. Immediately after landing,
Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton was ordered to obtain a fresh supply of
horses. This service he soon performed, bv seizing all that fell in his
way on the plantations upon the islands and the main, some of which were
paid for, and Some were not. The Whigs were not considered entitled
to any pay. Having mounted his cavalry, Tarleton joined a body of one
thousand men, under General Patterson, whom Clinton had ordered from
Savannah to re-enforce him.

** Spain was now at war with Great Britain, and willingly became a party
in our quarrel, with the hope, like France, of crippling English
power. When the approach of the British fleet was made known, Lincoln
dispatched a messenger to Havana to solicit material aid from the
Spanish governor. Direct assistance was refused, but the Spaniards
indirectly aided the Americans. When Clinton was preparing to march upon
Charleston, Don Bernardo de Galvez sailed from New Orleans to reduce
Fort Charlotte, an English post at Mobile. It surrendered to the
Spaniards on the fourteenth of March, 1781, and on the ninth of May,
Pensacola also bowed to Spanish domination. These successes placed the
two Floridas in possession of the Spaniards, except the strong fortress
of St. Augustine.

*** The lines of intrenchments were on the ridge of land whereon St.
Paul's Church, the Orphan House, the "Citadel" (a part of the old
works), and the Presbyterian church now stand.

**** Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born in Charleston on the
twenty-fifth of February, 1746. At the age of seven years, he was taken
to England with his brother, Thomas, by their father (Chief-justice
Pinckney), where he was educated, and also studied law. In 1769 he
returned to Charleston, after visiting the Continent. In England he took
part against the Stamp Act with its opposers there, and, on reaching
his native country, he eagerly espoused the cause of the patriots. He
commenced the practice of law in 1770, and soon became eminent. When a
regiment was formed in Charleston in 1775, of which Gadsden was colonel,
Pinekney was appointed a captain, and was at Newborn for a while on
recruiting service. He was active in the defense of Charleston in 1776.
In 1778, he accompanied General Howe in his expedition to Florida.
He assisted in the repulse of Prevost in 1779. and in the defense
of Charleston in 1780. When the city fell, he became a prisoner, and
suffered much from sickness and cruel treatment. He was exchanged in
February, 1782, when the war was almost ended. He was soon afterward
raised to the brevet rank of brigadier. On the return of peace,
he resumed the practice of his profession. He was a member of the
convention which formed the Constitution of the United States.
Washington offered him a seat in his cabinet, which he declined, and
in 1796 he accepted the appointment of minister to the French Republic.
There he had a delicate duty to perform, and while in the midst of
personal peril in the French capital he uttered that noble sentiment.
"Millions fur defense, not one cent for tribute.'" In 1797, Mr. Pinckney
was appointed the second major general in the army under Washington, and
for many years he was an active politician. For about twenty-five
years he lived in elegant retirement, in the enjoyment of books and the
pleasures of domestic happiness. He died on the sixteenth of August,
1825, in the eightieth year of his age.

[[[Whipple's Flotilla.--Passage of the Ashley by the British.--British
Fleet in the Harbor.--Advance of Clinton]]]

{764}The little flotilla of Commodore Whipple, then in the harbor, was
ordered to oppose the passage of the British fleet over the bar, but
his vessels were small and thinly manned, and little reliance was placed
upon them. The inhabitants viewed the gathering dangers with increasing
alarm. Knowing the weakness of Lincoln's army, and desirous of
saving it, as their only hope for the future, the citizens advised
an evacuation before it should be too late. Lincoln, hourly expecting
re-enforcements, was hopeful, and expressing a belief that he might
maintain a siege, or leave at a future time, if necessary, he resolved
to remain, at the same time taking measures for keeping open a
communication with the country toward the Santee.

On the twenty-eighth of March the royal army crossed the Stono, marched
to the Ashley, at Old Town (the site of ancient Charleston), and there
crossed that stream toward evening. They had strengthened Fort Johnson,
cast up intrenchments along the Ashley to confront those of the
Americans upon the opposite shore, and galleys were in motion to enter
the harbor and anchor in the Ashley. The army moved slowly down the
Neck, and on Sunday morning, the first of April, broke ground within
eleven hundred yards of the American works, then defended by about
eighty cannons and mortars. They were annoyed all the way by a parly of
light horsemen under Lieutenant-colonel John Laurens, and lost between
twenty and thirty men in the skirmishes.

Admiral Arbuthnot entered the harbor on the twentieth of March with his
smaller vessels and transports, drove Whipple with his little fleet
from Five Fathom Hole, and while exposed to an enfilading fire from Fort
Moultrie, * sailed near to James s Island and anchored under the guns
of Fort Johnson, within cannon shot of the town. Pinckney hoped that
Whipple would retard the British vessels, and allow him to batter them,
as Moultrie did four years before; but the commodore, with prudent
caution, retreated to the mouth of the Cooper River, and sunk most of
his own and some merchant vessels between the town and Shute's Folly
(marked boom on the opposite map), and thus formed an effectual bar to
the passage of British vessels up the channel to rake the American
works upon the Neck. Clinton advanced to Hamstead Hill on the
fifth,[[April,1780]] and in the face of a sharp fire, erected a battery
and mounted twelve cannons upon it. He and

Arbuthnot now demanded an immediate surrender of the town and garrison.
Brigadier Woodford had just arrived with seven hundred Virginians, and
reported others on their way. The citizens urged Lincoln to maintain a
siege, for rumors had come that large numbers were pressing forward from
the North to the relief of the city. Thus strengthened by fresh troops
*** and public opinion, Lincoln assured the besiegers that he should
continue his defense until the last extremity. Forty-eight hours
elapsed, when Clinton opened his bat-

* In this passage the British lost twenty-seven seamen killed, and a
transport which ran aground and was burned by its crew.

* Woodford had marched five hundred miles within twenty-eight days. On
the day of his arrival the terms of enlistment of about seven hundred
North Carolinians expired, and they all went home at an hour when they
were most needed.

[[[Attack upon Charleston--Surprise of Huger.--Arrival of
Cornwallis.--Proposed Surrender rejected.]]]

{765}teries upon the town and fortifications, and a terrible cannonade
from both parties was kept up from that time until the twentieth.

When the British were about to open their batteries, Governor Rutledge,
leaving the civil power in the hands of his lieutenant Gadsden, went
into the country, between the Cooper and Santee Rivers, to arouse the
militia and keep a communication open with the town in that direction.

[9775]

Lincoln sent his cavalry (about three hundred men), with General Isaac
Huger in command, to watch the country in the vicinity of the head
waters of the Cooper River. Led through the woods by a negro, Tarleton,
with his legion cavalry, fell upon Huger at Biggin Bridge, near Monk's
Coiner, at dawn on the fourteenth of April, and scattered his troops,
who were unsuspicious of danger. Twenty-five Americans were killed;
the remainder fled to the swamps. Tarleton secured almost three hundred
horses, and then scouring the country between the Cooper and Wando,
returned in triumph to the British camp.

Four days after the surprise of Huger,[[April 18]] Cornwallis arrived at
Charleston with three thousand troops from New York. Thus strengthened,
Clinton enlarged the area of his operations. Detachments were sent
into the country, and drove the Americans back. Governor Rutledge was
compelled to flee higher up the Santee; Haddrell's Point was taken
possession of and fortified; supplies from the surrounding country were
cut off, and every avenue for escape seemed closed. Lincoln called a
council of war,[[April 21]] and an attempted retreat to the open country
was proposed. The inhabitants objected, because they feared the invading
army was too exasperated by the obstinate defense already made, to spare
them in person and property. With rapine and pillage before them, they
implored Lincoln to remain. Terms of capitulation, which allowed the
army to withdraw to the interior, and the property of the citizens to be
undisturbed, were agreed upon and proposed to Clinton. Clinton would not
acquiesce, and the terrible work of siege went on. The Americans made
but one sortie, and that did not seriously damage the British or impede
their progress, * and on the sixth of May ** the besiegers completed

* At daybreak on the twenty-fourth of April, a party under
Lieutenant-colonel Henderson made a sortie, surprised a British picket,
and with the bayonet killed about twenty of them. Twelve were made
prisoners. Captain Moultrie, a brother of the general, was killed, and
two other Americans were wounded.

** This day was marked by disasters to the Americans. On that morning,
Colonel Anthony Walton White, of New Jersey, with the collected remnant
of Huger's cavalry, had crossed the Santee and captured a small party of
British. While waiting at Lanneau's Ferry for boats to recross the
river with his prisoners, a Tory informed Cornwallis of his situation.
Tarleton was detached with a party of horse to surprise White, and was
successful. A general rout of the Americans ensued. About thirty of
them were killed, wounded, or captured, and the prisoners were retaken.
Lieutenant-colonel Washington, with Major Jamieson and a few privates,
escaped by swimming the Santee. Major Call and seven others fought their
way through the British cavalry, and escaped. At noon on the same
day, the British flag was seen waving over Fort Moultrie, the little
garrison, under Lieutenant-colonel Scott, having been obliged to
surrender to Captain Charles Hudson, of the British Navy.

[[[Continuance of the Siege.--Perils in the City]]]

{766}their third parallel, and in the face of a heavy fire raised
redoubts nearer and nearer the American lines. *

Now fully prepared to storm the town by sea and land, Clinton and
Arbuthnot again demanded a surrender. The situation of the Americans was
deplorable. The garrison consisted of less than three thousand men, a
large portion of them raw militia; provisions of all kinds were becoming
scarce, and the Loyalists in the city were fomenting disaffection among
the distressed inhabitants. The engineers asserted that the lines could
not be defended ten days longer, and that they might be carried by
assault in ten minutes. Bombs and carcasses were falling in every part
of the city with destructive effect, killing women and children, and
setting houses on fire; and the town militia, in utter despair, had
thrown down their arms.

[Illustration: 9776]

Further resistance seemed foolish and inhuman, for success was hardly
possible, and lives and property were hourly sacrificed. The citizens,
appalled by the destructive agencies at work around them, worn out by
want of sleep and anxiety, and coveting any condition other than the
one they were enduring, now expressed their willingness to treat for a
surrender. A flag was sent out, and Clinton's ultimatum was received. He
demanded the surrender of the garrison and the citizens as prisoners of
war, with all the forts and other works, and their appliances, together
with the shipping that remained in the harbor. He would promise nothing
except that the town property of those within the lines should remain
unmolested, and that all prisoners should be paroled. A truce until the
next day[[May 9, 1780]] was asked by the besieged, and was allowed,
when Lincoln again refused compliance with Clinton's demands. At eight
o'clock in the evening the firing commenced again. It was a fearful
night in Charleston. The thunder of two hundred cannons shook the city
like the power of an earthquake, and the moon, then near its full,
with the bright stars, were hidden by the lurid smoke. Shells were seen
coursing in all directions, some bursting in mid air, others falling
upon houses and in the streets, and in five different places the flames
of burning buildings simultaneously shot up from the depths of the city.
"It appeared," says Moultrie, alluding to the bomb-shells, "as if the
stars were tumbling down. The fire was incessant almost the whole
night; cannon-balls whizzing and shells hissing continually among
us; ammunition chests and temporary magazines blowing up; great guns
bursting, and wounded men groaning along the lines; it was a dreadful
night!" The cannonade was continued all the next day and part of the
night, and many Americans were killed by the passage of balls through
the embrasures of their batteries. Sand-bags were freely used for
protection, but these were swept away, until at several points the
besieged were obliged to abandon their works and withdraw. Arbuthnot now
prepared to bombard the town from the water, and the batteries at Fort
Johnson and at Wappoo hurled round shot into the streets. **

At two o'clock on the morning of the eleventh,[[May 1780]]
Lieutenant-governor Gadsden, the council, and many leading citizens,
requested Lincoln to signify his agreement to Clinton's proposed terms
of surrender, if better could not be obtained. A signal

* Clinton's nearest battery in making this approach was on the lot in
Mary Street, formerly used as the lower rail-way depot, and long known,
according to Johnson, as the Fresh-water Pond. This redoubt was several
times demolished by the American cannons, and rebuilt during the
siege.--Johnson's Traditions, &o., 248.

** One of these shots demolished an arm of Pitt's statue, as mentioned
on page 748.

[[[Cessation of Hostilities.--Capitulation and Surrender.--_Cruel
Proclamation.--_The French Fleet]]]

{767}was given, the firing ceased, and before dawn all the guns were
quiet. Articles of capitulation were agreed to, and signed by the
respective commanders, and by Christopher Gadsden in behalf of the
citizens. * Between eleven and twelve o'clock on the twelfth of May,
the Continental troops marched out with the Turk's march, and laid down
their arms, after a gallant and desperate defense of about forty days.
General Leslie immediately marched in and took possession of the town.

Great skill and courage were brought to bear upon the patriots during
the siege, and never was a defense more obstinate and heroic, and yet it
was not a bloody one. The loss on both sides in killed and wounded was
nearly equal; that of the Americans, exclusive of the inhabitants of
the town not bearing arms, was ninety-two killed, and one hundred
and forty-eight wounded. The British lost seventy-six killed, and one
hundred and eighty nine wounded. The number of prisoners, including the
inhabitants of the town, was between five and six thousand. About four
hundred cannons were a part of the spoils of victory. Thirty houses were
destroyed during the siege.

The fall of Charleston, and loss of Lincoln's army, paralyzed the
Republican strength at the South, and the British commanders confidently
believed that the finishing-stroke of the war had been given. Lincoln
suffered the infliction of unsparing censure, because he allowed himself
to be thus shut up in a town; but had he repulsed the enemy, or the
siege been raised, as at one time contemplated, *** the skill and wisdom
of his course would have exceeded all praise.

Sir Henry Clinton now proceeded to re-establish the civil power of Great
Britain in South Carolina. In proclamations, he made many promises of
benefits to the obedient, and menaced the refractory with the miseries
of confiscation of property and personal punishments. Finally, he
offered pardon[[June 1, 1780]] to all who should submit and crave it,
and promised political franchises such as the people had never enjoyed.
Lured by these promises, the timid and lukewarm flocked to Charleston,
took protection, and many entered the military service of the king. Two
hundred and ten influential citizens in Charleston agreed to an address
of congratulation on the restoration of order and the ancient bond of
union between the province and Great Britain. This movement, with the
hasty retreat northward of troops marching to the relief of Charleston,
and the destruction of Buford s command (see page 664) on the Waxhaw,
almost effaced every lineament of resistance in the South. As we have
seen, garrison's were posted in the interior, and the voice of rebellion
was hushed.

Clinton and Arbuthnot sailed for New York on the fifth of June, leaving
Cornwallis in chief command of the British troops at the South. Before
his departure, Clinton issued a proclamation, declaring all persons not
in the military service, who were made prisoners at Charleston, released
from their paroles, provided they returned to their allegiance as
subjects of Great Britain. So far, well; but not the sequel. All persons
refusing to comply with this requisition were declared to be _enemies
and rebels, and were to be treated accordingly._

* The terms of the capitulation were partly honorable and partly
humiliating. The town, fortifications and shipping, artillery and
stores, were to be given up; the Continental troops and sailors were to
be conducted to some place to be agreed upon, there to remain prisoners
of war until exchanged; the militia to be permitted to return home, as
prisoners of war, on parole, and to be secured from molestation as
long as they did not violate these paroles; the arms and baggage of the
officers and their servants were to be retained by them; the garrison
were to march out, and lay down their arms between the works and the
canal (at I, on the map, page 765), the drums not to beat a British
march, nor the colors to be uncased; the French consul, and French and
Spanish residents should be unmolested, but considered prisoners of war;
and that a vessel should convey a messenger to New York, that he might
carry dispatches to General Washington.

* Gordon, Ramsay, Moultrie, Marshall, Stedman, Lee, Tarleton.

** During the siege, Arbuthnot was informed that Admiral De Ternay was
approaching with a French fleet, direct from Newport, to aid Lincoln;
and on the very day when terms of surrender were agreed upon, the fear
of being blockaded in the harbor of Charleston made Arbuthnot resolve to
put to sea immediately. Ternay was certified of the surrender of Lincoln
while on his way, by the capture of a pilot-boat, bearing Clinton's
dispatches to Knyphausen, then in command at New York. These dispatches
informed Knyphausen of the fall of Charleston. Had Lincoln held out
another day, his army might have been saved, but he was not aware of the
approach of Ternay.

[[[Effect of Clinton's Proclamation.--Patriots sent to St.
Augustine.--Sufferings at Haddrell's Point.--Approach of Gates.]]]

{768}And more; they were required to enroll themselves as militia
under the king's standard. This flagrant violation of the terms of
capitulation aroused a spirit of indignant defiance, which proved
a powerful lever in overturning the royal power in the South. Many
considered themselves released from all the obligations of their
paroles, and immediately armed themselves in defense of their homes
and country, while others refused to exchange their paroles for any
new conditions. The silent influence of eminent citizens who took this
course was now perceived by Cornwallis, and, in further violation of the
conditions of capitulation, he sent many leading men of Charleston as
close prisoners to St. Augustine, [[Aug. 27, 1780]]while a large number
of the Continental soldiers were cast into the loathsome prison-ships,
and other vessels in the harbor. There they suffered all the horrors of
confined air, bad food, filth, and disease. It was to these that the
mother of President Jackson came, as an angel of mercy, with materials
of alleviation for the sufferers. But the camp and typhoid fevers, and
dysentery, swept off hundreds before the cruel hand of the oppressor
relinquished its grasp. Maddened by torture, and almost heart-broken on
account of the sufferings of their families, more than five hundred of
the soldiers who capitulated at Charleston agreed to enroll themselves
as royal militia, as the least of two present evils, and were sent to
do service in the British army in Jamaica. Of nineteen hundred prisoners
surrendered at Charleston, and several hundreds more taken at Camden and
Fishing Creek, only seven hundred and forty were restored to the service
of their country. **

A brief lull in the storm of parly strife and warring legions in South
Carolina succeeded the blow which smote down Republicanism; but when the
trumpet-blasts of the conqueror of Burgoyne were heard upon the Roanoke,
and the brave hearts of Virginia and North Carolina were gathering
around the standard of Gates, the patriots of the South lifted up their
heads, and many of them, like Samson rising in strength, broke the
feeble cords of "paroles" and "protections," and smote the Philistines
of the crown with mighty energy. Sumter sounded the bugle among the
hills on the Catawba and Broad Rivers; Marion's shrill whistle rang
amid the swamps on the Pedee; and Pickens and Clarke called forth the
brave sons of liberty upon the banks of the Saluda, the Savannah, the
Ogeechee, and the

* Lieutenant-governor Gadsden and seventy-seven other public and
influential men were taken from their beds by armed parties, before dawn
on the moraine of the twenty-seventh of August, hurried on board the
Sandwich prison-ship, without being allowed to bid adieu to their
families, and were conveyed to St. Augustine. The pretense for this
measure, by which the British authorities attempted to justify it, was
the false accusation that these men were concerting a scheme for burning
the town and massacring the loyal inhabitants! Nobody believed the tale,
and the act was made more flagrant by this wicked calumny. Arrived
at St. Augustine, the prisoners were offered paroles to enjoy liberty
within the precincts of the town. Gadsden, the sturdy patriot, refused
acquiescence, for he disdained making further terms with a power that did
not regard the sanctity of a solemn treaty. He was determined not to be
deceived a second time. "Had the British commanders," he said, "regarded
the terms of capitulation at Charleston, I might now, although a
prisoner, enjoy the smiles and consolations of my family under my own
roof; but even without a shadow of accusation preferred against me, for
any act inconsistent with my plighted faith, I am torn from them, and
here, in a distant land, invited to enter into new engagements. I will
give no parole." "Think better of it," said Governor Tonyn, who was in
command; "a second refusal of it will fix your destiny--a dungeon will
be your future habitation." "Prepare it, then," replied the inflexible
patriot. "I will give no parole, so help me God!" And the petty tyrant
did "prepare it;" and for forty-two weeks that patriot of almost
threescore years of age, never saw the light of the blessed sun, but
lay incarcerated in the dungeon of the Castle of St. Augustine. All the
other prisoners accepted paroles, but they were exposed to indignities
more harrowing to the sensitive soul than close confinement. When, in
June, 1781, they were exchanged, they were not allowed to even touch at
Charleston, but were sent to Philadelphia, whither their families had
been expelled when the prisoners were taken to the Sandwich. More than
a thousand persons were thus exiled, and husbands and wives, fathers
and children, first met in a distant state, after a separation of ten
months.

* The Continental prisoners kept at Haddrell's Point suffered terribly.
Many of them had been nurtured in affluence; now, far from friends and
destitute of hard money, they were reduced to the greatest straits.
During thirteen months' captivity, they received no more than nine days'
pay. They were not allowed to fish for their support, but were obliged
to perform the most menial services. Cornwallis finally ordered Balfour,
the commandant of Charleston, to send them to one of the West India
islands. The general exchange of prisoners which soon afterward took
place alone prevented the execution of this cruel order.

** Gordon, iii., 226.

[[[Marion at Charleston.--Formation of his Brigade.--His first
Expeditions.]]]

{769}Alatamaha. The noble deeds of these partisans; the efforts and
defeat of Gates; the successes of Greene and Morgan; and the brilliant
achievements of "Legion Harry Lee," the strong right arm of the Southern
army in the campaigns of 1781, we have considered in former chapters.
Let us here, from this commanding point of view, note those daring
exploits of _Marion and his men_ not already considered, and also
of their brave compatriots in their warfare in the vicinity of the
sea-coast.

Marion was elected a captain in Moultrie's second South Carolina
regiment, and, with his friend Peter Horry, received his commission on
the twentieth of June, 1775. These young officers, in new uniforms and
helmet-shaped leather caps, decorated with silver crescents inscribed
"Liberty or Death!" went out immediately upon the recruiting service on
the Black River and the Pedee, and every where excited the enthusiasm
of the people. Brave young patriots flocked around them, and in Fort
Sullivan, when its cannons shattered the fleet of Sir Peter Parker
in 1776, these stout hearts and hands received their first practical
lessons in defensive warfare. Already, as we have seen (page 751), they
had been efficient in capturing Fort Johnson, on James's Island,[[Sept.
14, 1775]] but here they participated in the severer duties of vigorous
conflict.

Fortunately for the Republican cause, an accident * prevented Marion
being among the prisoners when Charleston fell, and he was yet at
liberty, having no parole to violate, to arouse his countrymen to make
further efforts against the invaders. While yet unable to be active, he
took refuge in the swamps upon the Black River, while Governor Rutledge,
Colonel Horry, and others, who had escaped the disasters at Charleston,
were in North Carolina arousing the people of that state to meet the
danger which stood menacing upon its southern border. Marion's military
genius and great bravery were known to friends and foes, and while the
latter sought to entrap him, the former held over him the shield of
their vigilance. "In the moment of alarm he was sped from house to
house, from tree to thicket, from the thicket to the swamp." ** As
soon as he was able, he collected a few friends and started for North
Carolina to join the Baron De Kalb, then marching southward with a small
Continental army. On the way, he was joined by his old friend Horry
and a few of his neighbors, and these formed the "ragged regiment" who
appeared before General Gates, the successor of De Kalb, mentioned on
page 685. It was while in the camp of Gates that Governor Rutledge,
who also was there, commissioned Marion a brigadier, and he sped to
the district of Williamsburg, between the Santee and Pedee, to lead
its rising patriots to the field of active military duties. They
had accepted the protection of British power after Charleston was
surrendered, in common with their subdued brethren of the low country;
but when Clinton's proclamation was promulgated, making active service
for the crown or the penalty for rebellion an alternative, they eagerly
chose the latter, and lifted the strong arm of resistance to tyranny.
They called Marion to be their leader, and of these men he formed his
efficient _brigade_, the terror of British scouts and outposts. Near
the mouth of Lynch's Creek he assumed the command, and among the
interminable swamps upon Snow's Island, near the junction of that stream
with the Great Pedee, he made his chief rendezvous during a greater
portion of his independent partisan warfare.

Marion's first expedition after taking command was against a large
body of Tories, under Major Gainey, an active British officer, who were
encamped upon Britton's Neck, between the Great and Little Pedee. He
dispersed the whole party without losing a man.[[August 1780]] Flushed
with victory, Marion was again in motion within twenty-four hours.
Informed that Captain Barfield and some Tories were encamped a few miles
distant, he sped thither, fell upon and scattered them to the winds.
These two victories inspired his fol-

* At the beginning of the siege, Marion was at a house in Trade! Street,
and the host, determined that all of his guests should drink his wine
freely, locked the door to prevent their departure. Marion would not
submit to this act of social tyranny, and leaped from a second story
window to the ground. His ankle was broken, and before the communication
with the country toward the Santee was closed he was carried to his
residence, in St. John's parish, on a litter. He was yet confined by the
accident when the capitulation was signed. See Simm's Life of Marion,
page 96.

* Simms.

[[[Marion and Wemyss.--Retreat of the latter.--Defeat of Colonel
Tyne.--Skirmish near Georgetown]]]

{770}lowers with the greatest confidence in their commander and reliance
upon themselves. These sentiments, acted upon with faithfulness, formed
a prime element of that success which distinguished Marion's brigade.

Marion now sent Colonel Peter Horry, with a part of his brigade, to
scour the country between the Santee and Pedee, while with the remainder
of his command he proceeded to attack the British post near Nelson's
Perry, an event which we have considered on page 705. Striking his blows
in quick succession, and at remote points, Marion excited the alarm of
the British commander-in-chief, and he ordered Tarleton to endeavor to
entrap and crush the "Swamp Pox." Colonel Wemyss, whom Sumter afterward
defeated on the Broad River, was first sent after him with a strong
force. With untiring industry he followed Marion in the direction of the
Black River, and often fell upon his trail. But the wary patriot never
suffered himself to be surprised, nor allowed his men to fight when
almost certain destruction appeared inevitable. Wemyss was too strong
for Marion, so the latter fled before him, and with sixty trusty
followers he thridded his way through interminable swamps and across
deep streams into North Carolina. It was a grievous necessity, for it
left Williamsburg District, the hot-bed of rebellion, exposed to the
fury of the pursuers, Marion first hailed on Drowning Creek;[[August 30,
1780]] then pushing further on, he encamped near Lake Waccamaw, whence
he sent back scouts to procure intelligence. Soon he was swiftly
retracing his steps, for Wemyss had relinquished pursuit, and had
retired to Georgetown, leaving the sad marks of his desolating march
over a space of seventy miles in length and fifteen in breadth. The
injured inhabitants hailed Marion's return with joy, and his little
army, seldom exceeding sixty men, soon had the appearance of a brigade.
They were desperate men. Cruel wrongs gave strength to their arms,
fleetness to their feet, power to their wills, and with joy they
followed Marion toward, the Black Mingo, fifteen miles below Georgetown,
where a body of Tories were encamped. They fell upon them, in two
divisions, at midnight. An obstinate resistance was made, but the
patriots were victorious. Marion lost but one man killed; the enemy were
almost annihilated. This victory dispirited the Tories throughout the
low country, and for some time Marion's brigade enjoyed needful
repose upon the banks of the Santee, except during a brief period when
Tarleton, who succeeded Wemyss in attempts to smite Marion, came in
pursuit. He scoured the country southward from Camden, between the
Santee and the Black Ravers, in search of the partisan, and, like
Wemyss, spread desolation in his path. Tarleton exerted his utmost skill
and energy, but could never overtake the vigilant Marion. Sometimes he
would be within a few miles of him, and feel sure of securing him before
to-morrow's sun, when at the same moment Marion would be watching the
movements of the Briton from some dark nook of a morass, and at midnight
would strike his rear or flank with a keen and terrible blow.

In October, Marion proceeded toward Lynch's Creek to chastise Harrison,
the lieutenant of Wemyss, who was encamped there with a considerable
body of Tories. On his way toward Williamsburg, he fell upon Colonel
Tyne, who, with two hundred Tories, was encamped at Tarcote Swamp, on
the forks of Black River, in fancied security. It was midnight when he
struck the blow.[[Oct. 25, 1780]] While some slept, others were eating
and drinking; a few were playing cards; but none were watching.
The surprise was complete. Some were slain, twenty-three were made
prisoners, but a large portion escaped to Tarcote Swamp, from which some
soon appeared and joined the ranks of the victor, upon the High Hills of
the Santee, where he encamped a short time after the action. Marion did
not lose a man.

Informed that Harrison had moved from Lynch's Creek, Marion collected
some new recruits, and with his bold followers pushed forward to assail
the British post at Georgetown, where only he could procure what he
now most needed, namely, salt, clothing, and powder. He knew a surprise
would be difficult, and an open assault dangerous. He chose the former
method, but when he approached, the garrison was on the alert. A
severe skirmish ensued within a short distance of the town, and Marion,
discomfited, retired to Snow's Island, where he fixed his camp and
secured it by such works of art as the absence of natural defenses

[[[Marion and Lee's Expedition against Georgetown.--Its Failure.--Snow's
Island.--Harden's Exploits.]]]

{771}required. In this skirmish, Gabriel Marion, a nephew of the
general, was made a prisoner, and murdered on the spot. Alter that, "No
quarter for Tories!" was the battle cry of Marion's men.

From Snow's Island * Marion sent out his scouts in every direction, and
there he planned some of his boldest expeditions. Re-enforcements came,
and at the close of 1780, Marion felt strong enough to confront any
British detachment then abroad from head-quarters.

While Greene's army was approaching the Pedee early in 1781, Marion was
very active abroad from his camp, at which he always left a sufficient
garrison for its defense. Here and there he was smiting detachments of
the British army; and when Lee, who had been sent by Greene to join
him with a part of his legion, sought for Marion, it was with great
difficulty that he could be found, for his rapid marches were in the
midst of vast swamps. As soon as the junction was consummated,[[April
14, 1781]] these brave partisans planned an expedition against the
British post at Georgetown, then garrisoned by two hundred men. Although
the British works were strong, and our partisans had no cannons, they
felt confident of the success of their plan, which was to attack the
town and fortifications at two separate points. One division went down
the Pedee In boats, the other proceeded eautiously by land. The attack
was made at midnight, but nothing was effected beyond the capture
of Campbell (the commandant) and a few privates, and slaying some
stragglers from the garrison, who could not eseape to the stockade.
Yet the enterprise was not fruitless of good to the patriot cause. The
audacity of the attempt had a powerful effect upon the minds of the
British officers at the South, and the contemplated movement of a
large portion of their forces from the sea-board to the interior, was
abandoned. Thus was begun a series of movements to keep Cornwallis from
Virginia until a sufficient force could be collected in Carolina to
oppose him, which was the object of earnest efforts on the part of
Greene.

After resting a few hours, Marion and Lee moved rapidly up the north
bank of the Santee, toward Nelson's Ferry, to surprise Colonel Watson,
who had taken post there. That officer, informed of his approach,
placed a small garrison in Fort Watson, five miles above, and with the
remainder of his force hastened on toward Camden. At this time Greene
was commencing his famous retreat, and summoned Huger and his troops
at Cheraw, and Lee with his whole legion, to meet him at Guilford. The
events whieh ensued in that quarter have been detailed in preceding
chapters. **

The departure of Lee, with his legion, greatly weakened Marion's force.
Yet he was

* This island is at the confluence of Lynch's Creek and the Pedee. It
is chiefly high river swamp, dry, and covered with a heavy forest filled
with game. The lower portions are cane-brakes, and a few spots are now
devoted to the cultivation of Indian corn. Here was the scene of the
interview between Marion and a young British officer from Georgetown, so
well remembered by tradition, and so well delineated by the pen of
Simms and the pencil of White. The officer who came to treat respecting
prisoners was led blind-folded to the camp of Marion. There he first
saw the diminutive form of the great partisan leader, and around him
in groups were his followers, lounging beneath magnificent trees draped
with moss. When their business was concluded, Marion invited the young
Briton to dine with him. He remained, and to his utter astonishment he
saw some roasted potatoes brought forward on a piece of bark, of which
the general partook freely, and invited his guest to do the same.
"Surely, general," said the officer, "this can not be your ordinary
fare!" "Indeed it is," replied Marion, "and we are fortunate, on this
occasion, entertaining company, to have more than our usual allowance."
It is related that the young officer gave up his commission on his
return, declaring that such a people could not be, and ought not to be
subdued.

** At about this time, Colonel Harden, a gentleman of Beaufort, who,
with a large number of the Whigs of his district, had taken refuge in
Williamsburg, marched with seventy of the most resolute of his comrades
to visit their homes. A few others from Georgia, under Colonel Baker,
accompanied them, and in the face of the foe, then in possession of the
country upon the Lower Santee and Edisto, they ravaged the region from
Monk's Corner to the Savannah River. Like Marion, Harden made rapid and
excentric marches, and always baffled pursuit. He crossed and recrossed
the Savannah as often as circumstances required, and soon his force
amounted to two hundred men. The name of Harden became as terrible to
the Tories of Beaufort. Barnwell, and Colleton, as that of Marion beyond
the Santee. He had several skirmishes with British detachments, and
finally, on the twelfth of April, 1781, he surprised and captured a
redoubt and garrison called Fort Balfour, at ancient Pocataligo, below
the Combahee. Having awed the Tories in that section of the state,
Colonel Harden and his detachment joined the forces under General
Pickens, higher up on the Savannah.

[[[The Postelles. Marion's Cavalry.--Conflicts with
Watson.--'Destruction of Marion's Camp.]]]

{772}not less active than before, and his enterprises were generally
more important and successful. He sent out small detachments to beat up
Tory camps and recruiting stations, wherever they might be found.
His subordinates caught his spirit and imitated his example, and were
generally successful. The brothers Captain and Major Postelle greatly
annoyed the British and Tories beyond the Santee, in the direction of
Charleston, early in 1781. Like Marion, his subordinates never lingered
upon the arena of victory to be surprised, but, when a blow was struck,
they hastened away to other fields of conflict. The great partisan never
encumbered himself with prisoners--he always paroled them.

Toward the last of January,[[1781]] we find the blacksmiths of Kingstree
forging saws into rough broadswords for a corps of cavalry which Marion
placed in command of Colonel Peter Horry. In February, Horry is observed
eastward of the Pedee battling with Tories and British regulars. Soon
afterward he is engaged in a bloody conflict of eight hours, near
Georgetown, slaying almost one half of his adversaries, and winning the
victory. Every where the name of Marion was feared, and the presence of
his men was dreaded by the opponents of the patriot cause.

In the spring of 1781, Colonel Watson was sent with a select corps of
five hundred men to attempt the destruction of Marion's brigade. He
moved with caution, evidently afraid of the partisan, for he was then
striking successful blows at different points, in rapid succession, and
appeared to be possessed of ubiquitous powers. * Marion observed him,
and concentrated his force on Snow's Island, whence he sallied forth
as occasion required. He sped with rapid foot to the path of Watson's
approach, and at Wiboo Swamp, nearly opposite the present Santee Canal,
he confronted him. The advanced guards of Marion and Watson (the former
under Horry, the latter under Riehboo, a Tory colonel) met unexpectedly,
and a severe skirmish ensued. Other portions of the two armies engaged
in the fight. The field-pieces of Watson gave him great advantage, and
Marion was obliged to fall back in the direction of Williamsburg. At a
bridge over the Black River, below Kingstree, he checked his pursuers by
well-aimed rifle-balls and the destruction of the bridge by fire. Down
the stream, upon opposite sides, the belligerents marched nearly ten
miles, skirmishing all the way. Darkness terminated the conflict, and
both parties arranged their flying camps for rest, near eaeh other.
For ten days Watson remained stationary, continually annoyed by Marion,
until he was obliged to choose between certain destruction in detail
there, or attempt boldly to fight his way to Georgetown. He decided upon
the latter course, and at midnight he fled. Marion pursued, fell upon
him at Sampit Bridge, near Georgetown, and smote down many of his
wearied soldiers. Watson escaped to Georgetown with the remnant of his
army, complaining that Marion would not "fight like a gentleman or a
Christian!"

Sad intelligence now reached Marion. The Tory colonel, Doyle, had
penetrated to his camp on Snow's Island, dispersed the little garrison,
destroyed his provisions and stores, and then marched up Lynch's Creek.
He pursued the marauder until he was informed that Doyle had destroyed
all his heavy baggage, and had the advantage of a day's march on the
road to Camden. Marion wheeled, and hastened, through the overflowed
swamps, to confront Watson, who was again in motion with fresh troops,
and had encamped upon Catfish Creek, near the present Marion Court
House. Our partisan encamped within five miles of him, and there he was
joined by Lee on the fourteenth of April.[[1781]] This junction alarmed
Watson. He destroyed his heavy baggage, wheeled his field-pieces into
Cat-fish Creek, and fled precipitately by a circuitous route back to
Georgetown. Soon after this, we find Marion[[May 1781]] hanging upon the
rear of Lord Rawdon on his

* At this time, Major M'Hraith, with a force about equal to that of
Marion's, was met by the latter in swamp near Nelson's Ferry. They
prepared for battle, when M'Hraith, who was a humane man, made the
chivalric proposition that twenty picked men of each army should meet
and fight for victory. It was agreed to; the forty men were drawn up in
line and approached each other, when those of M'Hraiths party fell back.
The sun went down, and yet they lingered; and at midnight, M'Hraith
doubtless considering prudence the better part of valor, decamped,
leaving his heavy baggage behind. He was pursued by Colonel Horry early
in the morning, but without effect.

[[[Capture of Georgetown.--Attack on British Posts near
Charleston.--Battle at Quimby's Creek Bridge]]]

{773}retreat from Nelson's Ferry toward Charleston; and from that time
until the siege of Ninety-Six, he was often with Sumter and Colonel
Washington, watching the enemy's movements near the Santee and Edisto,
and cutting off intelligence and supplies from Cruger.

In June[[1781]] Marion took possession of Georgetown, the garrison
fleeing down Winyaw Bay after a slight resistance. He could not garrison
it, so he moved the stores up the Pedee to his old encampment on Snow's
Island, and demolished the military works. Informed that the Loyalists
of Charleston had organized, and under Colonel Ball were about to ravage
the country south of the Santee, he anticipated them. He drove off the
cattle, removed the provisions to a place of safety, laid waste the
country, and left nothing but barrenness and desolation in the district
menaced by the enemy.

We have observed (page 695) that soon after Greene abandoned his design
of attacking Rawdon at Orangeburg, and retired to the High Hills
of Santee, he detached Sumter, with Marion, Lee, and other active
partisans, to beat up the British posts in the direction of Charleston,
drive these hostile detachments to the gates of the city, and cut off
all convoys of supplies for the British troops on the Edisto. The chief
object to be gained was to cause Rawdon to abandon Orangeburg and hasten
to the relief of Charleston. Sumter was the commander-in-chief of this
expedition. As he approached Monk's Corner, he divided his little army
into separate detachments. Among the subordinate commanders of these
were Horry, Mayham, Taylor, the Hamptons, and James. The garrison at
Dorchester, first attacked, made no resistance to Colonel Lee, who
also captured, at about the same time, all the wagons and wagon horses
belonging to a convoy of provisions; while Colonel Wade Hampton pressed
forward to the very lines at Charleston, captured the patrol and guard
at the Quarter-house, five miles from the city, and spread terror
through the town. He also took fifty prisoners (mounted refugees) at
Strawberry Ferry, and burned four vessels laden with valuable stores for
the British army.

At Biggin, near Monk's Corner, where Huger's cavalry were surprised more
than a year before, was a strong force of about five hundred infantry,
one hundred and fifty horse, and a piece of artillery, under Colonel
Coates of the British army. Biggin Church, and a redoubt at Monk's
Corner, about a quarter of a mile distant, composed the defenses of the
garrison. Against these Sumter, Marion, and Lee proceeded. They halted
at sunset within a short distance of Coates's camp, with the intention
of attacking him early In the morning. Coates, alarmed by the
intelligence brought by his patrols, that one half of Greene's army,
with all the partisan officers of the South, were upon him, decamped
during the night, set fire to Biggin Church, so as to destroy stores
which he could not carry away, and crossing the head waters of the
Cooper River on the eastern side, retreated rapidly toward Charleston.
When the blaze of the church was perceived in the American camp, Sumter
called his troops to arms and hotly pursued the fugitives. Within a
short distance of Quimby's Creek Bridge, eighteen miles from Monk's
Corner, the cavalry of Lee and Marion overtook the rear-guard of the
flying troops. Dismayed at the near approach of horsemen, they east
down their arms without firing a gun, and begged for quarter. Coates had
crossed the bridge with his main body, and was waiting for the passage
of his rearguard, with the baggage, to destroy the bridge. The planks
were already loosened, and every thing was in readiness for its
demolition when the American cavalry approached. The brave Armstrong,
with a section of Lee's horsemen, dashed across the bridge and fell upon
the British guard with a howitzer stationed there for its defense, and
drove the artillerists from the gun. The place of contest was a narrow
causeway and lane leading to the bridge, and for a short time a close
and deadly conflict ensued. Many of the British fled, and Coates and
some of his officers were left to fight alone, defended only by a wagon.
Another section of the eavalry, under Carrington, followed close upon
Armstrong, and leaping the chasm formed by the casting down of some
loose planks by the hoofs of Armstrong's horses, joined in the close
combat with the enemy. Lee had now gained the bridge, where Captain
O'Neil, with the third section, had halted. Captain Mayham, of Marion's
cavalry, dashed by them, when his horse was shot under him. The chasm
had been widened by

[[[Severe Battle above Quimby's Creek Bridge.--Public Services and
Execution of Colonel Hayne]]]

{774}the passage of Carrington's troops, and all Lee's efforts to repair
the breach were ineffectual. The stream was too deep to ford, and the
shores too muddy to land if the horses had swam it, and, consequently,
a victory so nearly secured had to be abandoned. Coates, with his
recaptured howitzer, retreated to a strong two-story house and other
buildings a little further up the stream, into which many of his
soldiers had fled at the first attack. There he was assailed by Sumter
and Marion, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, and a
severe battle was waged for three hours. Darkness, and the failure of
the powder of the patriots, terminated the contest. Fifty of Marion's
brigade were killed or wounded, and seventy of the British fell. Coates
held his position, and Sumter, informed of the approach of Rawdon,
collected his own immediate forces, crossed the Santee, and joined
Greene upon the High Hills, while Marion remained lower down upon the
river to watch the movements of the enemy.

It was at about this time, while the army of General Greene was in
repose near the Wateree, that the execution of Colonel Isaac Hayne,
a leading Whig of South Carolina, took place at Charleston; an event
which, in the opinion of the Americans, and of just men in Europe,
marked the character of the British officer in command at Charleston
with the foul stain of dishonor and savage cruelty. * The patriots were
greatly exasperated by it, and

* Isaac Hayne was a highly respected and well-beloved citizen of South
Carolina. He was among the early patriots of that state who took the
field, and at the siege of Charleston, in 1780, he served in a company
of mounted militia, and at the same time was a member of the State
Legislature. His corps was not in the city, but operated in the open
country, in the rear of the besiegers, consequently it was not included
in the capitulation. After that event his command was dispersed, and be
returned to his family and estate, near the Edisto. Believing that
the wisest policy for him to pursue was to go to Charleston, surrender
himself a prisoner, and take his parole like others, he repaired
thither. He was too confiding in the honor of the conquerors, for,
knowing him to be a man of influence, the commandant refused the
privilege, and told him that he must either become a British subject or
submit to close confinement. He would gladly have endured imprisonment,
but he could not bear the thought of leaving his family exposed to the
insults of marauders, and the pestilence of small-pox, then spreading
over the lower country. He consulted his friend, Dr. Ramsay, the
historian, who was himself a prisoner in Charleston, and, influenced by
family affection, he accepted a British protection upon the humiliating
terms proposed by Clinton in his second and cruel proclamation, and took
the oath of allegiance. He was assured by Patterson, the deputy British
commandant in Charleston, that he would not be called upon to take
up arms for the king, "For," he said, "when the regular forces of his
majesty need the aid of the inhabitants for the defense of the province,
it will be high time for them to leave it."

* Colonel Hayne was often called upon by subordinate officers to take
up arms for the king, but steadily refused. When, in 1781, Greene
approached with a Continental army, and the partisan troops had swept
royal power from almost every place where it had planted its heel of
military subjugation, Colonel Hayne felt released from his oath of
allegiance, because its conditions were such that its obligations ceased
when royal rule should be suppressed. When again summoned (as he was
peremptorily, while his wife was upon her dying bed) to repair, with
arms, to the British camp at Charleston, he again refused. He did more;
he buckled on his armor, repaired to the American camp, and, forswearing
his forced allegiance to the British erown, he pledged his life to the
defense of his country. With a troop of horse, accompanied by Colonel
Harden, he scoured the country toward Charleston, and captured General
Andrew Williamson, a former efficient patriot, but now aetive in the
British service. When intelligence of the event reached the city, a
troop of cavalry was sent in pursuit of Hayne. A battle ensued, and the
patriot was made a prisoner and conveyed to Charleston. Colonel Nesbit
Balfour, a proud, vain, and ambitious man, was then the commandant. He
knew that the surest road to distinction was rigor toward the rebels.
He chose to consider Hayne a traitor, because he had signed an oath
of allegiance, and then took up arms against the king. Here was an
opportunity for Balfour to distinguish himself, and Hayne was east into
the provost prison, and kept there until Rawdon arrived from Orangeburg.
He was then taken before a court of inquiry, where neither the members
nor the witnesses were sworn. The whole proceeding was a mockery, for
Rawdon and Balfour had prejudged him worthy of death. Without even
the form of a trial, he was condemned to be hung. No one, not even
the prisoner, supposed that such cruelty was contemplated, until the
sentence was made public, and he had but two days to live! The men of
the city pleaded for him; the women signed petitions, and went in troops
and upon their knees implored a remission of his sentence. His sister,
Mrs. Peronneau, with his orphan children (for his wife was in her
grave), clad in deep mourning, knelt in supplication before his judges,
but in vain. Rawdon and Balfour were inexorable, and on the thirty-first
of July, 1781, one of the purest patriots and most amiable of men was
hung upon a gibbet. Like Andre, he asked to be shot as a soldier, but
this boon was denied him. Thirty-two years afterward, Lord Rawdon, in
a letter to General Henry Lee (see his Memoirs, page 459), attempted to
excuse his want of humanity, by pleading the justice of the sentence.
But the denunciations of the Duke of Richmond at the time, in the House
of Lords, and the truth of history, have given the whole transaction the
stamp of barbarism.

[[[Skirmish at Parker's Ferry.--Retreat of the British from
Eutaw.--Attack on British Posts near Charleston.]]]

{775}General Greene gave the British commander notice that he would
retaliate when opportunity should offer, not by the sacrifice of
misguided Tories, but of British officers. He soon had power to exhibit
terrible retribution, but happily, actuated by a more humane policy,
Greene hesitated; the beams of peace soon appeared in the horizon, and
bloody human sacrifices were prevented.

Here let us resume the general narrative of events in the South not
already related, from the time of the encampment of Greene upon the
High Hills of Santee, in 1781, until the evacuation of Charleston by the
British the following year.

We have noticed on page 705, that Greene's camp upon the Hills was
broken up on the eighteenth of November, and the remnants of his
diminished army were put in motion toward Charleston. Already
intelligence of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown had reached him,
and the day of its arrival[[Oct. 30]] was made jubilant by the army. In
the mean while, Marion was operating with vigor. He suddenly disappeared
from the Santee upon one of his secret expeditions, and as suddenly was
seen sweeping across the country in the direction of the Edisto, on his
way to relieve Colonel Harden, who was closely pressed near Parker's
Ferry, a few miles above Jacksonborough, in Colleton District, by a
British force of five hundred men, under Major Fraser. That officer's
camp was at the ferry. Marion prepared an ambuscade, and then sent out
some of his swiftest horses with experienced riders to decoy his enemy
into the snare. Fraser, with his cavalry, fell into the ambuscade in a
narrow place, and was terribly handled.[[Aug. 30, 1781]] The sure rifles
of Marion's men thinned his ranks, and had not their ammunition failed
them, they would have accomplished a complete victory. For the want
of powder, they were obliged to retire at the moment when the palm was
offered to them. The loss of the British was severe, while Marion was
not bereft of a man. He had succeeded in rescuing Harden, and as we have
seen (page 699), obedient to the call of Greene, hastened toward the
Santee and joined the American army at Laurens's plantation,[[Sept. 7,
1781]] when pressing on toward Eutaw.

After the great battle at that place, and his pursuit of Stewart, Marion
encamped in the deep recesses of a cane-brake on Santee River Swamp, and
awaited an occasion again to go forth to action.

The British commander, ignorant of the weakened condition of Marion's
brigade, * and the great diminution of Greene's army, was alarmed when
he was informed that the latter had crossed the Congaree, and was
again pressing on toward Eutaw. He struck his tents and hastened toward
Charleston. Perceiving this movement, Greene left his army while on its
march from the Santee Hills, and at the head of two hundred cavalry
and as many infantry moved rapidly toward Charleston. The garrison at
Dorchester, more than six hundred strong, advised of his approach, went
out to meet him. But so sudden and vigorous was the charge of Colonel
Hampton, of the advance, that the enemy wheeled and fled in great
confusion to their camp. Believing the whole army of Greene to be near,
they destroyed all the public property, cast their cannons into the
Ashley, and then fled toward Charleston, closely pursued. At the
Quarter-house they were joined by Stewart's forces, retreating by
another road, and all hastened to the city gates. Terror spread through
the town. The bells were rung, alarm guns were fired, and every friend
of the crown was called to the defense of the city. Greene's object was
accomplished; the British outposts, were driven in, and he hastened to
join his army, now encamped at Round O, not far from the Four Holes'
Creek, forty or fifty miles from the city. Marion and his men lingered
around the head waters of the Cooper to watch the enemy, and prevent his
incursions beyond Charleston Neck. St. Clair had driven the British from
Wilmington, and only Charles-

* After the battle at Eutaw, Marion was re-enforced by detachments of
mountain men, under Colonels Shelby and Sevier, the heroes of King's
Mountain, and with them he confidently took the field. He attacked the
British outpost at Fairlawn, while the main body, under Stewart, were
encamped behind redoubts at Wappetaw and Wantoot. The attack upon
Fairlawn was successful. The garrison, and three hundred stand of arms,
with provisions and stores, were the spoils of victory. Encouraged
by this success, Marion prepared for other enterprises, when the
Mountaineers, after about three weeks' service, suddenly left him and
returned to the upper country. No satisfactory reason for this movement
has ever been given.

[[[Re establishment of Civil Government.--Change in public
Sentiment.--Waning of British power.--Mutiny. ]]]

{776}ton and Savannah, with their respective dependencies, now remained
in undisputed possession of the Royalists.

Governor Rutledge, with his accustomed energy, now prepared to
re-establish civil government. He first offered conditional pardon to
Tories and others who should join the American army. Hundreds came from
the British lines and eagerly accepted the governor's clemency. Writs
for an election of representatives were issued, and in January, 1782,
a Republican Legislature convened at Jacksonborough, on the Edisto,
thirty-five miles below Charleston.

Hope dawned upon the future of the South, and the bowed head of
Republicanism was lifted up. General Leslie, the chief-commandant in
Charleston, perceived the change in the aspeet of affairs, with alarm,
and sent out proclamations, filled with promises and menaces, to
counteract the movements of the patriots. It was too late. The people
perceived the waning of British power as the area of its action was
diminished, and promises and threats were alike unheeded. The army of
Greene drew near to Jacksonborough, and encamped upon the Charleston
road, six miles below the town. Thus protected, the Legislature acted
freely and judiciously, and from that time the civil power met with no
obstructions.

John's Island was yet occupied by the enemy, under the command of Major
Craig, who had been driven from Wilmington. Greene resolved to expel
them. An expedition for the purpose was intrusted to Lieutenant-colonel
Laurens, a son of Henry Laurens, who had lately come from the field of
victory at Yorktown. Lee was his second in command. An attempt was
made, on the night of the thirteenth of January,[[1782]] to surprise and
capture the garrison of five hundred men, but the miscarriage of a part
of their plan deprived them of their anticipated victory. Yet the design
was not abandoned. A large body of Greene's army moved forward, and
Craig, taking counsel of his fears, abandoned the island, and fled, with
his troops, to Charleston. A few prisoners, and provisions and stores
of the camp, were the spoils of victory. Still further secure, the
Legislature now labored industriously and without fear. Confiscation
laws were enacted; the currency was regulated; general laws for the
future government of the state were adopted; and a bill was originated
for presenting to General Greene, in consideration of his services, the
sum of ten thousand guineas. * They closed their labors by electing John
Matthews governor.

From this time until the evacuation of Charleston, military operations
were confined to attempts on the part of the British to procure supplies
from the country, and opposition thereto by the patriots. In these
operations, Marion's brigade was conspicuous. Elected to a seat in the
Assembly at Jacksonborough, he left it in command of Colonel Hurry.
Previous to his departure, he had a severe skirmish, near Monk's Corner,
with three hundred regulars and Loyalists, who came up from Charleston
to surprise him. He repulsed them, but soon afterward, while he was
absent, a larger force, under Colonel Thompson (the celebrated
Count Rumford subsequently), attacked his brigade near the Santee.
Fortunately, he arrived during the engagement, but not in time to
prevent the defeat and partial dispersion of his beloved troops. The
remnant of his brigade rallied around him, and he retired beyond the
Santee to reorganize and recruit.

The main armies continued quiet. Each felt too weak to attempt to
disturb the other. Leslie's condition was far worse than Greene's.
Confined within the city, provisions soon became scarce, while the
flight of Tories to the town increased the demand. Greene had ample
provisions, and moving forward, encamped near the head of the Ashley,
within twenty miles of the enemy's lines. Unable to damage the Americans
in warfare, the British employed stratagem and bribery to weaken their
power. Emissaries came into camp, and a mutinous spirit was engendered.
A scheme was planned to abduct Greene, and convey him to Charleston. It
was discovered twenty-four hours before it ripened, and was crushed.
The conspirators were of the Pennsylvania line. Gornell, the leader, was
executed, and

* This example was imitated by the Legislatures of North Carolina and
Georgia. The former voted him five thousand guineas, and the latter
twenty-four thousand acres of land.

[[[Operations of a Spy.--War declared ended by Parliament--Abduction of
Governor Burke.]]]

{777}four of his known companions in crime were sent, guarded, up to
Orangeburg. The demon of discord was seen no more, and the British made
no further attempts to arouse it.

Early in April, Marion, with a considerable force, was sent to "keep
watch and ward" over the country between the Cooper and Santee Rivers. A
Scotchman, pretending to be a deserter, came out from the city, visited
Marion, and passed on unsuspected toward the Scotch settlements on the
Pedee. Soon an insurrection appeared in that quarter, and Marion was
informed that Major Gainey, for the third time, was gathering the
Tories. The pretended deserter was a spy, and, by false representations
of the power of the British and weakness of the Americans, he called the
Highlanders to arms. The spy was caught and hanged while returning to
Charleston, and before Gainey could organize his recruits, Marion fell
upon him. More than five hundred Loyalists laid down their arms, and
Gainey, thoroughly humbled, joined the ranks of Marion. *

While the theater of war was thus narrowing, British statesmen of all
parties, considering the capture of Cornwallis and his army as the
death-blow to all hope for future conquests, turned their attention
to measures for an honorable termination of the unnatural war. General
Conway, the firm and long-tried friend of the Americans, offered a
resolution in Parliament in February,[[1782]] which was preliminary to
the enactment of a decree for commanding the cessation of hostilities.
It was lost by only _one vote._ Thus encouraged, the opposition pressed
the subject warmly upon the attention of the House of Commons and the
nation, and on the fourth of March, Conway moved "That the House would
consider as enemies to his majesty and the country all those who should
advise, or by any means attempt, the further prosecution of offensive
war on the Continent of North America." The resolution was carried
without a division, and the next day the attorney general introduced a
plan for a truce with the Americans. Lord North, after an administration
of affairs, as prime minister, for twelve years, finding himself in the
minority, resigned the seals of office.[[March 20, 1782]] Orders for a
cessation of hostilities speedily went forth to the British commanders
in America, and preparations were soon made for evacuating the cities of
Savannah and Charleston.

When General Leslie was apprised of these proceedings in Parliament, he
proposed to General Greene a cessation of hostilities in the South. That
officer, like a true soldier, refused to meddle in civil affairs, and
referred the matter to the Continental Congress, the only competent
tribunal to decide. Of course there must be a delay of several weeks,
and while no important military movement was made by the main army
of either party, each was as vigilant as if an active campaign was in
progress.

On the thirteenth of August, Leslie, in general orders, declared his
intention of evacuating Charleston, and sent a flag to Greene with a
request that he might be allowed to receive and purchase supplies from
the planters. ** Greene refused his acquiescence, for it

* Among the insurgents was the notorious David Fanning, a Loyalist of
North Carolina. He was one, of the most desperate and brutal of the Tory
leaders, and at one time had command of almost a thousand marauders like
himself. He became a terror to the people of central North Carolina. He
captured many leading Whigs, and took them to Craig, at Wilmington. On
the thirteenth of September, 1781, he and his associate, Hector M'Neil,
with their followers, entered Hillsborough, carried off the governor,
Thomas Burke,* and other prominent Whigs, and hastened with them toward
Wilmington. They were intercepted by a party under General Butler, and
a severe skirmish ensued at Lindley's Mill, on Cane Creek. Fanning was
wounded, but successfully retreated with his prisoners to Wilmington.
After the defeat here mentioned, on the Pedee, Fanning went to
Charleston, and accompanied the Tories who fled to Nova Scotia, where he
died in 1825.

[Illustration: 9787]

* Greene's army now covered a fertile district, where wealth abounded,
and prevented foraging and plundering where the enemy had generally
found the best supplies. Perceiving their homes thus secured, many
of the families returned from exile, and every where the board of
hospitality was wide spread to their deliverers. The rugged features
of war were soon changed by the refinements of social life, and the
soldiers, who had been battling for years among desolated homes or the
dark wilderness, felt that a paradise was gained. The wife of General
Greene reached his camp at the close of March, and was every where
caressed. The officers were greeted at numerous social gatherings, and
the charms of many a fair daughter of the sunny South subdued hearts
which never quailed before an enemy. In the district occupied by the
army, were many wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished women, and "many,"
says Johnson, in his Life of Greene, "were the matrimonial connections
to which this period gave rise between the officers of the army and the
heiresses of Carolina and Georgia."

* Thomas Burke was one of the purest patriots of the South. He was a
native of Ireland; came in early life to Virginia, and in 1774 settled
as practicing lawyer, in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He was one of
the earliest Republican legislators in the state. He was a member of the
Provincial Congress at Halifax in 1776, and of the Continental Congress,
from 1777 till 1781, when he was chosen governor of his state. After his
capture by Fanning, he was sent to Charleston, and kept closely guarded,
upon John's Island, when Craig commanded there. He escaped, and in 1782
resumed his official duties. He died at Hillsborough in 1783.

[[[British attempts to collect Provisions.--Vigilance of
Greene.--Skirmishes on the Combahee.--Death of Laurens.]]]

{778}would tend to nourish a viper, perhaps yet disposed to sting.
Leslie replied that he should obtain supplies by force, for it was
necessary to have them before putting to sea. This menace gave activity
to the camp of Greene, for he resolved to oppose with spirit every
attempt of the enemy to penetrate the country. General Gist, with a
strong force, was advanced to the Stono, and spread defensive corps,
under good officers, southward to the Combahee, while Marion was
instructed to keep watch over the region of the Lower Santee. Rapidly,
and in wide circuits, that partisan, with his cavalry, scoured the
region between the Sampit and the Santee, and sometimes he would sweep
down the country, all the way to Cainboy and Haddrell's Point. Some warm
skirmishes occurred, but he effectually kept the enemy at bay in that
quarter.

Anxious to leave Charleston, where famine stood menacing the army
and civilians, Leslie resolved to make a bold effort to penetrate the
country by the Combahee, for little could be effected in the region
guarded by Marion. He accordingly sent a large party thither in armed
boats and schooners, where they arrived on the 25th of August, and
passed up directly toward the head of the stream. Gist, with about three
hundred cavalry and infantry, hastened to oppose the invaders, leaving
Colonel Laurens with a guard near Wappoo, to watch the movements of the
enemy in Charleston. Laurens, burning with a desire for active service,
left a sick-bed and followed Gist. He overtook him upon the north bank
of the Combahee, near the ferry, and at his earnest solicitation he was
detached to the extreme end of Chehaw Neck, to garrison a small redoubt
cast up there for the purpose of annoying the British when they should
return down the river. With fifty light infantry, some matrosses, and a
howitzer, Laurens moved down the river,[[August 26, 1782]] and halted at
the house of Mrs. Stock, within a short distance of the point. At three
o'clock in the morning he resumed his march. He had proceeded but a
short distance, when a picket of the enemy was perceived, and at the
same moment a large detachment, which lay concealed in the high fennel
grass, arose and delivered a murderous fire. They had been informed of
the march of Laurens, and landing on the north shore of the Combahee,
concealed themselves in ambush by the road side. Laurens saw the danger
of a retreat, and had no alternative but to surrender or fight. His
brave spirit could not brook the former, and leading the way, he made
an energetic charge upon the foe. The step was fatal to the young
commander; he fell at the first fire. Captain Smith of the artillery was
also slain, the howitzer was seized by the enemy, and the whole American
force turned and fled in confusion. The fugitives were pursued a short
distance, when Gist, with a considerable force, confronted the victors.
They recoiled for a moment, but soon recovered, and a severe combat
ensued. The British fell back to their boats, and the field of strife
was the field of victory for the Americans; yet it was dearly won. Many
unnamed patriots fell, and in the death of Laurens the country lost one
of its most promising men. * The

* John Laurens was a son of Henry Laurens, president of the Continental
Congress in 1777. He joined the army early in 1777, and was wounded in
the battle at Germantown. He continued in the army (with the exception
of a few months), under the immediate command of Washington, until
after the surrender of Cornwallis, in which event he was a conspicuous
participant as one of the commissioners appointed to arrange the terms.
Early in 1781, he was sent on a special mission to France, to solicit a
loan of money and to procure arms. He was successful, and on his return
received the thanks of Congress. Within three days after his arrival in
Philadelphia, he had settled all matters with Congress, and departed for
the army in the South, under Greene. There he did good service, and was
killed on the Combahee, on the twenty-seventh of August, 1781, when
he was but twenty-nine years of age. Washington, who made him his aid,
loved him as a child. He declared that he could discover no fault in
him, unless it was intrepidity, bordering on rashness. "Poor Laurens,"
wrote Greene, "has fallen in a paltry little skirmish. You knew his
temper, and I predicted his fate. The love of military glory made him
seek it upon occasions unworthy his rank. The state will feel his loss."
He was buried upon the plantation of Mrs. Stock, in whose family he
spent the evening previous to his death in cheerful conversation. A
small inclosure, without a stone, marks his grave.

[[[Last Blood shed in the Revolution.--Evacuation of
Charleston.--Revolutionary Localities near.]]]

{779}British succeeded in carrying off a large quantity of provisions
and plunder from the Combahee, and from Beaufort and the neighboring
islands. They made no other attempt to procure supplies, but applied
themselves diligently to preparations for leaving Charleston.
Kosciuszko, who was placed in command of Laurens's corps, watched
Charleston Neck, and detachments guarded the passes of the Stono. In
this latter service the last blood of the Revolution was shed. *

The evacuation of Charleston took place on the fourteenth of
December.[[1782]] Leslie had leveled the walls of Charleston and
demolished Fort Johnson, and on the morning of the thirteenth, the
American army crossed the Ashley, and slowly approached the city,
according to previous arrangements with Leslie. At daylight the next
morning the British marched to Gadsden's Wharf, and embarked. At eleven
o'clock an American detachment took formal possession of the town, and
at three in the afternoon General Greene escorted Governor Mathews and
other civil officers to the Town Hall. From windows, balconies, even
housetops, the troops were greeted with cheers, waving of handkerchiefs,
and cries, "God bless you, gentlemen! Welcome! welcome!" Before night
the British squadron (about three hundred sail) crossed the bar, and the
last speck of canvas of that hostile array glittered far out upon the
ocean in the parting beams of the sun that evening. The cool starry
night which succeeded was one of great joy to the people, and the dawn
of the morrow was that of a long and bright day for the emancipated
state. Generosity succeeded revengeful feelings; confiscation acts were
repealed; Loyalists were forgiven, on repentance, and those who had
adhered to royal rule as the least of two evils, rejoiced in the glories
of the happy days of freedom and prosperity which succeeded.

Here let us close the chronicles of the war in the Southern States, and
depart for the North.

On the morning of the day when I departed from Charleston,[[Jan. 29,
1849]] the sun came up from the sea bright and unclouded, and I could
not have wished for a lovelier day to visit places of note in Charleston
and vicinity. I had already been out to the _Lines_, and the old
ship-yard and magazines on Cooper Raver, with Reverend Dr. Smythe. The
scars of the former are yet visible in several places upon the Neck,
and a portion of the citadel, a remnant of the "horn work," survives
the general wreck of the military works about Charleston. It was just
at sunset when we passed through a beautiful avenue of live oaks, draped
with moss, to view the ruins of the magazines and officers' quarters,
among thick shrubbery and tangled vines near the banks of the river,
about four miles above the city. A little to the northwest of these
ruins is an ancient burial-ground, on the verge of a deep morass. The
tall trees, pendent moss, silent ruins, and deep shadows of night fast
hovering over the scene, gave the place a tinge of romance, thrilling
and sad. On our way to this interesting spot we turned aside, about
a mile and a half nearer the town, to view a venerable and lordly
magnolia, under whose spreading branches tradition avers General Lincoln
held a council of officers during the siege in 1780. Incredible as it
may ap-

* Captain Wilmot, a brave young officer, who commanded a company
detailed for the purpose of covering John's Island, impatient of
inaction, often crossed the river to harass British foraging parties on
the island. While engaged in one of these excursions, in company with
Kosciuszko, he fell into an ambuscade and was killed. This occurred in
September, 1782, and was, it is believed, the last life sacrificed in
battle.

** Preparatory to the evacuation, commissioners were appointed to make
arrangements to prevent the carrying away of slaves on the departure of
the British. All was made satisfactory; but the promises of the enemy
were shamefully violated. Moultrie says that more than eight hundred
slaves, employed on the works in the city, were sent to the West Indies
and sold. It has been estimated that between the years 1775 and 1783
the state of South Carolina was robbed of twenty-five thousand negroes,
valued at about twelve million five hundred thousand dollars.

[[[Destruction of the "Council Tree."--Departure from
Charleston.--Wilmington.--British Occupation there.]]]

{780}pear, the owner of the land, and of the house shaded by the tree
wherein he and his mother were born, had just felled it for fire-wood.

[Illustration: 9790]

Instead of being its destroyer, who, in like circumstances, would not
have been its defender? and when rude hands were laid upon it,

````"Woodman, spare that tree!

`````Touch not a single bough!

````In youth it sheltered me,

`````And I'll protect it now.

```'Twas my forefather's hand

`````That placed it near his cot;

````There, woodman, let it stand,

`````Thy ax shall harm it not! "--Morris.=

I sketched the venerable house near by, the property of Colonel William
Cummington during the Revolution, and marking the position of the stump
of the magnolia, preserved for posterity a sketch of what tradition
calls the _Council Tree_, with its surroundings.

It was on the bright and balmy day of my departure that I visited
Sullivan's Island, and made the sketch printed on page 757. From thence
I crossed over to Haddrell's Point (now Point Pleasant), and after
passing an hour there, where so many of the brave patriots of South
Carolina suffered a long imprisonment, I returned by steam-boat to the
city. There are no remains of revolutionary fortifications at Point
Pleasant, and it is now famous in the minds of the citizens of
Charleston only as a delightful summer resort.

At three o'clock in the afternoon I left Charleston for home, in a
steam-packet bound to Wilmington, bearing with me many mementoes of
the war for independence at the South, and filled with pleasing
recollections of a journey of several weeks among the inhabitants of
that sunny land where I had enjoyed the hospitality and kindness of
true Republicans, keenly alive to the reflected glory of their patriot
fathers, and devotedly attached to the free institutions of our common
country, the fruits of a happy union.

The waters of the harbor were unruffled by a breeze, and I anticipated
a delightful voyage to the Capo Fear; but as the city and fortifications
receded, and we crossed the bar to the broad bosom of the Atlantic,
we found it heaving with long, silent undulations, the effects of
the subsiding anger of a storm. Sea-sickness came upon me, and I went
supperless to my berth, where I remained until we were fairly within the
mouth of the Cape Fear, at Smith's Island, on the following morning. The
low wooded shores of Carolina approached nearer and nearer, and at eight
o'clock we landed at the ancient town of Wilmington, on the eastern side
of the Cape Fear.

I contemplated spending a day at Wilmington, but circumstances requiring
me to hasten homeward, I was there only during the hour while waiting
for the starting of the rail-way cars for the North. I had but little
opportunity to view the town, where Republicanism was most rife on the
sea-board of North Carolina before and during the Revolution; but by
the kindness of friends there, especially of Edward Kidder, Esq., I am
enabled to give, traditionally and pictorially all that I could have
possibly obtained by a protracted visit.

[Illustration: 8790]

Already I have noticed many stirring events here during the earlier
years of the war; it now remains for me to notice only the British
occupation.

When, toward the close of 1780, Cornwallis prepared to move from his
encampment at Winnsborough, toward North Carolina, he directed
Colonel Balfour, at Charleston, to dispatch a sufficient force to take
possession of Wilmington, that he might have a sea-port for supplies,
while in that state. Major James H. Craig (who was governor general of
Canada in 1807) was sent with four hundred regulars to perform

[[[Craig at Wilmington.--His Flight.--Journey Homeward.--Arrival in New
York.]]]

{781}that service. He took possession of the town without much
resistance, toward the close of January, 1781. He immediately fortified
himself, using the Episcopal church, a strong brick edifice (of the
front of which the engraving is a correct view), for a citadel.

[Illustration: 9791]

Craig held undisturbed possession of Wilmington until the arrival of
Cornwallis, on the seventh of April, after his battle with Greene, at
Guilford. He remained in Wilmington, with his shattered army, eighteen
days, to recruit and to determine upon his future course. His residence
was on the corner of Market and Third Streets, now (1852) the dwelling
of Doctor T. H. Wright. Apprised of Greene's march toward Camden, and
hoping to draw him away from Rawdon, then encamped there, Cornwallis
marched into Virginia, and joined the forces of Arnold and Phillips at
Petersburg.

[Illustration: 9791]

The subsequent movements of the earl, until his surrender at Yorktown,
have been detailed in former chapters.

Major Craig held possession of Wilmington until the autumn of 1781,
when, informed of the surrender of Cornwallis, and the approach of St.
Clair on his way to join Greene, he abandoned Wilmington and fled to
Charleston.

This was the only post in North Carolina held by the British, and with
the flight of Craig all military operations ceased within its borders.
***

The rail-way from Wilmington to Weldon, on the Roanoke, a distance of
one hundred and sixty-two miles, passes through a level pine region,
where little business is done, except gathering of turpentine and the
manufacture of tar. It was a dreary day's ride, for on every side were
interminable pine forests, dotted with swamps and traversed by numerous
streams, all running coastward. We crossed the Neuse at Goldsborough,
eighty-five miles north of Wilmington, and the Tar at Rocky Mount, forty
miles further. At sunset we passed Halifax, **** near the falls of the
Roanoke, and arrived at Weldon at dark. The morning was uncomfortably
warm; the evening was damp and chilly; and when we arrived at Richmond
the next morning, two hundred and forty miles north of Wilmington, a
cold rain was falling, and every thing was incrusted with ice. I tarried
a day at Richmond, another at Washington City, and on the fourth of
February[[1849]] I sat by my own fireside in the city of New York, after
an absence of about eleven weeks, and a journey of almost three thousand
miles. There my long and interesting tour ended, except an occasional
"journey of a day" to some hallowed spot in its vicinity. God, in his
providence, dealt kindly with me, in all that long and devious travel,
for I did not suffer sickness for an hour, and no accident befell me on
the way.

* This church was demolished in 1841, and upon its site a new Protestant
Episcopal church now stands.

** This is from a pencil sketch, by Mr. Charles Burr, of Wilmington.

*** At Elizabeth, higher up on the Cape Fear, in Bladen county, quite
a severe battle was fought in July, 1781, between a few refugee Whigs,
under Colonel Thomas Brown, and a body of Tories. The Whigs forded the
Cape Fear after dark, and before midnight were in deadly conflict with
the Tories. The surprise was complete, and the victory quite easy.
This bold act crushed Tory ascendency in that section of the state. I
received from the venerable Dr. De Rosset, of Wilmington, an interesting
account of a gallant affair on the part of the Americans at a place
called "The Oaks," near Wilmington, in which he, though a lad,
participated. I regret the want of space that precludes the possibility
of giving the narrative here. Like many other similar details, the local
historian must make the record. Dr. De Rosset is a son, I believe, of
the mayor of that name mentioned on page 568. I have also received
(too late for insertion), from the venerable A. M. Hooper, of Crawford,
Alabama, an interesting sketch of the public life of William Hill,
an active patriot of Cape Fear, of whom Josiah Quincy in his journal
(1773), said "though a crown officer, a man replete with sentiments of
general liberty, and warmly attached to the cause of American freedom."

**** Here the Provincial Congress of North Carolina met on the fourth
of April, 1776, and took precedence of all similar assemblies in action
favorable to independence. It was at Halifax that Cornwallis crossed the
Roanoke (see page 547), while on his march to Virginia, in May, 1781.

[[[New York and its Associations.--First Settlement on Manhattan
Island.--Dutch West India Company.]]]

{782}




CHAPTER XXX.


```'Hail, mighty city! High must be his fame

````Who round thy bounds at sunrise now should walk; *

```Still wert thou lovely, whatsoe'r thy name,

````New Amsterdam, New Orange, or New York;

```Whether in cradle sleep in sea-weed laid,

````Or on thine island throne in queenly power arrayed."

`````Mrs. Sigourney.=

[9792]

ISTORICAL associations of the deepest interest, colonial and
revolutionary, cluster around the city of New York and its immediate
vicinity. Here was planted one of the earliest of the European
settlements in the New World; and during the march of progress for more
than a century and a half, from the advent of the _Half Moon_[[1609]]
before Manhattan, until the departure of the last vestige of foreign
dominion from its shores,[[1783]] the events of its history bear
important relations to the general structure of our republic. Here, when
the colonies lifted the strong arm of resistance against an unnatural
mother, the military power of the latter first raised a permanent
standard. Here was the central point of that power during almost the
entire period of the conflict which ensued; and here it lingered longest
when the conflict was ended. Here the last great act of the drama of the
Revolution was performed, when the first President of the United States
was inaugurated, and the machinery of our Federal government was put in
motion. Liberty in America was born at Plymouth, cradled in Boston,
and baptized in Philadelphia; in New York it was inaugurated _Pontifex
Maximus_, and its Liturgy--the _Constitution_--accepted as the
expression of the common sentiment of a free people.

Volumes have been written concerning the colonial history of New York;
I shall devote only a few pages to the same theme, in addition to that
which has already been given in this work. We have glanced at colonial
and revolutionary events north of the Hudson Highlands; let us now open
the chronicles of the city and vicinity.

A few months after the return of Henry Hudson to Europe, with
intelligence of his discovery of the beautiful island of Manhattan **
and the river bearing his name, some Dutch traders sailed up the bay and
planted their tents near the spot where now flourish the stately trees
of the Battery. Hudson, being in the employment of the Dutch _East
India Company_, the States General of Holland claimed political and
territorial jurisdiction over a vast extent of country more than that
watered by the river discovered by Hudson. Ship followed ship with
adventurers from Holland, and as deep in the wilderness as Albany they
planted trading stations. A Dutch West India Company was formed,[[1621]]
clothed with all the elementary powers of government, and furnished
with a charter giving them territorial dominion over the shores of two
continents, without the least regard to the

* While the Dutch possessed the city, after its recapture in 1673,
it was the duty of the mayor to walk round the city every morning at
sunrise, unlock all the gates, and then give the keys to the commander
of the fort. The walls or palisades extended from the East River, across
Broadway to the corner of Grace and Lumber Streets, along the line of
the present Wall Street. From the most westerly point, they continued
along the brow of the high bank of the Hudson to the fort, near the
present Battery.

** According to Heckewelder, this Indian word signifies _place of
drunkenness_, a name given to the spot fourscore years before, when
Verrazani landed there, and at a council of the natives gave them strong
liquor and made them drunk. The place and the local tribe were afterward
called Manhattan and Manhattan.

[[[The Patroon System.--Government Established.--Trade of the
People.--Governor Stuyvesant.]]]

{783}existing settlements of the English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The
history of this company is instructive, but we must forbear.

A new system was adopted in 1629. _Patroons_ came, * and women and
children were brought to form the basis of a permanent colony. The new
domain was called New Netherlands, and the settlement on Manhattan, the
germ of the present city of New York, was named New Amsterdam. The chief
trade of the people was in the skins of the bear, otter, and raccoon;
and soon the New Englanders complained that Dutch trappers were seen
even as far eastward as Narraganset Bay. Tales of the beauty and
fertility of the New World were poured into the ears of the Dutch and
Germans.

[Illustration: 8793]

Their neighbors, the Swedes, caught the whisper, came over the sea, and
seated themselves upon the banks of the Delaware. Jealousy begat feuds,
and feuds engendered conflicts, and Christian people spilled each others
blood in the sight of the heathen.

When government for the new colony was ordained, Peter Minuits was sent
as director general,[[1625]] and during his administration, and that of
his successors, Van Twiller and Kieft, the settlements increased, yet
trouble with the Swedes and Indians abounded. *** The governors were
weak men, as statesmen, and possessed no military talent. Not so the
successor of Kieft, Petrus Stuyvesant, a military commander of renown;
a man of dignity, honest and true. He conciliated the Indians;****
made honorable treaties respecting boundaries with Necticut, and by
a promptly executed military expedition[[1655]] he crushed the rising
power of the Swedes on the Delaware, (v)

and warned Lord Baltimore not to attempt an extension of his boundary
line too far northward. Yet, with all his virtues, Stuyvesant was an
aristocrat. His education and pursuit made him so; and wherever
the feeble plant of democracy, which now began to spring up in New
Amsterdam, lifted its petals, he planted the heel of arbitrary power the
people of Conupon it. Watered by Van der Donck, and a few Puritans who
had strayed into the Dutch domain, it flourished, nevertheless, and at
length it bore fruit. Two deputies from each village in New Netherlands,
chosen by the people, met in council in New Amsterdam[[November 1653]],
without the governor's permission. This first popular assembly offended
the chief magistrate, and for five years animosity was allowed to fester
in the public mind, while Stuyvesant opposed the manifest will of the
people. They finally resisted taxes, scorned his menaces, and even
expressed a willingness to bear English rule for the sake of enjoying
English liberty.

* See vol. i., p. 391. The chief patroons, or patrons, who first came,
were Killian van Rensselaer, Samuel Godyn, Samuel Bloemart, and Michael
Paw. Godyn and Bloemart purchased lands on the Delaware, Van Rensselaer
at Albany, and Paw in New Jersey, from Hoboken to the Kills. Livingston,
Phillips, Van Cortland, and others, came afterward.

** This year a company of Walloons came from Holland and settled upon
the land around the present Navy Yard at Brooklyn. There, on the seventh
of June, Sarah Rapelle, the first white child born in New Netherlands,
made her advent.

*** Dishonest traders changed friendly Indians to deadly foes. Conflicts
ensued, and, to cap the climax of iniquity, Kieft caused scores of men,
women, and children, who had asked his protection against the Mohawks,
to be murdered at midnight, on the banks of the Hudson, at Hoboken. This
act awakened the fierce ire of the tribes far in the wilderness, and
caused the settlers vast and complicated trouble.

**** Because of his honorable treatment of the natives, and their
attachment to him, the New Englanders charged him with a design to
exterminate the English by Indian instrumentality.

* (v)See vol. i., page 386.

[[[New Netherlands seized by the English.--Disappointment of the
People.--Governor Stuyvesant.--New Jersey.]]]

{784}A crisis approached. Charles the Second, without any pretense to
title, gave the territory of New Netherlands to his brother James, duke
of York.[[March 1664]] The duke sent an English squadron under Richard
Nicolls to secure the gift, and on the third of September, 1664, the red
cross of St. George floated in triumph over the fort, and the name of
New Amsterdam was changed to New York. * It was an easy conquest, for
the people were not unwilling. Stuyvesant began to make concessions
when it was too late, and his real strength, the will of the people, had
departed from him. Although they disliked him as a ruler, they loved him
as a man, and in his retirement upon his Bowerie farm, ** near the city,
he passed the remainder of his days in quiet, honored and respected by
all.

Nicolls, the conqueror, assumed the functions of governor. *** He
changed the _form_ of laws, but the despotic _spirit_ remained. The
people were disappointed, and felt that they had only changed one
tyranny for another. Nicolls filled his pockets from the people's
purses, departed, and was succeeded by Francis Lovelace, who developed
new schemes of taxation, that the people should "have liberty for no
thought," as he expressed it, "but how to discharge them." The people
_did_ think of something else, and were on the verge of open rebellion,
when the clouds of national war overshadowed local difficulties. England
and Holland were at variance, and in July, 1673, a Dutch squadron sailed
up the Bay of New York, and, without firing a shot, took possession of
the fort and town. The easy con-

* The fort was built of Holland brick, and was finished in 1635. It
stood on high ground on the site of the row of brick houses southeast
of the Bowling Green, and was capacious enough to contain the governor's
house, a small church, and to accommodate three hundred soldiers. It was
called Fort Amsterdam. On its surrender to the English, it was called
Fort James; during the Dutch occupation again, in 1673, it was called
Fort William Hendrick; then again Fort James; on the accession of
William and Mary, it was called Fort Orange; and finally, it was named
Fort George, when Anne, who married Prince George of Denmark, ascended
the English throne. It retained that name until it was demolished in
1790-91.

** Governor Stuyvesant retired from active life after the surrender to
the English, and lived in quiet dignity upon his "Bowerie" estate,
a short distance from the eity, during the remainder of his life. *
Stuyvesant was a native of Holland, born in 1602, and was forty-five
years of age when he came to rule New Netherlands. Soon after his
arrival, he married Judith Bayard, daughter of a Huguenot, by whom
he had two sons. After the capture bv the English, he went to Holland
(1665) to report to his superiors, and this was his last ocean voyage.
With his little family he enjoyed the repose of agricultural pursuits,
within sight of the smoke of the city, which curled above the tree-tops
along the "Bowerie Lane." Upon his farm (on the site of the present
Church of St. Mark's), he built a chapel, at his own expense, and
dedicated it to the worship of God according to the rituals of the
Reformed Dutch Church. He lived eighteen years after the change in the
government, and at his death was buried in his vault within the chapel.
Over his remains was placed a slab (which may still be seen in the
eastern wall of St. Mark's), with the following inscription: "In
this vault lies buried Petrus Stuyvesant, late captain general and
commander-in-chief of Amsterdam, in New Netherlands, now called New
York, and the Dutch West India Islands. Died in August, A.D. 1682, aged
eighty years."

*** The dismemberment of the New Netherlands speedily followed the
English Conquest. James sold to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret,
the domains included within the present limits of New Jersey. Many
privileges were offered to settlers, and the new province flourished.
Berkeley finally sold his moiety to a party of Quakers, among whom was
William Penn. The province was divided into East and West Jersey. The
latter was assigned to the Quakers. In 1682, the heirs of Carteret sold
his share to Quakers, among whom, again, was William Penn, and all the
territory became an asylum for the persecuted. The ownership of
the Jerseys proved a bad speculation, and in 1702 the proprietors
surrendered them to the crown. They were united, and for a while
were under the jurisdiction of the governor of New York, yet having a
distinct Legislative Assembly. New Jersey was separated from New York in
1738, and remained a distinct province until she assumed the position of
a sovereign slate in 1776.

[Illustration: 8794]

* Governor Stuyvesant's house was built of small yellow brick, imported
from Holland, and stood near the present St. Mark's church, between
the Second and Third Avenues. I saw his well in 1851, in a vacant lot
between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, nearly on a line with the rear
of St. Mark's. A fine brick building now (1852) covers the spot. A
pear-tree, imported from Holland in 1647, by Stuyvesant, and planted in
his garden, yet flourishes on the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third
Avenue, the only living relic which preserves the memory of the renowned
Dutch governor. I saw it in May, 1852, white with blossoms, a patriarch
two hundred and five years of age, standing in the midst of strangers,
crowned with the hoary honors of age and clustered with wonderful
associations. An iron railing protects it, and it may survive a century
longer.

[[[Leisler Chief Magistrate.--His Persecution and Death.--Suppression of
Piracy.--Captain Kidd.]]]

{785}quest was the work of treason, yet, as the royal libertine on
the throne of England doubtless shared in the bribe, the traitor went
unpunished. New Jersey and the settlements on the Delaware yielded, and
for a short period (from July, 1673, until November, 1674) New York was
again New Netherlands. *

During the period of twenty-four years from the English Conquest, until
the Revolution, when James was driven from the throne, democratic ideas
rapidly expanded, and democratic principles worked powerfully in New
York. When, early in 1689, the people heard of the overthrow of the
bigot James, and the accession of William and Mary, they appointed a
Committee of Safety, and with almost unanimous voice approved the act of
Jacob Leisler, the commander of the militia, in taking possession of the
fort in the name of the new Protestant sovereigns.

[Illustration: 9795]

Nicholson, the royal governor, departed, and with the consent of the
people Leisler assumed the reigns of local rule until the king should
appoint a successor. This whole movement was the spontaneous act of the
people, in their sovereign capacity of self-governors. The aristocracy
were offended; denounced Leisler as a usurper; and when Governor
Sloughter came, they represented the popular leader as an enemy to the
king and queen. Never was a man more loyal than Jacob Leisler; never was
an accusation more false. His enemies resolved on his destruction, and
succeeded.

Leisler and his son-in-law, Milborne, were arrested, tried under a
charge of treason, and condemned to be hung. Sloughter withheld his
signature to the death-warrants until the leaders of the aristocracy
made him drunk at a dinner party. He then signed the fatal instrument,
and before he was sober, Leisler and Milborne were suspended upon a
gallows[[May 16, 1691]] on the verge of Beekman's Swamp, near the spot
where Tammany Hall now stands. These were the proto-martyrs of popular
liberty in America. **

Governor Sloughter, a man "licentious in his morals, avaricious, and
poor," *** died of _delirium tremens_ two months after the death of
Leisler, and was succeeded by Benjamin Fletcher, another weak,
dissolute man; "a soldier of fortune." Fletcher became the tool of the
aristocracy, and with their aid attempted to establish Episcopacy in
New York, and make it the legal religion of the province. The popular
Assembly was too strong for them, and defeated the scheme. Earl
Bellomont, **** who succeeded Fletcher in 1698, was a better and a wiser
man. Death removed him just as his more liberal policy was about to bear
fruit,[[1701]] and Edward Hyde (afterward Lord Cornbury), a libertine
and a knave, cursed the province with misrule for seven years, when
the people successfully demanded his recall. From that period until
the arrival of William Cosby as governor, in 1732, the royal
representatives, unable to resist the will of the people, expressed by
the popular Assembly, allowed democratic principles to grow and bear
fruit. Rip van Dam, "a man of the people," was acting governor when
Cosby came. They soon quarreled, and two violent parties arose; the
Democratic, who sided with Van Dam, and the Aristocratic, who sup-

* For interesting papers connected with this event, see Documentary
History of New York, iii., 80-99 inclusive; also Valentine's Manual of
the Common Council of New York, 1852, p. 415-435 inclusive.

** Jacoh Leisler was a native of Frankfort, in Germany. He came to
America in 1660, and after a brief residence in Albany, he became a
trader in New York. While on a voyage to Europe, he, with seven others,
was made a prisoner by the Turks, to whom he paid a high price for his
ransom. Governor Dongan appointed him one of the commissioners of the
Court of Admiralty in 1683. In 1689, while exercising the functions of
governor, he purchased New Rochelle for the persecuted Huguenots. His
death, by the violence of his enemies, lighted an intense flame of party
spirit, which burned for many long years. Abraham Gouverneur, Leisler's
secretary, was condemned at the same time, but was pardoned. He
afterward married the widow of Milborne, and became the ancestor of the
large and respectable family of Gouverneurs in this country, and its
collateral branches.

*** Chief Justice Smith.

**** It was during the administration of Bellomont, that efforts were
made to suppress prevailing piracy. The governor, Robert Livingston, and
others, fitted out an expedition for the purpose, intrusted the command
to the famous Captain Kidd, and were to share with him in all the
profits arising from the capture of piratical vessels. Kidd was hung as
a pirate in 1701, apparently the victim of a political conspiracy.

[[[Attempt to Muzzle the Press.--Triumph of Democracy.--The Negro
Plot.--Death of Sir Danvers Osborn.]]]

{786}ported the governor. Each party had a newspaper at command, * and
the war of words raged violently. The governor finally ordered Zenger,
the publisher of the paper opposed to him, to be arrested on a charge of
libel. After an imprisonment of thirty-five weeks, Zenger was tried
and acquitted by a jury. The excitement was intense, and, as on other
occasions, the heat of party zeal stimulated the growth of democratic
ideas. **

The remarkable event in the history of judicial proceedings, known as
_The Negro Plot_, occurred in the city of New York in 1741. The idea
became prevalent that numerous negro slaves in the city had conspired to
burn the town, murder the white people, and set up a government under
a man of their own color. A panic appeared to subvert all reason and
common sense, and before it was allayed, four white people were hanged;
eleven negroes were burned, eighteen were hanged, and fifty were
transported to the West Indies and sold. All the local histories contain
accounts of this affair in detail.

During the administration of George Clinton (of the family of the
Earls of Lincoln), from 1743 till 1753, disputes ran high between the
government and the people. Clinton's haughty demeanor, exactions, and
injudicious assumption of privileges, disgusted the people, and they
treated him with scorn. Clinton menaced them with punishments; they
defied him, and boldly pronounced his conduct "arbitrary, illegal, and a
violation of their rights." Yielding to the democratic pressure, Clinton
left the province, and was succeeded by Sir Danvers Osborn, on whose
goodness and integrity the people relied for quiet and just rule. Four
days after his accession[[Sept. 12, 1753]] to office, he went down into
the suicide's grave, *** and his deputy, Janies Delancey, officiated
as governor. The "Seven Years' War," now kindling in Europe, and its
counterpart in America, the "French and Indian War," absorbed public
attention, and the local politics of New York became, in a measure, a
secondary consideration with the people. **** In that war, the people
of New York, like those of her sister colonies, perceived their true
strength, and learned a lesson of vast importance to them in the
crisis which was now approaching. We have too often, in these volumes,
considered the events which led to this crisis--the open resistance
of the people to the supreme government--to require a repetition here,
except those circumstances of local interest which marked the reception
of the Stamp Act in New York.

When intelligence of the passage of the Stamp Act came over the sea, the
people of New York boldly avowed their opposition. Cadwallader Colden,
(v) a venerable Scotchman of

* The Democratic paper was published by John Peter Zenger, and was
called The New York Weekly Journal; the aristocratic paper was published
by William Bradford, formerly of Philadelphia (see page 258), and was
called The New York Gazette. The latter was established in 1725, and the
former in 1726. Bradford had been in the printing business in New York
since 1693. His was the first newspaper printed in the colony.

** This was the first attempt in New York to muzzle the press. Andrew
Hamilton, of Philadelphia, was Zenger's counsel; and the people, to
express their approbation of the verdict, entertained Hamilton at a
public dinner, and the corporation presented him with the freedom of
the city in a gold box. On his departure, he was honored with salutes of
cannon.

*** The loss of his wife had preyed upon the cheerfulness of Osborn,
and he had become almost a misanthrope. Dismayed by the cares and
perplexities of office which he saw awaited him, he hung himself with a
handkerchief upon the garden fence of his residence.

**** We have already considered, in the first volume, the convention of
colonial delegates at Albany in 1754, and the part which New York took
in the war which ensued, and continued until 1763.

* (v) Colden was one of the most active and useful of the public men of
New York before the Revolution. From a well-written memoir of him, by
the pen of John W. Francis, M.D., of the city of New York, and published
in The American Medical and Philosophical Register (January, 1811,
volume i.), I have gleaned the materials for the following brief sketch:
Cadwallader Colden was the son of a Scotch minister of the Gospel, and
was born at Dunse, in Scotland, on the seventeenth of February, 1688.
He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he completed his
collegiate studies in 1705, at the early age of seventeen years. He then
devoted three years to the study of mathematics and medical science,
when he came to America, and remained here five years, practicing the
profession of a physician. He returned to Great Britain in 1715, and
in London became acquainted with the leading minds of the day; among
others, with Halley the astronomer. He married a young lady in Scotland,
and returned, with her, to America in 1716. They settled in the city of
New York in 1718, and soon afterward Colden abandoned his profession
for employments in public life. He became the surveyor general of the
province, a master in Chancery, and a member of the Governor's Council.
About 1750, he obtained a patent for a large tract of land near
Newburgh, in Orange county, which was called Coldenham, where he resided
with his family a great portion of his time, after 1755. In 1760, he was
appointed lieutenant governor, and held that office until a year before
his death. On account of the absence or death of the governor-in-chief,
Colden often exercised the functions of chief magistrate. Such was his
position when the Stamp Aet excitement prevailed. He was relieved from
office in 1775, when he retired to his seat at Flushing. He died there
on the twenty-eighth of September, 1776, a few days after the great
fire broke out, which consumed a large portion of the city of New York.
Doctor Colden was a close student and keen observer through life, and he
enriched medical and other scientific works by numerous treatises from
his pen. His "History of the Five Nations of Indians" is a work of great
research and observation, and is now much sought after by scholars.
Botany was his delight, and with Linnæus, the great master of the
science, he was a constant and valued correspondent for many years.
Almost all of the eminent scientific men of Europe became his
correspondents, and Franklin and other leading men in America were his
intimate epistolary friends. Doctor Colden paid much attention to the
art of printing, wrote upon the subject, and was a real, if not the
original, inventor of the process called stereotyping. To Doctor Francis
I am indebted for a fine copy of the portrait of Colden, from which the
one here given was made.

[[[Cadwallader Colden.--Sons of Liberty.--Place of Meeting.--Newspapers
in the City.]]]

{787}eighty years was acting governor, and his council were men of the
highest character in the province.

[Illustration: 8797]

Colden was a liberal-minded man, yet duty to his sovereign compelled him
to discountenance the proceedings of the people, and his name appears
in the records as the enemy of civil freedom. The Sons of Liberty, who
organized at this time throughout the colonies, though not numerous at
first in New York, were very active, and gave Colden a great deal of
trouble. Merchants appended their names to resolutions condemnatory.
Correspondence was appointed, **** and measures were adopted regarding
the appointed stamp distributor to resign his commission.

The newspapers spoke out moderately but manly, and there were few
persons who openly advocated the Stamp Act. As the day approached when
the act was to be put in force,[[Nov. 1, 1765]] the tone of the press
and the people became more defiant, ** and it was resolved not to allow
the stamps to be landed. A general meeting of the citizens was held on
the evening of the thirty-first of October. ***

* The association in New York had a correspondent (Nicholas Ray) in
London, to whom they gave regular accounts of their proceedings, and
from whom they as regularly received intelligence of the movements of
the ministry. The most prominent men of the association in the province
of New York were Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Alexander M'Dougal, Marinus
Willett, William Wiley, Edward Laight, Thomas Robinson, Hugh Hughes,
Flores Baneker, Charles Nicoll, Joseph Allicock, and Gershom Mott, of
New York city; Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Myndert Rosenboom, Robert Henry,
Volkert P. Dow, Jelles Fonda, and Thomas Young, of Albany and Tryon
counties; John Sloss Hobart, Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cornelius
Conklin, and Nathan Williams, of Huntington, Long Island; George
Townsend, Barak Sneething, Benjamin Townsend, George and Michael Weekes,
and Rowland Chambers, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. The house of Richard
Howard, "in the fields" (now the Park), which stood very near the site
of Howard's Irving House, on the corner of Broadway and Chamber Street,
was the usual place of meeting of the Sons of Liberty. They also met
at Bardin's (afterward Abraham Montagne's) which stood on the site of
Francis's bookstore, on Broadway, near Murray Street. To this house a
garden was attached, which extended as far as the present Church Street,
and was a place of public resort.

** There were only three newspapers in the city of New York, then
containing a population of about seventeen thousand. These were The New
York Mercury, published by Hugh Gaine; The New York Weekly Gazette, by
William Weyman; and The New York Gazette (formerly Parker's paper), by
John Holt. The latter commenced the publication of his New York Journal
in 1766.

*** This meeting was held at Burns's "King's Arms," the present house
fronting the "Atlantic Garden," No. 9 Broadway.

**** The following-named persons constituted the committee: Isaac Sears,
John Lamb, Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson. There
was also a Committee of Vigilance organized at about the same time,
consisting of fifty-one persons.

[[[Arrival of Stamps.--The People demand them.--Colden burned in
Effigy.--Destruction of James's Property.]]]

{788}The stamps arrived on the twenty-third of October, and M'Evers,
already alarmed by the manifestation of the public feeling, refusing
to receive them, they were placed in the hands of Lieutenant-governor
Colden (who resided within Fort George) for safe keeping.

[Illustration: 0798]

The garrison was strong, and under the command of General Gage, then
chief captain of the British troops in America. In view of impending
troubles, Colden had strengthened the fort and replenished the magazine.
A knowledge of these facts increased the indignation of the people, but
did not alter their resolution. Notwithstanding armed ships were riding
in the harbor, and the guns of the fort were pointed upon the town,
the people assembled in great numbers, appeared before the fort, and
demanded the delivery of the stamps to their appointed leader. A
refusal was answered by defiant shouts, and half an hour afterward the
lieutenant governor was hung in effigy, * in "the fields," near the
spot where Leisler was gibbeted seventy-five years before. Thence they
paraded through the streets, back to the fort, dragged Colden's fine
coach to the open space in front, tore down the wooden fence around the
Bowling Green, and after making a pile, cast the coach ** and effigy
upon it, and set fire to and consumed all together. The mob then
proceeded out of town to the beautiful residence of Major James, of the
royal artillery, where they destroyed his fine library, works of art and
furniture, and desolated his choice garden. *** Isaac Sears and others,
leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who had issued strict orders forbidding
injury to private property, endeavored to restrain the mob, but the
storm they had raised could not be quieted till the appetite for
violence was appeased. After parading the streets, with the Stamp Act
printed upon large sheets, and raised upon poles, headed "England's
Folly and America's Ruin," the populace quietly dispersed to their
homes. ****

* The effigy had a drum upon its back, a label on its breast, and in one
hand a stamped paper. The drum was in allusion to the fact that Colden
was a drummer in the army of the Scotch Pretender in 1715. An effigy
of the devil hung by his side, with a boot in his hand, to indicate the
people's detestation of the Earl of Bute. By the ad vice of Colden, Gage
wisely refrained from firing upon the people while these outrages were
occurring.

** There were only three or four coaches in the city at that time, and
as they belonged to wealthy friends of government, they were considered
by the people evidences of aristocratic pride. Such was the prejudice
against the name of coach, that Robert Murray, a Quaker merchant who
owned one, called his "a leathern conveniency." Mr. Murray owned a
country seat near the intersection of Fourth and Fifth Avenues, and
Thirty-sixth and Fortieth Streets, long known as Murray Hill.
Colden's coach was made in England for Sir Henry Moore, the absent
governor-in-chief at the time. Colden's coach-house and stables were
outside the fort, and easy of access by the populace.

*** James's house stood on an eminence a little east of the present
intersection of Anthony Street and West Broadway, and was called
Ranelagh. I find in the newspapers of the day, the Ranelagh Garden
advertised, a few months after this outrage, by John Jones, as a place
of public resort, where fire-works were exhibited and refreshments
furnished. Vauxhall, the seat of Sir Peter Warren, was at the foot of
Warren Street.

**** During the evening of excitement, the cannons on Capsey battery
(near the present flag-staff, toward the Whitehall end of the Battery),
and also several in the government store-yard near by, were spiked, and
rendered unfit for service.

[[[Stamps delivered to the Mayor.--Quiet.--Repeal of the
Act.--Rejoicings.--Pitt's Statue.]]]

{789}Excitement still prevailed in the city, when Colden, perceiving
further resistance to the will of the people unavailing, ordered the
stamps to be delivered to the Mayor (Cruger) and Common Council, the
former giving a receipt for the same, and the corporation agreeing
to pay for all stamps that should be destroyed or lost. * This was
satisfactory to the people, and quiet was restored.

[8799]

Yet the colonists were no less vigilant, and efforts to enforce a repeal
of the obnoxious act were every where made. Non-importation agreements
were numerously signed; the hum of spinning-wheels and the clatter of
shuttles were heard in almost every household, and rich men and women,
who commonly walked in broadcloths and brocades, now appeared, on all
occasions, in homespun garments.

On Tuesday, the sixth of May,[[1766]] the joyful intelligence of the
repeal of the Stamp Act reached New York. ** The city was filled with
delight. Bells rung a merry peal, cannons roared, and placards every
where appeared, calling a meeting of the citizens at Howard's the
next day to celebrate the event. Hundreds assembled, and marching in
procession to "the fields," they fired a royal salute of twenty-one
guns upon the spot where the City Hall now stands. An immense table
was spread at Howard's, where the Sons of Liberty feasted, and drank
twenty-eight "loyal and constitutional toasts." The city was illuminated
in the evening, and bonfires blazed at every corner. Another celebration
was had on the king's birth-day,[[June 4, 1766]] under the auspices
of Governor Moore. The governor, council, military officers, and the
clergy, dined at the King's Arms (now Atlantic Garden), where General
Gage resided, and great rejoicings were had by the people in "the
fields." *** The Sons of Liberty feasted at Montagne's, and with the
sanction of the governor, they erected a mast (afterward called Liberty
Pole) a little northeast of the present City Hall, in front of Warren
Street. It was inscribed, "_To his most gracious Majesty, George the
Third, Mr. Pitt, and Liberty_." The loyalty of the people, and their
idolatry of Pitt, were boundless, and at a meeting at the Coffee
House,[[June 23]] corner of Dock (now Pearl) and Wall Streets, petition
was numerously signed, praying the Assembly to erect a statue to the
great commoner. The Assembly complied, and on the same day voted an
equestrian statue in honor of the king. These were erected in 1770, but
within six years that of the king was destroyed by the Republicans, and
Pitt's was mutilated by the Royalists soon afterwards. ****

Even while the people were singing alleluiahs, there were some in New
York, who, like Christopher Gadsden of Charleston (see page 748), were
sagacious enough to perceive the tendency of Pitt's Declaratory Act,
which accompanied the Repeal Bill, and were bold enough to warn the
people, even in the midst of the loyal excitement.

The liberal press of England immediately denounced

* Less than a month after this, some stamps, which were brought in a
brig, were disposed of in a more summary way. Ten boxes of them were
seized by some of the citizens, put into a boat, and taken to the
ship-yards at the foot of the present Catharine Street, on the East
river, where they were burned in a tar barrel. Governor Sir Henry Moore
arrived on the third of December, and his conciliatory course tended to
confirm the quiet which Colden had restored to the province.

** The intelligence was brought by Major James, who came passenger in
the Hynde, from Plymouth. She was six weeks on her voyage.

*** An ox was roasted whole; twenty-five barrels of beer and a hogshead
of rum were opened for the populace; twenty-five pieces of cannon,
ranged in a row where the City Hall now stands, thundered a royal
salute; and in the evening twenty-five tar barrels, hoisted upon poles,
were burned, and gorgeous fire-works were exhibited at Bowling Green.

**** The statue of the king was placed in the center of the Bowling
Green, and the iron railing which now incloses the spot was placed there
for its protection. We shall notice it more in detail presently. The
statue of Pitt was pedestrian, and made of marble. It was placed at
the intersection of William and Wall Streets. The figure was in a Roman
habit; in one hand was a scroll partly open, on which was inscribed
Articuli Magna Charta Libertatum. The left hand was extended in
oratorical attitude. On the south side of the pedestal was the following
inscription: "This statue of the Right Honorable William Pitt, earl of
Chatham, was erected as a public testimony of the grateful sense the
colony of New York retains of the many services he rendered to America,
particularly in promoting the repeal of the Stamp Act. Anno Dorn.,
1770." While the British soldiers occupied the city they knocked off the
head and arms of the statue, and other wise defaced it. It was
removed after the war, and for many years laid among rubbish in the
corporation-yard, from which it was conveyed by Mr. Riley, of the Fifth
Ward Hotel, to the corner of his house, within an iron railing, where
it yet (1852) remains. The engraving on the preceding page is a repre
sentation of its present appearance.

[[[Murmuring against the Mutiny Act.--Liberty Pole several times cut
down.--Excitement--Pitt Caricatured.]]]

{790}it, * and Pitt's plea of _expediency_ could hardly save him from
the anathemas of the Americans, when they gravely considered the matter.
However, the Sons of Liberty regarded the repeal of the Stamp Act as
a secession of the ministry from their authoritative position, and
believing that a full redress of grievances complained of would follow,
they dissolved their association, but agreed to meet each year on the
anniversary of the repeal, to celebrate the event.

Before the echoes of repeal rejoicings had died away, the low mutterings
of another storm were heard. When intelligence of the Stamp Act riots
reached England, Parliament passed the _Mutiny Act_, which provided
for the quartering of troops in America, at the partial expense of the
colonists themselves. In June, Governor Moore informed the people of
New York that he hourly expected the arrival of a re-enforcement for the
garrison, and that he desired the Assembly to make immediate provisions
for them, according to the demands of the Mutiny Act. The Sons of
Liberty were aroused, and at a meeting at Montagne's, they solemnly
resolved to resist this new measure of oppression to the uttermost.
The troops came; angry feelings were soon excited between them and the
people, and thirty-six days after the Liberty Pole was erected with so
much harmony and loyalty it was cut down by the insolent soldiery.[[Aug
16, 1766]] The people re-erected it the next evening, in the face of the
armed mercenaries; not, however, without a fracas, in which blood was
shed. ** Little more than a month afterward,[[Sept. 23]] the soldiers
again prostrated the Liberty Pole, and again the people upreared it, and
from its top they flung the British banner to the breeze.[[Sept. 25]]
The autumn and winter passed without serious trouble in the city, but
when the people met to celebrate the anniversary of the repeal,[[March
1767]] and with great rejoicings inaugurated the "mast" as a "Liberty
Pole," the soldiers again interfered, and that night the cherished
emblem of freedom was prostrated for the third time. The people again
erected it, bound it with iron, and placed a guard there. The soldiers
came with loaded muskets,[[March 22]] fired two random shots into
Montagne's house, where the Sons of Liberty were assembled, and
attempted to drive the people from "the fields." Fearful retaliation
would have followed this atrocious act, had not the governor interfered
and ordered the soldiers to refrain from further aggressive movements.
On the king's birth-day,[[June 4]] they made another unsuccessful
attempt to destroy the Liberty

Pole, but it stood in proud defiance until 1770, when armed men came
from the barracks at midnight.[[Jan. 16, 1770]] prostrated it, sawed it
in pieces, and then piled it up in front of Montagne's. The perpetrators
were discovered, the bell of St. George's Chapel, in Beekman Street, was
rung, and early the next morning three thousand people stood around the
stump of the pole, and, by resolutions, declared their rights, and
their determination to maintain them. For three days the most intense
excitement prevailed. In frequent affrays with the citizens, the
soldiers were generally worsted; and in a severe conflict on Golden

[Illustration: 8800]

* A caricature appeared in London, which represented Pitt upon stilts,
his gouty leg resting on the Royal Exchange, in the midst of bubbles
inscribed War, Peace, &c. This stilt was called Popularity. The other
stilt, called Sedition, he stretched over the sea toward New York,
fishing for popularity in the Atlantic. The staff on which he leaned
was called Pension. This caricature was entitled The Colossus, and was
accompanied by five satirical verses in broken English, as if spoken by
a Frenchman.

** No citizen was killed, or very seriously wounded. Isaac Sears and
John Berrien each received a wound.

[[[Soldiers Disarmed.--Fifth Liberty Pole.--Political Coalition.--Public
Sentiment.--John Lamb.]]]

{791}Hill (Cliff Street, between Fulton Street and Maiden Lane), near
Burling Slip, several of the soldiers were disarmed. * Quiet was at
length restored; the people erected another Liberty Pole[[March 24]]
upon private ground purchased for the purpose, upon Broadway, near
Warren Street, and a few days afterward the soldiers departed for
Boston. **

[Illustration: 8801]

This fifth Liberty Pole remained untouched as a rallying-place for the
Whigs until 1776, when it was hewn down by Cunningham, the notorious
provost marshal, who, it is said, had been whipped at its foot.

The Colonial Assembly steadily refused compliance with the demands
of the Mutiny Act, until Parliament, early in 1767, passed an act
"prohibiting the governor, council, and Assembly of New York passing any
legislative act for any purpose whatever," when partial concessions were
made. A new Assembly was convened in 1768.[[Feb 11]] It was composed of
less pliable material than the other, and, notwithstanding the imperial
government made the province feel the weight of its displeasure, and
would not recede from its position of absolute master, the Assembly
refused submission, until May, 1769, when an appropriation was made for
the support of the troops. In the autumn of that year Sir Henry Moore
died,[[Sep. 11]] and the reins of government were again held by Colden.
Soon an unlooked for coalition between Colden and Delancey, the leaders
of opposing parties, appeared. Opposite political elements seemed
to assimilate, and the leaven of aristocracy began its work in the
Assembly. A game for political power, based upon a money scheme, was
commenced, which menaced the liberties of the people. *** The popular
leaders sounded the alarm, and an inflammatory hand-bill appeared,[[Dec.
16,1769]] signed "A Son of Liberty," calling a meeting of the betrayed
inhabitants in the fields."

It denounced the money scheme, the pliancy of the Assembly, and the
unnatural coalition of Colden and Delancey, as omens of danger to the
state. A large concourse of people assembled around the Liberty Pole the
next day. They were harangued by John Lamb, **** one of the most ardent
of the Sons of Liberty, and by

* The late Col. Michael Smith, who died in New York in April, 1846,
at the age of ninety-six years, was then a young man of twenty. He was
engaged in the affray, and was one of those who disarmed the soldiers.
I have seen the musket which he seized at the time, and which, as a
soldier, he bore throughout the war that soon followed. It is a very
heavy Tower gun, and is preserved by his family as a precious heir-loom.

** At this time the true Sons of Liberty were excluded from Montague's
by those who were active with them in 1765, but now leaned toward the
government side. With these Montagne sympathized, and to them he hired
his rooms, when the day approached for celebrating the repeal of
the Stamp Act. The patriots purchased a small house at the corner
of Broadway and the Bowery road (where Barnum's American Museum now
stands), named it Hampden Hall, and that was their place of assemblage
during the four years preceding the bursting forth of the storm of the
Revolution.--See Holt's Journal (supplement), No. 1418.

*** This was the issuing of bills of credit, on the security of the
province, to the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, to
be loaned to the people, the interest to be applied to defraying the
expenses of the colonial government. It was none other than a Monster
Bank, without checks, and was intended to cheat the people into a
compliance with the requirements of the Mutiny Act, by the indirect
method of applying the profits to that purpose.

**** John Lamb was born in the city of New York, on the first of
January, 1735. In early youth he followed the occupation of his father
(optician and mathematical instrument maker), but in 1760 entered into
the liquor trade. He was a good writer and fluent speaker, both of which
accomplishments he brought into use when the troubles with Great Britain
began. He was active in all the preliminary scenes of the Revolution in
New York, and in 1775 received a captain's commission. He accompanied
Montgomery to Quebec, was active and brave during the siege, and was
wounded and made prisoner at the close. He retired to New York the
ensuing summer, was promoted to mayor, and attached to the regiment
of artillery under Knox. As we have met him at various times in his
military career, we will not stop to repeat the story of his services.
He was elected to a seat in the New York Assembly at the close of
the war, and was active in civil services until the organization of
government under the Federal Constitution, when Washington appointed him
collector of customs for the port of New York. He held this office until
his death, which occurred on the thirty-first of May, 1800. Never was
there a purer patriot or more honest man than John Lamb.

[[[M'Dougal Imprisoned.--Partial Triumph of Toryism.--Arrival of a
Tea-ship.--Destruction of Tea.]]]

{792}a vote unanimously condemned the action of the Assembly. They
communicated their sentiments to that body by a committee, * when the
Assembly adopted measures for the discovery and punishment of the author
of the obnoxious hand-bill. Lamb was cited before the House, but was
soon discharged; and the guilt being fixed upon Alexander M'Dougal (the
Revolutionary general, subsequently) by the printer, he was arrested,
and refusing to make any acknowledgment or to give bail, he was cast
into prison, where he remained about fourteen weeks, until arraigned for
trial. He then pleaded not guilty, gave bail, was arraigned before the
House several months afterward (when he was defended by George Clinton),
and was again put in prison for contempt. He was soon released, and was
never troubled with the matter afterward. These proceedings engendered
dissatisfaction. Popular opinion was with M'Dougal, and men and women
flocked to the prison to sympathize with him. The growth of democratic
principles was promoted by these events.

Gradually the Loyalist party gained ascendency in the Legislature, and
the influence of that body was felt among the people. Non-importation
agreements were disregarded, and only the Hampden Hall Sons of Liberty
maintained the integrity of their principles. Disaffection appeared
among the members of the general committee of One Hundred, and of the
vigilance committee of Fifty-one, recently organized. The Loyalists
rejoiced, and Riv-ington printed in his Gazetteer,=

```"And so my good masters, I find it no joke,

```For York has stepp'd forward and thrown off the yoke

```Of Congress, committees, and even King Sears,

```Who shows you good nature by showing his ears."=

Yet the great mass of the people remained sufficiently democratic to
preserve a spirit of hostility to oppressive government measures.
We need not here repeat the story of Britain's sins and America's
endurance. New York shared in common with the other colonies, and when
Tryon came from North Carolina[[July 3, 1771]] to rule the province, he
found the same loathing for petty tyranny and aristocratic assumptions.
Comparative quiet prevailed, however, until intelligence of Lord North's
Tea Act came. The flame of excitement then burst out in New York as
suddenly and fiercely as in Boston. The Sons of Liberty reorganized; the
Committee of Correspondence resumed its labors; tea commissioners and
stamp distributors were considered co-workers in iniquity, and in front
of the Coffee House in Wall Street, an effigy of Kelly, a New Yorker in
London, who had ridiculed popular indignation here, was burned.[[Nov.
7, 1773]] The fire in Hampden Hall spread among the people, and when
Captain Lockyier, of the _Nancy_, the first tea-ship that came, arrived
at Sandy Hook, he heeded the advice of the pilot, and went up to
the city without his vessel. The "Mohawks" ** were warned to be in
readiness, and the people resolved that no tea should be landed. Captain
Lockvier's conference with the committee satisfied him that he had no
fair alternative but to return to England with his cargo. Even while he
was ashore, a merchant vessel (Captain Chambers) arrived with eighteen
chests of tea hidden among its cargo. The vigilant Sons of Liberty
searched his vessel, cast his tea into the harbor, and advised him to
leave port as soon as possible. He heeded the advice, and left New York
with Lockyier, while the people crowded the wharf at Whitehall, shouted
a farewell, and amid cannon peals hoisted the royal flag upon the
Liberty Pole in token of triumph.

* The committee consisted of Isaac Sears, Caspar Wistar, Alexander
M'Dougal, Jacobus van Zandt, Samuel Broome, Erasmus Williams, and James
van Yarck (Yarick).

** When it was known that tea-ships were on their way, a notice appeared
in Holt's journal, calling the "Mohawks" to action. There appeared to
be the same understanding in New York as in Boston, that tea was to be
destroyed, if necessary, by men disguised as Indians.

[[[New Parties.--Meeting of Provincial Congress.--Arrest of Captain
Sears.--Seizure of Arms.--Post-office.]]]

{793}Loyalty and timidity again developed their fruit in the
Revolutionary committees, and by adroit management moderate men and
royalists gained the ascendency. Afraid openly to oppose the popular
will, they insidiously cast obstacles in the way of efficient
co-operation with other colonies. Soon two distinct parties were formed
among professed Republicans, marked by a line of social distinction--the
_Patricians_ and the _Tribunes_--the merchants and gentry, and the
mechanics. They coalesced, however, in the nomination of delegates to
the Continental Congress, and on the twenty-seventh of July,[[1774]] the
people, by unanimous voice, ratified their choice. * This was an act of
the people alone, for the Assembly, too timid or too loyal, refrained
from any expression of opinion concerning the proposed Congress. **

The _American Association_, adopted by the first Continental Congress,
was popular in New York, and a committee of sixty was immediately
organized to enforce its provisions. Warmly supported by the true
Sons of Liberty, they took the lead in political matters By their
recommendation, the people in the several counties chose representatives
for a Provincial Congress, and on the twenty-second of May, 1775, that
body convened in the Exchange, at the foot of Broad Street, in New York.
*** The General Assembly had adjourned a month previously, and never met
again. ****

The great crisis was now approaching, and the occurrence of many local
circumstances inflamed the minds of the people, and prepared them
for open rebellion. (v) Intelligence of the martyrdom of patriots at
Lexington and Concord came at the moment when Captain Sears, the popular
leader, was in official custody,[[April 24, 1775]] because he had made,
it was alleged, treasonable propositions. (vi) Aroused by that first
clarion-blast of war, the

* Philip Livingston, John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, and Isaac Low
were chosen. They were adopted as delegates by other districts, and the
name of Henry Wisner was afterward added. The people of Suffolk county
elected William Floyd, and the credentials of all were presented
together.

** Governor Tryon's house was destroyed by fire at midnight on the
twenty-ninth of December, 1773. So rapidly did the flames spread, that
the governor's family had great difficulty in escaping, and Elizabeth
Garret, a servant girl sixteen years of age, perished in the flames.
The governor lost all of his personal effects. The Assembly made him a
present of twenty thousand dollars in consideration of his misfortune.
The great seal of the province was found among the ashes, two days after
the fire, uninjured. Tryon went to England in April, 1774, and on his
departure he was honored with addresses; a public dinner by the Common
Council; a ball by General Haldimand, then in command of the troops;
and King's (now Columbia) College, then under the care of Dr. Cooper,
conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.

*** Peter van Brugh Livingston was chosen president, Volkert P. Douw,
vice-president, and John M'Kisson and Robert Benson, secretaries.
Nathaniel Woodhull, of Suffolk county, was soon afterward called to the
presidential chair. He was appointed a brigadier the following year.

**** Fifteen of the twenty-four members of the Assembly were Loyalists,
and during their last session, efforts to pass resolutions approving the
proceedings of the Continental Congress were fruitless. A motion to that
effect, offered by Nathaniel Woodhull (afterward slain by the British),
was lost by a party vote. Those who voted in the affirmative were George
Clinton, Nathaniel Woodhull, Philip Schuyler, Abraham Tenbroeck, Philip
Livingston, Captain Seaman, and Messrs. Boerum, Thomas, and De Witt.

* (v) On the twentieth of December, the ship Lady Gage, commanded by
Captain Thomas Mesnard, arrived with ten cases and three boxes of arms,
and a barrel of gunpowder, consigned to Walter Franklin. The collector
ordered these to be seized, because, as he alleged, they had been lying
in Franklin's warehouse several days without cockets. While on their way
to the custom-house, a small party of the Sons of Liberty took them from
the officers in charge, but before they could conceal them, they were
retaken and placed on board an armed ship in the harbor. On the same
day a letter for the collector was put in the post-office, * containing
menaces of vengeance, and that night a very inflammatory hand-bill was
left at almost every door in the city. **

* (vi) When General Gage began to fortify Boston Neck, the people
refused him labor and materials; and in the spring of 1775, he sent to
New York for both, in order to erect barracks for the soldiers on Boston
Common. The patriots were informed that a sloop laden with boards was
about to sail for Boston. A meeting was ealled at the Coffee-house, and
it was resolved to seize the vessel. At that meeting, Sears exhorted the
people to arm themselves with muskets and twenty-four ball-cartridges
each. For this he was arrested and taken before the mayor. He refused
to give bail, and was about to be carried to prison when the people
took him from the officers, and bore him in triumph through the town,
preceded by a band of music and a banner. That night Sears addressed
the people in "the fields," and a few days afterward he was elected a
member of the Provincial Congress. The names of Burling, Ivers, Alner,
M'Dougal, Roorbach, and Richard Livingston are preserved as among those
of Sears's friends on that occasion.

* A scheme for the establishment of an independent post-office, proposed
by William Goddard, the publisher of the Maryland Journal, was put into
partial operation in 1775, and on the eleventh of May, John Holt,
the printer, was appointed postmaster. The office was kept at Holt's
printing-house.

** This is supposed to have been written by John Lamb. To avoid being
betrayed, the Sons of Liberty went to Holt's printing-house at night,
and put in type and printed their hand-bills themselves, and then
circulated them through the town.

[[[Arming of the People.--Closing of the Custom house.--Arms seized by
the Sons of Liberty.--Fortifications Ordered.]]]

{794}people took possession of the City Hall, armed themselves, and with
Lamb and Willett at their head, they embargoed all vessels in the harbor
laden with provisions for the British army in Boston. They did more;
Andrew Elliott, the collector, forbade the landing of a cargo of rum
for the patriots. Sears and Lamb ordered the vessel to Cruger's Wharf
(between Coenties * and Old Slips), landed the rum, and carted it to
its destination in the city; then returning to the custom-house, they
demanded and received the keys, dismissed the employees, and closed the
building.[[May 2]] When they had committed this overt act of treason,
they boldly gave notice of the fact to their brethren in other cities.
Persons known to be engaged in sending provisions to the British ships
in the harbor were seized, and general alarm pervaded the Tory ranks.
** A grand Committee of Safety, consisting of one hundred of the most
respectable citizens, was now organized; a military association for
practice in the use of fire-arms was formed, under Samuel Broome; a
pledge (see page 384, volume i.) was circulated, and numerously signed;
six hundred stand of arms were taken from the city arsenals by the
committee, and distributed among the citizens; and when an Irish
battalion (the last remains of the garrison in Fort George), under
Major Moncrief, were on their way to a vessel bound for Boston, with a
quantity of spare arms in boxes upon wagons, Marinus Willett and a small
body of Sons of Liberty, encouraged by a short harangue by John Morin
Scott, boldly confronted the soldiers, seized the arms, and carried them
baek to the now deserted fort.[[Jan 23, 1775]] These arms were afterward
used by Gansevoort's regiment, of which Willett was lieutenant colonel.

When the Provincial Congress assembled,[[May 22]] its complexion
disappointed the people.

Toryism and timidity prevailed in that Assembly, and the elaboration of
schemes for conciliation, instead of measures for defense, occupied
the majority. Hard pressed by public opinion, *** and the influence of
important events daily transpiring, they were obliged to yield. Four
regiments were authorized to be raised; **** fortifications at King's
Bridge (v) were ordered, and measures were taken to fortify the Hudson
passes in the Highlands. In the mean while, the patriots gathered in
force around Boston; the battle of Bunker Hill was fought; a
Continental army was organized, and George Washington appointed the
commander-inchief. (vi) Rumors of the approach of troops from Ireland
came, and the Provincial Congress,

* This is a corruption of Countess's Slip, a name given to it in honor
of the Countess Bellomont, the child-wife of Governor Bellomont. She was
a mother at the age of thirteen.

** Dr. Cooper, the president of King's (now Columbia) College, becoming
alarmed, soon afterward fled to Stuyvesant's house, near the East River,
where he remained concealed, under the impression that the Whigs were
trying to seize him. He finally escaped to the Asia man-of-war. He
had written much in favor of Episcopacy in America, and was a decided
Loyalist; so decided, that, next to Tryon, Colden, and Mayor Hicks, he
was most detested by the Whigs. Dr. Cooper was eminent for his learning.
He succeeded Dr. Johnson as president of the college in 1763. Soon after
his flight he went to England. He died suddenly in Edinburgh, on the
first of May, 1785, at the age of fifty years, and was buried in the
Episcopal chapel there.

*** New York has been unjustly taunted for its adherence to royalty,
when the curtain of the Revolutionary drama was first lifted in 1775.
Family influence was very great in that colony, and through it the
General Assembly and the Provincial Congress were very loyally inclined.
But the masses were chiefly republican in feeling, and when Toryism was
fairly crushed out of the popular Assembly by pressure from without,
no state was more patriotic. With a population of only one hundred
and sixty-four thousand, of whom thirty-two thousand five hundred were
liable to do militia duty, New York furnished seventeen thousand seven
hundred and eighty-one soldiers for the Continental army; over three
thousand more than Congress required.--Judge Campbell's Address before
the New York Historical Society, 1850.

**** These were commanded by colonels M'Dougal, James Clinton, Ritzema,
and Wynkoop. Herman Zedwitz, a Prussian, was M'Dougal's first major.
Ritzema joined the Royal army after the battle at White Plains; and
about the same time Zedwitz was cashiered for attempting a treasonable
correspondence with Tryon.

* (v) King's Bridge spans Spyt den Duyvel Creek, at the northern end
of York Island. The first structure there was of wood, erected at the
expense of the colony in 1691, and was called the King's bridge.

* (vi) For a notice of Washington's arrival in New York, when on his way
to Cambridge, see vol. i., page 564.

[[[Wooster and his Troops at Harlem.--Capture of British Stores.--Turtle
Bay.--Committee of One Hundred.]]]

{795}somewhat purged of its Toryism by intelligence from the East,
invited General Wooster, then in command of eighteen hundred Connecticut
militia at Greenwich, to come to the defense of New York.

[Illustration: 8805]

He encamped at Harlem[[June, 1775]] for several weeks, sent detachments
to beat off marauders, who were carrying away the cattle of Long Island
to the British army in Boston, and by his presence made the New York
patriots bold and active. At midnight[[July 20]] they captured British
stores at Turtle Bay, and sent part to the grand army at Boston and a
part to the troops then collecting on Lake Champlain to invade Canada;
they also seized a tender, with stores, belonging to the _Asia,_ and
took possession of provisions and clothing deposited at Greenwich * by
the government. **

Governor Tryon returned to New York in the _Asia_ on the third of July,
and was received with respect. His course soon indicated his opposition
to the Republicans. The energetic actions of the committee of One
Hundred taught him to be circumspect in public, and his private
intrigues to gain ascendency for Toryism in the Provincial Congress were
abortive. That body, now guided by the popular will, and perceiving a
resort to arms to be inevitable, ordered Lamb, who was then a captain
of artillery, to remove the cannons from the grand battery and the fort,
and take them to a place of security. Assisted by an independent corps
under Colonel Lasher, and a body of citizens guided by _King_ Sears, as

* Greenwich was then a village of a few houses, a mile and a half from
the city. It has long since been merged into the metropolis, and is now
(1852) at about a central point, on the Hudson, between the lower and
upper part of the city.

** These acts were done under the immediate sanction of the committee of
One Hundred, * who, while the Provincial Congress legislated, were busy
in executing according to the known will of the people. The patriots
regarded this committee with more confidence than they did the
Provincial Congress.

[Illustration: 6805]

*** Turtle Bay is a small rock-bound cove of the East River, at the
foot of Forty-seventh Street. The banks are high and precipitous, and
afforded a safe retreat for small vessels. Here the government had made
a magazine of military stores, and these the Sons of Liberty determined
to seize. Under the direction of Lamb, Sears, Willett, and M'Dougal,
a party procured a sloop at Greenwich, came stealthily through the
dangerous vortex of Hell Gate at twilight, and at midnight surprised and
captured the guard, and secured the stores. The old store-house in which
they were deposited is yet standing upon a wharf on the southern side
of the little bay. The above view is from the bank at the foot of
Forty-sixth Street. Beyond the rocky point on the north side of the
bay is seen the lower end of Blackwell's Island, with the shore of Long
Island in the distance. On the left of the old store-house, delineated
in the annexed sketch, is seen the bridge across the mouth of Newtown
Creek, a locality which will be mentioned presently in connection with a
notice of the landing of troops under Sir Henry Clinton.

* The following-named gentlemen composed the committee of One Hundred:
Isaae Low, Chairman; John Jay, Fraud's Lewis, John Alsop, Philip
Livingston, James Duane, E. Duyekman, William Seton, William W. Ludlow,
Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinekerhoff, Henry Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert
Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beekman, Isaae Roosevelt,
Gabriel II. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jay,
Samuel Broome, John De Lancey. Augustus van Horne, Abraham Duryee,
Samuel Verplanck, Rudolphus Putzema, John Morton, Joseph Hallett, Robert
Benson, Abraham Brasher, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, P. V.
Brugh Livingston, Thomas Marsten, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazar
Miller, Jr.. John Broome, John B. Moore, Nicholas Bogart, John Anthony,
Victor Bicker, William Goforth, Hercules Mulljin, Alexander M'Dougal,
John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow,
John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas Smith, Richard Liates, Oliver
Templeton, Jacobus van Landby, Jeremiah Platt, Peter S. Curtenius,
Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacoh Lefferts,
Anthony van Dam, Abraham Walton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roosevelt,
Cornelius P. Low, Franeis Bassett, James Beekman, Thomas Ivers, William
Dunning, John Berrien, Benjamin Helme, William W. Gilbert, Daniel
Dunscombe, John Lamb, Richard Sharpe, John Morin Seott, Jacob van
Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Flemming, Peter Goelet, Gerrit Kettletas,
Thomas Buchanan, James Desbrosses, Petrus Byvanek, Lott Embree.--See
Dunlap's History of New York, ii., Appendix, ccxvi.

[[[Removal of Cannons from the Battery.--Cannonade from the
Asia.--Newspapers in the City.]]]

{796}the sturdy Son of Liberty was now called, he proceeded to the
battery at nine o'clock on lhe evening of the twenty-third of August.
Captain Vandeput, of the _Asia_, informed of the intended movement, sent
a barge filled with armed men to watch the patriots. When they appeared,
a musket ball was indiscreetly sent among them from the barge. It was
answered by a volley, when the barge hastened to the _Asia_, bearing
several men killed and wounded. That vessel opened her port-holes, and
hurled three balls ashore in quick succession. Lamb ordered the drums
to beat to arms; the church bells were rung, and while all was confusion
and alarm, a broadside came from the _Asia_. Others rapidly followed,
and several houses near the fort and Whitehall were injured by the grape
and round shot. * No life was sacrificed, but terror seized the people.
Believing the rumor that the city was to be sacked and burned, hundreds
of men, women, and children were seen at midnight hurrying with their
light effects to places of safety beyond the doomed town. Yet the
patriots at the battery were firm, and in the face of the cannonade every
gun was deliberately removed. Some of them afterward performed good
service in the American cause. **

Deep feelings of exasperation moved the Sons of Liberty in the city
after this cannonade, and Tryon's fears wisely counseled his flight.
Mayor Hicks and others promised him protection, but he had more
confidence in gunpowder, and on the nineteenth of October[[1775]] he
took refuge on board the British sloop of war Halifax, *** where he
received his council, and, like Dunmore, attempted to exercise civil
authority. **** Aided by Rivington. (v) with

* Among the houses injured at that time was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce
(commonly called Black Sam, because of his dark complexion), on the
corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, where Washington parted with his
officers more than eight years afterward. That house, known as the Broad
Street Hotel, was partly destroyed by fire in June, 1852. Freneau,
in his Petition of Hugh Gaine, makes that time-server allude to the
cannonade of the Asia, and say,

    "At first we supposed it was only a sham,
    'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam."

** There were twenty-one iron eighteen-pounders and some smaller cannon
on the battery. Alexander Hamilton, then a student in King's (now
Columbia) College, was among the citizens on that occasion. He had
organized a corps for artillery discipline among his fellow-students,
and fifteen of them were now with him. Among their trophies were two
six-pounders, which they buried in the earth on the College Green,
despite the menaces of Dr. Cooper, the Tory president. These two cannons
may yet (1852) be seen at the entrance gate of the College Green,
fronting Park Place.

*** The Continental Congress, on the sixth of October, recommended the
several Provincial Congresses and Committees of Safety to seeure every
person believed to be inimical to the Republican cause. No doubt this
recommendation hastened Tryon's flight.

**** The members in attendance were Oliver Delancey, Hugh Wallace,
William Axtell, John Harris Cruger and James Jauncey.

[Illustration: 9806]

* (v) James Rivington was a native of London, well educated, and of
pleasing deportment. He came to America in 1760, established a bookstore
in Philadelphia the same year, and in 1761 opened one near the foot of
Wall Street, in New York, where his Royal Gazetteer * was established
in April, 1773. No man was more thoroughly detested by the Whigs than
Rivington, for he held a keen and unscrupulous pen. His good nature
often pointed his severest thrusts. When, in 1781, he perceived
the improbability of success on the part of the British, he made a
peace-offering to the Americans, by furnishing the commander-in-chief
with important information. By means of books which he published, he
performed his treason without suspicion. He wrote his secret billets
upon thin paper, and bound them in the cover of a book, which he always
managed to sell to those who would carry the article immediately to
Washington. The men employed for this purpose were ignorant of the
nature of their service. While thus playing into the hands of the
Republicans, he unceasingly abused them, and kept Clinton, Robertson,
and Carleton in blissful ignorance of his perfidy. When the Loyalists
fled, and the American army entered the city in the autumn of 1783,
Rivington remained; a fact which has puzzled those acquainted with his
course during the war. Others, not a tithe so obnoxious, were driven
away; in his secret treason lies the explanation. His business declined,
and he lived in comparative poverty until July, 1802, when he died at
the age of seventy-eight years. The portrait here given is from a fine
painting by Stuart, in the possession of Honorable John Hunter, of
Hunter's Island, New Rochelle. The signature is half the size of the
original. Mr. Hunter remembers Rivington as a vivacious, companionable
man, fond of good living, a lover of wine, and a perfect gentleman in
his deportment.

* There were three other newspapers printed in the city when Rivington's
press was destroyed, namely, Gaine's New York Mercury, in Hanover
Square, established in 1752; Holt's New York Journal, in Dock (Pearl)
Street, near Wall, commenced in 1766; and Anderson's Constitutional
Gazette, a very small sheet, published for a few months in 1775. at
Beekman's Slip. Hugh Gaine was a time-server. He was a professed patriot
until the British took possession of New York in 1776, when he returned
to the city after a brief exile at Newark, became a moderate Loyalist,
and, on making an humble petition to the State Legislature at the close
of the war, he was allowed to remain. This petition was the subject of
one of Freneau's best satirical poems. Gaine kept a bookstore under the
sign of the Bible and Crown, at Hanover Square, for forty years. He died
on tin: twenty-fifth of April, 1807, at the age of eighty-one years.
Previous to the meeting of the first Congress, Holt's paper contained
the Snake device (see page 508, volume i.) at its head; in December,
after its session, it bore the annexed significant picture as a
vignette. This is half the size of the original. Upon the body of the
serpent were these words.

     "United, now, alive and free,
     Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand,
     And thus supported ever bless our land,
     'Till Time becomes Eternity."

After the destruction of his press, Rivington went to England. When the
British took possession of New York, he was appointed king's printer,
and in October, 1777, he resumed the publication of his paper, under the
original title. On the thirteenth of December, he changed the title to
"The Royal Gazette," and published it semi-weekly. During the occupation
of the city by the British, a paper was issued every day but one; Gaine's
Mercury on Monday; Rivington's Gazette on Wednesday and Saturday;
Robertson's, Mills', and Hicks' Loyal American Gazette on Thursday; and
Lewis's New York Mercury and General Advertiser on Friday. Rivington
alone assumed the title of "printer to the king."--Thomas's History of
Printing, ii., 312.

[[[Destruction of Rivington's Printing Materials.--Capture of
Seabury.--Rivington and Sears.]]]

{797}his _Royal Gazetteer_, his influence was still great, and and in
active propagation.

In total disregard of truth and common fairness, Rivington abused the
Republicans with unsparing severity, and none more bitterly than Captain
Sears. *

[Illustration: 8807]

That patriot, fired by personal insult and political zeal, came from
Connecticut, where he had gone to plan schemes for the future with
ardent Whigs, and at noonday entered the city[[Nov. 23, 1775]] at
the head of seventy-five light-horsemen, proceeded to the printing
establishment of Seabury ** and two other obnoxious Tories, and
managed to keep disaffection alive Rivington, at the foot of Wall
Street, placed a guard with fixed bayonets around it, put all of his
types into bags, destroyed his press and other apparatus, and then in
the same order, amid the shouts of the populace, and to the tune of
Yankee Doodle, left the city. They carried off the types and made
bullets of them. On their way back to Connecticut they disarmed all the
Tories in their route, and at West Chester seized and took with them the
Reverend Samuel in triumph to New Haven.

* Isaac Sears was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1729. His ancestors,
who were among the earliest emigrants to Massachusetts, were from
Colchester, England, and came to Plymouth in 1630. Mr. Sears was a
successful merchant in the city of New York, engaged in the European and
West India trade, when political matters attracted his attention. When
the Stamp Act aroused the colonists, Sears stood forth as the champion
of right, and, as we have seen in preceding pages, was one of the most
active and zealous members of the association of the Sons of Liberty. He
was an active Whig during the whole war, and when it ended, his business
and his fortune had disappeared. Before the war he had commanded a
vessel engaged in the West India trade. In 1785, we find him on the
ocean as supercargo, bound for Canton, with others engaged in the
venture. When they arrived at Canton. Captain Sears was very ill with
fever, and on the twenty-eighth of October, 1785, he died at the age
of nearly fifty-seven years. He was buried upon French Island, and his
fellow-voyagers placed a slab, with a suitable inscription, over his
grave.

** This was Bishop Seabury of a later day, whose grave we have noticed
on page 50. He was born at New London in 1728, graduated at Yale in
1751, took orders in the church, in London, in 1753, and then settled
in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was at Jamaica, Long Island, for ten
years, and then removed to West Chester, in the county of West Chester.
He took sides with the Loyalists, and was one of those who signed a
protest at White Plains against the measures of the Whigs. Sears and
his party carried him to New Haven, where he was kept for some time, and
then paroled to Long Island. His school at West Chester was broken up,
his church was converted into a hospital, and he went to New York,
and served as chaplain, at one time, in Colonel Fanning's corps of
Loyalists. At the close of the war he settled in his native town. He was
consecrated a bishop (the first in the United States) in 1784, and for
the remainder of his life he presided over the diocese of Connecticut
and Rhode Island. He died on the twenty-fifth of February, 1796.

[[[Disaffection.--Disarming of the Tories.--Troops under Lee in New
York.--His Head-quarters.--Sir Henry Clinton.]]]

{798}During the winter of 1775--6, disaffection to the Republican cause
prevailed extensively throughout the province, and in Queen's county and
vicinity, on Long Island, the people began to arm in favor of the crown.

[Illustration: 8808]

Tryon expected to see the province speedily declare in favor of royalty,
and from the _Duchess of Gordon_ (armed ship), where he made his
headquarters, he kept up an active correspondence with Hicks, Delancey,
and other Loyalists in the city. The Continental Congress promptly
opposed the progress of disaffection, and vigorous measures were adopted
for a general disarming of the Tories throughout the colonies. * Early
in January,[[1776]] Washington, then at Cambridge, was informed that
General Sir Henry Clinton was about to sail on a secret expedition. He
doubted not that New York was his destination, where Tryon was ready
to head the Loyalists in a formal demonstration in favor of the crown.
Fearing that province might be lost to the patriots, Washington readily
acceded to the request of General Charles Lee, then in Connecticut,
to embody volunteers in that colony, and march to New York. Governor
Trumbull lent his aid to the service, and within a fortnight Lee, having
the bold Isaac Sears for his adjutant general, was in rapid march toward
New York with twelve hundred men. His approach produced great alarm, and
many Tories fled, with their families and effects, to Long Island and
New Jersey. The Committee of Safety, yet dozing over the anodyne of
disaffection, were aroused by fear, and protested against Lee's entrance
into the city, because Captain Parker, of the _Asia_, had declared
his intention to cannonade and burn the town if rebel troops should be
allowed to enter it. ** Lee was unmoved alike by Parker's threats and
the committee's protest, and encamping the larger portion of his troops
in "the fields" (the present City Hall Park), he made his head-quarters
at the house of Captain Kennedy, No. 1 Broadway. *** He proclaimed his
mission, and said, "I come to prevent the occupation of Long Island or
the city by the enemies of liberty. If the ships of war are quiet, I
shall be quiet; if they make my presence a pretext for firing on the
town, the first house set in flames by their guns shall be the funeral
pile of some of their best friends." Lee's energy of expression and
action was potential. The Tories shrunk into inactivity; a glow of
patriotism was felt in the Provincial Congress, and measures were
speedily adopted for fortifying the city and the approaches to it, and
garrisoning it with two thousand men.

Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Sandy Hook on the day when Lee entered the
city. He sailed for North Carolina,[[March, 1776]] was followed thither
by Lee, and in June

* Resolutions to this effect were adopted on the second of January,
1776, and on the same day Lord Stirling was directed to "seize and
secure all the ammunition and warlike stores belonging to the enemy''
then or thereafter in New Jersey.--See Journal, ii., 5, 6, 7.

** Parker did not fire a shot because of the "rebel troops" in the city.
His reasons were ludicrous. He said Lee desired the destruction of the
city, and he would not gratify him.--Lee's Letter to Washington.

*** This house (yet standing) was built by Captain Kennedy, of the royal
navy, at about the time of his marriage with the daughter of Colonel
Peter Schuyler, of Newark, New Jersey, in April, 1765. The above
engraving exhibits the locality in the vicinity of the Kennedy House.
On the extreme left is seen the Broadway front of the Kennedy House (No.
1), where Lee, Washington, and afterward Sir Henry Clinton, Robertson,
Carleton, and other British officers, were quartered, and where André
wrote his letter, to Arnold. The building next to it (No. 3) is the one
occupied by Arnold (see page 209) when Champe attempted his capture. The
two high buildings beyond (Nos. 5 and 7) are more modern; the small, low
one (No. 9, Atlantic Garden) was Gage's head-quarters in 1765. On the
right of the picture is part of the Bowling Green, where the statue of
the king stood. The view is taken from the site of the northwest bastion
of Fort George.

[[[Fortifications upon York or Manhattan Island.]]]

{799}they were in conflict in Charleston harbor. The army in New
York was left in charge of Lord Stirling,[[March 7]] and that officer
prosecuted with vigor the labor of fortifying the city, begun by Lee.
* Already the Tories who remained had been compelled to take an oath to
act with the Americans if required, and officers were busy upon Staten
Island, and some parts of Long Island, in disarming them.

Washington hastened to New York after the British evacuated
Boston,[[March 17, 1776]] for he suspected Howe would sail directly to
attack that city. He arrived on the fourteenth of April, and approving
of the course of Lee and Stirling, he pushed forward the defenses of the
city. Fort George was strengthened, and in the course of three months
strong works were erected in the vicinity of the city and in the Hudson
Highlands. ** Toward the

* On the night of the tenth of April, one thousand Continentals went
over to Governors Island and constructed a redoubt upon the west side,
a little southeast of Castle William. On the same night a regiment went
over to Red Hook, the extreme point of land north of Gowanus Bay, over
which South Brooklyn is now spreading, constructed a redoubt for four
eighteen-pounders, and named it Fort Defiance. It was upon a small
island, close to the shore, near the water termination of Conover and
Van Brunt Streets, south of the Atlantic Docks.

[Illustration: 9809]

** Redoubts and batteries were constructed at eligible points along the
East River to Harlem, and along the Hudson to King's Bridge; also upon
Governor's Island, Red Hook, Brooklyn Heights, and Paulus's Hook. * Fort
George with its dependencies, on the site of ancient Fort Amsterdam,
was the principal military work upon the island. It had, when Washington
came into the city, two twelve-pounders and four thirty-two-pounders,
though capable of mounting sixty cannons. Connected with it was the
Grand Battery, with thirteen thirty-two pounders, one twenty-four, three
eighteen's, two two's, and one brass and three iron mortars. This
was enlarged after the British took possession, to a capacity for
ninety-four guns. This work was in the vicinity of the present
flag-staff upon the Battery. A little eastward of it, at the South Ferry
landing, was the Whitehall Battery, with two thirty-two pounders. From
this point to Corlaer's Ilook, along the East River, several works were
constructed. There was a battery of five guns upon Tenyck's Wharf, at
Coenties Slip, and upon Brooklyn Heights opposite, Fort Stirling, a
battery with eight guns, was constructed. It was between the present
Hicks and Clinton Streets, a little northeastward of Pierrepont Street.
At Old Coffee-house, Fly, Burling's, Beekman's, and Peek Slips, and at
the Exchange, foot of Broad Street, breast-works were thrown up. There
was also a barrier with two guns across Broadway, just above the Bowling
Green. At "the ship-yards," on the site of the present Catharine Market,
was an irregular work, called Waterbery's Battery, having seven guns. A
larger work was on Rutgers' first hill (a little eastward of the Jews'
burying-ground), at the intersection of Market and Madison Streets. It
was called Badlam's Battery, and mounted eight guns. Another small work,
of horse-shoe form, was on a high bank near the water, in Pike Street,
between Cherry and Monroe Streets, with a breast work on the water's
edge. Here General Spencer was encamped, and this was called Spencer's
Redoubt. It had two twelve-pounders. On Rutgers' second hill, between
Henry and Madison, Clinton and Monroe Streets, was a star redoubt,
embrasured for twelve guns. This was connected by an irregular line of
works, extending to a strong battery called Crown Point, at Corlaer's
Hook, situated upon the site of the present Allaire Works. Eastward of
this, upon Burnt Mill Point, was a battery, on the site of the Novelty
Iron Works. From Crown Point was a line of intrenchments extending to
a strong redoubt, of circular form, mounting eight heavy pieces, and
called Fort Pitt. It was upon the brow of a hill at the intersection of
Grand and Pitt Streets. From Fort Pin a series of strong works extended
nearly on a line with the present Grand and Broome Streets, to Broadway,
and thence, diverging to the northwest, terminated in a redoubt on
the brow of a hill, on the borders of a marsh near the intersection of
Thompson and Spring Streets, Within this line, upon an eminence called
Bayard's Mount, was the largest of all the works, except Fort George
and the Grand Battery. This was called Independent Battery, and the
Americans named the eminence Bunker Hill. This name was retained
until the Collect or Fresh Water Pond, which covered many acres in the
vicinity of the Halls of Justice, was filled by digging down the hills
around it.

[Illustration: 6809]

** The battery on Bunker Hill was upon the space included within the
intersections of Center, Mott, Mulberry, Grand, and Broome Streets; and
for a long time after the hill was digged down, the brick lining of a
well, constructed within the works, stood up like a huge chimney. This
battery had nine eight-pounders, four three's, and six royal cohorns and
mortars. The first work on the Hudson, after leaving Fort George, was
the Oyster Battery in the rear of No. 1 Broadway. It had two thirty-two
pounders and three twelve's. Southwest of Trinity Independent Batteky.
church, on the high river bank, was a Battery of four guns.
West of Greenwich Street ("Greenwich road"), near the water, between
Reade and Duane Streets, was the Jersey Battery, with five guns. Along
the high river bank a breast-work extended almost to the Vauxhall (see
page 788) at the corner of Warren and Greenwich Streets. On Greenwich,
between Franklin and North Moore Streets, was the "Air-furnace"
and "Brew-house." The former was fortified, and from it a line of
intrenchments extended northeast, to the north part of the present
St. John's Park, overlooking Lispenard's Meadows. On the river bank, in
front of the "Brew-house," was a circular work called the Grenadier's
Battery, with three twelve pounders and two mortars From it a line of
breast-works extended along the river to Hubert Street. From that
point, close along the west side of Greenwich Street, was a line of
breast-works, extending to Desbrosses Street. Where Watt Street crosses
Greenwich was another small breastwork; at the foot of King Street was
another; and from the foot of Clarkson to Barrow was another. Upon the
high ground known until within a few years as Richmond Hill, there was
quite an extensive line of fortifications, which commanded the river,
and the Greenwich and Broadway roads. This line commenced near the
junction of Spring and M'Dougal Streets, and, sweeping around near
Houston and Hammersley, ended at Variek, near King Street. On the west
side of Broadway, near Houston Street, was an eminence on which works
were erected; and directly east of them, between Broadway and the
Bowery, were four small breast-works, a few rods apart. East of the
Bowery, at the intersection of Forsyth and Delancey Streets, was a small
circular battery. On the west side of Broadway, near Walker, was an
irregular work; and the Hospital on Broadway, fronting Pearl Street),
a strong stone building, was fortified. There was also a line of
breast-works extending along the East River from the present Dry Dock
to Stuyvesant Square; and at Horn's Hook, at the foot of Eighty-ninth
Street, was a work ealled Thompson's Battery, with nine guns. I was
informed by the venerable Judge Woodhull, of Franklinville, Long Island
(now ninety-eight years of age), that when the lines across the island,
from the East River toward the Hudson, were constructed, the merchants
and other citizens were, pressed into service. It must be remembered
that most of the streets here mentioned were not then in existence.
Chambers Street up Broadway, Hester Street up the Bowery, and Catharine
Street up the East River, were the extreme points to which streets
were laid out at the time of the Revolution. Now (1852) the streets and
avenues are all opened to Fortieth Street, and some beyond and almost
a solid mass of edifices cover the island from river to river below
Thirty-second Street. Then the Hospital was quite in the fields, and
Greenwich was a country village.

[[[Washington's Conference with Congress.--Preparation for the Defense
of New York.--Landing of British Troops.]]]

{800}close of May,[[May 23]] he left the troops in command of General
Putnam, while he hastened to Philadelphia to confer with Congress
respecting the general defense of the colonies.

[Illustration: 8810]

The wicked bargain of Great Britain with the German princes for their
men was now known, and it was believed that New York was the point where
the mercenary vultures would probably strike their first blow. To that
point the eyes of all America were now turned. Congress authorized a
re-enforcement of thirteen thousand eight hundred militia, to be drawn
from New England, New York, * and New Jersey, and provided for the
establishment of a flying camp of ten thousand men, to be formed of
militia from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The latter were to
rendezvous at Amboy, and the accomplished General Mercer was appointed
to the command. General Greene took post at Brooklyn, and Superintended
the preparation of defenses there. On his return,[[June 7]]Washington
went to the upper end of the island, and personally aided in the surveys
and the arrangement of the plan of Fort Washington and its outworks.

General Howe, who went to Halifax from Boston, arrived at Sandy Hook on
the twenty-ninth of June,[[1776]] with ships and transports bearing his
recruited army, where he was visited by Governor Tryon.

[Illustration: 6810]

On the eighth of July he landed nine thousand men upon Staten Island,
*** and there awaited the arrival of his brother, Admiral Howe, with
English

* John Morin Scott was appointed to the command of the New York troops,
with the commission of a brigadier.

** I was informed by the venerable Anna van Antwerp, * about a fortnight
before her death, in the autumn of 1851, that Washington made his
head-quarters, on first entering the city, at the spacious house (half
of which is yet standing at 180 Pearl Street, opposite Cedar Street),
delineated in the engraving. The large window, with an arch, toward the
right, indicates the center of the original building. It is of brick,
stuccoed, and roofed with tiles. There Washington remained until
summoned to visit Congress at Philadelphia, toward the last of May.
On his return, he went to the Kennedy House, No. 1 Broadway, where he
remained until the evacuation in September.

*** The main body of Howe's troops landed near the present quarantine
ground, and encamped upon the hills in the vicinity. The fleet had
anchored off Vanderventer's point (the telegraph station at the
Narrows), and three ships of war and some transports brought the English
troops within the Narrows, to the landing-place.--(Howe's Dispatch to
Lord George Germaine.) Howe made his head-quarters at the Rose and Crown
Tavern, upon the road leading from Stapleton to Richmond, near New
Dorp. The house is near the forks of the Richmond and Amboy roads, and
overlooks the beautiful level country between it and the sea, two miles
distant. It is now (1852) the property of Mr. Leonard Parkinson, of Old
Town, Staten Island. The house was built by a Huguenot, one of the first
settlers upon that part of the island. When Howe landed, the great body
of the people on the island formed a corps of Loyalists, under Tryon,
and some of them were in the battle near Brooklyn.

* Mrs. Van Antwerp left the city with her parents when the British took
possession, and retired to Tappan, where she was married. They returned
to the city after the war, and her husband purchased the lot No. 38
Maiden Lane, where she resided from that time until her death, a period
of almost seventy years. Her style of living was that of the Revolution,
and all the persuasions of her wealthy children could not lure her from
that simplicity and the home of her early years of married life. She
arose one morning, sat down by her table, leaned her head upon it, and
expired like a waning ember, at the age of ninety-five years. Almost all
of the few who knew her half a century ago, had forgotten her.

[[[Plot to destroy Washington.--Declaration of Independence read to the
Army.--Destruction of the King's Statue.]]]

{801}regulars and Hessian hirelings. These arrived in the course of a
few days, and on the eleventh, Clinton and Parker, with their broken
forces, joined them. Another debarkation took place on the twelfth, and
there, upon the wooded heights of Staten Island, above Stapleton and
Clifton, and upon the English transports, almost thirty thousand men
stood ready to fall upon the republicans. * Already the Declaration of
Independence had gone abroad; ** the statue of the king in New York
had been pulled down, *** and brave men, pledged to the support of the
Continental Congress and its measures, were piling fortifications upon
every eligible point around the devoted city.

* A plot, originated by Tryon, to murder the American general officers
on the arrival of the British, or at best to capture Washington and
deliver him to Sir William Howe, was discovered at this time. It was
arranged to blow up the magazine, secure the passes to the city, and at
one blow deprive the Republicans of their leaders, and by massacre
or capture annihilate the "rebel army." Mayor Hicks was one of the
conspirators; and from his secure place on board the Duchess of Gordon,
Tryon sent money freely to bribe Americans. Two of Washington's Guard
were seduced, but the patriotism of a third was proof against their
temptations, and he exposed the plot. Hicks, Gilbert Forbes (a gunsmith
on Broadway), and about a dozen others, were immediately arrested,
and sent prisoners to Connecticut. It was ascertained that about five
hundred persons were concerned in the conspiracy. Thomas Hickey, one of
the Guard, was hanged on the twenty-seventh of June, 1776. This was
the first military execution In New York.--See Spark's Writings of
Washington, iii., 438; Force's American Archives, vi., 1064; lb., i.
(second series), 117; Game's New York Mercury.

** Washington received the Declaration of Independence on the ninth
of July, with instructions to have it read to the army. He immediately
issued an order for the several brigades, then in and near the city,
to be drawn up at six o'clock that evening, to hear it read by their
several commanders or their aids. The brigades were formed in hollow
squares on their respective parades. The venerable Zachariah Greene
(commonly known as "Parson Greene," the father-in-law of Mr. Thompson,
historian of Long Island), yet (1852) living at Hempstead, at the age
of ninety-three years, informed me that he belonged to the brigade, then
encamped on the "Common," where the City Hall now stands. The hollow
square was formed at about the spot where the Park Fountain now is.
He says Washington was within the square, on horseback, and that the
Declaration was read In a clear voice by one of his aids. When it was
concluded, three hearty cheers were given. Holt's Journal for July 11,
1776, says, "In pursuance of the Declaration of Independence, a general
jail delivery took place with respect to debtors." Ten days afterward,
the people assembled at the City Hall, at the head of Broad Street, to
hear the Declaration read. They then took the British arms from over
the seat of justice in the court-room, also the arms wrought in stone
in front of the building, and the picture of the king in the council
chamber, and destroyed them, by fire, in the street. They also ordered
the British arms in all the churches in the city to be destroyed. This
order seems not to have been obeyed. Those in Trinity church were taken
down and carried to New Brunswick by the Reverend Charles Inglis, at the
close of the war, and now hang upon the walls of a Protestant Episcopal
church in St. John's.

*** The statue of George the Third was equestrian, made of lead, and
gilded. It was the workmanship of Wilton, then a celebrated statuary of
London, and was the first equestrian effigy of his majesty yet erected.
It was placed upon its pedestal, in the center of the Bowling Green,
on the twenty-first of August, 1770. On the same evening when the
Declaration of Independence was read to the troops in New York, a large
concourse of people assembled, pulled down the statue, broke it in
pieces, and sent it to be made into bullets. Ebenezer Hazard, in a
letter to Gates, referring to the destruction of the king's statue,
said, "His troops will probably have melted majesty fired at them." Some
of the soldiers appear to have been engaged in the matter, for on the
following morning Washington issued an order for them to desist from
such riotous acts in future. * The greater portion of the statue was
sent to Litchfield, in Connecticut, and there converted into bullets by
two daughters and a son of Governor Wolcott, a Mrs. and Miss Marvin,
and a Mrs. Beach. According to an account current of the cartridges made
from this statue, found among the papers of Governor Wolcott, it appears
that it furnished materials for forty-two thousand bullets.

* In a coarse Tory drama, entitled "The Battle of Brooklyn; a farce
in two acts, as it was performed on Long Island on Tuesday, the
twenty-seventh day of August, 1776, by the representatives of the
Tyrants of America assembled, at Philadelphia," published by Rivington,
the destruction of the statue is attributed to Washington. A servant
girl of Lady Gates is made to say, concerning the chief, "And more, my
lady, did he not order the king's statue to be pulled down, and the head
cut oft'." Mr. Greene described the statue to me as of the natural size,
both horse and man. The horse was poised upon his hinder legs. The king
had a crown upon his head; his right hand held the bridle-reins, the
left rested upon the handle of a sword. The artist omitted stirrups, and
the soldiers often said, in allusion to the fact, "the tyrant ought to
ride a hard-trotting horse, without stirrups." Stephens, in his Travels
in Greece, &e. (ii., 33), says, that in the house of a Russian major, at
Chioff he saw a picture representing the destruction of this statue.
The major pledged him in the toast, "Success to Liberty throughout the
world."

[[[Effect of the Declaration.--Howe's Letter to Washington.--Commission
of the Brothers.--Preparations for Battle.]]]

{802}On the arrival of General Howe at Sandy Hook, the Provincial
Congress of New York adjourned to White Plains, and there, on the ninth
of July, they reassembled, approved of the Declaration of Independence,
and changed the title of the Assembly to _Convention of the
Representatives of the State of New York._ The Declaration, however,
offended many influential men, who, though warmly attached to their
country, and yearning for a redress of grievances, shuddered at the
thought of separation from Great Britain. Some closed their mouths in
silence and folded their arms in inaction, while others, like Beverly
Robinson, the Delancey's, and men of that character, actively espoused
the cause of the king. The patriot army in New York was surrounded by
domestic enemies, more to be dreaded than open adversaries, and this
fact seemed favorable to the hopes of Howe, that the olive branch would
be accepted by the Americans when offered. * He soon perceived that much
of loyalty was the child of timidity, and when his proclamations
were sent abroad, offering peace only on condition of submission, the
missiles proved powerless. Although doubtless desiring peace, he was
obliged to draw the sword and sever the leashes of the blood-hounds of
war.

On the twelfth of July, the Rose and Phonix ships of war, with their
decks guarded by sand-bags, sailed up the bay, and passing the American
batteries without serious injury, proceeded up the Hudson to Haverstraw
Bay, for the double purpose of keeping open a communication with
Carleton, who was endeavoring to make his way southward by Lake
Champlain, ** and for furnishing arms to the Tories of West Chester.
The vigilant Whigs would not allow their boats to land, and there they
remained inactive for three weeks. In the mean while, the belligerent
forces were preparing for the inevitable battle. Hulks of vessels were
sunk in the channel between Governor's Island *** and the Battery, and
_chevaux de frise_ were formed there under the direction of General
Putnam, to prevent the passage of the British vessels up the East River.
A large body of troops were concentrated at Brooklyn, under General
Greene; Sullivan and his little army hastened from the North; two
battalions from Pennsylvania and Maryland, under Smallwood, arrived, and
the New York and New England militia flocked to the city by hundreds.
On the first of August the American army in and around New York numbered
about twenty-seven thousand men,

* General Howe, ami his brother, the admiral, were appointed by
Parliament commissioners to treat for peace with the Americans. They
were authorized to extend a free pardon to all who should return to
their allegiance; to declare penitent towns or colonies exempt from the
penalties of non-intercourse; and to offer rewards to those who should
render meritorious services in restoring tranquillity. Howe sent
proclamations to this effect ashore at Amboy, addressed to the colonial
governors, and designed for general circulation among the people. The
General Congress denounced it as a scheme to "amuse and disarm the
people," and exhorted them to perceive "that the valor alone of their
country was to save its liberties." Journal, ii., 260. At about the same
time, Colonel Paterson, the British adjutant general, went to New York
with a flag, bearing a letter from General Howe, addressed to "George
Washington, Esq." this was so addressed because the Briton was unwilling
to acknowledge the official character of the "rebel chief." It was
a silly movement; Washington penetrated the design, and refused any
communication, unless addressed to General Washington. Paterson urged
Washington not to be punctilious, pleading the necessity of waving all
ceremony, for Howe came to cause the sheathing of swords, it possible.
Washington was inflexible, and said, in reference to the commissioners,
that they seemed empowered only to grant pardons; that those who had
committed no fault needed no pardon, and that the Americans were only
defending their rights as British subjects. Paterson returned, and Howe
made no further attempts to correspond with "George Washington, Esq."
Congress, by resolution, expressed its approval of the course of the
commander-in-chief in this matter.

** The chief plan of the campaign of 1776 was for Howe to attack New
York and ascend the Hudson, while Carleton should come from Canada and
form a junction. This would effectually cut off the Eastern States from
the rest of the confederacy. Clinton, in the mean while, was to make
war in the Southern States, and the American forces being thus divided,
might be easily conquered. Their designs miscarried. Clinton was
repulsed at Charleston, Carleton was kept at bay, and Howe did not pass
the Highlands.

*** The original name of this island was Nutten. The rents of the land
being a perquisite of the colonial governors, it was called Governor's
Island. It was held as such perquisite until the close of Governor
Clinton's administration. General Johnson, of Brooklyn, informed me
that Clinton rented it to Dr. Price, who built a house of entertainment
there, and laid out a race-course. Owing to the difficulty of taking
race-horses to the island, it was abandoned after two or three years,
and the course at Harlem was established.

[[[Disposition of American Detachments.--Kip's Bay.--The Kip Family.]]]

{803}but at least one fourth of them were unfitted by sickness for
active duty. Bilious fever prostrated Greene about the middle of August,
and Sullivan was placed in command at Brooklyn. A small detachment was
ordered to Governor's Island; another was posted at Paulus' Hook, where
Jersey City now stands, and General George Clinton, with a body of New
York militia, was ordered to West Chester county to oppose the landing
of the British on the shores of the Sound, or, in the event of their
landing, to prevent their taking possession of the strong post at King's
Bridge. Parson's brigade took post at Kip's Bay, * on the East River to
watch British vessels if they should enter those waters. Such was the
position of the two armies immediately antecedent to the battle near
Brooklyn, at the close of August, 1776.

* The family mansion of the Kips, a strong house built of brick
imported from Holland, remained near the corner of Second Avenue and
Thirty-fourth Street, until July, 1850, when it was taken down. A
pear-tree near, planted in 1700, bore fruit the present season. The
house was built in 1641 by Samuel Kip, who was secretary of the council
of New Netherlands, and at the time of its destruction was probably the
oldest edifice in the State of New York. The sketch here given is from a
painting in possession of the Reverend W. Ingraham Kip, D.D., of Albany,
and gives its appearance at the time of the Revolution. The Kip family
are among the oldest in this state. Ruloff de Kype (anglicized to Kip
after the English took possession of New Netherlands) was the first of
the name found in history. He was a native of Bretagne, and was a warm
partisan of the Guises in the civil wars between Protestants and Papists
in the sixteenth century. On the defeat of his party, he fled to the Low
Countries. He afterward joined the army of the Duke of Anjou, and
fell in battle near Jarnac. He was buried in a church there, where an
altar-tomb was erected to his memory bearing his coat of arms. * His
son Ruloff became a Protestant, and settled in Amsterdam. His grandson,
Henry, (born in 1576) became an active member of the "Company of Foreign
Countries," whieh was organized in 1588 for the purpose of exploring
a northeast passage to the Indies. In 1635 he eame to America with his
family, but soon returned to Holland. His sons remained, bought large
tracts of land, and were active in publie affairs. One of them (Henry)
was a member of the first popular Assembly in New Netherlands (see page
783), and married a daughter of De Sille, the attorney general. His
brother Jacob bought the land at Kip's Bay, and a third son, Isaac,
owned the property which is now the City Hall Park. Nassau Street was
called Kip Street. In 1686 one of the family purchased the tract where
the village of Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, now stands. It was called
"the manor of Kipsburg." A part of this was sold to Henry Beekman, by
whose grand-daughter, the mother of Chancellor Livingston, it passed
into the Livingston family. At the opening of the Revolution, the Kip
family were divided in polities; some held royal commissions, others
were stanch Whigs. The proprietors of the Kip's Bay property were strong
Whigs, but one of them, Samuel, was induced by Colonel Delancey to take
the loyal side. He raised a company of cavalry, principally from his own
tenants, joined Delancey, and was active in West Chester county, where,
in a skirmish in 1781, he was severely wounded. He lived several years
after the war, and suffered great loss of property by confiscation. For
several years after the British took possession of York Island, Kip's
house was used as head-quarters by officers. There Colonel Williams, of
the 80th regiment, was quartered in 1780, and on the day when Andre left
the city to meet Arnold, Williams gave a dinner to Sir Henry Clinton and
his staff. André was there and shared in the socialities of the hour.
It was his last dinner in New York. Such is well authenticated
tradition.--See Holgate's American Genealogies, page 109.

* The device was a shield. On one side, occupying a moiety, was a
cross. The other moiety was quartered by a strip of gold; above were
two griffins, and below an open mailed hand. There were two crests, a
game-cock, and a demi-griffin holding a cross: the legend, "Vestigia
nulla retrorsum."

[[[Landing of the British.--General De Heister.]]]

{804}




CHAPTER XXXI.


```"In the year seventy-six came the two noble brothers.

````With an army and fleet fit to conquer a world;

```And Cornwallis, and Rawdon, and Tarleton, and others--

````And murder and rapine on our country were hurl'd."

`````Yankee Chronology.=


``"There the old-fashioned colonel galloped through the white infernal

`````Powder cloud;

``And his broad sword was swinging, and his brazen throat was ringing

`````Trumpet loud:

````There the blue bullets flew,

``And the trooper jackets redden at the touch of the leaden

`````Rifle breath;

``And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,

`````Hurling Death!"

`````Knickerbocker Magazine.=

[Illustration: 9514]

N Thursday morning, the twenty-second of August, 1776, the British
troops under General William Howe landed upon Long Island, in the
vicinity of New Utrecht. Four thousand men crossed the ferry from Staten
Island, at the Quarantine Ground, to Denyse's strong stone house, where
Fort Hamilton now stands, and landed under cover of the guns of the
Rainbow, anchored where Fort La Fayette looms up in the center of the
Narrows. Some riflemen, under Colonel Edward Hand, posted on the hill
above, retired toward Flatbush. An hour afterward, British and Hessian
troops poured over the sides of the English ships and transports, and
in long rows of boats, directed by Commodore Hotham, five thousand more
soldiers landed upon Long Island, in the bow of Gravesend Bay (at a
place known as Bath, in front of New Utrecht), under cover of the guns
of the _Phonix, Rose, * and Greyhound._

[Illustration: 8814]

The chief commanders of the English were Sir Henry Clinton, Earls
Cornwallis and Percy, and Generals Grant and Sir William Erskine. Count
Donop, who was killed at Red Bank in 1777, landed, with some Hessians,
with the first division, and on the twenty-fifth,[[August, 1776]] the
veteran De Heister, ** with Knyphausen, and two Hessian brigades, also
landed near New Utrecht. The whole invading force was about ten thousand
men well armed, with forty cannons. Lieutenant-colonel Dalrymple
remained to keep Staten Island.

* The Rose and Phoenix, after remaining in Haverstraw Bay three weeks,
had passed the American batteries and joined the fleet.--See page 802.

** Lieutenant-general De Heister was an old man, and warmly attached to
his master, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. The long voyage of almost
fourteen weeks dispirited him, "and," says Sir George Collier, "his
patience and tobacco became exhausted." A sniff of land breeze revived
him. "He called for Hock, and swallowed large potations to the health of
his friends."

*** This view is from the road on the high shore, a little below Fort
Hamilton, looking southeast; the house in the center belonged to Simon
Cortelyou, a Tory, during the Revolution, and has not been altered.
Gravesend Bay is seen beyond the house, and the distant land is Coney
Island beach.

[[[Alarm in New York.--General Putnam.--General John Morin Scott]]]

{805}When this movement of the enemy was known in New York, alarm and
confusion prevailed. * Re-enforcements were sent to General Sullivan,
then encamped at Brooklyn, and the next day the veteran General Putnam
** was ordered thither by Washington, to take the supreme command
there. The military works on Long Island had been constructed under the
immediate direction of General Greene, who made himself acquainted with
every important point between Hell Gate and the Narrows. Unfortunately,
he fell sick, and none knew so well as he the importance of certain
passes in the rear of Brooklyn. The chief fortifications were within the
limits of the present city, *** while at the passes alluded to

* Many Whig families left the city, and for seven long years of exile
they endured privations with heroic fortitude. * Many of their houses
were destroyed by fire, and others were ruined by military occupants.

[Illustration: 9815]

** Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the seventh of
January, 1718. He was a vigorous, athletic lad, and in 1739 we find
him cultivating land in Pomfret, Connecticut. He was appointed to the
command of the first troops raised in Connecticut for the French and
Indian war in 1755, in which capacity the reader has met him several
times in these volumes. He returned to his farm after the peace, where
he remained until he heard of the affair at Lexington. At the head of
Connecticut troops, he distinguished himself in the battle of Bunker
Hill. He was one of the four major generals appointed by Congress in
1775. His services during the war are mentioned in many portions of this
work, and we will not repeat them here. His last military services
were performed at West Point and vicinity in 1779, where he was chiefly
engaged in strengthening the fortifications. Paralysis of one side
impaired the activity of his body, but his mind retained its powers
until his death. He lived in retirement after the war, and died at
Brooklyn, Windham county, Connecticut, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1790,
aged seventy-two years. His remains repose beneath a marble slab in
the grave-yard south of the village, upon which is an appropriate
inscription.

*** Over all the sites of Revolutionary fortifications, near Brooklyn,
the modern city is rapidly spreading. Streets and avenues reticulate the
whole area, and it is difficult now to identify the consecrated places.

* I have before me a manuscript letter, written by a daughter of General
John Morin Seott, from Elizabethtown, three days after the landing of
the British on Long Island, whieh exhibits the alarms and privations
to which wealthy families, who had left the city, were subjected. After
mentioning their hourly expectation of the landing of the British at
Elizabethtown Point, she says: "We have our coach standing before our
door every night, and the horses harnessed ready to make our escape, if
we have time. We have hardly any clothes to wear: only a second change."
Warned by Governor Livingston to leave Elizabethtown, the family of
General Scott fled at night to Springfield, in the midst of a terrible
thunder-storm. The writer continues: "We were obliged to stop on the
road and stay all night, and all the lodging we could get was a dirty
bed on the floor. How hard it seems for us, that have always been used
to living comfortable!... Papa, with his brigade, has gone over
to Long Island, whieh makes us very uneasy. Poor New York! I long to
have the hattle over, and yet I dread the consequences." This letter
is in the possession of her grandson, Charles S. M'Knight, Esq., of New
York.

[Illustration: 8815]

* John Morin Scott was an early opponent of British oppression, the
coadjutor of Sears, Lamb, Willett, and others. He was a descendant of
the baronial family of Scott of Ancram, Teviotdale, Scotland, and was
born in New York in 1730. He graduated at Yale College in 1746. He
adopted the profession of the law, married Helena Rutgers, of New
York, and made that city his field of active usefulness. With William
Livingston, of New Jersey, his voice and pen boldly advocated extreme
measures, and, because of his ultra Whig principles, the timid ones
defeated his election to the General Congress in 1774. He was one of the
most active and influential members of the General Committee of New York
in 1775, and was a member of the Provincial Congress that year. On the
ninth of June, 1776, he was commissioned a brigadier, which office he
held until March, 1777. He was with his brigade in the battle of Long
Island, and was one of the Council of War called by Washington to decide
whether lo fight longer or retreat. He was afterward with General Heath
in the lower part of West Chester, but left the service in March, 1777,
when he was appointed secretary of the State of New York. He was a
member of the General Congress in 1782 and 1783. In 1784 he was elected
an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died on the
fourteenth of September of the same year, in the fifty-fifth year of his
age. His remains lie in Trinity church-yard with those of his ancestors,
close by the railing on Broadway, north of the great entrance-door to
the church. I am indebted to John Morin Scott, Esq., of Philadelphia, a
grandson of the general, for the materials of this brief sketch.

** This monument is erected to the memory of the Honorable Israel
Putnam, Esq., major general in the armies of the United States of
America; who was born at Salem, in the Province of Massachusetts, on
the seventh day of January, 1718, and died at Brooklyn, in the State of
Connecticut, on the twenty-ninth day of May, A.D. 1700. Passenger, if
thou art a soldier, go not away till thou hast dropped a tear over the
dust of a Hero, who, ever tenderly attentive to the lives and happiness
of his men, dared to lead where any one dared to follow. If thou art a
patriot, remember with gratitude how much thou and thy country owe
to the disinterested and gallant exertions of the patriot who sleeps
beneath this marble. If thou art an honest, generous and worthy
man, render a sincere and cheerful tribute of respect to a man whose
generosity was singular; whose honesty was proverbial; and who, with
a slender education, with small advantages, and with powerful
friends, raised himself to universal esteem, and to offices of eminent
distinction by personal worth, and hy the diligent services of a useful
life."

[[[The "Passes."--Miles and Woodhull.--Fortifications near Brooklyn.]]]

{806}breast-works were cast up. These rows to the Jamaica road, at the
present East New York, and in broken elevations further on. There were
several roads traversing the flat country in the rear of these hills.

[Illustration: 8816]

These Colonel Miles, of Pennsylvania, was directed to reconnoiter with
his regiment, to watch and report upon the progress of the enemy. To
Sullivan was intrusted command of the troops without the lines, assisted
by Brigadier-general passes were in a range of hills extending from the
Nar--Lord Stirling; General Woodhull (late president of the Provincial
Congress), now in arms, was commissioned to deprive the invaders of
provisions by removing the live stock to the plains of Hempstead.

The invading army prepared for marching soon after the debarkation. The
Hessians, under De Heister, formed the center or main body; the English,
under General Grant, composed the left wing, which rested

* By a careful comparison of maps, military plans, and other
authorities, with maps of the modern city, I have endeavored to locate
the various works. I am satisfied that there will be found no material
errors in the statement.

* The first work erected, after fortifying Red Hook and constructing
Fort Stirling, on Brooklyn Heights (see page 799), was a redoubt called
Fort Putnam, upon a wooded hill near the Wallabout, now known as Fort
Greene and Washington Square. This was a redoubt with five guns; and
when the trees were felled, it commanded the East River, and the roads
approaching Brooklyn from the interior. An intrenchment extended from
Fort Putnam northwesterly down the hill to a spring now(1852,) in a
tanning yard, with a pump in it, near the intersection of Portland
Street and Flushing Avenue. This spring was then on the verge of the
Wallabout. From the western side of the fort an intrenehment extended
in zigzag course across the Flatbush road, near the junction of Flatbush
Avenue and Power Street, to Freek's mill-pond, at the head of Gowanus
Creek, near the junction of Second Avenue and Carroll Street. Near the
intersection of Nevins and Dean Streets, about half way between Fort
Putnam and the mill pond, on the land of Debevoise and Vanbrunt, a
redoubt was constructed with five guns, and called Fort Greene.

[Illustration: 9816]

* A little eastward of Fort Putnam, near the Jamaica road, was a small
redoubt; and upon the slope of Bergen Hill (also ealled Boerums's Hill),
opposite Brower's mill, was a small redoubt with four guns. It stood
between Smith Street and First Avenue, not far from the termination
of Hoyt Street, at Carroll. This is supposed to be Box Fort. It was
afterward strengthened by the British while a detachment lay encamped
on Bergen Hill. Last year (1851) a friend of the writer picked up arrow
heads, and buttons marked "42" (42d Highlanders), on the site of this
redoubt. At the head of the tunnel of the Long Island rail way, in
the vicinity of Boerum and Atlantic Streets, was a high, conical hill,
called Ponkiesbergh and Cobble Hill. A redoubt for three cannons was
constructed on the top of this hill, and, from the circumstance that
an intrenchment extended spirally from summit to base, it was called
Cork-screw Fort.--(See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Long
Island, ii" 118.) This redoubt remained until 1812, when it was
strengthened and ealled Fort Swift. Fort Putnam was strengthened at the
same time, and called Fort Greene. The banks then raised on those of
the fort of the Revolution were very prominent until the present year
(1852), when diluted patriotism and bad taste allowed them to be leveled
so as to give the face of Washington Square a smooth appearance. To
the eye of a true American there is more beauty in a single mound
consecrated by patriotism than in a score of graveled walks trodden
by the gay and thoughtless. These several fortifications, with other
localities and events mentioned in the account of the battle, will
be better understood by reference to the accompanying map, which is
a reduced copy of one carefully prepared by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., and
published in his valuable collection of Revolutionary Incidents of
Long Island. Mr. Onderdonk has thoroughly explored the ground we are
considering; and to him, as a cicerone, when visiting the field of
conflict, I am much indebted for a knowledge of the various localities.

* Explanation of the Plan.--Figure 1, Gravesend beach, where the British
landed; 2, Denyse's (Fort Hamilton); 3, Martense's Lane, along the
southern boundary of Greenwood Cemetery, extending from Third Avenue, at
the lower end of Gowanus Bay, to the Flatbush and New Utrecht road; 4,
Red Lion tavern; 5, Grant's forces; 6, Stirling's forces; 7, Stirling's
last encounter; 8, Cortelyou's house; 9, Port or Mill road; 10, Flatbush
pass; 11, Americans retreating across the creek; 12, Party of Americans
covering the retreat; 13, Box Fort; 1-1, Brower's mill; 15, Fort Greene,
near the mill-pond; 16, Cork-screw Fort; 17, Baker's tavern, near the
junction of Fulton and Flatbush Avenues; 18, British redoubt, cast up
after the battle; 19, Fort Putnam, now Fort Greene; 20, Stone church,
where Washington held a council of war; 21, Fort Stirling; 22, The
ferry, foot of Fulton Street; 23, Fort at Red Hook; 24, Corlaer's Hook;
25, Battery, foot of Catharine Street; 20, Panlus' Hook; 27, Governor's
Island; 28, The Narrows; 29, Vandeventer's Point; 30, Shoemaker's
Bridge, near New Lots. Bennet's Cove is near figure 4, where, it
is said, three thousand British troops landed on the morning of the
twenty-seventh of August, the day of the battle, a a, track of the left
wing of the British army, under the immediate command of General Howe,
from Flatlands, by way of the present East New York (Howard's half-way
house) to Brooklyn. While in possession of New York and vicinity, the
British so strengthened Fort Stirling, on Brooklyn Heights, that it
assumed the character of a regular fortification, with four bastions,
similar to Fort George, in New York. They also east up a line of
intrenchments along the brow of the hill from the Heights to the present
Navy Yard.

[[[March of the British.--Advantage gained.--Advance of Grant toward
Gowanus.]]]

{807}on New York Bay; and the right wing, designed for the principal
performance in the drama about to be opened, was composed of choice
battalions, under the command of Clinton, Cornwallis, and Percy,
accompanied by Howe, the commander-in-chief. While Grant and De Heister
were diverting the Americans on the left and center, the right was to
make a circuitous march by the way of Flatlands, to secure the roads and
passes between that village and Jamaica, and to gain the American left,
if possible. This division, under the general command of Clinton, moved
from Flatlands on the evening of the twenty-sixth,[[August, 1776]] and,
guided by a Tory, passed the narrow causeway, over a marsh near the
scattered village of New Lots, * called Shoemaker's Bridge. At two
o'clock in the morning they gained the high wooded hills within half
a mile of the present village of East New York, unobserved by Colonel
Miles and the American patroles, except some subaltern officers on
horseback, whom they captured. Informed that the Jamaica road was
unguarded, Clinton hastened to secure the pass, and before daylight that
important post and the Bedford pass ** were in his possession, and
yet General Sullivan was ignorant of the departure of the enemy from
Flatlands. Expecting an attack upon his right, in the vicinity of
Gowanus, all his vigilance seems to have been turned in that direction,
and he did not send fresh scouts in the direction of Jamaica. The
advantage thus gained by Clinton decided the fortunes of the day.

While the British right wing was gaining this vantage ground, General
Grant, with the left, composed of two brigades, one regiment, and a
battalion of New York Loyalists raised by Tryon, made a forward
movement toward Brooklyn, along the coast road, *** by way of Martense's
Lane--"the road from Flatbush to the Red Lion" (4) mentioned by Lord
Stirling. The guard at the lower pass (3) gave the alarm, and at three
o'clock in the morning[[August 27]] Putnam detached Lord Stirling, ****
with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland regiments, commanded by Atlee,
Haslet, and Smallwood, to oppose Grant. The militia guard at Martense's
Lane were driven back by Grant to the hills of Greenwood Cemetery, a
little north of Sylvan Water, where they were rallied by Parsons, and
maintained a conflict until the arrival of Stirling (v) at daybreak,
with fifteen hundred men.

* New Lots village is about a mile south of the rail-way station at East
New York, upon the same plain. The morass at Shoemaker's Bridge (30 on
map, page 806) is now only a wet swale, with a small sluggish stream,
and presents none of the difficulties of passage of former days. It is
said that at the time in question a single regiment might have kept the
whole British force at bay at Shoemaker's Bridge.

** There were four important passes through the hills which should
have been well guarded, namely, at Martense's Lane (3), on the southern
border of Greenwood Cemetery; the Flatbush pass, at the junction of the
present Brooklyn and Flatbush turnpike and the Coney Island Plank road;
the Bedford pass, about half a mile northward of the junction of the
Flatbush and Bedford roads; and the Jamaica pass, a short distance from
East New York, on the road to Williamsburgh, just at the entrance to the
Cemetery of the Evergreens. At East New York, "Howard's half-way house"
of the Revolution is yet standing, though mueh altered. William Howard,
a son of the Whig tavern-keeper, is yet (1852) living there, at the
age of ninety. He told me that he remembers well seeing the British
approaching from New Lots, and then taking his father a prisoner and
compelling him to show them the Jamaica pass, and the best route over
the hills east of it, to the open country toward Brooklyn. We sat in the
room in which he was born eighty-nine years before.

*** It must be remembered that the present road along the verge of the
high bank from Yellow Hook to Gowanus did not exist. The "coast road"
was on the slopes further inland, and terminated at Martense's Lane.

**** Lord Stirling was in the English House of Commons on the seeond of
February, 1775, when this same General Grant declared in debate that the
Americans "could not fight," and that he would undertake to march from
one end of the Continent to the other with five thousand men."--Duer's
Life of Lord Stirling, 162; Par. Reg., i., 135.

* (v) William Alexander, earl of Stirling, was born in the eity of New
York in 1726. His father, James Alexander, was a native of Scotland, and
took refuge in America in 1716, after an active espousal of the ling
took position upon the slopes a little northwest of "Battle Hill," in
Greenwood, and Atlee ambuscaded in the woods on the left of Martense's
Lane, near the Firemen's Monucause of the pretender, in the rebellion
the previous year. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, better
known in the city of New York, a little more than a century ago, as
"Ready-money Provoost."* Young Alexander joined the army during a
portion of the French and Indian war, and was aid-de-camp and secretary
to General Shirley. He accompanied that officer to England in 1755, and
while there he made the acquaintance of some of the leading statesmen of
the time. By the advice of many of them, he instituted legal proceedings
to obtain the title of Earl of Stirling, to which his father was heir
presumptive when he left Scotland" Although he did not obtain a legal
recognition of the title, his right to it was generally conceded, and
from that time he was addressed as Earl of Stirling. He returned to
America in 1761, and soon afterward married the daughter of Philip
Livingston (the second lord of the manor), a sister of Governor
Livingston, of New Jersey, and built a fine mansion (yet standing) at
Baskenridge, in that state. He was a member of the Provincial Council of
New Jersey for several years. In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New
Jersey appointed him colonel of the first regiment of militia, and in
March, 1776. the Continental Congress gave him the commission of
brigadier. Lee left him in command at New York in April. He was
conspicuous in the battle near Brooklyn in August, and in February
ensuing Congress appointed him a major general. He performed varied and
active service until the summer of 1781, when he was ordered to the
command of the Northern army, his head-quarters at Albany.

[Illustration: 9818]

* An invasion from Canada was then expected. Quite a large British force
prevailed above the Highlands. He was at Ticonderoga and vicinity, under
St. Leger, who have already met detachments, was repulsed at Fort
Stanwix in 1777. and at that time were several respecting beacons and
alarm posts. From one of them, in possession of the son of Colonel Aaron
Burr, I copied the annexed sketch, made by the pen of Lord Stirling,
together with the full order of Lord Stirling who died at Albany on the
fifteenth of January 1783, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. It is a
singular fact that at different periods during the war. Lord Stirling
had under his command every brigade of the American army except Colonel
William Duer, and became Judge John Duer, of the city of Duer. LL.D.

* The vigorous and effective preparations made by Lord Stirling
intimidated St. Leger, and he returned to Canada. Late in the autumn
Stirling took the chief command in New Jersey, and the following
summer he was again in command at Albany, with a general supervision
of military affairs between that place and New York. His youngest
daughter married the btother of William A. Duer, late president of
Columbia College, at New York.--See Life of Lord Stirling, by his
grandson, William A.

* He acquired this title because he won riches rapidly by the illicit
trade in which the colonists were then engaged. His family vault may now
(1852) be seen a few rods from the bank of the East River, in "Jones's
Woods," between Seventieth and Seventy-first Streets. On the top is a
large marble slab, placed there in memory of the wife of his son David.

**The following is a copy of the order: "Each of the beacons are to be
of lhe following dimensions: at bottom, fourteen feet square, to rise
in a pyramidal form to about eighteen or twenty feet high, and then to
terminate about six feet square, with a stout sapling in the center
of about thirty feet high from the ground. In order to erect them, the
officer who oversees the execution should proceed thus: he should order
the following sized logs to be cut as near the place as possible: twenty
logs of fourteen feet long and about one foot diameter; ten logs of
about twelve feet long; ten logs of about ten feet long; ten logs of
about nine feet long; ten logs of about eight feet long; twenty logs
of about seven feet long; twenty logs of about six feet lone. He should
then sort his longest logs as to diameter, and place the four longest on
the ground, parallel to each other, and about three feet apart from each
other. He should then place the four next logs in size across these
at right angles, and so proceed till all the logs of fourteen feet be
placed. Then he is to go on in the same manner with logs of twelve feet
long, and when they are all placed, with those of a lesser size, till
the whole are placed, taking care, as he goes on, to fill the vacancies
between the logs with old dry split wood or useless dry rails and brush,
not too close, and leaving the fifth tier open for firing and air. In
the beginning of his work, to place a good stout sapling in the center,
with part of its top left, about ten or twelve feet above the whole
work. The figure of the beacon will appear thus. [The sketch above
given.] The two upper rows of logs should be fastened in their places
with good strong wooden plugs or trunnels." These beacons were erected
upon hills from the Hudson Highlands through New Jersey by way of
Morristown, Pluckemin, and Middlebrook, and upon the Neversink Hills at
Sandy Hook. They were to be used as signals denoting the approach of
the enemy, for the assembling of the militia at certain points, and to
direct the movements of certain Continental battalions.

*** I have before me an old manuscript schedule of Lord Stirling's
wardrobe, in which the material and color of each article is given. I
print the number as a curious example of the personal provisions of
a gentleman of his class at that time, namely: Thirty-one coats,
fifty-eight vests, forty-three pairs of breeches, six powdering gowns
(used when powdering the hair), two pairs of trowsers, thirty shirts,
seventeen handkerchiefs, twenty seven stocks, twenty-seven cravats,
eight razor cloths, one hundred and nineteen pairs of hose, six pairs of
socks, fifteen night-caps, five pairs of drawers, two pairs of gloves,
fourteen pairs of shoes, four pairs of boots; total, four hundred and
twelve garments.

[[[Skirmish between Grant and Stirling.---Storming of the Flatbush
Redoubt.---Descent of Clinton.--Surrender of the Americans.]]]

{809}After two or three rounds Atlee fell back to the left of Stirling,
on the top of the hills.

[Illustration: 8819]

At this moment Kichline and his riflemen, De Haas and his battalion, and
Captain Carpenter, with two field-pieces, arrived. Grant advanced
and took post in an orchard, * within one hundred and fifty yards of
Stirling, and a severe skirmish ensued. Grant had also two field-pieees,
but neither party made much use of their cannons. In that position the
belligerents remained, without severe fighting, until eleven o'clock
in the forenoon, ** when events on the left wing of the American army
changed the whole aspect of affairs.

While Grant and Stirling were thus engaged, De Heis-ter and his Hessians
moved from Flatbush, and cannonaded the works at the Flatbush pass,
where Sullivan was in command with the regiments of Colonels Williams
and Miles.

[Illustration: 9819]

In the mean while, Clinton had descended from the wooded hills and
attacked the extreme left of the Americans on the plain at Bedford. The
firing was understood by De Heister, who immediately ordered Count Donop
to storm the redoubt at the pass, while he pressed forward with the main
body of the Hessians. A fierce and bloody combat ensued,3 when Sullivan,
perceiving the peril of his little army (for Clinton was rapidly
gaining his rear), ordered a retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The
opportunity was gone, and on descending the rough slope from Mount
Prospect, they were met by Clinton's light infantry and dragoons, who
drove them back in confusion upon the Hessian bayonets. Sullivan and his
ensnared soldiers fought desperately, hand to hand, with the foe, while
driven backward and forward between the full ranks of the assailants.
Many broke through the gleaming fence of bayonets and sabers, and

* A few trees of this orchard yet remain in the southwest part of
Greenwood Cemetery.

** During the morning the Roebuck frigate approached Red Hook and
cannonaded the battery there. This, like the movement of Grant, was
intended to divert the Americans from the operations of Clinton on their
left.

*** The Hessians fought with desperation, and gave no quarter. They had
been told that the Americans would not suffer one of them to live, and
their sentiment was total extermination. "Our Hessians and our brave
Highlanders gave no quarter," wrote an offieer of the 71st, "and it was
a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the rebels
with their bayonets, after we had surrounded them so they could not
resist."--Sec Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents, ii., 138.

[[[Battle between Stirling and Cornwallis.--Retreat across the
Gowanus.--Defeat and Capture of Stirling.]]]

{810}escaped to Fort Putnam, * while their less fortunate companions
died upon the field or were made prisoners.

[Illustration: 9820]

Among the latter were General Sullivan and several subordinate officers.
Those who escaped were followed up to the verge of the American lines,
and the pursuing grenadiers were with difficulty restrained from
storming Fort Putnam. An easy victory would doubtless have been the
result.

Stirling was not aware of the disasters on the left until Cornwallis had
marched down the Port or Mill road (9), took position near the ancient
dwelling known as "the Cortelyon House," near Gowanus, and fired two
guns as a signal for Grant to press forward. That officer immediately
attacked the Americans, and in the engagement Colonel Atlee was made a
prisoner. Hemmed in by the foe, Stirling saw no opportunity for escape
except across the Gowanus Creek, at the dam of the "Yellow Mill," and
other places below Brower's Mill.

[Illustration: 8820]

To effect this, it was necessary to attack Cornwallis, and while
a few--a forlorn hope--should keep him at bay, a large part of the
Americans might escape. No time was to be lost, for the tide was rising,
and soon the creek would be impassable. Changing his front, and leaving
his main body in conflict with Grant, Stirling, at the head of a part of
Smallwood's battalion, commanded by Major (afterward General) Gist,
fell upon Cornwallis, and blood flowed freely. For twenty minutes the
conflict was terrible. Stirling endeavored to drive the earl up the Port
road, get between him and Fort Box, and under cover of its guns escape
across Brower's dam. He was successful, but while with his handful of
brave young men he was keeping the invader in check, a large part of his
companions in arms, consisting now chiefly of Haslet's Delawares and a
part of Smallwood's Marylanders, reached the creek. Some passed it in
safety, but many sunk into silence in the deep mud on its margin or
beneath its turbid waters. Stirling was obliged to yield when despoiled
of nearly all of his brave men. **** He became a prisoner, and was sent
immediately on board the _Eagle_, Lord Howe's flag-ship. Thus ended the
battle, when the sun was at meridian; when it disappeared behind the
low hills of New Jersey, one third of the five thousand patriots who
had contended for victory were lost to their country--dead, wounded, or
prisoners. * Soon many of the latter were festering with

* The most sanguinary conflict occurred after the Americans had left the
Flatbush pass, and attempted to retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The
place of severest contest, and where Sullivan and his men were made
prisoners, was upon the slope between the Flatbush Avenue and the Long
Island rail-way, between Bedford and Brooklyn, near "Baker's Tavern"
(17), at a little east of the junction of these avenues. The preceding
map, compiled from those of the English engineers for Marshall's Life of
Washington, will assist the reader in obtaining a proper understanding
of the movements of the two armies.

** This house, built of stone, with a brick gable from eaves to peak,
is yet (1852) standing upon the eastern side of the road leading from
Brooklyn to Gowanus. It was built by Nicholas Vechte in 1699, and was
one of the first houses created between Brooklyn and New Utrecht.

*** This is a view of the old mill of the Revolution, as it appeared
when I made the sketch in 1850, before it was destroyed. The view is
from the west side of Gowanus Creek, looking southeast. In the extreme
distance is seen the "Yellow Mill" between which and the one in the
foreground so many of the patriots perished.

****Smallwood's regiment was composed chiefly of young men belonging to
the most respectable and influential families in Maryland. Two hundred
and fifty-nine of them perished in this conflict with Cornwallis's
grenadiers near the "Cortelyon House."

* (v) Dispatches of Washington and General Howe; Letter of R. H.
Harrison, quoted by Sparks, Washington's Writings, iv., 513; Letters of
Haslet and Sullivan, 516, 517; Doer's Life of Lord Stirling, 163;
Life and Correspondence of President Reed, i., 218--224; Gordon, ii.,
96--101; Marshall, i., 87--91; Sted-man, i., 191-196; Onderdonk,
ii.. 127-131. The loss of the Americans is not precisely known. Howe
estimated it at 3300; it probably did not exceed 1650, of whom about
1100 were made prisoners. Howe stated his own loss at 367 killed,
wounded, and made prisoners.

[[[Capture, Treatment, and Death of General Woodhull.--Preparations to
Besiege the Works at Brooklyn.]]]

{811}disease in the loathsome prisons in New York, or in the more
loathsome prison-ships at the Wallabout. * General Woodhull was made a
prisoner at Jamaica the next day, ** and at the close of summer no man
was in arms against the crown in Kings, Queens, and Richmond counties.

The victors encamped in front of the patriot lines, and reposed until
the morning of the twenty-eighth,[[August, 1778]] when they broke ground
within six hundred yards of Fort Putnam, cast up a redoubt (18), and
cannonaded the American works. Washington was there, and joyfully
perceived the design of Howe to commence regular approaches instead of
rapid assaults. This fact was a ray of light in the midst of surrounding
gloom. The

* An account of the New York prisons and prison-ships may be found in
the Supplement to this work.

[Illustration: 9821]

** Nathaniel Woodhull was born at Mastic, Long Island, December 30,
1722. Agriculture was the chief pursuit of his life. He was a major,
under Abercrombie, in the attack upon Crown Point and Ticonderoga,
and afterward accompanied Bradstreet against Fort Frontenac. He was a
colonel, under Amherst, in 1760, and at the close of the campaign he
returned home and married Ruth Floyd, He espoused the popular side in
the Stamp Act movements, and, possessing the esteem of the people, he
was elected, with William Nicoll, a representative of Suffolk county,
in the Colonial Assembly in 1769. He represented Suffolk in the first
Provincial Congress in 1775, and was elected president of that body.

[Illustration: 8821]

** He was appointed a brigadier of militia in August of that year, and
in July, 1776, he was summoned home to embody the militia of Suffolk and
Queens, to assist in repelling invasion. He was engaged in this serviee
when he was made a prisoner,* cruelly wounded by a British officer, and
died of his injuries three weeks afterward at New Utrecht. His wife,
who was with him in his last moments, conveyed his body to Mastic,
and there, in a secluded family cemetery, a short distance from his
residence, his remains rest. A marble slab marks his grave, and bears
the following inscription:

[Illustration: 7821]

** "In memory of General Nathaniel Woodhull, who, wounded and a
prisoner, died on the twentieth of September, 1776, in the fifty-fourth
year of his age; regretted by all who knew how to value his many private
virtues, and that pure zeal for the rights of his country to which he
perished. Woodhull's Grave." The mansion of General Woodhull was burned
in 1783, and in 1784, the present dwelling on the homestead farm was
erected near the spot. It is now (1852) owned by Henry Nicoll, Esq., a
great-grandson of General Woodhull.

* In consequence of the tardy movements of others, on whom devolved
the duty of furnishing him with a proper force to perform the labors
assigned him, General Woodhull (Udell in many old accounts) did not
participate in the battle on the twenty-seventh of August He made his
head-quarters at Jamaica, and with his inadequate force he scoured
the country for miles around, watching the movements of the enemy, and
driving large numbers of cattle to Hempstead plains. When he perceived
the position of Clinton, near the Jamaica pass, on the morning of the
twenty-seventh, he sent urgent messages to the Provincial Congress
asking for re-enforcements. It was now too late, for the regiments of
Smith and Remsen, of Kings and Queens counties, could not be spared from
the lines at Brooklyn.

[Illustration: 6821]

* With a soldier's impatience he was obliged to listen to the distant
roar of battle, for with a soldier's strict discipline he would not move
without orders. When apprised of the disasters of the day, he ordered
his little band to fall hack four miles beyond Jamaica, on the morning
of the twenty-eighth, while he awaited orders from camp. In the
afternoon, he left Jamaica with two companions, to join his soldiers,
and while taking refuge from a thunder-storm in the inn of Increase
Carpenter, two miles east of Jamaica village, he was made a prisoner
by a party of British, under Captain Sir James Baird (whom we met at
Savannah, page 732), piloted by some Tories. Tradition says that Baird
ordered Woodhull to shout "God save the King!" and because instead he
cried "God save us all!" he smote him with his broadsword, and would
have killed him on the spot, if Major Delancey, who accompanied Baird,
had not interfered. The blow badly wounded the head of the general, and
mangled his left arm the whole length. He and his companions were taken
to Jamaica, confined until the next morning in the Presbyterian stone
church (which stood in the middle of the present Fulton Street, at the
head of Union Hall Street. It was demolished in 1832), then taken to the
British camp at Brooklyn, and conveyed to a loathsome cattle transport
in Gravesend Bay. A Church at Jamaica, humane British officer procured
his removal to a house in the village of New Utrecht, where his arm was
amputated at the elbow. Woodhull sent for his wife, with a request that
she should bring; with her all the money in her possession, and all she
could borrow. This was distributed among his fellow-prisoners. His wife
arrived in time to attend him in his last moments, for the unskillful
amputation resulted in mortification, and he died in the fifty fourth
year of his age. I am indebted to Mr. Onderdonk for the sketch of the
old Jamaica church. With him 1 visited New Utrecht (1850) to make a
drawing of the house wherein General Woodhull died. It had just been
demolished, and a modern house placed on its site by the owner, Mr.
Barent Wyckoff. To the patriotism and artistic skill of Miss C. Lott,
living near, I am indebted for the sketch of that venerated edifice,
probably the first house erected in that town. It was of stone, covered
with red tiles, and answered the description of a dwelling erected in
1658, by De Sille, the attorney general of the province.--See Doc. Hist,
of New York, i., 634. The New House in which Woodhull died. Utrecht
church, which stood near, was of octagon form like one at Jamaica. The
weather cock from its steeple now graces the barn of Mr. Lott, and the
gilt dove from the pulpit sounding-board is perched upon the roof of his
well.

[[[Situation of the Two Armies.--Council of War.--Retreat of the
Americans to New York.]]]

{812}chief had crossed from New York early in the morning, and had
witnessed the destruction of some of his finest troops, without ability
to send them aid except at the peril of the safety of the camp or of the
city, and his whole army. Ignorant of his real strength, Howe dared
not attempt an assault, and Washington had time to conceive and execute
measures for the safety of his troops.

The morning of the twenty-eighth[[August 1776]] dawned drearily. Heavy
masses of vapor rolled up from the sea, and at ten o'clock, when the
British cannonade commenced, a fine mist was falling. Although half dead
with fatigue, the Americans had slumbered little, for it was a night of
fearful anxiety to them. At five in the morning, General Mifflin, who
had come down from King's Bridge and Fort Washington with the regiments
of Shee, Magaw, and Glover, a thousand strong, in obedience to an
order sent the day before, crossed the East River, and took post at the
Wallabout. The outposts of the patriots were immediately strengthened,
and during the rainy day which succeeded there were frequent skirmishes.
Rain fell copiously during the afternoon, and that night the Americans,
possessing neither tents nor barracks, suffered dreadfully. A heavy fog
fell upon the hostile camps at midnight, and all the next day[[August
29]] it hung like a funeral pall over that sanguinary battle-field.
Toward evening, while Adjutant-general Reed, accompanied by Mifflin and
Colonel Grayson, were reconnoitering near Red Hook, a light breeze arose
and gently lifted the fog from Staten Island. There they beheld the
British fleet lying within the Narrows, and boats passing rapidly from
ship to ship, in evident preparation for a movement toward the city.
Reed hastened to the camp with the information, and at five o'clock that
evening the commander-in-chief held a council of war. * An evacuation of
Long Island, and a retreat to New York, was the unanimous resolve of the
council. Colonel Glover, whose regiment was composed chiefly of sailors
and fishermen from Marblehead and vicinity, ** was ordered to collect
and man boats for the purpose, and General M'Dougal was directed to
superintend the embarkation. The fog still rested heavily upon the
island, the harbor, and the adjacent city, like a shield of the Almighty
to cover the patriots from the peril of discovery. Although lying within
a few hundred yards of the American lines, the enemy had no suspicion of
the movement. ***

At eight o'clock in the evening the patriot regiments were silently
paraded, the soldiers ignorant of the intent; but, owing to delay on
account of unfavorable wind, and some confusion in orders, it was near
midnight when the embarkation commenced at the Ferry Stairs, foot of
Fulton Street, Brooklyn. For six hours those fishermen-soldiers plied
their muffled oars; and boat after boat, filled with the champions of
freedom, touched at the various wharves from Fulton Ferry to Whitehall,
and left their precious burdens. At six in the morning, nine thousand
men, with their baggage and munitions, except heavy artillery, had
crossed. Mifflin, with his Pennsylvania battalions and the remains of
the regiments of Smallwood and Haslet, formed the covering party, and
Washington and his staff, who had been in the saddle all night, remained
until the last company had embarked. **** At dawn

* The council was held in the stone Dutch church (20), which stood near
the junction of the present Fulton and Flatbush Avenues. This church
was designated in the order for the evening as an alarm post during the
night, where they might rendezvous, in the event of the movement being
discovered by the British. The officers present at the council were
Washington, Putnam, Spencer, Miffin, M'Dougal, Parsons, John Morin
Scott, Wadsworth, and Fellows.--See Life, &c., of President Reed, i.,
417.

** The uniform of these men, until they were attached to the Continental
line, consisted of blue round jackets and trowsers, trimmed with leather
buttons. They were about five hundred in number.

*** A late English author complains bitterly of the apathy of the
British general on this occasion. He says, his troops "kept digging
their trenches on one side, while Washington was smuggling his forces
out on the other, and ferrying them over the East River to the city of
New York.... The high-feeding English general slept on, and his brother
the admiral (Lord Howe), though not so apt to doze, did not move a
single ship or boat, and was to all appearance unconscious of what
was going on."--Pict. Hist, of the Reign of George the Third, i.,
273. Notwithstanding his want of energy on this occasion, General Howe
received the honors of knighthood from his king for this victory.
The ceremony was performed by Knyp-hansen, Clinton, and Robertson, in
November, 1776.

**** In his dispatches to the president of Congress, Washington said
that he had scarcely been out of the lines from the twenty-seventh till
the morning of the evacuation, and forty-eight hours preceding that
had hardly been off his horse and never closed his eyes. Yet a popular
English author of our day (see Pict. Hist, of the Reign of George the
Third, i., 273) mendaciously says, "Washington kept his person safe in
New York."

[[[British first aware of the Retreat.--Condition of the
Army.--Disposition of the British Army.]]]

{813}the fog lifted from the city, but remained dark and dreary upon the
deserted camp and the serried ranks of the foe, until the last boat left
the Long Island shore. Surely, if "the stars in their courses fought
against Sisera," in the time of Deborah, the wings of the Cherubim of
Mercy and Hope were over the Americans on this occasion.

Intelligence of this movement reached the British commander-in-chicf at
half past four in the morning. Cautiously Captain Montressor and a small
party climbed the embankments of Fort Putnam and were certified of the
fact. * It was too late for successful pursuit, for when battalion after
battalion were called to arms, and a troop of horsemen sped toward the
East River, the last boat was beyond pistol shot; and as the fog rolled
away and the sunlight burst upon the scene, the Union flag was waving
over the motley host of Continentals and militia marching toward the
hills of Rutgers' farm, beyond the present Catharine Street. ** Howe was
greatly mortified by the event, for he felt certain that his prey could
not escape his meshes.

Although the American army was safe in New York, yet sectional feelings,
want of discipline, general insubordination of inferior officers and
men, and prevailing immorality, appeared ominous of great evils. Never
was the hopeful mind of Washington more clouded with doubts than when
he wrote his dispatches to the president of Congress, in the month of
September.[[1776]]

[Illustration: 8823]

Those dispatches and the known perils which menaced the effort for
independence led to the establishment of a permanent army. ***

On the evacuation of Long Island, the British took possession of the
American works, and, leaving some English and Hessian troops to garrison
them, Howe posted the remainder of his army at Bushwick, Newtown, Hell
Gate, and Flushing.

Howe made his head-quarters at a house in Newtown (yet standing),
now the property of Augustus Bretonnier, and there, on the third of
September, he wrote his dispatch, concerning the battle, to British
ministry. On the thirtieth,[[August, 1776]] Admiral Howe sailed up
the bay with his fleet and anchored near Governor's Island, within
cannon-shot of the city. During the night, after the battle, a forty-gun
ship had passed the batteries and anchored in Turtle Bay, somewhat
damaged by round shot from Burnt Mill or Stuyvesant's Point, the site of
the Novelty Iron-works. **** Other vessels went around Long Island, and
passed into the East River from the Sound, and on the third of September
the whole British land force was upon Long Island, except four thousand
men left upon Staten Island to awe the patriots of New Jersey. A blow
was evidently in preparation for the republican army in the city.
Perceiving it, Washington made arrangements for evacuating New York, if
necessary. (v)

* Onderdonk (ii., 131) says that a Mrs. Rapelye, living near the ferry,
sent her servant to inform the British of the retreat. The negro was
arrested by a Hessian guard, who could not understand a word that
he uttered. He was detained until morning, when he was taken to
head-quarters, and revealed the seeret, but too late.

** A cannonade was opened upon the pursuers from Waterbery's battery,
where Catharine Market now stands.

*** See page 225. In his letter of the second of September, Washington
evidently foresaw his inability to retain his position in the city of
New York. He asked the question, "If we should be obliged to abandon the
town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for the enemy?" and added,
"If Congress, therefore, should resolve upon the destruction of it, the
resolution should be a profound secret, as a knowledge of it will make
a capital change in their plans." General Greene and other military men,
and John Jay and several leading civilians, were in favor of destroying
New York. But Congress, by resolution of the third of September, ordered
otherwise, because they hoped to regain it if it should be lost.--See
Journal, ii., 321.

**** Washington sent Major Crane of the artillery to annoy her. With two
guns, upon the high bank at Forty-sixth Street, he cannonaded her until
she was obliged to take shelter in the channel east of Blackwell's
Island.

* (v) On the approach of the fleet, the little garrison on Governor's
Island and at Red Hook withdrew to New York. One man at Governor's
Island lost an arm by a ball from a British ship, just as he was
embarking.*

[[[Howe's proposition for a Conference.--Meeting with a Committee of
Congress.--Bushnell's "Marine Turtle" or Torpedo.]]]

{814}Lord Howe now offered the olive-branch as a commissioner to treat
for peace, not doubting the result of the late battle to be favorable to
success.

General Sullivan and Lord Stirling were both prisoners on board his
flag-ship, the Eagle.

[Illustration: 9824]

The former was paroled, * and sent with a verbal message from Howe to
the Continental Congress, proposing an informal conference with persons
whom that body might appoint. Impressed with the belief that Lord
Howe possessed more ample powers than Parliament expressed in his
appointment, Congress consented to a conference, after debating the
subject four days. A committee, composed of three members of that body,
was appointed, and the conference was held[[Sept. 11, 1776]] at the house
of Captain Billop, formerly of the British navy, situated upon the high
shore of Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy. ** The event was barren of
expected fruit, yet it convinced the Americans

* Both officers were exchanged soon afterward, Sullivan for General
Prescott, captured nine months before (see vol. i., page 181), and Lord
Stirling for Governor Brown, of Providence Island, who had been captured
by Commodore Hopkins. Lord Stirling was exchanged within a month after
he was made prisoner.

** The committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward
Rutledge. When they reached Perth Amboy, they found the barge of Lord
Howe in waiting for them, with a British officer who was left as a
hostage! The meeting was friendly, and Lord Howe, who was personally
acquainted with Franklin, freely expressed to that statesman his
abhorrence of the war, and his sincere personal desire for peace. * The
whole interview was distinguished by courtesy and good feeling. Howe
informed the committee that he would not recognize them as members of
Congress, but as private gentlemen, and that the independence of the
colonies could not be considered for a moment They told him he might
call them what he pleased, they were nevertheless representatives of a
free and independent people, and would entertain no proposition which
did not recognize the independence of the colonies. The gulf between
them was evidently impassable, and the conference was soon terminated,
for Howe had nothing acceptable to offer. He expressed his regret
because of his obligation now to prosecute the war. Franklin assured him
that the Americans would endeavor to lessen the pain he might feel
on their account by taking good care of themselves. Thus ended the
conference. * In the third volume of the collected Writings of John
Adams may be found an interesting sketch from the pen of that patriot,
describing the events of a night passed in bed with Dr. Franklin at New
Brunswick, on the night preceding this conference.

* It was while the Eagle laid near Governor's Island that an attempt was
made to destroy her by an "infernal machine," called a "Marine Turtle,"
invented by a mechanic of Saybrook, Connecticut, named Bushnell.
Washington approved of the machine, on examination, and desired General
Parsons to select a competent man to attempt the hazardous enterprise.
The machine was constructed so as to contain a living man, and to
be navigated at will under water. A small magazine of gunpowder, so
arranged as to be secured to a ship's bottom, could be carried with it.
This magazine was furnished with clockwork, constructed so as to operate
a spring and communicate a blow to detonating powder, and ignite
the gunpowder of the magazine. The motion of this clock-work was
sufficiently slow to allow the submarine operator to escape to a safe
distance, after securing the magazine to a ship's bottom. General
Parsons selected a daring young man, named Ezra Lee. He entered the
water at Whitehall, at midnight on the sixth of September. Washington
and a few officers watched anxiously until dawn for a result, but the
calm waters of the bay were unruffled, and it was believed that the
young man had perished. Just at dawn some barges were seen putting off
from Governor's Island toward an object near the Eagle, and suddenly to
turn and pull for shore. In a few moments a column of water ascended a
few yards from the Eagle, the cables of the British ships were
instantly cut, and they went down the Bay with the ebbing tide, in great
confusion. Lee had been under the Eagle two hours, trying in vain to
penetrate the thick copper on her bottom. He could hear the sentinels
above, and when they felt the shock of his "Turtle" striking against the
bottom, they expressed a belief that a floating log had passed by.
He visited other ships, but their sheathing was too thick to give him
success. He came to the surface at dawn, but, attracting the attention
of the bargemen at Governor's Island, he descended, and made for
Whitehall against a strong current. He came up out of reach of musket
shot, was safely landed, and received the congratulations of the
commander-in-chief and his officers. Young Lee was afterward employed
by Washington in secret service, and was in the battles at Trenton,
Brandywine, and Monmouth. He died at Lyme, Connecticut, on the
twenty-ninth of October, 1821, aged seventy-two years.

** Richard, Earl Howe, was born in 1725, and was next in age to his
brother, the young Lord Howe, who fell at Tieonderoga in 1758 (see vol.
i., page 118). He sailed with Lord Anson to the Pacific as midshipman
at the age of fourteen years, and had risen to the rank of admiral at
twenty. He was appointed rear-admiral in 1770, and, before coming to
America, he was promoted to Vice-admiral of the Blue. After the American
war, he was made first Lord of the Admiralty. He commanded the English
fleet successfully against the French in 1794. His death occurred in
1799, at the age of seventy-four years. In 1774, Lord Howe and his
sister endeavored to draw from Franklin the real intentions of the
Americans. The philosopher was invited to spend Christmas at the house
of the lady, and it was supposed that in the course of indulgence in
wine, chess, and other socialities, he would drop the reserve of the
statesman and be incautiously communicative. The arts of the lady were
unavailing, and they were no wiser on the question when Franklin left
than when he came.

[Illustration: 8824]

** William Howe, brother of the earl, succeeded General Gage in the
chief command of the British forces in America, and assumed his duties
at Boston in 1775. He commanded at the attack on Breed's Hill, and from
that time until the spring of 1778, he mismanaged military affairs
in America. He was then succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton, and with his
brother, the admiral, returned to England. He is represented as a
good-natured, indolent man--"the most indolent of mortals,' said General
Lee, "and never took pains to examine the merits or demerits of the
cause in which he was engaged."

[[[Evacuation of the City by the Americans.--Washington's
Quarters.--Captain Hale.--Beekman's Green-house.]]]

{815}that Britain had determined upon the absolute submission of the
colonies.

[Illustration: 9825]

This conviction increased the zeal of the patriots, and planted the
standard of resistance firmer than before.

At a council of war held on the seventh,[[Sept. 1776]] a majority
of officers were in favor of retaining the city; but on the twelfth,
another council, with only three dissenting voices (Heath, Spencer, and
Clinton), resolved on an evacuation.

[Illustration: 9825]

The movement was immediately commenced, under the general
superintendence of Colonel Glover. The sick were taken to New Jersey,
and the public stores were conveyed to Dobbs's Ferry, twenty miles from
the city. The main body of the army moved toward Mount Washington and
King's Bridge on the thirteenth, accompanied by a large number of Whigs
and their families and effects. * A rear-guard of four thousand men,
under Putnam, was left in the city, with orders to follow, if necessary,
and on the sixteenth Washington made his head-quarters at the deserted
mansion of Colonel Roger Morris, ** on the

* Washington made the house ol Robert Murray, on Murray Hill (see page
788), his quarters on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth he was at
Mott's tavern, now the properly of Mr. Penlz, near One hundred and
Forty-third Street and Eighth Avenue. It was at Murray's house that
Captain Nathan Hale received his secret instructions for the expedition
which cost him his life. *

** This elegant mansion is yet standing and unaltered, upon the high
bank of the Harlem River, at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street, a
little below the High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct. Its situation is
one of the most picturesque on the island, commanding a fine view of the
Harlem River and village, Long Island Sound, Flushing, and Astoria, with
the green fields of Long Island beyond. Below are seen the plains of

* The commissioners immediately afterward issued a proclamation similar
in character to the one sent out in July. This proclamation, following
the disasters upon Long Island, had great effect, and many timid
Americans availed themselves of the supposed advantages of compliance.
In the city of New York more than nine hundred persons, by petition to
the commissioners, dated sixteenth of October, declared their allegiance
to the British government. To counteract this, in a degree, Congress,
on the twenty-first, provided an oath of allegiance to the American
government.

[Illustration: 7825]

** Anxious to know the exact condition and intentions of the British
on Long Island, Washington called a council of officers, when it
was determined to send a spy into their camp. Colonel Knowlton, who
commanded a choice regiment called Congress's Own, was directed to
select a competent man from his corps. Captain Nathan Hale, of Coventry,
Connecticut, volunteered for the service, and, bearing instructions from
Washington to the commanders of all-American armed vessels to convey him
whithersoever he might desire to go, he crossed the Sound to Huntington
(some say to Oyster Bay), and made his way to the British camp
at Brooklyn and vicinity. There he made sketches and notes, and,
unsuspected, returned to Huntington with valuable information. There he
was recognized and exposed (tradition says by a Tory relative), and was
taken immediately to Howe's head quarters at Beekman's house, at Turtle
Bay. He was confined in the green house of the garden during the night
of the twenty-first of September, and the next morning, without even the
form of a regular trial, was delivered to Cunningham, the brutal provost
marshal, to be executed as a spy. He was treated with great inhumanity
by that monster. The services of a clergyman and the use of a Bible were
denied him, and even the letters which he had been permitted by Howe to
write to his mother and sisters during the night, were destroyed. He
was hanged upon an apple-tree in Rutgers' Orchard, near the present
intersection of East Broadway and Market Streets. His last words were,
"I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country!" His body
was buried beneath the gibbet-tree. The name of this youthful patriot
martyr appears luminous upon the pages of our country's history, and the
grateful citizens of his native town have erected a handsome monument to
his memory there. I made the above sketch of the green-house a few days
before it fell, with all the glories of the beautiful garden of the
Beekman mansion, at the touch of the street commissioner, in July, 1852.
Its locality is now in the center of Fifty-second Street, a little east
of First Avenue. It was erected, with the mansion delineated on page
817, in 1764. I am indebted to the Honorable James W. Beekman, the
present owner of the grounds, for a copy of a curious document preserved
among the family papers. It is a memorandum, kept by the gardener of
James Beekman (the original proprietor); during the war, showing the
time that several British officers, in succession, made the house their
head-quarters. The following is a copy, with the heading by the pen of
Beekman: "At the undermentioned time my country seat was occupied by
the following generals" [the gardener's report]: "General Howe commenced
fifteenth of September, 1776--seven and a half months. Commissary Loring
the first of May, 1777--one year and five months. General Clinton the
twentieth of October, 1778--three years and six months. General Robison
[Robertson] May the first, 1782--eleven and a half months. Mr. Beekman
the sixteenth of April, 1783--two months. General Carleton the sixteenth
of June, 1783, to the evacuation, is five months--in the whole, is
seven years one and a half months."--For Hale's capture and death, see
Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents, ii" 48, 53

[[[Preparation to invade New York.--Revolutionary Fortifications on the
north part of the Island.]]]

{816}heights of Harlem River, about ten miles from the city. Every
muscle and implement was now put in vigorous action, and before the
British had taken possession of the city the Americans were quite
strongly intrenched. *

Howe now prepared to invade the island and take possession of the city
of New York. Large detachments were sent in boats from Hallet's Point to
occupy Buchanan's and Moutressor's (now Ward's and Randall's) Islands,
at the mouth of the Harlem River, and early on Sunday morning the
fifteenth.

Sir Henry Clinton, with four thousand men, crossed the river in flat
bottomed boats from the mouth of Newtown Creek, and landed at Kip's Bay
(foot of Thirty-fourth

* At Turtle Bay, Horn's Hook, Fort Washington and the heights in the
vicinity, on the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, and near King's Bridge,
traces of these fortifications may yet be seen. *

* The Americans cast up a redoubt at Turtle Bay, on the East River,
between Forty-fourth and Forty sixth Streets; a breastwork at the
Shot Tower, Fifty-fourth Street; another at the foot of Seventy-fourth
Street; a third at the foot of Eighty-fifth, near Hell Gate Ferry; and
a strong work called Thompson's Battery, upon Horn's Ilook (now a
beautifully shaded grassy point), at Eighty-ninth Street. This redoubt
commanded the mouth of Harlem River and the narrow channel at Hell Gate.
They also built a small work upon Snake Hill (now Mount Morris, in Mount
Morris Square), near Harlem, and a line of breastworks near the Harlem
River, extending from One hundred and Thirty-sixth Street to Bussing's
Point, near M'Comb's Dam. Upon each aide of "Harlem Cove," at
Manhattanville, a battery was constructed (One hundred and Thirty-first
and One hundred and Thirty-third Streets), and along the central hills
whereon the Convent of the Sacred Heart stands with a line of works
extending to One hundred and Fiftieth Street. These were small batteries,
without connecting breast-works, and overlooked Harlem River. From near
"The Grange" (the country residence of General Hamilton, yet standing),
in the vicinity of One hundred and Fifty-first Street, was a line of
intrenchments, with three batteries and abatis extending to the Hudson,
a distance ot almost a mile. The batteries of this line were upon three
eminences. Almost upon the line of One hundred and Sixty-first and One
hundred and Sixty-second Streets, was another line, with three batteries
and abatis. These formed the "double lines of intrenchments," mentioned
in the histories. The quite prominent outlines of a redoubt on the lofty
bank of the Harlem River, at the foot of One hundred and Fifty-sixth
Street, were pointed out to me by Henry O'Reilly, Esq., who resides
near. From this redoubt, down the steep hill to the cove where Colonel
Stirling landed (see page 827), the old road is yet (1852) open and
passable. From Colonel Morris's (Madame Jumel's) house was a line of
shallow intrenchments to the North River, with a single battery upon the
eminence above the residence of the late Mr. Audobon the ornithologist,
a little north of Trinity Cemetery. Upon the high west bank of the
Harlem, yet rough and wooded, were two breast works. These the British
afterward strengthened, and called it Fort George. This was between One
hundred and Ninety-second and One hundred and Ninety-sixth Streets. On
the King's Bridge road below, at Two hundred and Sixth Street, a strong
four-gun battery was erected.

[Illustration: 7826]

Fort Washington, situated between One hundred and Eighty-first and
One hundred and Eighty-sixth Streets, upon the highest eminence on the
island (between ten and eleven miles from the City Hall), was a strong
earth-work of irregular form, covering, with its ravelins, several
acres. It contained an inner work, a sort of citadel, within which was
the magazine. About twenty heavy cannons were mounted upon it, besides
several smaller pieces and mortars. Its chief strength consisted in
its position. On the promontory below it (Jeffery's Hook), where the
Telegraph mast stands (between One hundred and Seventy-sixth and One
hundred and Seventy-seventh Streets), was a redoubt, intended as a
covering to chevaux de frisé constructed in the channel there. The banks
of this redoubt, among dwarf cedars upon the rocks, are yet (1852) very
prominent. Northward of Fort Washington, on the same lofty bank of the
Hudson, between One hundred and Ninety-fifth and One hundred and
Ninety sixth Streets, was a redoubt with two guna, which was afterward
strengthened by the British and called Fort Tryon. Near the extreme
point of this range, at Spyt den Dyvel Kill (Spite the Devil Creek), at
Two hundred and Seventeenth Street, was a little redoubt of two guns,
called Cock Will Fort; and across the creek, on Tetard's Hill, was a
square redoubt, with bastions, called Fort Independence. At the point
where the Hudson River railway strikes the West Chester shore, was a
small battery, and upon a hill commanding King's Bridge from the
south side, between Two hundred and Twenty-fifth and Two hundred and
Twenty-sixth Streets (just above (he present mill), was a redoubt. This
was strengthened in 1781 by the British, and called Fort Prince, in
honor of Prince William (afterward William the Fourth), then in New
York. The embankments of Fort Washington, and all of the works mentioned
in this paragraph, are yet visible. Those of the Citadel of Fort
Washington (indicated at the foot of the flag-staff, page 826) are well
defined. The military works mentioned in this note, with those in the
note on page 799, composed the whole of the Revolutionary fortifications
upon Manhattan Island, except sortie breast-works at M'Gowan's Pass,
between One hundred and Fifth and One hundred and Eighth Streets and the
Fifth and Sixth Avenues, now known as Mount St. Vincent. The embankments
now seen at M'Gowan's Pass, and the square excavation in the rock a few
rods northwest of the Roman Catholic school, were constructed in 1812.
Very few of the streets mentioned in this note have yet been opened; all
of them have been surveyed and located upon the city maps. The streets
are generally opened and graded as far as the State Arsenal, Sixty-third
Street.


[[[Flight of the Americans on the Landing of the British.--Washington's
Mortification.--Evacuation of the City.]]]

{817}Street) under cover of a severe cannonade from ten ships of war,
which had sailed up and anchored opposite the present House of Refuge,
at the foot of Twenty-third Street. * Another division, consisting
chiefly of Hessians, embarked a little above, and landed near the
same place. The brigades of Parsons and Fellows, panic-stricken by the
cannonade and the martial array, fled in confusion (many without firing
a gun) when the advanced guard of only fifty men landed. Washington,
at Harlem, heard the cannonade, leaped into the saddle, and approached
Kip's Bay in time to meet the frightened fugitives.

[Illustration: 9827]

Their generals were trying in vain to rally them, and the
commander-in-chief was equally unsuccessful. Mortified, almost
despairing, at this exhibition of cowardice in the face of the enemy,
Washington's feelings mastered his judgment, and casting his chapeau
to the ground, and drawing his sword, he spurred toward the enemy, and
sought death rather than life. One of his aids caught his bridle-rein
and drew him from danger, when reason resumed its power. ** Unopposed,
the British landed in full force, and, after skirmishing in the rear of
Kip's house with the advance of Glover's brigade, who had reached the
scene, they marched almost to the center of the island, and encamped
upon the Incleberg, an eminence between the present Fifth and Sixth
Avenues and Thirty-fifth and Thirty-eighth Streets. The Americans
retreated to Bloomingdale, and Washington sent an express to Putnam in
the city, ordering him to evacuate it immediately. Howe, with Clinton,
Tryon, and a few others, went to the house of Robert Murray, on Murray
Hill (see page 789), for refreshments and rest.

With smiles and pleasant conversation, and a profusion of cake and wine,
the good Whig lady detained the gallant Britons almost two hours; quite
long enough for the bulk of Putnam's division of four thousand men to
leave the city and escape to the heights of Harlem by the Bloomingdale
road, with the loss of only a few soldiers. *** General Robertson, with
a strong force, marched to take possession of the city, and Howe made
his headquarters at the elegant mansion of James Beekman, at Turtle Bay,
then deserted by the owner and his family. **** Before sunset his troops
were encamped in a line extending from Horn's Hook

* The ships went up the Hudson, at the same time, as far as
Bloomingdale. One of these vessels was the detested Asia, of sixty-four
guns. Captain Talbot, anxious to be useful, attempted its destruction by
a fire-ship. From near Fort Washington he proceeded cautiously, at two
o'clock in the morning of the sixteenth, and soon he was alongside
the enemy, with his ship in a blaze. Lingering too long, he was badly
burned, but escaped to the Jersey shore in safety. The Asia managed to
extricate herself from the peril.--See Tuckerman's Life of Commodore
Talbot, p. 24-29.

** Gordon, ii., 111.

*** Putnam, Knox, and other officers in the city were quite ignorant
of the island beyond the intrenchments. They were perplexed on learning
that the enemy occupied the east and middle roads, for they knew of no
other way among the woods and swamps of the island. Fortunately, Major
Aaron Burr, then one of Putnam's aids, knew the ground well, and under
his direction the troops left Independent Battery, on Bunker Hill (where
they were preparing for defense), and passing through the woods west of
the present Broadway, they reached a road leading from Greenwich (the
property of Sir Peter Warren) to Blooming, dale. They were discovered by
a patrole, after passing the camp upon the Incleberg, and a detachment
of light infantry were sent in pursuit. These overtook the rear of the
Americans in a path extending from Bloomingdale to Harlem Lane, near
M'Gowan's Pass, and a warm skirmish was the result. This skirmish was at
about the intersection of One hundredth Street and Eighth Avenue.

**** See note on page 815. This view of Beekman's mansion is from the
grounds looking toward the East River. The fine lawns and blooming
gardens are now reticulated by eity streets, and in a few years, no
doubt, this elegant specimen of the houses of "the olden time" will be
swept away by the broom of improvement. The carved family arms have
been removed from their long resting-place over the elaborately wrought
chimney-piece of the drawing-room, and an ancient sun-dial, which marked
the hours in the garden for almost a century, has been laid away in
security. The elegant coach of the first proprietor, emblazoned with the
Beekrnan arms, is yet there, a rich old relic of the aristocracy of
New York a century ago. * There General Riedesel and his family resided
during the summer of 1780.

* The family arms consist of an irregular broad line, representing
running water (Beekrnan signifies brook-man) drawn across a shield,
and upon each side of it is a full-blown rose. The crest is a helmet,
surmounted by spread wings: the legend, "Menteonscia recti." The
Beekmans trace their family to Germany as early as 1470. William, the
ancestor of the American branch of the family, came to America, with
Stuyvesant, in 1647. He was appointed vice-governor on the Delaware in
1658, was afterward sheriff of Keopus, in Ulster county, and burgomaster
and alderman in New Amsterdam. There were other Beekmans who settled in
the vicinity of Albany.--See Holgate's American Genealogy, page 66.

[[[Americans on Harlem Heights.--Battle on Harlem Plains.--Death of
Knowlton and Lietch.]]]

{818}across the island to Bloomingdale. Harlem Plains divided the
hostile camps. For seven a Sept. 15, years, two months, and ten
days[[Sept. 15, 1776 to Nov. 25, 1783 from this time, the city of New
York remained in possession of the British troops.

The wearied patriots from the city, drenched by a sudden shower, slept
in the open air on the heights of Harlem that night.

[Illustration: 0828]

Early the next morning[[Sept. 16]] intelligence came that a British
force, under Brigadier Leslie, was making its way by M'Gowan's pass
to Harlem Plains. The little garrisons at Mount Morris and Harlem Cove
(Manhattanville) confronted them at the mouth of a deep rocky gorge,
* and kept them in partial check until the arrival of re-enforcements.
Washington was at Morris's house, and hearing the firing, rode to his
outpost, where the Convent of the Sacred Heart now stands. There he met
Colonel Knowlton, of the Connecticut Rangers (Congress's Own), who had
been skirmishing with the advancing foe, and now came for orders. The
enemy were about three hundred strong upon the plain, and had a reserve
in the woods upon the heights. Knowlton was to hasten with his Rangers,
and Major Leitch with three companies of Weedon's Virginia regiment, to
gain the rear of the advance, while a feigned attack was to be made in
front. Perceiving this, the enemy rushed forward to gain an advantageous
position on the plain, when they were attacked by Knowlton and Leitch on
the flank. Re-enforcements now came down from the hills, when the enemy
changed front and fell upon the Americans. A short but severe conflict
ensued. Three bullets passed through the body of Leitch, and he was
borne away. A few moments afterward, Knowlton received a bullet in his
head, fell, and was borne off by his sorrowing companions. ** Yet their
men fought bravely, disputing the ground inch by inch as they fell back
toward the American camp. The enemy pressed hard upon them, until a
part of the Maryland regiments of Colonels Griffiths and Richardson
re-enforced the patriots. The British were

* This rocky gorge has not yet been touched by the hand of improvement.
It remains in all its primal roughness, covered by low shrubbery, shoots
from the roots of the ancient forest-trees. It extends on a line with
and between the Fifth and Eighth Avenues, from the southern extremity of
Harlem Plains.

** Major Leitch died the following day. Knowlton was earned to the
redoubt, near the Hudson, at One hundred and Fifty-sixth Street, where
he expired before sunset, and was buried within the embankments. His
death was a public loss. His bravery at Bunker Hill commanded the
highest respect of Washington. In general orders in the morning after
the battle on Harlem Plains, the commander-in-ehief, alluding to the
death of Knowlton, said, "He would have been an honor to any country."

[[[Great Fire in New York.--Departure of the British Army for West
Chester.--Landing upon Throck's Neck.]]]

{819}driven back across the plain, when Washington, fearing an ambush,
ordered a retreat. The loss of the Americans was inconsiderable in
numbers; that of the British was eighteen killed and about ninety
wounded. This event inspirited the desponding Americans, and nerved them
for the contest soon to take place upon the main.

The British strengthened M'Gowan's Pass, placed strong pickets in
advance of their lines, and guarded their flanks by armed vessels in the
East and North Rivers. General Robertson, in the mean while, had taken
possession of the city, and commenced strengthening the intrenchments
across the island there. He had scarcely pitched his tents upon the
hills in the present Seventh and Tenth Wards, and began to look with
complacency upon the city as snug winter quarters for the army, when
columns of lurid smoke rolled up from the lower end of the town. It was
midnight[[Sept. 20-21,1776]] Soon broad arrows of flame shot up from
the darkness, and a terrible conflagration began.' It was stayed by the
exertions of the troops and sailors from the ships, but not until about
five hundred houses were consumed.

Perceiving the Americans to be too strongly intrenched upon Harlem
Heights to promise a successful attack upon them, Howe attempted to get
in their rear, to cut off their communication with the north and east,
and hem them in upon the narrow head of Manhattan Island.

[Illustration: 8829]

Leaving a sufficient force of British and Hessians, under Lord Percy, to
guard the city, and others to man his lines toward Harlem, he embarked
the remainder of his army upon ninety flat-boats, passed through the
narrow and turbulent strait of Hell Gate, and landed upon Throck's
Neck,[[Oct. 12, 1774]]a low peninsula jutting into the East River from
the main of West Chester county, sixteen miles from the city. *** A few
days afterward[[Oct. 17]]

[Illustration: 9829]

* Mr. David Grim, a merchant of New York, who saw the conflagration, has
left a record of the event. He says the fire broke out in a low groggery
and brothel, a wooden building on the wharf, near Whitehall Slip. It
was discovered between one and two o'clock in the morning of the
twenty-first of September. The wind was from the southwest. There were
but few inhabitants in the city, and the flames, for a while unchecked.
spread rapidly. All the houses between Whitehall and Broad Streets, up
to Beaver Street, were consumed, when the wind veered to the southeast
and drove the fire toward Broadway. It consumed all on eaeh side of
Beaver Street to the Bowling Green, a little above which it crossed
Broadway, and swept all the buildings on both sides, as far as Exchange
Street. On the west side it consumed almost every building from Morris
Street to Partition (Fulton) Street, devouring Trinity church * in its
way, and destroyed all the buildings toward the North River. For a long
time the new (St. Paul's) church was in peril, for the fire crept in
its rear to Mortkile (Barclay) Street, and extended west of King's
(Columbia) College to Murray Street. The exact number of buildings
consumed was four hundred and ninety-three. The city then contained
about four thousand houses. "The ruins," says Dunlap (who wandered over
the scene at the close of the war), "on the southeast side of the town
were converted into dwelling places by using the chimneys and parts of
walls which were firm, and adding pieces of spars with old canvas from
the ships, forming hovels--part hut and part tent." This was called
Canvas Town, and there the vilest of the army and Tory refugees
congregated. The Tories, and British writers of the day attempted to
fix the crime of incendiarism upon the Whigs, but could not. It was well
known that the fire had an accidental origin, yet British historians
continue to reproduce the libel.

** The officer who went out to Lexington with re-enforcements in April,
1775.--See page 528, vol. i.

*** This is spelled Throck's, Throg's, and Frog's, in different
histories. It was originally owned by a man named Throckmorton, who
was called Throck for the sake of brevity. On the extreme point of this
peninsula, at the entrance to Long Island Sound, stands Fort Schuyler, a
strong work completed in 1842.

* Trinity church was erected at the close of the seventeenth century.
The first building was small and square. Queen Anne granted to the
corporation in 1705 the land extending along the west side of Broadway
to Christopher Street, known as the Queen's Farm. The edifice was
enlarged in 1737 to one hundred and forty-eight feet in length,
including the tower and chancel, and seventy-two feet in breadth. The
steeple was one hundred and seventy-five feet in height. This was the
edifice consumed by the great fire in 1776. The sketch of the ruins is
from a picture made on the spot, and published in Dr. Berrian's History
of Trinity Church. It was rebuilt in 1788, taken down in 1839, and on
the twenty-first of May, 1846, the present edifice was consecrated to
Christian worship.

[[[Landing-place of the Hessians.--Howe confronted.--Skirmish near New
Rochelle.--General Heath]]]

{820}other troops from Montressor's Island * and Flushing landed there;
and on the twenty-second, Knyphausen, with the second division of German
hirelings, just arrived at New York, ** landed upon Myers's Point, now
Davenport's Neck, near New Rochelle. ***

When Washington perceived this movement, he sent strong detachments,
under General Heath, **** to oppose the landing of the British, and
occupy lower West Chester.

[Illustration: 9830]

A redoubt had been thrown up on the hills, near William's Bridge; all
the passes to King's Bridge were well guarded, and a detachment was at
White Plains making intrenchments there. The causeways to Throck's
and Pell's Necks were also guarded, the latter by Colonel Hand and his
riflemen; and on the night of the first landing,[[October 12]]the bridge
was removed, and General Howe was left upon an island.

[Illustration: 8830]

He suspected his Tory guides of treachery, but he soon ascertained the
truth and decamped, after being driven back from the causeway by Hand,
with the aid of Prescott (the hero of Breed's Hill) and a three-pounder,
under Lieutenant Bryant. (v) Howe crossed in his boats to Pell's Point,
a little above,[[October 18]] and marched over Pelham Manor toward New
Rochelle.

[Illustration: 7830]

After a hot skirmish with Glover's brigade, of Sullivan's division,
in which the Americans were repulsed, Howe encamped upon high ground
between Hutchins's River and New Rochelle village, where he remained
until the twenty-first, when he took post upon the heights of New
Rochelle, (v) north of the village, on the road to White Plains and
Scarsdale. Knyphausen and his division arrived the next day, and
encamped upon the land now owned by E. K. Collins, Esq., between New
Rochelle and Mamaroneck.

* On the twenty-fourth of September, Colonel Jackson, with Major Henly
(aid-de-eamp to General Heath), and two hundred and forty men, made a
descent upon the British on Montressor's Island in flat-boats. They were
repulsed with a loss of twenty-two men. Among them was Major Henly, who
was shot while at the head of his men. He was carried to the vamp, and
buried by the side of the brave Knowlton.

** These re-enforcements arrived on the eighteenth of October. The fleet
consisted of seventy-two sail, having on board four thousand Hessians,
six thousand Waldeckers, two companies of chasseurs, two hundred English
recruits, and two thousand baggage horses.

*** The main body of the Germans landed upon Bauflet's Point, on the
east side of Davenport's Neck, where, it is said, the Huguenot settlers
of New Roehelle first touched our shores. Davenport's Neck is a
beautiful fertile peninsula, jutting into the Sound near the village
of New Roehelle. The view here given is from the high rocky bank at
Bauflet's Point, looking southeast upon the wooded islands whieh here
dot the Sound. The shores of Long Island are seen in extreme distance.

**** William Heath was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, near whieh
some of his descendants still reside. He was appointed a provincial
brigadier in 1775. The Continental Congress gave him the same
commission, and on the ninth of August, 1776, made him a major general,
together with Spencer, Sullivan, and Greene. He commanded near King's
Bridge after the Americans left New York, and in the following year he
was in chief command in the Eastern department. Burgoyne's captured army
were in his custody. In 1779 he commanded on the Hudson, and there was
the principal theater of his military life, until the close of the war.
General Heath was a useful officer, but circumstances prevented his
making much display. He published an interesting volume, entitled
"Heath's Memoirs," which is now mueh sought after by collectors of
valuable American books. General Heath died in 1814, the last survivor
of the major generals of the Revolution.

* (v) Heath's Memoirs, page 67. For a sketeh of Colonel Prescott, see
page 539, vol. i.

* (vi) These heights are now (1852) partly wooded and partly cultivated;
then they were covered by the primitive forest, except around the house
above delineated, where Howe made his quarters. That house is upon the
eastern side of the highway from New Roehelle to White Plains, about
a mile from the former village. It was very much dilapidated when I
visited it, and was occupied by a colored family. Half a mile beyond
this dwelling, on the same side of the road, is the marble monument
erected to the memory of Thomas Paine. A sketch of this monument may be
found in the Supplement, page 853.

[[[American Army in West Chester.--Skirmishes.--Condition of the
Army.]]]

{821}Washington viewed this first planting of the British standard upon
the main land in proclaimed free America with great anxiety, for clouds
were gathering In the horizon of the future. Nominally, he had an
army of nineteen thousand men, but in discipline, order, and all the
concomitants of true soldiers * they were not one third of that number.
The time of service of many of them was drawing to a close, and cold
weather was approaching to chill the ardor of half-clad patriots.
A powerful enemy, well provided, was crouched as a tiger within
cannon-voice, ready to spring upon its prey. Yet Washington's spirit did
not quail, and he resolved to confront the foe with his motley troop, as
if with a parity of veterans. He called a council of war at his quarters
at Morris's house,[[Oct 16, 1776]] to decide upon the propriety of
evacuating Manhattan Island. General Lee, fresh from the field of
victory at Charleston, had just arrived and gave his weighty opinion in
favor of a total abandonment of the island.

[Illustration: 8831]

The main army was speedily marched toward the Bronx, in West Chester,
leaving a garrison, under Colonel Magaw, of Pennsylvania, sufficient
to hold Fort Washington and its dependencies. In four divisions, under
Generals Lee, Heath. Sullivan, and Lincoln, the American army moved
slowly up the western side of the Bronx, and formed a series of
intrenched camps upon the hills from the heights of Fordham to White
Plains, a distance of about thirteen miles. While presenting a front
parallel to that of Howe, frequent skirmishes occurred, in which the
Americans were generally the winners. ** General Greene with a small
force garrisoned Fort Lee, situated upon the Palisades, *** nearly
opposite Fort Washington, and on the twenty-first of October the
commander-in-chief left Morris's house and made his head-quarters near
White Plains, where, directed by a French engineer, the Americans

* Cotemporary waiters give a sad picture of the army at that time. Among
many of the subordinate officers, greed usurped the place of patriotism.
Officers were elected on condition that they should throw their pay and
rations into a joint stock for the benefit of a company; surgeons sold
recommendations for furloughs, for able-bodied men, at sixpence each,
and a captain was cashiered for stealing blankets from his soldiers.
Men went out in squads to plunder from friend or foe, and immorality
prevailed throughout the American army. Its appointments, too, were in
a wretched condition. The surgeon's department lacked instruments
According to a general return of fifteen regiments, there were not more
than sufficient instruments for one battalion.--See Washington's Letter
to Congress, Sept. 24, 1776; Gordon, ii., 114.

** On the night of the twenty-first of October, Lord Stirling sent
Colonel Haslet, with Delaware and Maryland troops, to surprise some
Loyalists then lying at Mamaroneck, under Colonel Rogers, the ranger
during the French and Indian wars. These troops were the Queen's
Rangers, afterward commanded by Simcoe. Almost eighty men were killed
or captured, and the spoils were sixty stand of arms, and provisions
and clothing. Rogers escaped. On the twenty-third, Colonel Hand and
his riflemen attacked two hundred and forty Hessian chasseurs near East
Chester, and routed them; and almost nightly the British pickets were
disturbed by the Americans. These events made Howe cautious and slow in
his movements.

*** The high perpendicular rocks extending along the western bank of the
Hudson from Weehawken north about twenty-three miles, are so called
on account of their resemblance to palisades. Congress had ordered
Washington, "by every art and whatever expense, to obstruct effectually
the navigation of the North River, between Fort Washington and Mount
Constitution [whereon Fort Lee stood], as well to prevent the regress
of the enemy's frigates lately gone up, as to hinder them from receiving
succors."--Journals, ii., 385.

**** The house occupied by Washington while the army was at White Plains
is yet standing. It is a frame building, on the east side of the road,
about two miles above the village. This view is from the road, looking
northeast. When I last visited it (1851), Miss Jemima Miller, a maiden
ninety-three years of age, and her sister, a few years her junior, were
living therein, the home of their childhood. A chair and table, used by
the chief, is carefully preserved by the family, and a register for
the names of the numerous visitors is kept. This house was in the deep
solitude of the forests, among the hills, when Washington was there; now
the heights and the plain near by smile with cultivation. The present
owner of the property is Abraham Miller.

[[[The two Armies at White Plains.--The Battle there.--The
Intrenchments.]]]

{822}cast up breast-works, rather as a defense for an intrenched camp
in preparation upon the hills of North Castle two miles beyond than as
permanent fortifications. * Both armies were near White Plains on the
morning of the twenty-eighth of October.[[1776]] The Americans were
chiefly behind their breast-works near the village, and the British were
upon the hills below, eastward of the Bronx.

[Illustration: 8832]

Chatterton's Hill, a commanding eminence on the opposite side of the
stream, was occupied on the evening of the twenty-seventh by Colonel
Haslet, with his Delawares, some Maryland troops and militia, in all
about sixteen hundred men. Early the next morning, M'Dougal was ordered
to reenforce Haslet with a small corps and two pieces of artillery
under the charge of Captain Alexander Hamilton, and to take the general
command there.

[Illustration: 9832]

At ten o'clock the British army moved toward the village in two columns,
the right commanded by General Clinton, the left by De Heister and Sir
William Erskine; in all thirteen thousand strong. Howe was with the
second division, and when near the village, he held a council of war on
horseback, which resulted in a change in the point of attack. Inclining
to the left, the British placed fifteen or twenty pieces of artillery
upon the slope southeast of the rail-way station, and, under cover of
their fire, constructed a rude bridge over the Bronx, and attempted to
cross and ascend the steep wooded heights to dislodge the Americans from
their hastily constructed breastworks upon Chatterton's Hill. Hamilton
had placed his two guns in battery, on a rocky ledge, and these swept
whole platoons from the margin of the hill they were attempting to
ascend.

[Illustration: 6832]

The British recoiled, fell back to their artillery, and joined another
division, under General Leslie (consisting of the second British
brigade, the Hessian grenadiers under Colonel Rail, a battalion of
Hessian infantry, and two hundred and fifty cavalry), who were then
crossing the Bronx a quarter of a mile below. There the assailants
joined, and the whole force pushed up the slopes and ravines along the
southwestern declivities of Chatterton's Hill.

[Illustration: 7832]

Gaining a gentle slope toward the top, they endeavored to turn
M'Dongal's right flank. His advance, under Smallwood and Ritzema,
gallantly opposed them while slowly retreating toward the crown of the
eminence, until the British cavalry attacked the American militia on the
extreme right and dispersed them. M'Dongal with only six hundred men,
consisting chiefly of his own brigade and Haslet's corps, sustained an
obstinate conflict for an hour. Twice the British light infantry and
cavalry were repulsed, when an attack upon his flank by Rail compelled
M'Dougal to give way

* A square redoubt of earth was erected in the main street of the
village, the remains of which may yet be seen a little northeast of Mr.
Swinburn's Literary Institution, and where now (1852) lies a shattered
howitzer, dug up from the trenches a few years ago. From this redoubt-a
line of breast-works extended westerly over the south side of Purdy's
Hill to the Bronx, and easterly across the hills to Horton's Pond. These
were not quite finished when the battle occurred on the twenty-eighth
of October.--See Address of J. W. Tompkins, 1845, quoted by Bolton, ii.,
368.

** This view is from the southeastern side of the Bronx, a little more
than half a mile below the rail-way station at While Plains, looking
north. The rail-way bridge is seen on the extreme right. Between that
and the barn on the left the British ascended. In the field, seen a
little to the left of the telegraph posts, toward the center, and the
one on the summit beyond, the hottest of the engagement occurred. The
latter is on the land of Mr. Cornelius Horton. In a hollow, near a large
hickory-tree, on the southwest side of Chatterton's Hill, are the graves
of many of the slain.

[[[Retreat of the Americans.--The Loss.--Withdrawal to North
Castle.--Conflagration.]]]

{823}and retreat to the intrenchments at White Plains. This was done in
good order down the southeastern side of Chatterton's Hill, and across
the Bronx, near the present rail-way station, under cover of troops, led
by Putnam.

[Illustration: 8833]

M'Dougal carried off his wounded and artillery, and left the victors in
possession of only the inconsiderable breastworks upon the hill.

The militia, who were scattered among the Greenburg hills, soon
collected in the intrenched camp at the village, and there the
American army rested, almost undisturbed, until the evening of the
thirty-first.[[Oct, 1778]]The British troops rested upon their arms all
night after the battle, and the next day, after a skirmish with Glover's
brigade, they encamped within long cannon shot of the front of
the American lines. Awed by the apparent strength of Washington's
intrenchments, Howe dared not attack him, but awaited the arrival of
Lord Percy, with four battalions from New York and two from Mamaroneck.
**

The loss of the Americans, from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-ninth,
did not exceed, probably, three hundred men, in killed, wounded, and
prisoners; that of the British was about-the same.

Earl Percy arrived in the evening of the thirtieth, and preparations
were made to storm the American works the next morning. A tempest of
wind and rain arose at midnight, and continued for twenty hours. All
operations were delayed, and on the night of the thirty-first, while
the storm clouds were breaking and the British host were slumbering,
Washington withdrew, and encamped upon the heights of North Castle,
toward the Croton River, where he had erected strong breast-works along
the hills which loom up a hundred feet above the waters of the Bronx.
*** Howe was afraid to attack him there, and on the night of the fourth
of November,[[1776]] he retreated toward the junction of the Hudson

* This is a view of the southeastern side of Chatterton's Hill, from the
rail-way station. They crossed the Bronx at a point seen on the extreme
right. On the top of the hill, in the edge of the woods on the left,
Hamilton's cannons were placed.

** The intrenchments, which appeared so formidable through Howe's
telescope, were exceedingly weak, composed of earth and sods laid upon
heaps of cornstalks. They were no protection against cannon-balls, and
had Howe attacked these lines first, instead of the really stronger
position on Chatterton's Hill, the complete dispersion, if not loss of
the American army, would doubtless have been the result. His caution was
too faithful in its promptings, and he wasted time and energy, for two
or three days, in attempts to gain Washington's rear.

*** A little southeast of the house occupied by Washington (see sketch
on page 821), on the brow of a steep hill overlooking an extensive
region of country, are yet (1852) prominent remains of some of these
breast-works. These are nearest the village of White Plains, and easiest
of access for the student or antiquary. Gordon relates that while the
British were at White Plains, the garden of a widow was robbed at night.
Her son, a mere boy, asked and obtained leave to catch the thief. With
a loaded gun he concealed himself in some bushes, when a British
grenadier, a strapping Highlander came, filled a bag with fruit, and
placed it on his shoulder. The boy appeared behind him with his gun
cocked, and threatened him with instant death if he attempted to lay
down the bag. Thus the boy drove him into the American camp. When he
laid down his bag, and saw that he had been driven in by a stripling,
he was excessively mortified, and could not suppress the exclamation, "A
British grenadier made a prisoner by such a damned brat! {824}

[Illustration: 0834]

*** On the night of the evacuation, the Presbyterian church and other
buildings were fired and consumed, but without the knowledge or approval
of Washington. Bolton (ii., 366) says the incendiary was Major Osborne,
of the Massachusetts line. Gordon (ii., 121) remarks that "Colonel
Austin, of the Massachusetts, who commanded the guards and sentries,
being heated with liquor, burned the town on White Plains unnecessarily
and without any orders."

[[[Retreat to New Jersey.--Fort Washington menaced.--A Surrender
refused.--Re-enforced.]]]

{825}and Harlem Rivers, and encamped upon the heights of Fordham,
extending his left wing almost to King's Bridge. *

An attack upon Fort Washington, now environed by a hostile force, though
at a distance, was to be the next scene in the drama. Washington called
a council of war, and it was unanimously resolved to retreat into New
Jersey with the larger portion of the army, leaving all the New England
troops on the east side of the Hudson to defend the Highlands. This
movement was speedily executed. By the twelfth[[November]] the main army
were in New Jersey, some crossing from Tarrytown to Paramus (Sneeden's
Landing), and others from Tiller's Croton; Point to the mouth of Tappan
Creek (Piermont). The chief, after inspecting places at Peekskill and
vicinity, crossed King's Ferry,[[Nov. 14, 1776]] and hastened to form
his camp, with his head-quarters at Hackinsack, in the rear of Fort Lee.
** General Heath was left in command in the Highlands, and General Lee,
with a dissolving force *** of more than eight thousand men, remained
at North Castle, with orders to join the main army in New Jersey if the
enemy should aim a blow in that quarter.

On the day of the battle at White Plains, Knyphausen, with six German
battalions, marched from New Rochelle, crossed the head of Harlem River,
at Dyckman's Bridge, **** took possession of the abandoned works in the
vicinity of King's Bridge, and encamped upon the plain[[Nov. 2]] between
there and Fort Washington.

[Illustration: 9835]

The Americans in Fort Independence and redoubts near, fled, on his
approach, to Fort Washington, and now the whole country beyond Harlem,
between Dobbs's Ferry and Morrisania, west of the Bronx, was in the
possession of the royal army. Fort Washington was completely environed
by hostile forees. On the seventh, three British ships of war passed up
the Hudson unharmed, and on the night of the fourteenth, a large
number of flat-boats went up and were moored near King's Bridge.
The commander-in-chief would now have ordered the evacuation of Fort
Washington, had not Greene urged the necessity of holding it, in
connection with Fort Lee, for the defense of the river.

On the fifteenth[[Nov. 1776]] Howe was informed of the real condition
of the garrison and works at Fort Washington, by a deserter from Magaw's
battalion, and he immediately sent a messenger with a summons for the
commander to surrender, or peril his garrison with the doom of massacre.
Magaw, in a brief note, promptly refused compliance, and sent a copy
of his answer to Washington at Hackinsack. Confident of success, Howe
ordered a cannonade to be opened upon the American outworks from two
British redoubts, situated upon the east side of the Harlem River,
a little above the High Bridge. The cannonade commenced early on the
morning of the sixteenth, to cover the landing of troops which crossed
the Harlem there, preparatory to a combined attack at four different
points. Expecting this, Magaw made a judicious disposition of his little
force. (v) Colonel Rawling's

* Gordon, ii., 116-121. Stedman, i., 210-216. Marshall, i., 110-114.

** This fortification was situated upon a sort of plateau, about three,
hundred feet above the river, at the present landing and village of Fort
Lee, and opposite the present One hundred and Sixtieth Street, of New
York. Some of the mounds are yet visible, covered with low trees.
A little above was a redoubt, opposite Jeffery's Hook, to cover the
chevaux-de-friese in the river. Few traces of this redoubt now remain.

*** The time of service of seven thousand five hundred of these men
would expire within a week, and the remainder would be free on the first
of December. When the time of dissolution came, some were induced to
remain, but the largest portion went home dispirited.

**** For this and other localities made memorable by military operations
between Fort Washington and the Highlands, the reader may profitably
consult the map on the preceding page. It is copied from Stedman, whose
orthography of proper names, it will be observed is often incorrect.
There is an important error in the map, which was not observed, until
it was engraved, namely, the transposition of the names of Heights
of Fordham and Valentine's Hill. The former is in the vicinity of
Morrisania; the latter near Wepperham, or Yonkers. Mile Square should be
placed about two and a half miles further up the Bronx.

* (v) The garrison consisted of only about twelve hundred men, when
Knyphausen first sat down at King's Bridge. Greene sent a re-enforcement
from Mercer's Flying Camp, and when the fort was attacked there were
about three thousand men within the lines. When Washington heard of lhe
summons to surrender, he hastened from his camp to Fort Lee, and at
nine in the evening, while crossing the Hudson, he met Greene and
Putnam returning from Fort Washington. They assured him that Magaw was
confident of a successful defense, and the chief returned with them to
Fort Lee.

[[[Disposition of the Garrison.--Plan of Attack.--Knyphausen's
Assault]]]

{826}with his Maryland riflemen, was posted in a redoubt (Fort George)
upon a hill north of Fort Washington, and a few men were stationed at
the outpost called _Cock-hill Fort_.

[Illustration: 9836]

Militia of the Flying Camp, under Colonel Baxter, were placed on the
rough wooded hills east of the fort, along the Harlem River, and others,
under Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, of Pennsylvania, manned the lines in
the direction of New York. Magaw commanded in the fort.

The plan of attack was well arranged.

[Illustration: 8836]

Knyphausen, with five hundred Hessians and Waldeckers, was to move to
the attack on the north simultaneously with a division of English and
Hessian troops, under Lord Percy, who were to assail the lines on the
south. At the same time, Brigadier Mathews, supported by Cornwallis,
was to cross the Harlem River, with the guards, light infantry, and two
battalions of grenadiers, and land above Fort Washington, under cover
of the guns on the West Chester Hills, just mentioned, * while Colonel
Stirling, with the 42d regiment, was to cross at a point a little above
the High Bridge. These arrangements were carried out. Knyphausen divided
his forces. One division, under Colonel Rall (killed at Trenton seventy
days afterward), drove the Americans from _Cock-hill Fort,_ while
Knyphausen, with the remainder, penetrated the woods near Tubby Hook,
and, after clambering over felled trees and other obstructions, attacked
Rawlings in _Fort Tryon_. The fort was gallantly defended for some time,
and many Hessians were slain. Rawlings was finally forced to yield, and
retreated to Fort Washington, under cover of its guns, when Knyp-hausen
planted the Hessian flag upon _Fort Tryon_. In the mean while, Percy had
crossed near Harlem, swept over the plain, drove in the American pickets
at Harlem Cove (Manhattanville), and attacked Cadwalader at the advanced
line of intrenchments. *** Percy's force was eight hundred strong;
Cadwalader had only one hundred and fifty men, and one eighteen-pounder.
Both parties fought bravely, and Percy, yielding, moved toward the
American left, behind a wood, and the combat ceased for a while.

While Rawlings and Cadwalader were keeping the as-

* Mathews landed in the cove or creek at about Two hundredth Street.

** This is a view from the site of the interior works at Fort Washington
from the foot of the flag-staff, looking southwest. In the foreground
are seen the remains of the embankments. The tall mast seen near the
river below is the support for telegraph wires which cross the Hudson
there, from the rocky point of Jeffery's Hook. In the distance aeross
the river are the Palisades, and the mast upon their summit denotes the
site of the redoubt north of Fort Lee. This little sketch exhibits the
relative position of Forts Washington and Lee.

*** Preparatory to this attack, a cannonade was opened upon the American
works by two pieces on the high ground north of Motthaven on the Harlem.

"**** This flag-staff, indicating the center of the fort, is a
prominent object to passengers upon the Hudson.

[[[Attack of Stirling and Percy.--Surrender of the Fort.--The Loss.--Mr.
Battin.]]]

{827}sailants at bay, Mathews and Stirling landed. The latter pushed
up the wooded heights, drove Baxter's troops from their redoubt (Fort
George) and rocky defense, and stood victor upon the hills overlooking
the open fields around Fort Washington. Stirling, after making a feigned
landing, dropped down to an estuary of the river, landed within the
American lines, and, rushing up the acclivity by a sinuous road,
attacked a redoubt on the summit, and made about two hundred prisoners.
* Informed of this, and perceiving the peril of being placed between two
fires, Cadwalader retreated along the road nearest the Hudson, closely
pursued by Percy, and battling all the way.

[Illustration: 9837]

When near the upper border of Trinity Cemetery (One hundred and
Fifty-fifth Street), he was attacked on the flank by Colonel Stirling,
who was pressing aeross the island to intercept him. ** He continued
the retreat, and reached the fort, after losing a few killed, and about
thirty made prisoners. On the border of the cemetery, and near the fort,
severe skirmishes took place, and many of the Hessian pursuers were
slain. The defense was gallant; but pike, ball, and bayonet, used by
five thousand men, overpowered the weakened patriots, and at meridian
they were nearly all gathered within the ramparts of the fort.
General Howe now sent another summons to surrender. Perceiving further
resistance to be vain, Magaw complied, *** and at half past one
o'clock[[Nov. 16, 1776]] the British flag was waving where the Union
banner was unfurled defiantly in the morning. The garrison, amounting
to more than two thousand men, were made prisoners of war, **** and
with these the jails of New York were speedily gorged. It was a terrible
disaster for the little Republican army. Of all the gallant men who
battled there on that day, not one is known among the living. Probably
the last survivor of them all, and the last living relic of the
British army in America, was the venerable John Battin, who died at
his residence in Greenwich Street, in the city of New York, on the
twenty-ninth of June, 1852, at the age of one hundred years and four
months. His body is entombed in Trinity Cemetery, upon the very ground
where he fought for his king seventy-six years before. (v)

Washington, standing upon Fort Lee with his general officers, and the
author of "Common Sense," (Thomas Paine) saw some of the slaughter near
the doomed fortress, and

* Stirling's landing-plaee was at about the foot of One hundred and
Fifty-second Street, at the head of the Eighth Avenue, three fourths of
a mile below the High Bridge, "within the third line of defense whieh
crossed the island."--Marshall, i., 117. The road up which he passed is
still there, and, as mentioned in the note on page 816, the lines of the
redoubt on the "wooded promontory' (Stedman, i., 218) are quite visible.

** It was at this stage of affairs that Washington, with Putnam, Greene,
and Mercer, crossed the Hudson, ascended the heights, and from Morris's
house surveyed the scene of operations. Within fifteen minutes
after they had left that mansion, Stirling and his victorious troops
approached and took possession of it. It was a narrow eseape for the
chief commanders.

*** At this moment Captain Gooch came over from Fort Lee with a note
from Washington, assuring Magaw that if he could hold on till night the
garrison should be brought off. It was too late.

**** The number of regulars was about two thousand. There were six or
seven hundred militia, volunteers, and stragglers, all of whom were
probably included in Howe's report of "two thousand six hundred
prisoners." The loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, did not
exceed one hundred; that of the royal army was almost one thousand. The
Hessians, as usual, suffered most severely. Washington was blamed for
yielding to the opinions of Greene in endeavoring to hold this fort.
Lee, who was opposed to it from the beginning, wrote to Washington, "O!
general, why would you be overpersuaded by men of inferior judgment to
your own? It was a cursed affair."

* (v) Mr. Battin came to America with the British army in 1776, and
was engaged in the battles near Brooklyn, at White Plains, and Fort
Washington. After the British went into winter quarters in New York, and
Cornwallis's division (to which he was attached), returned from Trenton
and Princeton, he took lessons in horsemanship in the Middle Dutch
church (now the city post-office), then converted into a circus for a
riding-school. He then joined the cavalry regiment of Colonel Bird, in
which he held the offices of orderly sergeant and cornet. He was in
New York during the "hard winter" of 1779-80, and assisted in dragging
British cannons over the frozen bay from Fort George to Staten Island.
He was always averse to fighting the Americans, yet, as in duty bound',
he was faithful to his king. While Prince William Henry, afterward
William the Fourth, was here, he was one of his body-guard. Twice he was
sent to England by Sir Henry Clinton with dispatches, and being one
of the most active men in the corps, he was frequently employed by
the commander-in-chief in important services. With hundreds more, he
remained in New York when the British army departed in 1783, resolved to
make America his future home. He married soon after the war, and at
the time of his death had lived with his wife (now aged eighty-three)
sixty-five years. For more than fifty years, he walked every morning
upon first the old, and then the new, or present Battery, unmindful of
inclement weather. He always enjoyed remarkable health. He continued
exercise in the street near his dwelling until within a few days of his
death, though with increasing feebleness of step. The gay young men of
half a century ago (now gray-haired old men) remember his well-conducted
house of refreshment, corner of John and Nassau Streets, where they
enjoyed oyster suppers and good liquors. The preceding sketch of his
person is from a daguerreotype by Insley, made a few months before his
departure.

[[[Washington's Disappointment.--Wayne's Expedition near Bull's
Ferry.--Lee's Attack on Paulus's Hook.]]]

{828}with streaming eyes he beheld the meteor flag of England flashing
above its ramparts in the bright November sun. The fort was lost
forever, and its name was changed to Knyphausen.

The chief now turned his thoughts toward the defense of the federal
city of Philadelphia, for he penetrated the design of Howe to push
thitherward. Fort Lee was abandoned, but before its stores could be
removed, Cornwallis had crossed the Hudson with six thousand men, and
was rapidly approaching it. * The garrison fled to the camp at Hack-

* The Americans lost at Fort Lee the whole of the mounted cannons,
except two twelve-pounders, a large quantity of baggage, almost three
hundred tents, and about a thousand barrels of flour and other stores.
The ammunition was saved.

[Ill 8838]

* Three or four miles below Fort Lee, at the base of the Palisades, is
a little village called Bull's Ferry. Just below the village, on
Block-house Point, was a block-house, occupied in the summer of 1780
by a British picket, for the protection of some wood cutters, and the
neighboring Tories. On Bergen Neck below was a large number of cattle
and horses, within reach of the British foragers who might go out from
the fort at Paulus's Hook. Washington, then at Hopper's, near Suflferns,
sent General Wayne, with some Pennsylvania and Maryland troops, horse
and foot, to storm the work on block house Point, and to drive the
cattle within the American lines. Wayne sent the cavalry, under Major
Lee, to perform the latter duty, while he and three Pennsylvania
regiments marched against the block-house with four pieces of artillery.
They made a spirited attack, but their cannons were too light to be
effective, and after a skirmish, the Americans were repulsed, with
a loss, in killed and wounded, of sixty-four men. After burning some
wood-boats near, and capturing the men in charge of them, Wayne returned
to camp, with a large number of cattle, driven by the dragoons. This
expedition was made the subject of a satirical poem by Major André,
called The Cow-chase (see page 198), published in Rivington's paper. A
copy of this celebrated production may be found in the Supplement. Major
Lee made a more successful attack upon the British post at Paulus's Hook
(now Jersey City) toward the close of the summer of 1779. The Hook is
a sandy peninsula, and at that time was connected with the main by a
narrow marshy neck. Upon this peninsula the British erected quite strong
military works, and used it as an outpost, while they were in possession
of the city of New York. The main works were upon rising ground in
the vicinity of the intersection of Grand and Greene Streets. One (A)
redoubt was of circular form, and mounted six heavy guns. It had a ditch
and abatis. The other (B), a little southeast of it, was of oblong form,
and had three twelve-pounders and one eighteen, a a, were block houses;
b b b b b, breast-works fronting the bay; c, part of the 57th regiment
of five hundred men, under Major Sutherland; d, pioneers; e, carpenters;
fff, barracks; g, new bridge built by the British. A deep ditch was dug
across the isthmus with a barred gate Thirty feet within this diteh were
abatis. This ditch, with the surrounding marshes, made the peninsula
an island. After the recapture of Stony Point toward the close of
ihe summer of 1779, while Sir Henry Clinton was encamped upon Harlem
Heights, a plan was formed for surprising the garrison at Paulus's Hook.
The enterprise was intrusted to Major Henry Lee, then on the west side
of the Hudson, back of Hoboken. A feeling of security made the garrison
careless, and they were unprepared for a sudden attack when it was made.
Preparatory to the attack, troops were stationed near the Hudson
to watch the distant enemy, who might cross the river and intercept
retreat, for it was not designed to hold the post when captured. Lee
marched with three hundred picked men, followed by a strong detachment
from Lord Stirling's division, as a reserve. Lee's march toward Bergen
excited no surprise, for foraging parties of Americans as large as this
were often out in that direction. The reserve halted at the new bridge
over the Hackinsack, fourteen miles from the Hook, from which point Lee
had taken the road among the hills, nearest the Hudson. At three o'clock
on the morning of the nineteenth of August (1779), Lee reached the
Harsimus Creek, at the point where the railway now crosses it, and
within half an hour he crossed the ditch through the loosely-barred
gate, and entered the main work undiscovered. The sentinels were either
absent or asleep, and the surprise was complete. He captured one hundred
and fifty-nine of the garrison, including officers, and then attacked
the circular redoubt, into which a large portion of the remainder
retreated, with the commander. It was too strong to be effected by small
arms, and Lee retreated with his prisoners, with the loss of only two
killed and three wounded, and arrived at camp in triumph at about ten
o'clock in the morning. This gallant act was greatly applauded in the
camp, in Congress, and throughout the country, and made the enemy more
cautious. On the twenty second of September following, Congress honored
Lee with a vote of thanks, and ordered a gold medal to be struck and
presented to him.--See Journals, v., 278. On one side "The American
Congress to Henry Lee, colonel of cavalry."

[Illustration: 7839]

* "Notwithstanding rivers and intrenchments, he with a small band
conquered the foe by warlike skill and prowess, and firmly bound by
his humanity those who had been conquered by his arms. In memory of the
conflict at Paulus's Hook, nineteenth of August, 1779."

[[[Medal awarded to Lee.--American and British near King's
Bridge.--Events near Tippett's Creek.]]]

{829}insack, and now commenced the retreat of Washington across the
Jerseys, toward the Delaware, noted on pages 221--22 of this volume.

Before leaving these heights consecrated by valor and patriotism, let us
turn, toward the distant hills of West Chester, where almost every rood
of earth is scarred by the intrencher's mattock, or made memorable
by deeds of daring and of suffering, and consider the most important
military transactions which occurred within ten leagues of our point of
observation.

[Illustration: 8839]

We can not tarry long; to the local historian we must refer for the
whole story in detail.

General Knyphausen held Fort Washington and the neighboring works,
while the main British army was operating elsewhere in 1777. The
fortifications were strengthened, and King's Bridge and vicinity
presented a formidable barrier to the invasion of York Island by land.
After the fall of Fort Washington, and the departure of both Americans
and British to New Jersey General Heath established a cordon of
troops[[January, 1777]] from the heights at Wepperharn (Yonkers) to
Mamaroneck, under the command of Brigadier John Morin Scott.

[Illustration: 9839]

That officer left the army two months later for civil employment, and
the Americans retired, so that their left rested upon Byram River. While
the strong detach-

* This view is from the southwest side of the stream, from near the
tide-mill. The house beyond, shaded by willows, is the residence of the
widow of the late Robert M'Comb. *

[Illustration: 6839]

* This vicinity was the scene of many stirring events during the
Revolution. Near here was a severe skirmish between a detachment of
General Heath's troops and some Hessians, on the seventeenth of January,
1777. It was the result of an attempt by the Americans to dislodge the
Hessians from Fort Prince. A little west of the bridge, Tippett's brook
flows into the Hudson. Following the course of the valley through which
this creek passes, on a bright autumn morning in 1850, I reached the
vale of Yonkers, and the Van Cortlandt mansion, a beautiful residence
in the midst of a broad lawn and profusion of shrubbery. This was the
quarters of a Hessian picket-guard in 1777, and here Washington and his
staff dined in July, 1781, when the British pickets were driven beyond
King's Bridge by Lincoln. North of the man-. sion is Vault Hill, where
many of the Van Cortlandt family lie.

[Illustration: 7839]

* Upon this, hill those American troops were encamped whom Washington
left to deceive Sir Henry Clinton, while he marched with the main army
southward, to assist La Fayette in Virginia (see page 213). On this
estate, and a short distance from Vault Hill, is Indian Field and
Bridge, the site of a severe engagement on the thirty-first of August,
1778, between British light troops and some Stockbridge Indians, under
the chief, Nimham. Lieutenant-colonel Emmerick, while patrolling in that
direction, was attacked and driven back, when he met Simcoe coming to
his relief. Emmerick was sent back to take post so as to cover an attack
upon the Americans in flank and rear, but on his way fell into an ambush
by the Indians. While fighting, Simcoe and Tarleton advanced, and a hot
conflict ensued. The Indians fought bravely but were at last obliged
to give way. A body of American light infantry, under Stewart
(distinguished at Stony Point), were engaged in the skirmish, but
escaped. Nimham and about forty of his sixty braves perished.--Simcoe's
Journal, page 83. "The scene of the conflict," says Bolton, "lies on the
land of the late Frederick Brown, now (1848) occupied by his widow.".

[[[Loyalist Patrols.--The Delanceys and their Movements.]]]

{830}ments of the two armies were occupying their relative positions,
many skirmishes took place, especially between the Americans and corps
of Loyalists, formed under various leaders. The latter traversed Lower
West Chester, annoyed the American outposts and patrols, and distressed
the inhabitants. *

In the summer of 1777, Washington, believing the post at New York to be
weak, because the main army of the British was in New Jersey and a large
detachment was on

* One of the earliest, most influential, and efficient of the Loyalist
leaders was Oliver Delancey, who, with his son Oliver, and nephew James,
performed active service for the king in Lower West Chester. He was a
brother of Chief Justice (also lieutenant governor) Delancey, and was a
man of large property and great influence. He was a member of the King's
Council before the Revolution; and at the beginning of hostilities,
leaned rather to the popular side. Deprecating a separation from
Britain, he espoused the royal cause after the Declaration of
Independence went forth. He was commissioned a brigadier, and authorized
to raise three battalions of Loyalists. This he finally effected. His
son Oliver was commissioned a captain of horse in 1776; was present at
the capture of General Woodhull; became major of the 17th regiment
of dragoons; and, after Major Andre's death, was appointed adjutant
general, with the commission of lieutenant colonel. At the close of
the war General Delancey went to England, was elected a member of
Parliament, and died at Beverly in 1785, at the age of sixty-eight
years. His son Oliver accompanied him, and rose gradually to the rank of
major general. At the time of his death he was almost at the head of
the British army list. James, a nephew of General Delancey, commanded
a battalion of horse in his uncle's brigade. Because of his activity in
supplying the British army with cattle from the farms of West Chester,
his troopers were called Cow-boys. Sir William Draper, "the conqueror of
Manilla," married General Delancey's daughter. The Confiscation Act of
the New York Legislature swept away the largest portion of the Delancey
estate in America. *

* Many attempts were made to destroy or disperse the Delancey Loyalists.
On the twenty-fifth of January. 1777, some Americans attacked a
block-house, erected hy Delancey on the site of Mapes's Temperance
House, at West Farms. Several of the guard were wounded, but none were
killed or made prisoners. In the winter of 1779, Colonel Aaron Burr,
with some Americans, attacked this block house to destroy it. Provided
with hand grenades, combustibles, and short ladders, about forty
volunteers approached cautiously, at two o'clock in the morning, and
cast their missiles into the fort, through the port-holes. Soon the
block house was on fire in several places, and the little garrison
surrendered without firing a shot. A few escaped. A corp of Delancey's
battalions occupied the house of Colonel Lewis G. Morris, at Morrisania,
for a short time. They were attacked there on the fifth of August,
1779, by some of Weedon's and Moylan's horse, a detachment from Glover's
brigade, and some militia. Fourteen Loyalists were made prisoners.
These attacks becoming frequent, Delancey was compelled to make his head
quarters at the house now owned by Mr. Samuel Archer, in the vicinity of
the High Bridge, where he was under the guns of fort No. 8, one of the
redoubts mentioned on page 825, cast up by the British to cover
the landing of their troops on the morning of the attack upon Fort
Washington.

* Near the entrance to Mr. Archer's mansion was a building wherein
Colonel Hatfield had his quarters in January, 1780, when he was attacked
by some levies and volunteers from Horseneck and Greenwich. The assault
was made at one o'clock in the morning. Unable to dislodge the enemy,
the assailants fired the house. Some escaped after leaping from the
windows; the colonel and eleven others were made prisoners.

* In May, 1780, Captain Cushing, of the Massachusetts line, guided by
Michael Dyckman, surprised Colonel James Delancey's corps near No. 8.
He captured over forty of the corps; the colonel was absent. Cushing
retreated, followed some distance by a large number of Yagers and
others. In January, 1781, Lieutenant-colonel Isaac Hull (General Hull
of the war of 181214), who was in command of a detachment of troops
in advance of the American lines, successfully attacked Colonel
Oliver Delancey at Morrisania, with three hundred and fifty men. Hull
surrounded the Loyalists, forced a narrow passage to their camp, took
more than fifty prisoners, cut away a bridge, burned several huts and a
quantity of stores, and retreated to camp, closely pursued. A covering
party, under Colonel Hazen, attacked the pursuers, and killed and
captured about thirty-five more. Hull lost twenty-six men in killed and
wounded. At sunrise on the fourth of March, 1782, Captain Hunneywell
and a body of cavalry, having a covering party of infantry under
Major Woodbridge, entered Delancey's camp at Morrisania, dispersed the
Loyalists, and killed and wounded several. Others in the neighborhood
were collected and pursued Hunneywell, when they fell into an ambush
formed by Woodbridge, and were driven back. In this skirmish Abraham
Dyckman was killed.

* At Jefferd's Neck, in the township of West Farms, Colonel Baremore, a
notorious Tory marauder, was captured by Colonel Armand (see page
466) on the night of November 7th, 1779. Baremore was at "the Graham
Mansion," which stood on the site of the house of William H. Leggett,
Esq., and with five others was made a prisoner. The Graham family were
dispossessed of their house, to make room for British officers. When
Colonel Fowler, who last occupied it, was about to leave, it was fired,
and consumed while that officer and his friends were eating dinner in
a grove near by. That night Colonel Fowler was mortally wounded while
leading a marauding party in East Chester. On another occasion, Armand
marched down from Croton to the vicinity of Yonkers, below Cortlandt's
house, made a furious charge, with his cavalry, upon a camp of Yagers,
and captured or killed almost the whole party.

* The ancestor of the American Delanceys (De Lanci) was Etienne, or
Stephen, a Huguenot, who came to New York in 1681. He was descended from
a noble French family, known in history in the sixteenth century. He
married Ann Van Cortlandt, and became active in public affairs. The
chief justice and the general were his sons. Another son, James, married
a daughter of Caleb Heathcote, lord of the Manor of Scarsdale. James's
third son was the father of William Heathcote Delancey, D.D., the
present Protestant bishop of the diocese of Western New York. The seat
of General Oliver Delancey was upon the Bronx, opposite the village
of West Farms, three miles from the mouth of that stream. There he had
extensive mills, which are now the property of Mr. Philip M. Lydig.
The old mansion, where British officers were so often entertained,
was destroyed by fire several years ago. He owned another residence
at Blooming-dale, on York Island, which was burned on the night of the
twenty-fifth of November, 1777. It is supposed to have been fired by
some daring Whigs, in retaliation for the burning of some houses in the
vicinity of Yonkers, by the Tories.

[[[Operations near King's Bridge.--Valentine's Hill and its
Associations.]]]

{831}Rhode Island, ordered General Heath to approach King's Bridge,
and if circumstances appeared to promise success, to attack the
fortifications there. The withdrawal of troops from New Jersey or Rhode
Island, if not the possession of New York, were hoped for results.
Heath advanced, and summoned Fort Independence, on Tetard's Hill, to
surrender. The commandant refused, and while preparing for attack, Heath
received intelligence of movements in the East, which made it prudent
to withdraw and watch his Highland camp and fortifications. In the
succeeding autumn, Sir Henry Clinton captured Forts Clinton and
Montgomery, and Kingston was destroyed. Several months before, a British
detachment had destroyed stores at Peekskill (see page 173), and Tryon
had desolated Danbury and vicinity. * These events, which have already
been considered, directed the attention of Washington more to the
security of the Highlands than offensive operations against New York.

After the battle at Monmouth[[January 1778]] and the retreat of the
British army to New York, Knyphausen again took command near King's
Bridge, with his quarters at Morris's house. The Queen's Rangers, under
Simcoe, and other Loyal corps, a troop of light horse under Emmerick,
and Delancey's battalions, now became active in patroling Lower West
Chester. To oppose their incursions, General Charles Scott, of Virginia,
with quite a strong force, took post on the Greenburg Hills, and
extended his left toward New Rochelle. Sometimes he advanced as far as
Valentine's Hill, ** and the foraging parties of the enemy were kept in
check. Frequent skirmishes occurred, and the most vigilant and wary were
the most successful.

When the French army, marching from New England in the summer of 1781,
approached the Hudson, Washington was informed that a large detachment
of British troops had left New York for a marauding incursion into New
Jersey. Washington had long cherished a desire to drive the enemy from
New York Island, and now there appeared to be a favorable opportunity
to strike the garrison at King's Bridge and vicinity. Arrangements were
made to begin the attack on the night of the second of July,[[1781]]
believing

* See page 403, volume i.

** Valentine's Hill, rising on the west of the beautiful vale of Mile
Square (a favorite eamp-ground for all parties during the war), affords
some of the most charming prospects in West Chester. It is upon the
road leading from Yonkers to the Hunt's Bridge Station, on the Harlem
rail-way. From its summit the rough hills and cultivated valleys of that
region are seen spread out like a panorama, and the eye catches glimpses
of the Palisades on the Hudson, and the more distant varieties of
feature displayed by Long Island Sound and the villages upon its
borders. Southward, stretching away toward King's Bridge, is the
beautiful vale, sparkling with Tippett's Brook, famous in the annals of
West Chester for deeds of valor in partisan warfare. When I visited this
region in 1850, Miss Elizabeth Valentine, aged eighty-three, was yet
living there with the present owner of the farm, Elijah Valentine. She
well remembers being caressed by Washington, and afterward frightened
by the fierce-looking Highlanders and Hessians. The dwelling of the
Revolution stood a little northwest of the present mansion. *

* On the summit of Valentine's Hill intrenchments were cast up in the
summer of 1776, and here Washington was encamped a few days before the
battle at White Plains. Here Sir William Erskine was encamped with a
detachment of British troops in January, 1778; and in the autumn, a few
weeks before he sailed to attack Savannah, Sir Archibald Campbell
was here with the 71st regiment of Highlanders. During the whole war,
Colonel James Delancey kept recruiting officers at Mile Square; and in
this vicinity Simcoe, with the Queen's Rangers, often traversed,
and sometimes penetrated to the Croton River. Heath says that on the
sixteenth of September, 1782, foragers, with a covering party five or
six thousand strong, accompanied by Sir Guy Carleton, and the young
prince William Henry, made an incursion as far as Valentine's Hill.
After this, the vicinity was abandoned by the military, and then the
lawless marauders of that region harassed the people. Prince Charles's
Redoubt and Negro Fort were on the east side of Valentine's Hill. On
the second of July, 1779, a skirmish oeeurred in Poundridge between a
portion of the corps of Sheldon and Tarleton. The British were
repulsed, and, while retreating, set fire to the meeting house and Major
Lockwood's dwelling. The chief object of Tarleton was the capture of
Lockwood. The Americans lost eighteen in wounded and missing, and twelve
horses. On the thirtieth of August, a skirmish occurred near Tarrytown,
between some of Sheldon's horse, under Captain Hopkins, and part of
Emmerick's corps. The latter were led into an ambuscade, and suffered
terribly. Twenty-three of his men were killed, and the remainder were
dispersed. Hopkins, while pursuing Emmerick, was in turn surprised by
riflemen, and was obliged to retreat toward Sing Sing, across Sleepy
Hollow Creek. In Beckman's woods Hopkins wheeled, captured two or
three of his pursuers, and retreated in good order to Sing Sing. Near
Crompond, Rochambeau encamped with his army in 1781. The spot is still
known as French Hill. Remains of some of his ovens may be seen at the
present time. On the third of February, 1780, a patrol of the enemy,
horse and foot, attacked Lieutenant Thompson, who was stationed at
The Four Corners. He was defeated, with a loss of thirteen killed and
seventeen wounded. Thompson, six other officers, and eighty nine rank
and file, were made prisoners.

[[[Attempted Invasion of New York.--Vigilance of the British.--Yonkers
and its Associations.]]]

{832}Rochambeau would arrive by that time. A part of the plan was to cut
off Delancey's light troops along the Harlem River. This enterprise
was intrusted to the Duke De Lauzun, then approaching, to whose legion
Sheldon's dragoons and some Continental troops, under Colonel Waterbery,
were to be attached.

[Illustration: 9842]

On the night of the first of July, a strong detachment, under General
Lincoln, went down the river from Tappan, in boats with muffled oars,
and landed half a mile below the village of Yonkers, * upon the land now
owned by Thomas W. Ludlow, Esq. ** Lincoln marched cautiously over the
hills to Tippett's Brook, unobserved by Emmerick, who, with his light
horse, was patrolling toward Boar Hill. Also avoiding Pruschanck's
corps, stationed upon Cortlandt's Bridge, Lincoln reached the house of
Montgomery, near King's Bridge, before dawn, where he was discovered and
fired upon by the enemy's pickets. Delancey, at fort No. 8, ever on the
alert, heard the firing, and retreated in time for safety, for Lauzun
had not approached by West Farms as was intended. Washington had
advanced to Valentine's Hill, and when he heard the firing he pressed
forward to the aid of Lincoln. The British troops immediately fell back,
and withdrew behind their works, near King's Bridge. Lincoln ascertained
that the detachment had returned from New Jersey; that the British were
re-enforced by some fresh troops; that a large party was on the north
end of the island, and that a ship of war was watching at the mouth of
the creek, near King's Bridge. In view of these difficulties, Washington
withdrew to Dobbs's Ferry, where he was joined by Rochambeau on the
sixth, and both armies were soon on their way to Virginia to capture
Cornwallis. No other military operations of importance took place in
this vicinity until the passage of King's Bridge by American troops in
the autumn of 1783, when the British were about to evacuate New York.

Stretching away eastward beyond the Sound, is Long Island, all clustered
with historical associations. Almost every bay, creek, and inlet
witnessed the whale-boat warfare while

* Yonkers is an old settlement on the Hudson, at the mouth of the Nepera
or Saw-mill River, about four miles north of King's Bridge. Here was the
later residence of the wealthy proprietor of the Phillipse manor, and
here is the spacious stone manor-house where, on one of his rent days,
the patroon feasted his friends and tenantry.

[Illustration: 9842]

* Its exterior is plain, but the interior displays rich wainscotings and
cornices, and elaborately wrought chimney-pieces. Here, on the third
of July, 1730, Mary Phillipse was born; she was the young lady of
whom Washington became enamored (see pages 141, 816) in 1756. She is
represented as a beautiful and accomplished woman. She was attainted of
treason, and the whole Phillipse estate was confiscated. It is believed
that she and her sister (Mrs. Robinson), and the wife of Reverend
Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity church, in New York, were the only
females who suffered attainder during the war.

[Illustration: 8842]

* They were guilty of no crime but attachment to the fortunes of their
husbands. The last lord of the manor was Colonel Frederick Phillipse,
who died in England in 1785. Upon Locust Hill, the high eminence
eastward of the manor-house, the American troops were encamped in 1781,
when Rochambeau was approaching. Near the eastern base of Boar Hill,
a short distance from the village, was the parsonage of Reverend Luke
Babcock, occupied by his widow. There Colonel Gist was stationed in
1778, and was attacked by a combined force under Simcoe, Emmerick,
and Tarleton. After traversing the vale of Yonkers, they approached
at separate points to surround the American camp. The vigilant Gist
discovered their approach and escaped. Some of his cavalry were
dispersed by Tarleton, his huts were burned, and forage was carried
off. At about the same time, Simcoe captured Colonel Thomas near White
Plains, whose house he surrounded. In the same neighborhood Captain
Sackett was captured (December 4th, 1781), and his command left with
Lieutenant Mosher. That brave officer, with eighteen men, beat back and
repulsed seventy men, under Captain Kip. The captain was badly wounded.
In front of Yonkers, a naval engagement occurred in 1777, between the
British frigates Rose and Phoenix, and American gun-boats. The latter
had a tender filled with combustibles, in tow, with which they intended
to destroy the British vessels. After the exchange of several shots, the
gun-boats were compelled to seek shelter in the mouth of the Saw-mill or
Nepera River.

** Bolton.

[[[Operations upon Lloyd's Neck.--Simcoe's Fortified Camp at Oyster
Bay.]]]

{833}the British occupied the island. * In its swamps and broad forests
partisan scouts lurked and ambushed, and almost every fertile field was
trodden by the depredator's foot.

[Illustration: 8843]

Local historians have made the record in detail; we will only glance at
two or three of the most important military operations there, in which
Major Benjamin Tallmadge was the chief leader. **

On the fifth of September, 1779, Major Tallmadge proceeded from Shipan
Point, near Stamford, Connecticut, with one hundred and thirty of his
light dragoons, dismounted, and at ten o'clock at night attacked five
hundred Tory marauders, who were quite strongly intrenched upon Lloyd's
Neck, on Long Island. *** The surprise was complete, and before morning
he landed upon the Connecticut shore with almost the whole garrison as
prisoners. He did not lose a man.

In the autumn of 1780, some Rhode Island Tory refugees took possession
of the manor-house of General John Smith, at Smith s Point, fortified it
and the grounds around it, and began cutting wood for the British army
in New York.

* The expedition of Colonel Meigs against the enemy at Sag Harbor,
and other exploits, will be noticed in the account of the whale-boat
warfare, in the Supplement.

** Benjamin Tallmadge was born at Setauket, Long Island, on the
twenty-fifth of February, 1754. He graduated at Yale College in 1773,
and soon afterward took charge of a high school at Wethersfield. He
entered a corps of Connecticut troops as lieutenant, in 1776, and
was soon promoted to adjutant. He was one of the rear-guard when the
Americans retreated from Brooklyn, and was in several of the principal
battles in the Northern States during the war. His field of active
exertions was chiefly in the vicinity of Long Island Sound. He had the
custody of Major Andre from his arrest until his execution, and after
that was actively employed against the enemy on Long Island. He was for
a long time one of Washington's most esteemed secret correspondents. He
retired from the army with the rank of colonel. He married the daughter
of General William Floyd, of Mastic, in 1784. In 1800 he was elected
a member of Congress from Connecticut, and served his constituents, in
that capacity, for sixteen years. He died on the seventh of March, 1835,
at the age of eighty-one years.

*** Lloyd's Neck is an elevated promontory between Oyster Bay and
Huntington harbor. It was a strong position, and the fort covered
the operation of wood-cutters for miles around. There the Board of
Associated Loyalists established their head-quarters after their
organization in December, 1780. This board was for the purpose of
embodying such Loyalists as did not desire to enter military life as
a profession, but were anxious to do service for the king. Governor
William Franklin was president of the board, and in the course of 1781,
they collected quite a little navy of small vessels in the Sound,
and made Oyster Bay the place of general rendezvous. * Their chief
operations were against the Whig inhabitants ol Long Island and the
neighboring shore, by which a spirit of retaliation was aroused that
forgot all the claims of common humanity. The manifest mischief to the
royal cause which this association was working, caused its dissolution
at the close of 1781. In July of that year, Count Barras, then at
Newport, detached three frigates, with two hundred and fifty land
troops, to attack this post, then garrisoned by about eight hundred
refugee Tories. The enterprise proved unsuccessful, and, after capturing
some British marines in Huntington Harbor, returned to New York. The
stockade on Lloyd's Neck was called Fort Franklin.

[Illustration: 9843]

* Oyster Bay was an important point during the British occupation of the
island. Sheltered from the Sound by a large island, it afforded a secure
place for small vessels, and the fertile country around supplied ample
forage. It was the head-quarters of Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe with
the Queen's Rangers (three hundred and sixty in number), who made the
village of Oyster Bay his cantonment during the winter of 1778-9. He
arrived there on the nineteenth of November, 1778, and immediately
commenced fortifying his camp. He constructed a strong redoubt upon an
eminence toward the west end of the town, now (1851) the property of the
Rev. Marmaduke Earle. The diteh and embankments are yet very prominent.
This work was capacious enough for seventy men, and completely commanded
the bay. These preparations were made chiefly because General Parsons
was encamped on the Connecticut shore with about two thousand militia,
and controlled a large number of whale-boats. Oyster Bay was made the
central point of operations in this quarter. According to Simcoe's
account, great vigilance was necessary during the winter, to prevent a
surprise. For a sketch and explanation of Simcoe's camp at Oyster Bay,
see the next page. Simcoe made his quarters at the house of Samuel
Townsend, who was a member of the Provincial Assembly of New York in
1776, and there Major André and other young officers of the army often
visited. His daughter, Miss Sarah Townsend, was then about sixteen years
of age, and very attractive in person and manner. She was the toast of
the young officers, and on Valentine's day, 1779, Simcoe presented her
with a poetical address in laudation of her charms. This production may
be found in Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Long Island, i., 215.
Miss Townsend died in December, 1842, at the age of eighty years. The
dwelling now belongs to her grand-niece, Mrs. Sarah T. Thorne.

[[[Capture of Fort George.--Destruction of Stores at Corum.--Capture of
Fort Siongo.--Badge of Military Merit.]]]

{834}At the solicitation of General Smith, and with the approval of
Washington, Major Tallmadge proceeded to dislodge them. They had named
their fortress Fort George, and appeared too strongly intrenched to
be in fear. * Tallmadge crossed the Sound from Fairfield with eighty
dismounted dragoons, and landed in the evening at _Old Man's_, now
Woodville.[[Nov. 21, 1780]] On account of a storm, he remained there
until the next night, when, accompanied by Heathcote Muirson, he marched
toward Fort George.

[Illustration: 9844]

At the mills, about two miles from the fort, he procured a faithful
guide, ** and at dawn he and his gallant soldiers burst through the
stockade on the southwestern side, rushed across the parade, and,
shouting "Washington and Glory!" they furiously assailed the redoubt
upon three sides. The garrison surrendered without resistance. At that
moment a volley was fired from the upper windows of the mansion. The
incensed Americans burst open the doors, and would have killed every
inmate, had not Major Tallmadge interfered.

Having secured his prisoners (three hundred in number), demolished the
fort, and burned vessels lying at the wharf, laden with a great amount
of stores, Tallmadge set out on his return at sunrise. On his way,
leaving his corps in command of Captain Edgar, he proceeded with ten
or twelve men to Corum, and there, after overpowering the guard, they
destroyed three hundred tons of hay collected for the British army
in New York. He arrived at Fairfield with his prisoners early in
the evening, without losing a man. This brilliant exploit drew from
Washington a very complimentary letter, and from Congress a gratifying
resolution. ***

At Treadwell's Neck, near Smithtown, a party of Tory wood-cutters (one
hundred and fifty in number) erected a military work, whieh they called
Fort Siongo. This Major Tallmadge determined to assail.

[Illustration: 8844]

On the evening of the ninth of October, 1781, he embarked one hundred
and fifty of his dismounted dragoons, under Major Trescott, at the mouth
of the Saugatuck Ptiver. They landed at four o'clock the next morning,
and at dawn assailed the fort. Some resistance was made, when the
garrison yielded, and Trescott was victorious without losing a man. He
destroyed the blockhouse and two iron four-pounders, made twenty-one
prisoners, and carried off a brass three pounder, the colors of the
fort, seventy stand of arms, and a quantity of ammunition. ****

[Illustration: 6844]

* Explanation of the above Plan of Oyster Bay Encampment.--a, redoubt;
b b b, fleches; c c c c c c, quarters separately fortified; d, quarters
of the Hussars; c, Townsend's house, Simcoe's quarters.

* This fort was upon Smith's Point, a beautiful and fertile promontory
projecting into South Bay, at Mastic. It commands a fine view of the
bay, and the village of Bellport. The property now belongs to the
sons of General Smith. The fort consisted of a triangular inclosure of
several acres of ground, at two angles of which was a strong barricaded
house, and at the third was a strong redoubt, ninety-six feet square,
with bastions, a deep ditch, and abatis. Between the houses and the fort
were stockades twelve feet in height. It was embrasured for six guns;
two only were mounted. This fort was intended as a depository of stores
for the Tories of Suffolk county.--Onderdonk, ii., 96; Thompson, 289.

** This guide was William Booth, who resided near the mills. Mrs.
Smith was also there, having been driven from her home. When Tallmadge
informed her that he might be compelled to destroy her house, she at
once said, "Do it and welcome, if you can drive out those Tories."
The position of the house is seen in the diagram, at the top of the
triangle. The dotted lines indicate the line of march in the attack.
When I visited the spot in 1851, the lines of the fort might be
distinctly traced northwestward of the mansion of the present occupant.

*** Journal, vi., 171.

**** In this enterprise as well as at Fort George, Sergeant Elijah
Churchill, of the 2d regiment of dragoons, behaved so gallantly, that
Washington rewarded him with the badge of military merit. *

* Washington established honorary badges of distinction in August, 1781.

They were to be conferred upon non commissioned officers and soldiers
who had served three years with bravery, fidelity, and good conduct, and
upon every one who should perform any singularly meritorious action. The
badge entitled the recipient "to pass and repass all guards and military
posts as fully and amply as any commissioned officer whatever." A board
of officers for making such awards was established, and upon their
recommendation the eommander-inchief presented the badge. The board,
in Churchill's case, consisted of Brigadier-general Greaton, president;
Colonel Charles Stewart, Lieutenant colonel Sprout, Major Nicholas Fish
(father of ex-governor Fish, of New York), and Major Trescott. The MS.
proceedings of the minutes of the board on this occasion are in the
possession of Peter Force, Esq., of Washington City.

[[[British occupation of New York City.--Residences of several of the
Officers.--Prisons and Hospitals.]]]

{835}Every where eastward of Hempstead minor events of a similar
character, but all having influence in the progress of the Revolution,
were almost daily transpiring.

Let us now follow the British army into the city, and take a brief
survey of the closing events of the war.

[Illustration: 8845]

When the British felt themselves firmly seated on Manhattan Island
after the fall of Fort Washington, they leisurely prepared for permanent
occupation. General Robertson immediately strengthened the intrenchments
across the island from Corlaer's Hook, erected barracks along the line
of Chambers Street from Broadway to Chatham, and speedily placed the
army in comfortable winter quarters. Nearly all of the Whig families
whose means permitted them had left the city, and their deserted
houses were taken possession of by the officers of the army and refugee
Loyalists. *

[Illustration: 9845]

The dissenting churches were generally devoted to military purposes, **
and the spacious sugar-houses, then three in number, were made prisons
for the American captives, when the cells of the City Hall and the
provost prison were full. *** Looking with contempt upon the rebels in
field and council, the British felt no anxiety for their safety, and
every pleasure that could be procured was freely indulged in by the
army.

[Illustration: 6845]

A theatre was established, tennis courts and other kinds of amusements
were prepared, and for seven years the city remained a prey to the
licentiousness of strong and idle detachments of a well-provided army.

This was the head-quarters of British power in America during that time,
and here the most important schemes for operations against the patriots,
military and otherwise, were planned and put in motion. The municipal
government was overthrown, martial law prevailed, and the business of
the city degenerated almost into the narrow operations of suttling.

* Sir Henry Clinton occupied No. 1 Broadway, and Sir William Howe the
dwelling adjoining it. Toward the close of the war, Sir Guy Carleton
(Lord Dorchester) also occupied No. 1. General Robertson resided
first in William, near John Street, and afterward in Hanover Square.
Knyphausen, when in the city, occupied Verplanck's house in Wall Street,
near the Bank of New York, where also Colonel Birch, of the dragoons,
resided. Admiral Digby and other naval officers, and also Prince William
Henry (afterward William the Fourth of England), when here, occupied the
city mansion of Gerardus Beekman, on the northwest corner of Sloat
Lane and Hanover Square. Admiral Rodney occupied a house, now 256 Pearl
Street, and Cornwallis's residence was three doors below it. Carleton's
country residence was the mansion at Richmond Hill, corner of Variek
and Charlton Streets, long the property of Colonel Aaron Burr. Admiral
Walton occupied his own house (yet standing in Pearl Street, number
326, opposite the publishing house of Harper and Brothers), and there he
dispensed generous hospitality.

** The Middle Dutch church (now the city post-office), on Nassau,
Liberty, and Cedar Streets, was converted into a riding-school, where
the British cavalry were taught lessons in horsemanship. The French
Protestant church (Du St. Esprit), built by the Huguenots in 1704,
near the corner of Pine and Nassau Streets, and the North Dutch church,
corner of William and Fulton Streets, were converted first into prisons
and then into hospitals. The quaint old church edifice which stood on
the corner of William and Frankfort Streets until 1851 (when it was
demolished, and a large hotel was placed upon its site), was a hospital
for the Hessians, and all around the borders of the swamp close by, many
of the poor Germans were buried.

*** These, and the events connected with them, will be noticed under the
head of "Prisons and Prison-Ships," in the Supplement.

[[[Counterfeit Continental Bills.--Expedition to Staten Island.--Second
great Fire in New York.]]]

{836}Here many petty depredating expeditions were planned; and from
Whitehall many a vessel departed with armed troops to distress the
inhabitants of neighboring provinces, * or with secret emissaries to
discover the weakness of patriot camps, to encourage disaffection in the
Republican ranks, and, by the circulation of spurious paper money ** and
lying proclamations, to disgust the people and win their allegiance to
the crown.

[Illustration: 9846]

A record of the stirring incidents of the armed occupation of New York
would fill a volume. *** It tempts the pen by many allurements, but
I must leave the pleasure of such a task to the local historian, and
hasten to a considera-

* We have already noticed most of these expeditions. Staten Island was
held by the British during their occupancy of New York, and several
schemes were planned to expel them. In the summer of 1777, the British
force on the island amounted to between two and three thousand men,
nearly one half of whom were Loyalists. General Sullivan, with Colonel
Ogden of New Jersey, and a part of the brigades of Smallwood and
Deborre.

[Illustration: 7846]

* (see page 381), crossed from Elizabethtown before daylight on the
twenty-second of August. Two of the Tory parties, commanded by Colonels
Lawrence and Barton, stationed near the present Factoryville, were
surprised, and eleven officers and one hundred and thirty privates
were made prisoners. Wanting a sufficient number of boats to convey the
captives, a party of British attacked Sullivan's rear-guard, and made
many of them prisoners. The whole loss of the Americans was three
officers and ten privates killed, fifteen wounded, and nine officers and
one hundred and twenty-seven privates made prisoners. General Campbell,
who commanded the British on the island, reported two hundred and
fifty-nine prisoners. It was during the cold month of January, 1780
("the hard winter"), that Lord Stirling went on an expedition against
the British on Staten Island. It was a re-enforcement of troops after
this attack (see page 311, volume i.) that crossed the bay of New York,
with heavy cannons, upon the ice.

** Among other schemes for annoying the Americans, and casting discredit
upon Congress, the British resorted to the issue of "cart loads" of
counterfeit Continental bills, so as to depreciate the currency. This
fact is alluded to on page 318, volume i. It was no secret at the time,
as appears by an advertisement * in Gaine's New York Mercury, April
14th, 1777. For two or three years these bills were circulated
extensively, and doubtless had great effect in depreciating the
Continental money. Francis, in his History of the Bank of England,
ii., 79-80, says, that Premier Pitt, the younger, resorted to a similar
trick, by causing a large number of French assignats to be forged at
Birmingham, to depreciate the currency of the French Republic. Napoleon
also caused forged notes of the Austrian Bank to be distributed
throughout the Austrian Tyrol.

*** A second great conflagration in the city, during the British
occupation, occurred on Saturday night, the seventh of August, 1778. It
commenced at Cruger's Wharf, Coenties Slip, and before it was subdued
three hundred houses were consumed. The next day was excessively hot,
and at noon, while the smoke of the smouldering fire was yet rising
from the ruins, a heavy thunder-storm burst over the city. At about one
o'clock, while raging at its height, the city was shaken as if by an
earthquake, and suddenly a column of dense smoke arose in the east and
spread over the town. Tiles were shaken from the roofs of houses, and
crockery was broken in some houses at Franklin Square. The shock was
occasioned by the explosion of the magazine of a powder vessel lying
in the East River, which was struck by lightning. The vessel had
just arrived from England, and the event was regarded as a special
interposition of Providence in behalf of the Americans.--See Dunlap,
ii., 164.

* "Advertisement.--Persons going into other colonics may be supplied
with any number of counterfeited Congress notes, for the price of the
paper per ream. They are so neatly and exactly executed, that there is
no risk in getting them off, it being almost impossible to discover
that they are not genuine. This has been proven by bills to a very large
amount which have already been successfully circulated. Inquire of Q.
E. D., at the Coffee-house, from 11 A. M. to 4 P. M., during the present
month."

[[[Treaties for Peace.--The Continental Army.--Congress at
Princeton.--Mutiny.--Washington's Circular Letter.]]]

{837}tion of the final evacuation of the city by the British army, and
the parting of Washington with his officers.

After protracted negotiations for a year and a half, a definitive treaty
of peace was signed at Paris[[Sept. 3, 1783]] between American and
English commissioners. A provisional treaty had been signed about nine
months previously,[[Nov. 30, 1782]] and in the mean while preparations
for a final adjustment of the dispute had been made. On account of the
pecuniary embarrassments of Congress, the arrearages of pay due to
the soldiers, and the prospect of a dissolution of the army without a
liquidation of those claims, general gloom and discontent prevailed.

[Illustration: 8847]

We have seen its alarming manifestation at Newburgh in the spring of
1783 (see page 106), and, though suppressed, it was never entirely
subdued. It required all the personal influence and sagacity of
Washington to keep the remnant of the Continental army in organization
until the final evacuation of the British in the autumn of that year,
and when that event took place the Republican troops were a mere
handful. *

In August, Washington was called to attend upon Congress, then sitting
at Princeton. ** He left General Knox in command of the little army at
Newburgh and vicinity, and, with Mrs. Washington and a portion of his
military family, he made his residence at Rocky Hill, near the Millstone
River, about four miles from Princeton, where he remained until
November, when he joined Knox and the remnant of the Continental army at
West Point, preparatory to entering the city of New York. ****

* The number of soldiers furnished for the Continental army by
each state, during the war, was as follows: New Hampshire, 12,497;
Massachusetts, 67,907; Rhode Island, 5,908; Connecticut, 31,939; New
York, 17,781; New Jersey, 10,726; Pennsylvania, 25,678; Delaware,
2,386; Maryland, 13,912; Virginia, 26,678; North Carolina, 7,263; South
Carolina, 6,417; Georgia, 2,679. Total, 231,791.

** The cause of the assembling of Congress at Princeton was the violent
spirit manifested by some of the Continental troops of the Pennsylvania
line. These had marched in a body (June 21), three hundred in number,
surrounded the State House, where Congress was in session, and, after
placing guards at the door, demanded action for redress of grievances,
within the space of twenty minutes, at the peril of having an enraged
soldiery let in upon them. Congress was firm; declared that body had
been grossly insulted, and resolved to adjourn to Princeton, where
the members assembled on the twenty-sixth. As soon as Washington was
informed of this mutiny, he sent General Robert Howe, with fifteen
hundred men, to quell it. He soon quieted the disturbance. Some who were
found guilty on trial were pardoned by Congress.

*** This is a view of the southwest front of the mansion. The room
occupied by Washington is in the second story, opening out upon the
piazza. It is about eighteen feet square, and in one corner is a
Franklin stove like that delineated on page 328, volume i. The situation
of the house, upon an eminence an eighth of a mile eastward of the
Millstone River, is very pleasant. It is now quite dilapidated; the
piazza is unsafe to stand upon. The occupant, when I visited it in 1850,
was Mr. James Striker Van Pelt.

**** A great portion of the officers and soldiers had been permitted
during the summer to visit their homes on furlough, and on the
eighteenth of October Congress virtually disbanded the Continental
army, by discharging them from further service. Only a small force
was retained, under a definite enlistment, until a peace establishment
should be organized. These were now at West Point, under the command of
General Knox. The proclamation of discharge, by Congress, was followed
by Washington's farewell address to his companions in arms. He had
already issued a circular letter (Newburgh, eighth of June, 1783) to the
governors of all the states on the subject of disbanding the army. It
was designed to be laid before the several State Legislatures. It is a
document of great value, because of the soundness of its doctrines,
and the weight and wisdom of its counsels. Four great points of
policy constitute the chief theme of his communication, namely, _an
indissoluble union of the states; a sacred regard for public justice;
the organization of a proper peace establishment; and a friendly
intercourse among the people of the several states, by which local
prejudice might be effaced_. "These," he remarks, "are the pillars on
which the glorious fabric of our independency and national character
must be supported." No doubt this address had great influence upon the
minds of the whole people, and made them yearn for that more efficient
union which the Federal Constitution soon afterward secured.

[[[British prepare to Evacuate New York.--Washington's Farewell Address
to the Army.--The Evacuation.--Clinton and Knox.]]]

{838}On the seventh of August,[[1783]] Sir Guy Carleton, then in chief
command of the British army, received instructions to evacuate the city
of New York.

[Illustration: 8848]

This event was delayed in order to make arrangements for the benefit
of the Loyalists in the city and state, and it was not until late in
October when Carleton notified Washington of his determination to leave
our shores.

[Illustration: 9848]

On the second of November, Washington issued his "_Farewell Address
to the Armies of the United States_" ** from Rocky Hill, and on the
fourteenth of the same month he conferred with Governor Clinton, ***
and made arrangements to enter and take possession of the city. Clinton
issued an appropriate proclamation on the fifteenth, and summoned the
officers of the civil government to meet him in council at East Chester.
A day or two afterward, Washington, Clinton, and Carleton held a
conference at Dobbs's Ferry (see page 195), and the twenty-fifth was
fixed upon as the time for the exodus of the British troops. Both
parties adopted measures for the preservation of order on the occasion.
On the morning of that day--a cold, frosty, but clear and brilliant
morning--the American troops, under General Knox, **** who had come down
from West Point and encamped at Harlem, marched to the Bowery Lane, and
halted at the present junction of Third Avenue and the Bowery. There
they remained until about one o'clock in the afternoon, when the British
left their posts in that vicinity and marched to Whitehall. (v) The

* The Loyalists, fearful of meeting with unpleasant treatment from the
irritated Americans, prepared to leave the country in great numbers, and
fled to the British province of Nova Scotia. The delay in question was
in consequence of a want of a sufficient number of transports to convey
these people and their effects. A further notice of the Loyalists will
be found in the Supplement.

** This, like his letter to the governors, was an able performance.
After affectionately thanking his companions in arms for their
devotedness to him through the war, and for their faithfulness in duty,
he gave them sound and wise counsel respecting the future, recommending
them, in a special manner, to support the principles of the Federal
government, and the indissolubility of the union.

*** George Clinton was born in Ulster eounty, New York, in 1739. He
chose the profession of the law for his avocation. In 1768, he was
elected to a seat in the Colonial Legislature, and was a member of 'he
Continental Congress in 1775. He was appointed a brigadier in the army
of the United States in 1776, and during the whole war was active in
military affairs in New York. In April, 1777, he was elected governor
and lieutenant governor, under the new Republican Constitution of the
state, and was continued in the former office eighteen years. He was
president of the convention assembled at Poughkeepsie to consider the
Federal Constitution in 1788. He was again chosen governor of the state
in 1801, and three years afterward he was elected Vice-president of the
United States. He occupied that elevated position at the time of his
death, which oeeurred at Washington City in 1812.

**** Henry Knox was born in Boston in 1750. He was educated at a
common sehool, and at the age of twenty years commenced the business of
bookseller in his native town. He was engaged in that vocation when
the Revolutionary storm arose, and his sympathies were all with the
patriots. He was a volunteer in the battle of Bunker Hill, and for this
and subsequent services Congress commissioned him a brigadier, and
gave him the command of the artillery department of the army, which he
retained during the whole war. He was always under the immediate command
of Washington, and was with him in all his battles After the capture
of Cornwallis, Congress commissioned him a major general. In 1785, he
succeeded Lincoln in the office of Secretary of War, which position he
held for eleven years, when he retired into private life. He died at
Thomaston, Maine, in 1806, at the age of about fifty-six years.
To General Knox is conceded the honor of suggesting that noble
organization, the Society of the Cincinnati.

* (v) The British claimed the right of possession until noon of the
day of evacuation. In support of this claim, Cunningham, the infamous
provost marshal exercised his authority. Dr. Alexander Anderson, of New
York, related to me an incident which fell under his own observation.
He was then a lad ten years of age, and lived in Murray, near Greenwich
Street. A man who kept a boarding-house opposite ran up the American
flag on the morning of the twenty-fifth. Cunningham was informed of the
fact, and immediately ordered him to take it down. The man refused, and
Cunningham attempted to tear it down. At that moment the wife of the
proprietor, a lusty woman of forty, came out with a stout broomstick,
and beat Cunningham over the head so vigorously, that he was obliged
to decamp and leave the "star-spangled banner" waving. Dr. Anderson
remembers seeing the white powder fly from the provost marshal's wig.

[[[Entrance of the Americans.--Parting of Washington with his
Officers.--Rejoicings in New York.]]]

{839}American troops followed, * and before three o'clock General Knox
took formal possession of Fort George amid the acclamations of thousands
of emancipated freemen, and the roar of artillery upon the Battery.

[Illustration: 9849]

Washington repaired to his quarters at the spacious tavern of Samuel
Fraunce, and there during the afternoon, Governor Clinton gave a public
dinner to the officers of the army, and in the evening the town was
brilliantly illuminated.

[Illustration: 8849]

Rockets shot up from many private dwellings, and bonfires blazed at
every corner. On Monday following,[[Dec. 1,1783]] Governor Clinton gave
an elegant entertainment to Luzerne (the French embassador), General
Washington, the principal officers of the State of New York and of the
army, and more than a hundred other gentlemen.

On Thursday[[Dec. 4]] the principal officers of the army yet remaining
in service assembled at Fraunce's, to take a final leave of their
beloved chief. The scene is described as one of great tenderness.
Washington entered the room where they were all waiting, and taking
a glass of wine in his hand, he said, "With a heart full of love and
gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your
latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been
glorious and honorable." Having drank, he continued, "I can not come to
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will
come and take me by the hand." Knox, who stood nearest to him, turned
and grasped his hand, and, while the tears flowed down the cheeks of
each, the commander-in-chief kissed him. This he did to each of his
officers, while tears and sobs stifled utterance.*** Washington soon
left the room, and passing through corps of light infantry, [[b Dec. 4]]

* The troops entered the city from the Bowery, through Chatham Street,
in the following order: 1. A corps of light dragoons. 2. Advanced guard
of light infantry. 3. A corps of artillery. 4. A battalion of light
infantry. 5. A battalion of Massachusetts troops. 6. Rear-guard.

* Washington with his staff, and Governor Clinton and the state
officers, soon afterward made a public entry, as follows: 1. The general
and governor, with their suite, on horsebaek, escorted by a body of West
Chester light horse, commanded by Captain Delavan. 2. The lieutenant
governor and the members of the council for the temporary government of
the Southern District of the state, four abreast. 3. Major-General Knox
and the officers of the army, eight abreast. 4. Citizens on horsebaek,
eight abreast. 5. The speaker of the Assembly and citizens on foot,
eight abreast.

* The British army and the refugees who remained were all embarked
in boats by three o clock in the afternoon, and at sunset they were
assembled upon Staten and Long Islands, preparatory to their final
embarkation. * Before they left, the British flag was nailed to the
flag-staff in Fort George, the eleets were knocked off, and the pole
was greased so as to prevent ascent. New eleets were soon procured, a
sailor-boy ascended as he nailed them on, and, taking down the British
flag, placed the stripes and the stars there, while the cannons pealed a
salute of thirteen guns.

** See note 1, page 796.

*** Gordon, iii., 377; Marshall, ii., 57. Only one of the participators
in this interesting scene is now living. That honored man is Major
Robert Burnet, whose portrait may be found on page 118. Major Burnet
commanded the rear-guard on the entrance of the American army into the
city.

* The British left these two islands a few days afterward, and then the
evacuation of the sea-board was complete. Western and northern frontier
posts (Oswegatchie, Oswego, Niagara, Presque Isle, Sandusky, Detroit,
Mackinaw, and others of less note) continued in the possession of
British garrisons for some time afterward.

[[[Washington's Departure for, and Journey to Annapolis.--His account
current of Expenses.--Lady Washington.]]]

{840}he walked in silence to Whitehall, followed by a a barge to proceed
to Paulus's Hook on his way to lay his commission at the feet of
Congress, at Annapolis. *

[Illustration: 8850]

When he entered his barge, he turned to the people, took off his hat,
and waved a silent adieu to the tearful multitude. *

Washington remained a few days in Philadelphia, where he delivered in
his accounts to the proper officers, ** and then hastened, with his
wife, to Annapolis, where he arrived on the evening of the nine-with
ladies, among whom was Mrs. Washington vast procession, and at two
o'clock entered.[[Dec. 1783]] The next day he informed Congress
of his desire to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the
armies of the United States. That body resolved that it should be done
at a public audience the following Tuesday,[[Dec. 23]] at meridian.
The day was fine, and around the State House (see page 402) a great
concourse was assembled. The little gallery of the Senate Chamber was
filled. ***

* Congress had adjourned to meet at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the
twenty-sixth of November. A quorum was not present until Saturday, the
thirteenth of December, when only nine states were represented.

** The account current of his expenditures for the public service during
the war, rendered by Washington, was in his own handwriting. The total
amount was about seventy-four thousand four hundred and eighty-five
dollars. * The disbursements were for reconnoitering and traveling,
secret intelligence service, and miscellaneous expenses. It will be
remembered that Washington refused to receive any compensation for his
own services.

[Illustration: 6850]

*** Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in May,
1732. In 1749 she was married to Colonel Daniel Parke Custis, of New
Kent, and settled with her husband on the bank of the Pamunky River,
where she bore four children. Her husband died when she had arrived at
the age of about twenty-five, leaving her in the possession of a large
fortune. In 1758 she became acquainted with Colonel Washington, whose
greatness was just budding, and whose fame had spread beyond Virginia.
He became her suitor, and they were married. The exact period of their
marriage has not been found on record; it is supposed to be in 1759.
They removed to Mount Vernon soon after that event, and there was
their home during the remainder of their lives. During the war for
independence, she occasionally visited her husband in camp. Almost at
the very hour of his great victory at Yorktown, a cloud came over
her, for then her only surviving child expired. While Washington was
President of the United States, Mrs. Washington presided with dignity in
the mansion of the chief magistrate. The quiet of private life had more
charms for her than the brilliancy of public greetings, and she joyfully
sought the banks of the Potomac when her husband's second presidential
term was ended. A little more than two years afterward, she was called
to mourn his death. **

* The pecuniary cost of the war, exclusive of the vast losses by the
ravages of plantations, burning of houses and towns, plunder by Indians
and the British soldiery, &c., &c., was not less than one hundred and
seventy millions of dollars. Of this sum, Congress disbursed about two
thirds; the remainder was spent by the individual states. It had been
raised "by taxes under the disguise of a depreciating currency; by taxes
directly imposed; by borrowing; and by running in debt."--See Hildreth's
History of the United States, iii., 445.

** We have already noted (see page 425) the principal events in the
public life of General Washington, until his appointment