THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.--AFFAIRS IN THE HIGHLANDS.
Letters from General Lee gave Washington intelligence of the fate of
Sir Henry Clinton's expedition to the South; that expedition which had
been the subject of so much surmise and perplexity.
Within a year past, Charleston had been fortified at various points.
Fort Johnson, on James Island, three miles from the city, and
commanding the breadth of the channel, was garrisoned by a regiment of
South Carolina regulars under Colonel Gadsden. A strong fort had
recently been constructed nearly opposite, on the south-west point of
Sullivan's Island, about six miles below the city. It was mounted with
twenty-six guns, and garrisoned by three hundred and seventy-five
regulars and a few militia, and commanded by Colonel William Moultrie,
of South Carolina, who had constructed it. This fort, in connection
with that on James Island, was considered the key of the harbor.
Cannon had also been mounted on Haddrell's Point on the mainland, to
the north-west of Sullivan's Island, and along the bay in front of the
town.
The arrival of General Lee gave great joy to the people of Charleston,
from his high reputation for military skill and experience. According
to his own account in a letter to Washington, the town on his arrival
was "utterly defenceless." He was rejoiced, therefore, when the enemy,
instead of immediately attacking it, directed his whole force against
the fort on Sullivan's Island.
The British ships, in fact, having passed the bar with some
difficulty, landed their troops on Long Island, situated to the east
of Sullivan's Island, and separated from it by a small creek called
the Breach. Sir Henry Clinton meditated a combined attack with his
land and naval forces on the fort commanded by Moultrie; the capture
of which, he thought, would insure the reduction of Charleston. The
Americans immediately threw up works on the north-eastern extremity of
Sullivan's Island, to prevent the passage of the enemy over the
Breach, stationing a force of regulars and militia there, under
Colonel Thompson. General Lee encamped on Haddrell's Point, on the
mainland, to the north of the island, whence he intended to keep up a
communication by a bridge of boats, so as to be ready at any moment to
aid either Moultrie or Thompson.
Sir Henry Clinton, on the other hand, had to construct batteries on
Long Island, to oppose those of Thompson, and cover the passage of his
troops by boats or by the ford. Thus time was consumed, and the enemy
were, from the 1st to the 28th of June, preparing for the attack.
At length on the 28th of June, the Thunder Bomb commenced the attack,
throwing shells at the fort as the fleet, under Sir Peter Parker,
advanced. About eleven o'clock the ships dropped their anchors
directly before the front battery. ["They commenced," says Lee, "the
most furious fire I ever saw." The garrison, however, according to
British authority, stuck with the greatest constancy and firmness to
their guns; fired deliberately and slow, and took a cool, effective
aim. The ships suffered accordingly, they were torn almost to pieces,
and the slaughter was dreadful. The fire from the ships did not
produce the expected effect.] The fortifications were low, composed of
earth and palmetto wood, which is soft, and makes no splinters, and
the merlons were extremely thick. At one time there was a considerable
pause in the American fire, and the enemy thought the fort was
abandoned. It was only because the powder was exhausted. As soon as a
supply could be forwarded from the mainland by General Lee, the fort
resumed its fire with still more deadly effect. Through unskilful
pilotage, several of the ships ran aground, where one, the frigate
Actæon, remained; the rest were extricated with difficulty. Those
which bore the brunt of the action were much cut up. One hundred and
seventy-five men were killed, and nearly as many wounded. Sir Henry
Clinton, with two thousand troops and five or six hundred seamen,
attempted repeatedly to cross from Long Island, and co-operate in the
attack upon the fort, but was as often foiled by Colonel Thompson,
with his battery of two cannons, and a body of South Carolina rangers
and North Carolina regulars.
The combat slackened before sunset, and ceased before ten o'clock. Sir
Peter Parker, who had received a severe contusion in the engagement,
then slipped his cables, and drew off his shattered ships to Five
Fathom Hole. The Actæon remained aground. On the following morning Sir
Henry Clinton made another attempt to cross from Long Island to
Sullivan's Island; but was again repulsed, and obliged to take shelter
behind his breastworks. Sir Peter Parker, too, giving up all hope of
reducing the fort in the shattered condition of his ships, ordered
that the Actæon should be set on fire and abandoned. Within a few days
the troops were re-embarked from Long Island: the attempt upon
Charleston was for the present abandoned, and the fleet once more put
to sea.
In this action, one of the severest in the whole course of the war,
the loss of the Americans in killed and wounded was but thirty-five
men. Colonel Moultrie derived the greatest glory from the defence of
Sullivan's Island; though the thanks of Congress were voted as well to
General Lee, Colonel Thompson and those under their command.
The tidings of this signal repulse of the enemy came most opportunely
to Washington, when he was apprehending an attack upon New York.
* * * * * * *
General Putnam, beside his bravery in the field, was somewhat of a
mechanical projector. The batteries at Fort Washington had proved
ineffectual in opposing the passage of hostile ships up the Hudson. He
was now engaged on a plan for obstructing the channel opposite the
fort, so as to prevent the passing of any more ships. A letter from
him to General Gales (July 26th) explains his project. "We are
preparing chevaux-de-frise, at which we make great despatch by the
help of ships, which are to be sunk. The two ships' sterns lie towards
each other, about seventy feet apart. Three large logs, which reach
from ship to ship, are fastened to them. The two ships and logs stop
the river two hundred and eighty feet. The ships are to be sunk, and
when hauled down on one side, the pricks will be raised to a proper
height, and they must inevitably stop the river, if the enemy will let
us sink them."
It so happened that one Ephraim Anderson, adjutant to the second
Jersey battalion, had recently submitted a project to Congress for
destroying the enemy's fleet in the harbor of New York. He had
attempted an enterprise of the kind against the British ships in the
harbor of Quebec during the siege, and, according to his own account,
would have succeeded, had not the enemy discovered his intentions, and
stretched a cable across the mouth of the harbor, and had he not
accidentally been much burnt. His scheme was favorably entertained by
Congress, and Washington, by a letter dated July 10th, was instructed
to aid him in carrying it into effect. Anderson, accordingly, was soon
at work at New York constructing fire-ships, with which the fleet was
to be attacked. Simultaneous with the attack, a descent was to be made
on the British camp on Staten Island, from the nearest point of the
Jersey shore, by troops from Mercer's flying camp, and by others
stationed at Bergen under Major Knowlton, Putnam's favorite officer
for daring enterprises. Projectors are subject to disappointments. It
was impossible to construct a sufficient number of fire-ships and
galleys in time. The flying camp, too, recruited but slowly, and
scarcely exceeded three thousand men; the combined attack by fire and
sword had therefore to be given up.
In the course of a few days arrived a hundred sail, with large
reinforcements, among which were one thousand Hessians, and as many
more were reported to be on the way. The troops were disembarked on
Staten Island, and fortifications thrown up on some of the most
commanding hills. All projects of attack upon the enemy were now out
of the question. Indeed, some of Washington's ablest advisers
questioned the policy of remaining in New York, where they might be
entrapped as the British had been in Boston.
During the latter part of July, and the early part of August, ships of
war with their tenders continued to arrive, and Scotch Highlanders,
Hessians, and other troops to be landed on Staten Island. At the
beginning of August, the squadron with Sir Henry Clinton, recently
repulsed at Charleston, anchored in the bay.
In the meantime, Putnam's contrivances for obstructing the channel had
reached their destined place. A letter, dated Fort Washington, August
3d, says: "Four ships, chained and boomed, with a number of amazing
large chevaux-de-frise, were sunk close by the fort under command of
General Mifflin, which fort mounts thirty-two pieces of heavy cannon.
We are thoroughly sanguine that they (the ships up the river) never
will be able to join the British fleet, nor assistance from the fleet
be afforded to them." Another letter, written at the same date from
Tarrytown, on the borders of the Tappan Sea, gives an account of an
attack made by six row galleys upon the Phoenix and the Rose. They
fought bravely for two hours, hulling the ships repeatedly, but
sustaining great damage in return; until their commodore, Colonel
Tupper, gave the signal to draw off.
The force of the enemy collected in the neighborhood of New York was
about thirty thousand men; that of the Americans a little more than
seventeen thousand, but was subsequently increased to twenty thousand,
for the most part, raw and undisciplined. One-fourth were on the sick
list with bilious and putrid fevers and dysentery; others were absent
on furlough or command; the rest had to be distributed over posts and
stations fifteen miles apart.
Washington kept the most watchful eye upon the movements of the enemy.
Beside their great superiority in point of numbers as well as
discipline, to his own crude and scanty legions, they possessed a vast
advantage in their fleet. "They would not be half the enemy they are,"
observed Colonel Reed, "if they were once separated from their ships."
Every arrival and departure of these, therefore, was a subject of
speculation and conjecture. Aaron Burr, at that time in New York,
aide-de-camp to General Putnam, speaks in a letter to an uncle, of
thirty transports, which, under convoy of three frigates, had put to
sea on the 7th of August, with the intention of sailing round Long
Island and coming through the Sound, and thus investing the city by
the North and East Rivers. "They are then to land on both sides of the
island," writes he, "join their forces, and draw a line across, which
will hem us in, and totally cut off all communication; after which,
they will have their own fun."
In this emergency, Washington wrote to General Mercer for 2,000 men
from the flying camp. Colonel Smallwood's battalion was immediately
furnished, as a part of them. The Convention of the State ordered out
hasty levies of country militia, to form temporary camps on the shore
of the Sound, and on that of the Hudson above King's Bridge, to annoy
the enemy, should they attempt to land from their ships on either of
these waters. Others were sent to reinforce the posts on Long Island.
Many of the yeomen of the country, thus hastily summoned from the
plough, were destitute of arms, in lieu of which they were ordered to
bring with them a shovel, spade, or pickaxe, or a scythe straightened
and fastened to a pole. This rustic array may have provoked the
thoughtless sneers of city scoffers, such as those cited by Graydon;
but it was in truth one of the glorious features of the Revolution, to
be thus aided in its emergencies by "hasty levies of husbandmen."
By the authority of the New York Convention, Washington had appointed
General George Clinton to the command of the levies on both sides of
the Hudson. He now ordered him to hasten down with them to the fort
just erected on the north side of King's Bridge; leaving two hundred
men under the command of a brave and alert officer to throw up works
at the pass of Anthony's Nose, where the main road to Albany crosses
that mountain. Troops of horse also were to be posted by him along the
river to watch the motions of the enemy.
Accounts of deserters, and other intelligence, informed Washington, on
the 17th, that a great many of the enemy's troops had gone on board of
the transports; that three days' provisions had been cooked, and other
steps taken indicating an intention of leaving Staten Island. Putnam,
also, came up from below with word that at least one-fourth of the
fleet had sailed. There were many conjectures at head-quarters as to
whither they were bound, or whether they had not merely shifted their
station. Everything indicated, however, that affairs were tending to a
crisis.
A gallant little exploit at this juncture, gave a fillip to the
spirits of the community. Two of the fire-ships recently constructed,
went up the Hudson to attempt the destruction of the ships which had
so long been domineering over its waters. One succeeded in grappling
the Phoenix, and would soon have set her in flames, but in the
darkness got to leeward, and was cast loose without effecting any
damage. The other, in making for the Rose, fell foul of one of the
tenders, grappled and burnt her. The enterprise was conducted with
spirit, and though it failed of its main object, had an important
effect. The commanders of the ships determined to abandon those
waters, where their boats were fired upon by the very yeomanry
whenever they attempted to land; and where their ships were in danger
from midnight incendiaries, while riding at anchor. Taking advantage
of a brisk wind and favoring tide, they made all sail early on the
morning of the 18th of August, and stood down the river, keeping close
under the eastern shore, where they supposed the guns from Mount
Washington could not be brought to bear upon them. Notwithstanding
this precaution, the Phoenix was thrice hulled by shots from the fort,
and one of the tenders once. The Rose, also, was hulled once by a shot
from Burdett's Ferry. The men on board were kept close, to avoid being
picked off by a party of riflemen posted on the river bank. The ships
fired grape-shot as they passed, but without effecting any injury.
Unfortunately, a passage had been left open in the obstructions on
which General Putnam had calculated so sanguinely; it was to have been
closed in the course of a day or two. Through this they made their
way, guided by a deserter.