THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.
The atrocities introduced into this country by the Tories and Indians
caused General Sullivan to go out against the measly enemy, whip him
near Elmira, and destroy the fields of corn and villages in the Genesee
country, where the Indian women were engaged in farming while their
men-folks attended to the massacre industry.
The weak point with the Americans seemed to be lack of a suitable navy.
A navy costs money, and the Colonists were poor. In 1775 they fitted out
several swift sailing-vessels, which did good service. Inside of five
years they captured over five hundred ships, cruised among the British
isles, and it is reported that they captured war-vessels that were tied
to the English wharves.
[Illustration: GENERAL GATES'S PROPER CAREER.]
Paul Jones had a method of running his vessel alongside the enemy's,
lashing the two together, and then having it out with the crew,
generally winning in a canter. His idea in lashing the two ships
together was to have one good ship to ride home on. Generally it was the
one he captured, while his own, which was rotten, was allowed to go
down. This was especially the case in the fight between the Richard and
the Serapis, September 23, 1779.
In 1780 the war was renewed in South Carolina. Charleston, after a forty
days' siege, was forced to surrender. Gates now took charge of the
South, and also gave a sprinting exhibition at Camden, where he was
almost wiped off the face of the earth. He had only two troops left at
the close of the battle, and they could not keep up with Gates in the
retreat. This battle and the retreat overheated Gates and sowed the
seeds of heart-disease, from which he never recovered. He should have
chosen a more peaceful life, such as the hen-traffic, or the growth of
asparagus for the market.
Benedict Arnold has been severely reproached in history, but he was a
brave soldier, and possibly serving under Gates, who jealously kept him
in the background, had a good deal to do with the little European dicker
which so darkened his brilliant career as a soldier.
[Illustration: ARNOLD'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND.]
Unhappy man! He was not well received in England, and, though a
brilliant man, was forced to sit in a corner evening after evening and
hear the English tell his humorous stories as their own.
The Carolinas were full of Tories, and opposition to English rule was
practically abandoned in the South for the time, with the exception of
that made in a desultory swamp-warfare by the partisan bands with such
leaders as Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.
Two hundred thousand dollars of Continental money was the sum now out.
Forty dollars of it would buy one dollar's worth of groceries; but the
grocer had to know the customer pretty well, and even then it was more
to accommodate than anything else that he sold at that price.
The British flooded the country with a counterfeit that was rather
better-looking than the genuine: so that by the time a man had paid six
hundred dollars for a pair of boots, and the crooked bills had been
picked out and others substituted, it made him feel that starting a
republic was a mighty unpopular job.
General Arnold had married a Tory lady, and lived in Philadelphia while
recovering from his wounds received at Quebec and Saratoga. He was
rather a high roller, and ran behind, so that it is estimated that his
bills there per month required a peach-basket-full of currency with
which to pay them, as the currency was then quoted. Besides, Gates had
worried him, and made him think that patriotism was mostly politics. He
was also overbearing, and the people of Philadelphia mobbed him once. He
was reprimanded gently by Washington, but Arnold was haughty and yet
humiliated. He got command of West Point, a very important place indeed,
and then arranged with Clinton to swap it for six thousand three hundred
and fifteen pounds and a colonelcy in the English army.
Major André was appointed to confer with Arnold, and got off the ship
Vulture to make his way to the appointed place, but it was daylight by
that time, and the Vulture, having been fired on, dropped down the
river. André now saw no way for him but to get back to New York; but at
Tarrytown he was met by three patriots, who caught his horse by the
reins, and, though André tried to tip them, he did not succeed. They
found papers on his person, among them a copy of _Punch_, which made
them suspicious that he was not an American, and so he was tried and
hanged as a spy. This was one of the saddest features of the American
Revolution, and should teach us to be careful how we go about in an
enemy's country, also to use great care in selecting and subscribing for
papers.
In 1781, Greene, who succeeded Gates, took charge of the two thousand
ragged and bony troops. January 17 he was attacked at Cowpens by
Tarleton. The militia fell back, and the English made a grand charge,
supposing victory to be within reach. But the wily and foxy troops
turned at thirty yards and gave the undertaking business a boom that
will never be forgotten.
Morgan was in command of the Colonial forces. He went on looking for
more regulars to kill, but soon ran up against Cornwallis the
surrenderer.
General Greene now joined Morgan, and took charge of the retreat. At the
Yadkin River they crossed over ahead of Cornwallis, when it began for to
rain. When Cornwallis came to the river he found it so swollen and
restless that he decided not to cross. Later he crossed higher up, and
made for the fords of the Dan at thirty miles a day, to head off the
Americans. Greene beat him, however, by a length, and saved his troops.
The writer has seen the place on the Yadkin where Cornwallis decided not
to cross. It was one of the pivotal points of the war, and is of about
medium height.
A fight followed at Guilford Court-House, where the Americans were
driven back, but the enemy got thinned out so noticeably that Cornwallis
decided to retreat. He went back to Washington on a Bull Run schedule,
without pausing even for feed or water. Cornwallis was greatly agitated,
and the coat he wore at the time, and now shown in the Smithsonian
Institution, shows distinctly the marks made where the Colonists played
checkers on the tail.
The battle of Eutaw Springs, September 8, also greatly reduced the
British forces at that point.
Arnold conducted a campaign into Virginia, and was very brutal about it,
killing a great many people who were strangers to him, and who had never
harmed him, not knowing him, as the historian says, from "Adam's off
ox."
Cornwallis in this Virginia and Southern trip destroyed ten million
dollars' worth of property, and then fortified himself at Yorktown.
Washington decided to besiege Yorktown, and, making a feint to fool
Clinton, set out for that place, visiting Mount Vernon _en route_ after
an absence of six and a half years, though only stopping two days.
Washington was a soldier in the true sense, and, when a lad, was given a
little hatchet by his father. George cut down some cherry-trees with
this, in order to get the cherries without climbing the trees. One day
his father discovered that the trees had been cut down, and spoke of it
to the lad.
"Yes," said George, "I did it with my little hatchet; but I would rather
cut down a thousand cherry-trees and tell the truth about it than be
punished for it."
"Well said, my brave boy!" exclaimed the happy father as he emptied
George's toy bank into his pocket in payment for the trees. "You took
the words right out of my mouth."
[Illustration: GEORGE'S FATHER TAKING PAY FOR THE CHERRY-TREES.]
In speaking of the siege of Yorktown, the historian says, "The most
hearty good will prevailed." What more could you expect of a siege than
that?
Cornwallis capitulated October 19. It was the most artistic capitulation
he had ever given. The troops were arranged in two lines facing each
other, British and American with their allies the French under
Rochambeau.
People came from all over the country who had heard of Cornwallis and
his wonderful genius as a capitulator. They came for miles, and brought
their lunches with them; but the general, who felt an unnecessary pique
towards Washington, refused to take part in the exercises himself,
claiming that by the advice of his physicians he would have to remain in
his tent, as they feared that he had over-capitulated himself already.
He therefore sent his sword by General O'Hara, and Washington turned it
over to Lincoln, who had been obliged to surrender to the English at
Charleston.
[Illustration: CORNWALLIS SENDING HIS SWORD BY GENERAL O'HARA.]
The news reached Philadelphia in the night, and when the watchman cried,
"Past two o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken!" the people arose and went
and prayed and laughed like lunatics, for they regarded the war as
virtually ended. The old door-keeper of Congress died of delight. Thanks
were returned to Almighty God, and George Washington's nomination was a
sure thing.
England decided that whoever counselled war any further was a public
enemy, and Lord North, then prime minister, when he heard of the
surrender of Cornwallis through a New York paper, exclaimed, "Oh, God!
it is all over!"
Washington now showed his sagacity in quelling the fears of the soldiers
regarding their back pay. He was invited to become king, but, having had
no practice, and fearing that he might run against a _coup d'état_ or
_faux pas_, he declined, and spoke kindly against taking violent
measures.
In 1783, September 3, a treaty of peace was signed in Paris, and
Washington, delivering the most successful farewell address ever penned,
retired to Mount Vernon, where he began at once to enrich his farm with
the suggestions he had received during his absence, and to calmly take
up the life that had been interrupted by the tedious and disagreeable
war.
The country was free and independent, but, oh, how ignorant it was about
the science of government! The author does not wish to be personal when
he states that the country at that time did not know enough about
affairs to carry water for a circus elephant.
It was heavily in debt, with no power to raise money. New England
refused to pay her poll-tax, and a party named Shays directed his hired
man to overturn the government; but a felon broke out on his thumb, and
before he could put it down the crisis was averted and the country
saved.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON BEGAN AT ONCE TO ENRICH HIS FARM.]