SHIFTING SCENES.—TEMPER OF THE PEOPLE.—SAVANNAH.
If the mind weary of the recital of events which by night and by day
burdened the soul and tasked the energies of the American
Commander-in-Chief to their utmost strain, it cannot but be refreshed by
evidence of his abiding confidence and patience in the cause of American
Independence, as the theatre of war enlarged and gradually placed every
colony under the weight of British pressure. The issue of two hundred
millions of paper money had indeed been authorized, and a loan was
invited abroad; but, as ever, men were wanted, and were not forthcoming.
Even the States which had longest borne the brunt of battle, and had
only just been relieved from its immediate dangers, seemed to weary
under the reaction of that relief, as if the storm had passed by, never
again to sweep over the same surface. It was also very natural as well
as true, that the pledge of French intervention and the gleam of the
oriflamme of France, did, in a measure, compose anxiety and lessen the
sense of local responsibility for such a contribution of troops from
every section as would make the nation as independent of France as of
Great Britain.
There was a sense of weariness, a tendency to fitful strokes of local
energy, without that overwhelming sense of need which first rallied all
sections to a common cause. Congress also seemed, at times, almost to
stagger under its load. But Washington, who sometimes grew weary and
groaned in spirit, and sometimes panted with shortened breath while
toiling upward to surmount some new obstruction, never, never staggered.
For him, there were “stepping-stones in the deepest waters.” For him,
though tides might ebb and flow, the earth itself forever kept its even
course about the guiding sun; and for him, the sun of Liberty was the
light of the soul. Every circling year but added blessings from its
glow, and energy from its power. The intensity of his emotion when he
penned those solemn truthful words to Harrison, showed but the impulse
of a spiritual power which the times demanded, but would neither
comprehend nor brook if from other sources than Washington’s majestic
will and presence. From the summit of his faith, he clearly indicated
with pen-point the driveling selfishness which postponed triumph and
made the chariot-wheels drag so heavily through the advancing war.
The scenes were suddenly shifted to the southern stage of operations.
New characters were to take the parts of some who had fulfilled their
destiny; but many of both men and ships that participated in the siege
of Boston itself, were still to act an honored part until the revolution
should be complete. The cities of Charleston and Savannah were to be
visited, as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia had been visited: not
with a paternal yearning for their return to a cheerful “mother-home”;
but in the spirit of a master dealing with overworked and fractious
slaves. But the slaves had both burst and buried their shackles; and
whether in city or country, on mountain or in valley, in forest or in
swamp—wherever animal life could exist, there, and everywhere, the
South, ever generous, ever proud, ever self-respecting, and ever loyal
to completions of duty, were to besprinkle the altar of their country
with life-blood, and consummate the War for American Independence upon
her consecrated soil.
The short-sighted critics of the North who had tried to play upon
sectional prejudice, that some one of their self-sufficient number might
till Washington’s saddle, began to wonder why he remained at his post in
New Jersey; why he did not surrender the northern command to one of
their number, and then go where his ancestral home was endangered and
the companions of his youth were to struggle for very life itself. But
the greatness of Washington the Soldier was never more apparent than
now. Calmly he sustained himself at this point of vantage; stretching
out his arm—in turn to soothe and warn, or to hurl defiance in the teeth
of foes or stragglers, but ever to nerve the nation to duty.
There was no costly throne set up at Morristown, or Middlebrook. There
was no luxury there. There were camp-cots, and camp-chairs, and usually,
rations sufficient for the daily need; but the centre of the upheaving
energies of American Liberty was there; and these energies were
controlled and directed, with no loss in transmission, by the immediate
presence of the Commander-in-Chief.
It will be remembered, at the very mention of Southern Colonies, or
Southern States, how peculiar was their relation to the mother country,
from the earliest British supremacy along the eastern Atlantic coast.
The Romanist, the Churchman, the Presbyterian, and the Huguenot, in
their respective search for larger liberty and missionary work, had
shared equally in a sense of oppression, before their migration to
America. They had much in common with the early settlers of the New
England coast. The Hollanders of New Jersey and the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, between the extremes, were not wholly absorbed in business
ventures. But all alike had additional incentives to a more independent
life, far removed from those social and artificial obligations which
reigned supreme in the Old World. There were indeed adventurers for
conquest, for wealth, and for political power, among them; and the
aristocratic usages which accompanied the royal prerogative were
fostered by the presence of slavery, so that they affected the vital
functions of the new Republic for generations. But, with the exception
of elements earlier noticed, the “ferment of American Liberty” was never
more decided, pure, and constant in Massachusetts than in Virginia; nor
more bold, desperate and defiant, among the Green Mountains of Vermont
than among the pine woods and palmetto groves of North and South
Carolina.
The closing months of the nineteenth century seem to have been reserved,
in the providence of God, for the consummation of that lofty
anticipation of Washington which Daniel Webster formulated in one
sublime utterance, “The Union; now and forever; One and Inseparable.”
And now, in the spirit of this memory of the pioneers of American
civilization, the narrative returns to the immediate burdens upon the
mind of Washington; as, in the closing months of 1779, we face the
mirror southward, and catch its reflections.
As the winter season of 1779–’80 drew on, and the ordinary hurricanes of
the West India storm-belt indicated a very restricted use of the French
navy in those waters, an effort was made to induce Count d’Estaing to
support an American attack upon Savannah. He responded promptly; and
besides sending five ships to Charleston to perfect details for the
combined movement of both southern armies, anchored his principal
squadron of twenty ships-of-the-line, two 50’s and eleven frigates,
outside the bar of Tybee Island, on the eighth day of September. Six
thousand French troops accompanied the fleet. Governor Rutledge of South
Carolina so actively aided the enterprise, that a sufficient number of
small craft were procured to land thirty-five hundred and twenty-four of
these troops at Bieulien, on Ossahaw Inlet, about twelve miles from
Savannah. The march was immediately begun. On the sixteenth, Count
d’Estaing demanded surrender of the city. The Legislature of South
Carolina adjourned. Militia replaced the regulars at Fort Moultrie, and
within four days, on the eighth, quite a strong force marched for
Savannah. General Lincoln left on the tenth. Meanwhile, the British
General Prescott had so actively destroyed bridges and obstructed roads,
that the Americans did not join the French troops until the sixteenth.
Trenches were not begun until the twenty-fourth of September, and the
difficulty of obtaining draught animals for hauling heavy siege-guns to
their proper position, still longer delayed the movement. The enthusiasm
of the American officers over the prospect of French coöperation led
them to assure Count d’Estaing that his delay before Savannah would not
exceed from ten to sixteen days; and upon this distinct assurance, he
had thus promptly disembarked his land forces. The French West Indies
had been left without naval support; and already an entire month had
passed with every probability that a British fleet from New York would
take advantage of the opportunity to recapture West India posts so
recently captured by the French. Abandonment of the siege, or an
assault, became an immediate necessity, especially as Count d’Estaing
had undertaken the enterprise, urged by Lafayette, with no other
authority than his general instructions as to America, and his deep
interest in the struggle.
The assault was made on the ninth day of October. It was desperate, with
alternate success and failure at different portions of the works; but
ultimately, a repulse. The British casualties were few, four officers
and thirty-six men killed; four officers and one hundred and fifteen men
wounded and missing. The French loss was fifteen officers and one
hundred and sixteen men killed; forty-three officers and four hundred
and eleven men wounded. Count d’Estaing was twice wounded, and Count
Pulaski, as well as Sergeant Jasper, so brave at Moultrie in 1776, were
among the killed. Colonel Laurens, aid-de-camp to Washington, was
conspicuous in the assault, as he proved himself at Newport, and
afterwards at Yorktown.
The French withdrew their artillery, and sailed on the twenty-ninth. The
Americans returned to Charleston. The result of the siege affected both
northern armies. Washington abandoned an attack upon New York, for which
he had assembled a large force of New York and Massachusetts militia.
Learning that Clinton was preparing to go South, either to Georgia or
South Carolina, he ordered the North Carolina troops to march to
Charleston in November, and the Virginia regulars to follow in December.
Clinton left New York on the twenty-sixth of December for Charleston
with seven thousand five hundred men, leaving Lieutenant-General
Knyphausen in command.
Washington again placed General Heath in command of the Highlands; sent
the cavalry to Connecticut, and with the remainder of the army marched
to Morristown, which for the second time became his winter headquarters.