Siege of Charleston continued.—British Ships enter the
Harbor.—British Troops march from Savannah.—Tarleton and his
Dragoons.—His Brush with Colonel Washington.—Charleston
reinforced by Woodford.—Tarleton’s Exploits at Monk’s Corner.—At
Laneau’s Ferry.—Sir Henry Clinton reinforced.—Charleston
capitulates.—Affair of Tarleton and Buford on the Waxhaw.—Sir
Henry Clinton embarks for New York.
In a preceding chapter we left the British fleet under Admiral
Arbuthnot, preparing to force its way into the harbor of Charleston.
Several days elapsed before the ships were able, by taking out their
guns, provisions, and water, and availing themselves of wind and tide,
to pass the bar. They did so on the 20th of March, with but slight
opposition from several galleys. Commodore Whipple, then, seeing the
vast superiority of their force, made a second retrograde move,
stationing some of his ships in Cooper River, and sinking the rest at
its mouth so as to prevent the enemy from running up that river, and
cutting off communication with the country on the east: the crews and
heavy cannon were landed to aid in the defense of the town.
The reinforcements expected from the North were not yet arrived; the
militia of the State did not appear at Governor Rutledge’s command, and
other reliances were failing. “Many of the North Carolina militia whose
terms have expired leave us to-day,” writes Lincoln to Washington, on
the 20th of March. “They cannot be persuaded to remain longer, though
the enemy are in our neighborhood.”[13]
At this time the reinforcements which Sir Henry Clinton had ordered from
Savannah were marching toward the Cambayee under Brigadier-general
Patterson. On his flanks moved Major Ferguson with a corps of riflemen,
and Major Cochrane with the infantry of the British legion, two brave
and enterprising officers. It was a toilsome march, through swamps and
difficult passes. Being arrived in the neighborhood of Port Royal, where
Tarleton had succeeded, though indifferently, in remounting his
dragoons, Patterson sent orders to that officer to join him. Tarleton
hastened to obey the order. His arrival was timely. The Carolina militia
having heard that all the British horses had perished at sea, made an
attack on the front of General Patterson’s force, supposing it to be
without cavalry. To their surprise, Tarleton charged them with his
dragoons, routed them, took several prisoners, and, what was more
acceptable, a number of horses, some of the militia, he says, “being
accoutred as cavaliers.”
Tarleton had soon afterwards to encounter a worthy antagonist in Colonel
William Washington, the same cavalry officer who had distinguished
himself at Trenton, and was destined to distinguish himself still more
in this Southern campaign. He is described as being six feet in height,
broad, stout, and corpulent. Bold in the field, careless in the camp,
kind to his soldiers, harassing to his enemies, gay and good-humored,
with an upright heart and a generous hand, a universal favorite. He was
now at the head of a body of continental cavalry, consisting of his own
and Bland’s light horse, and Pulaski’s hussars. A brush took place in
the neighborhood of Rantoul’s Bridge. Colonel Washington had the
advantage, took several prisoners, and drove back the dragoons of the
British legion, but durst not pursue them for want of infantry.[14]
On the 7th of April, Brigadier-general Woodford with seven hundred
Virginia troops, after a forced march of five hundred miles in thirty
days, crossed from the east side of Cooper River, by the only passage
now open, and threw himself into Charleston. It was a timely
reinforcement, and joyfully welcomed; for the garrison, when in greatest
force, amounted to a little more than two thousand regulars and one
thousand North Carolina militia.
About the same time Admiral Arbuthnot, in the _Roebuck_, passed
Sullivan’s Island, with a fresh southerly breeze, at the head of a
squadron of seven armed vessels and two transports. “It was a
magnificent spectacle, satisfactory to the royalists,” writes the
admiral. The whigs regarded it with a rueful eye. Colonel Pinckney
opened a heavy cannonade from the batteries of Fort Moultrie. The ships
thundered in reply, and clouds of smoke were raised, under the cover of
which they slipped by, with no greater loss than twenty-seven men killed
and wounded. A store-ship which followed the squadron ran aground, was
set on fire and abandoned, and subsequently blew up. The ships took a
position near Fort Johnston, just without the range of the shot from the
American batteries. After the passage of the ships, Colonel Pinckney and
a part of the garrison withdrew from Fort Moultrie.
The enemy had by this time completed his first parallel, and the town
being almost entirely invested by sea and land, received a joint summons
from the British general and admiral to surrender. “Sixty days have
passed,” writes Lincoln in reply, “since it has been known that your
intentions against this town were hostile, in which time has been
afforded to abandon it, but duty and inclination point to the propriety
of supporting it to the last extremity.”
The British batteries were now opened. The siege was carried on
deliberately by regular parallels, and on a scale of magnitude scarcely
warranted by the moderate strength of the place. A great object with the
besieged was to keep open the channel of communication with the country
by the Cooper River, the last that remained by which they could receive
reinforcements and supplies, or could retreat, if necessary. For this
purpose, Governor Rutledge, leaving the town in the care of
Lieutenant-governor Gadsden, and one half of the executive council, set
off with the other half, and endeavored to rouse the militia between the
Cooper and Santee rivers. His success was extremely limited. Two militia
posts were established by him, one between these rivers, the other at a
ferry on the Santee; some regular troops, also, had been detached by
Lincoln to throw up works about nine miles above the town, on the Wando,
a branch of Cooper River, and at Lempriere’s Point; and
Brigadier-general Huger,[15] with a force of militia and continental
cavalry, including those of Colonel William Washington, was stationed at
Monk’s Corner, about thirty miles above Charleston, to guard the passes
at the head waters of Cooper River.
Sir Henry Clinton, when proceeding with his second parallel, detached
Lieutenant-colonel Webster with fourteen hundred men to break up these
posts. The most distant one was that of Huger’s cavalry at Monk’s
Corner. The surprisal of this was intrusted to Tarleton, who, with his
dragoons, was in Webster’s advanced guard. He was to be seconded by
Major Patrick Ferguson with his riflemen.
Ferguson was a fit associate for Tarleton, in hardy, scrambling,
partisan enterprise; equally intrepid, and determined, but cooler and
more open to impulses of humanity. He was the son of an eminent Scotch
judge, had entered the army at an early age, and served in the German
wars. The British extolled him as superior to the American Indians, in
the use of the rifle; in short, as being the best marksman living. He
had invented one which could be loaded at the breech and discharged
seven times in a minute. It had been used with effect by his corps.
Washington, according to British authority, had owed his life at the
battle of Germantown, solely to Ferguson’s ignorance of his person,
having repeatedly been within reach of the major’s unerring rifle.[16]
On the evening of the 13th of April, Tarleton moved with the van toward
Monk’s Corner. A night march had been judged the most advisable. It was
made in profound silence and by unfrequented roads. In the course of the
march, a negro was descried attempting to avoid notice. He was seized. A
letter was found on him from an officer in Huger’s camp, from which
Tarleton learned something of its situation and the distribution of the
troops. A few dollars gained the services of the negro as a guide. The
surprisal of General Huger’s camp was complete. Several officers and men
who attempted to defend themselves, were killed or wounded. General
Huger, Colonel Washington, with many others, officers and men, escaped
in the darkness, to the neighboring swamps. One hundred officers,
dragoons, and hussars, were taken, with about four hundred horses and
near fifty wagons, laden with arms, clothing, and ammunition.
Biggin’s Bridge on Cooper River was likewise secured, and the way opened
for Colonel Webster to advance nearly to the head of the passes, in such
a manner as to shut up Charleston entirely.
In the course of the maraud which generally accompanies a surprisal of
the kind, several dragoons of the British legion broke into a house in
the neighborhood of Monk’s Corner, and maltreated and attempted violence
upon ladies residing there. The ladies escaped to Monk’s Corner, where
they were protected, and a carriage furnished to convey them to a place
of safety. The dragoons were apprehended and brought to Monk’s Corner,
where by this time Colonel Webster had arrived. Major Ferguson, we are
told, was for putting the dragoons to instant death, but Colonel Webster
did not think his powers warranted such a measure. “They were sent to
head-quarters,” adds the historian, “and, I believe, afterwards tried
and whipped.”[17]
We gladly record one instance in which the atrocities which disgraced
this invasion met with some degree of punishment; and we honor the rough
soldier, Ferguson, for the fiat of “instant death,” with which he would
have requited the most infamous and dastardly outrage that brutalizes
warfare.
During the progress of the siege, General Lincoln held repeated councils
of war, in which he manifested a disposition to evacuate the place. This
measure was likewise urged by General Du Portail, who had penetrated, by
secret ways, into the town. The inhabitants, however, in an agony of
alarm, implored Lincoln not to abandon them to the mercies of an
infuriated and licentious soldiery, and the general, easy and
kind-hearted, yielded to their entreaties.
The American cavalry had gradually reassembled on the north of the
Santee, under Colonel White of New Jersey, where they were joined by
some militia infantry, and by Colonel William Washington, with such of
his dragoons as had escaped at Monk’s Corner. Cornwallis had committed
the country between Cooper and Wando Rivers to Tarleton’s charge, with
orders to be continually on the move with the cavalry and infantry of
the legion; to watch over the landing-places; obtain intelligence from
the town, the Santee River, and the back country, and to burn such
stores as might fall into his hands, rather than risk their being
retaken by the enemy.
Hearing of the fortuitous assemblage of American troops, Tarleton came
suddenly upon them by surprise at Laneau’s Ferry. It was one of his
bloody exploits. Five officers and thirty-six men were killed and
wounded, and seven officers and six dragoons taken, with horses, arms,
and equipments. Colonels White, Washington, and Jamieson, with other
officers and men, threw themselves into the river, and escaped by
swimming; while some, who followed their example, perished.
The arrival of a reinforcement of three thousand men from New York
enabled Sir Henry to throw a powerful detachment, under Lord Cornwallis,
to the east of Cooper River, to complete the investment of the town and
cut off all retreat. Fort Moultrie surrendered. The batteries of the
third parallel were opened upon the town. They were so near, that the
Hessian yagers, or sharp-shooters, could pick off the garrison while at
their guns or on the parapets. This fire was kept up for two days. The
besiegers crossed the canal; pushed up a double sap to the inside of the
abatis, and prepared to make an assault by sea and land.
All hopes of successful defense were at an end. The works were in ruins;
the guns almost all dismounted; the garrison exhausted with fatigue, the
provisions nearly consumed. The inhabitants, dreading the horrors of an
assault, joined in a petition to General Lincoln, and prevailed upon him
to offer a surrender on terms which had already been offered and
rejected. These terms were still granted, and the capitulation was
signed on the 12th of May. The garrison were allowed some of the honors
of war. They were to march out and deposit their arms, between the canal
and the works, but the drums were not to beat a British march nor the
colors to be uncased. The continental troops and seamen were allowed
their baggage, but were to remain prisoners of war. The officers of the
army and navy were to retain their servants, swords, and pistols, and
their baggage unsearched; and were permitted to sell their horses; but
not to remove them out of the town. The citizens and the militia were to
be considered prisoners on parole; the latter to be permitted to return
home, and both to be protected in person and property as long as they
kept their parole. Among the prisoners were the lieutenant-governor and
five of the council.
The loss of the British in the siege was seventy-six killed and one
hundred and eighty-nine wounded; that of the Americans nearly the same.
The prisoners taken by the enemy, exclusive of the sailors, amounted to
five thousand six hundred and eighteen men; comprising every male adult
in the city. The continental troops did not exceed two thousand, five
hundred of whom were in the hospital; the rest were citizens and
militia.
Sir Henry Clinton considered the fall of Charleston decisive of the fate
of South Carolina. To complete the subjugation of the country, he
planned three expeditions into the interior. One, under
Lieutenant-colonel Brown, was to move up the Savannah River to Augusta,
on the borders of Georgia. Another, under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was
to proceed up the southwest side of the Santee River to the district of
Ninety Six,[18] a fertile and salubrious region, between the Savannah
and the Saluda rivers: while a third, under Cornwallis, was to cross the
Santee, march up the northeast bank, and strike at a corps of troops
under Colonel Buford, which were retreating to North Carolina with
artillery and a number of wagons, laden with arms, ammunition, and
clothing.
Colonel Buford, in fact, had arrived too late for the relief of
Charleston, and was now making a retrograde move; he had come on with
three hundred and eighty troops of the Virginia line, and two
field-pieces, and had been joined by Colonel Washington with a few of
his cavalry that had survived the surprisal by Tarleton. As Buford was
moving with celerity, and had the advantage of distance, Cornwallis
detached Tarleton in pursuit of him, with one hundred and seventy
dragoons, a hundred mounted infantry and a three-pounder. The bold
partisan pushed forward with his usual ardor and rapidity. The weather
was sultry, many of his horses gave out through fatigue and heat; he
pressed others by the way, leaving behind such of his troops as could
not keep pace with him. After a day and night of forced march, he
arrived about dawn at Rugeley’s Mills. Buford, he was told, was about
twenty miles in advance of him, pressing on with all diligence to join
another corps of Americans. Tarleton continued his march; the horses of
the three-pounder were knocked up and unable to proceed; his wearied
troops were continually dropping in the rear. Still he urged forward,
anxious to overtake Buford before he could form a junction with the
force he was seeking. To detain him he sent forward Captain Kinlock of
his legion with a flag, and the following letter:—
“SIR,—Resistance being vain, to prevent the effusion of blood, I make
offers which can never be repeated. You are now almost encompassed by
a corps of seven hundred light troops on horseback; half of that
number are infantry with cannons. Earl Cornwallis is likewise within
reach with nine British regiments. I warn you of the temerity of
further inimical proceedings.”
He concluded by offering the same conditions granted to the troops at
Charleston; “if you are rash enough to reject them,” added he, “the
blood be upon your head.”
Kinlock overtook Colonel Buford in full march on the banks of the
Waxhaw, a stream on the border of North Carolina, and delivered the
summons. The colonel read the letter without coming to a halt, detaining
the flag for some time in conversation, and then returned the following
note:—
“SIR,—I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last
extremity.
“I have the honor,” etc.
Tarleton, who had never ceased to press forward, came upon Buford’s
rear-guard about three o’clock in the afternoon, and captured a sergeant
and four dragoons. Buford had not expected so prompt an approach of the
enemy. He hastily drew up his men in order of battle, in an open wood,
on the right of the road. His artillery and wagons, which were in the
advance escorted by part of his infantry, were ordered to continue on
their march.
There appears to have been some confusion on the part of the Americans,
and they had an impetuous foe to deal with. Before they were well
prepared for action they were attacked in front and on both flanks by
cavalry and mounted infantry. Tarleton, who advanced at the head of
thirty chosen dragoons and some infantry, states that when within fifty
paces of the continental infantry, they presented, but he heard their
officers command them to retain their fire until the British cavalry
were nearer. It was not until the latter were within ten yards that
there was a partial discharge of musketry. Several of the dragoons
suffered by this fire. Tarleton himself was unhorsed, but his troopers
rode on. The American battalion was broken; most of the men threw down
their arms and begged for quarter, but were cut down without mercy. One
hundred and thirteen were slain on the spot, and one hundred and fifty
so mangled and maimed that they could not be removed. Colonel Buford and
a few of the cavalry escaped, as did about a hundred of the infantry,
who were with the baggage in the advance. Fifty prisoners were all that
were in a condition to be carried off by Tarleton as trophies of this
butchery.
The whole British loss was two officers and three privates killed, and
one officer and fourteen privates wounded. What, then, could excuse this
horrible carnage of an almost prostrate enemy? We give Tarleton’s own
excuse for it. It commenced, he says, at the time he was dismounted, and
before he could mount another horse; and his cavalry were exasperated by
a report that he was slain. Cornwallis apparently accepted this excuse,
for he approved of his conduct in the expedition, and recommended him as
worthy of some distinguished mark of royal favor. The world at large,
however, have not been so easily satisfied, and the massacre at the
Waxhaw has remained a sanguinary stain on the reputation of that
impetuous soldier.
The two other detachments which had been sent out by Clinton, met with
nothing but submission. The people in general, considering resistance
hopeless, accepted the proffered protection, and conformed to its
humiliating terms. One class of the population in this colony seems to
have regarded the invaders as deliverers. “All the negroes,” writes
Tarleton, “men, women, and children, upon the appearance of any
detachment of king’s troops, thought themselves absolved from all
respect to their American masters, and entirely released from servitude.
They quitted the plantations and followed the army.”[19]
Sir Henry now persuaded himself that South Carolina was subdued, and
proceeded to station garrisons in various parts, to maintain it in
subjection. In the fullness of his confidence, he issued a proclamation
on the 3d of June, discharging all the military prisoners from their
paroles after the 20th of the month, excepting those captured in Fort
Moultrie and Charleston. All thus released from their parole were
reinstated in the rights and duties of British subjects; but, at the
same time, they were bound to take an active part in support of the
government hitherto opposed by them. Thus the protection afforded them
while prisoners was annulled by an arbitrary fiat—neutrality was at an
end. All were to be ready to take up arms at a moment’s notice. Those
who had families were to form a militia for home defense. Those who had
none, were to serve with the royal forces. All who should neglect to
return to their allegiance, or should refuse to take up arms against the
independence of their country were to be considered as rebels and
treated accordingly.
Having struck a blow, which, as he conceived, was to insure the
subjugation of the South, Sir Henry embarked for New York on the 5th of
June, with a part of his forces, leaving the residue under the command
of Lord Cornwallis, who was to carry the war into North Carolina, and
thence into Virginia.
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