1779.
Condition of Affairs--Mason's Letter--Convention Troops
removed to Charlottesville--Miscellaneous--Church Establishment
abolished--Clergy and Churches--Suffolk burnt--D'Estaing's
Siege of Savannah--Lincoln surrenders--Gates defeated at
Camden--Sumpter defeated--Battle of King's Mountain--Colonel
Campbell--Colonel Ferguson.
WASHINGTON looked upon the early part of 1779 as more fraught with
danger than any preceding period of the war, not on account of the
strength of the enemy, but owing to the spirit of selfish speculation,
money-making, and stock-jobbing that prevailed, the depreciation of the
paper currency, the States employing their ablest men at home, the
idleness and dissipation of men in public trust, and the dissensions in
congress. The demoralizing influences of war were making themselves
manifest.[693:A]
Colonel George Mercer, of Stafford, who had been compelled to resign the
office of stamp collector before the commencement of the revolutionary
struggle, retired to England. George Mason, who was related to him, in
October, 1778, addressed him a letter, in which he said: "If I can only
live to see the American Union firmly fixed, and free governments well
established in our western world, and can leave to my children but a
crust of bread and liberty,[693:B] I shall die satisfied, and say with
the Psalmist: 'Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' God
has been pleased to bless our endeavors in a just cause with remarkable
success. To us upon the spot, who have seen step by step the progress of
this great contest, who know the defenceless state of America, and the
numberless difficulties we have had to struggle with; taking a
retrospective view of what is passed, we seem to have been treading upon
enchanted ground."
Washington, in compliance with the resolutions of congress, had ordered
the removal of the convention troops of Saratoga, then quartered in
Massachusetts, to Charlottesville, Virginia. Congress, whether from
distrust in the British prisoners, or from reasons of state, resolved
not to comply with the articles of the convention, allowing the
prisoners to embark for England on parole, until the convention should
be ratified by the English government. Burgoyne had sailed for England
in May, and from that time the command of the British troops of
convention, quartered at Cambridge, had devolved upon General Phillips.
Colonel Bland, with an escort, conducted the prisoners of war to
Virginia. Upon their arrival, in December, at their place of
destination, on Colonel Harvey's estate, about six miles from
Charlottesville, they suffered many privations, being billeted in
block-houses without windows or doors, and poorly defended from the cold
of an uncommonly rigorous winter. But in a short time they constructed
better habitations, and the barracks assumed the appearance of a neat
little town. In the rear of each house they had trim gardens and
enclosed places for poultry. The army cleared a space of six miles in
circumference around the barracks. A representation of the barracks is
given in Anburey's Travels. The officers were allowed, upon giving
parole, to provide for themselves lodging-places within a circuit of a
hundred miles.[694:A] Mr. Jefferson exhibited a generous hospitality
toward the captives; and his knowledge of French, his taste for music,
his fine conversational powers, and his fascinating manners, contributed
not a little to relieve the tedium of their captivity. Governor Henry
afforded them every indulgence in his power; and the amiable disposition
of Colonel Bland, who commanded the guard placed over the convention
troops, still further ensured their quiet and comfort. General Phillips,
described by Mr. Jefferson as "the proudest man of the proudest nation
on earth," occupied Blenheim, a seat of Colonel Carter's; General the
Baron de Riedesel occupied Colle, a residence belonging to Philip
Mazzei, Mr. Jefferson's Italian neighbor; and the Baroness, whose
romantic sufferings and adventures are so well known, has given, in her
Memoirs, an entertaining account of her sojourn among the picturesque
mountains of Albemarle. Charlottesville at this period consisted of a
court-house, a tavern, and about a dozen dwelling-houses.[695:A]
Anburey has given a graphic picture of the manners, customs, and the
grotesque scenes that he witnessed at Charlottesville and in its
vicinity.
Violent dissensions convulsed congress; some of the members were
suspected of treasonable designs. Early in May, Richard Henry Lee wrote
from Philadelphia to Mr. Jefferson, hoping that he "would not be blamed
by him and his other friends for sending his resignation to the
assembly, and averring that he had been persecuted by the united voice
of toryism, speculation, faction, envy, malice, and all
uncharitableness," so that nothing but the certain prospect of doing
essential service to his country could compensate for the injuries he
received. But he adds: "It would content me indeed to sacrifice every
consideration to the public good that would result from such persons as
yourself, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Mason, and some others being in congress. I
would struggle with persevering ardor through every difficulty in
conjunction with such associates."
In 1779 the legislature rejected a scheme of a general assessment for
the support of religion. Patrick Henry was in favor of it. The
glebe-lands were also declared to be public property; and thus was
destroyed the last vestige of a religious establishment in Virginia.
During the Revolution, the loyalist clergy of Virginia who remained,
found themselves in a deplorable condition. The prohibition to pray for
the king was strictly enforced upon them by the incensed people: some
ministers omitted the obnoxious petitions; others abandoned the churches
and offered no prayer in public; while a few appeared disposed, if
possible, to resist the popular tide, but were compelled eventually to
succumb to it. In 1775 Virginia contained sixty-one counties,
ninety-five parishes, one hundred and sixty-four churches and chapels,
and ninety-one clergymen of the establishment. During the interval of
the war part of the parishes were extinguished, and the greater number
of the rest were deprived of ministerial help; but few ministers were
able to weather the storm and remain at their former posts; the others
having been compelled to seek precarious shelter and support in other
parishes. Some of the churches, venerable for age and connected with so
many interesting associations, were left roofless and dismantled; others
used as barracks, or stables, or lodging-places of prisoners of war; and
the moss-grown walls of some were pulled down by sacrilegious hands, and
books and vessels appurtenant to holy services pillaged and carried off.
Until this year the British arms had been chiefly directed against the
Middle and Northern States; but they were now turned against the South.
Georgia soon fell a prey to the enemy, and South Carolina was invaded.
In May a squadron under Sir George Collier anchored in Hampton Roads,
and General Matthews took possession of Portsmouth. The enemy destroyed
the public stores at Gosport and Norfolk, burnt Suffolk, and destroyed
upwards of a hundred vessels, including several armed ones. The Virginia
navy had been reduced previously, and many of the vessels ordered to be
sold, and from this time the history of those remaining is a series of
disasters.
Upon the approach of six hundred British infantry upon Suffolk, the
militia and greater part of the inhabitants fled; few could save their
effects; some who remained for that purpose were made prisoners. The
enemy fired the town, and nearly the whole of it was consumed: hundreds
of barrels of tar, pitch, turpentine, and rum, lay on the wharves, and
their heads being staved, the contents flowing in commingled mass and
catching the blaze, descended to the river in torrents of liquid flame,
and the wind blowing violently, the splendid mass floated to the
opposite shore in a conflagration that rose and fell with the waves, and
there set on fire the dry grass of an extensive marsh. This broad sheet
of fire, the crackling flames of the town, the lurid smoke, and the
occasional explosion of gunpowder in the magazines, projecting ignited
fragments of timber like meteors in the troubled air, presented
altogether an awful spectacle of the horrors of civil war. The enemy
shortly after, laden with plunder, embarked for New York.
While Sir Henry Clinton was encamped near Haerlem, and Washington in the
Highlands on the Hudson,[697:A] Major Lee, of Virginia, surprised in the
night a British post at Paulus Hook, and with a loss of two killed and
three wounded, made one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, including
three officers. Soon after this a fleet, commanded by Admiral Arbuthnot,
arrived at New York with re-enforcements. D'Estaing returned to the
southern coast of America with a fleet of twenty-two ships-of-the-line
and eleven frigates, and having on board six thousand soldiers. He
arrived so unexpectedly that the British ship Experiment of fifty guns,
and three frigates, fell into his hands. In September, Savannah,
occupied by a British force under General Prevost, was besieged by the
French and Americans, commanded by D'Estaing and Lincoln.[697:B] In an
ineffectual effort to storm the post the French and Americans suffered
heavy loss. The siege was raised, and D'Estaing, who had been wounded in
the action, sailed again for the West Indies, after this second abortive
attempt to aid the cause of independence. The condition of the South was
now more gloomy than ever.
Clinton, toward the close of the year, embarked with a formidable force
in Arbuthnot's fleet, and sailed for South Carolina. In April, 1780, Sir
Henry laid siege to Charleston; and General Lincoln, undertaking to
defend the place, contrary to his own judgment, and in compliance with
the entreaties of the inhabitants, after an obstinate defence was
compelled to capitulate.[698:A] Shortly after this disaster Colonel
Buford's regiment was cut to pieces by Tarleton. Georgia and South
Carolina now succumbed to the enemy: it was the bending of the willow
before the sweep of the tempest. In June, General Gates was appointed by
congress to the command in the South. Having collected an army he
marched toward Camden in South Carolina, then held by the enemy. While
Gates was moving from Clermont toward that place in the night,[698:B]
Cornwallis marched out with a view of attacking the American army at
Clermont. Thus the two armies, each essaying to surprise the other, met
unexpectedly in the woods, at about two o'clock in the morning. At the
first onset the American line was thrown into disorder; but a body of
light infantry, and in particular a corps under command of Colonel
Porterfield, of Virginia, maintained their ground with constancy. This
brave officer, refusing to give way, fell mortally wounded. The battle
was resumed in the morning, and Gates' army was utterly discomfited: the
militia fled too soon; the regulars fought too long. The fugitives
retreating in promiscuous disorder, were pursued by the unrelenting
sabres of cavalry; and the horrors of the rout baffle description. Thus
Gates, verifying General Lee's prediction, "turned his Northern laurels
into Southern willows." The defeated general retired to North Carolina
to collect the scattered remains of his army. In August, Sumpter was
overwhelmed by Tarleton; and for a time the British army were in the
ascendant throughout the South.
Cornwallis[698:C] detached Colonel Ferguson, a gallant and expert
officer, across the Wateree, with one hundred and ten regulars; and in a
short time tory recruits augmented his numbers to one thousand; and,
confident of his strength, he sent a menacing message to the patriot
leaders on the western waters. This was, for the South, "the time that
tried men's souls:" many of the leading patriots captives or exiles, the
country subjugated, British and tory cruelty desolating it, hope almost
extinct,--Marion alone holding out in his fastnesses. The spirit of the
hardy mountaineers was aroused, and hearing that Ferguson was
threatening to cross the mountains, a body of men in arms were
concentrated by the twenty-fifth on the banks of the Watauga--four
hundred from Washington County, Virginia, under Colonel William
Campbell; the rest from North Carolina, under Colonels Shelby, Sevier,
McDowell, Cleveland, and Winston. Crossing the mountains they advanced
toward Ferguson, who began to retreat, and took up a position[699:A] on
an eminence of about one hundred and fifty feet, called King's Mountain.
It is situated in the northern part of South Carolina, near the North
Carolina line, its sides steep and rocky, a brook flowing at its
foot,--the surrounding scenery thickly wooded, wild, and picturesque. It
was resolved to pursue the enemy with nine hundred picked men. Near the
Cowpens, where Ferguson had encamped on the fourth, and about thirty
miles from King's Mountain, the mountaineers were re-enforced by four
hundred and sixty men, the greater part of them from South Carolina,
under Colonel Williams. Here, at about nine o'clock of the evening,
Colonel William Campbell was appointed to the chief command. The
mountain horsemen rode on in the night through a rain, with their guns
under their arms to keep the locks dry; the leader in front, and each
colonel at the head of his troops. In the morning they halted for half
an hour to eat a frugal breakfast, and at twelve o'clock, when the sky
cleared, they found themselves within three miles of the British camp.
They halted, and the order passed along the line: "Tie up overcoats,
pick touch-holes, fresh prime, and be ready to fight." At three o'clock
in the afternoon of the seventh of October an express from Ferguson to
Cornwallis was captured, and his despatches, declaring his position on
King's Mountain impregnable, were read to the troops. Galloping off they
came in twenty minutes within sight of the British camp. They dismounted
on the banks of the little stream, tied their horses to the limbs of
trees, and left them in charge of a small guard. The force being
divided, the mountain was surrounded. As each column moved on to the
attack it was driven back a short distance by the charge of the British,
who were soon compelled to wheel, in order to face another column
advancing on the opposite side. Ferguson, finding his troops hemmed in
and huddled together on the summit of the mountain, fought with
desperate valor, and fell, charging at the head of his men and cheering
them on. The white flag was now raised. Of Ferguson's force, amounting
to rather more than eleven hundred men, two hundred and forty were
killed and two hundred wounded; upwards of seven hundred were taken
prisoners, with all the arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. The loss of
the patriots was thirty killed and fifty wounded. The gallant Williams
was slain, as also was Major Chronicle, and several other officers. The
battle lasted one hour. A number of the tories were hung on the next
day. The sword used by Colonel Campbell on this occasion is preserved in
possession of William Campbell Preston, of South Carolina, the orator,
his grandson; it is more than two centuries old, and was wielded by the
ancestors of Colonel Campbell in Scotland in the wars of the Pretenders.
One of the rifles employed at King's Mountain is also preserved. This
battle was the turning-point of the war in the South.
Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, and removed
early to the County of Washington. Fame has awarded him the title of
"the hero of King's Mountain." Colonel Ferguson was an excellent
marksman, and brought the art of rifle shooting to high perfection. He
invented a gun of that kind which was said to surpass anything of the
sort before known, and he was said to have outdone even the Indians in
firing and loading and hitting the mark, standing or lying, and in no
matter what position of the body. It was reported that General
Washington owed his life, at the battle of Brandywine, to Ferguson's
ignorance of his person, as he was within his reach.[700:A] He
afterwards, upon discovering the fact, remarked that he was not sorry
that he did not know him.
FOOTNOTES:
[693:A] From verses supposed to have been written about this time by St.
George Tucker:--
"Virtue and Washington in vain
To glory call this prostrate train."
* * "Each eager votary hugs his reams,
And hoards his millions in his dreams.
Ruin with giant strides approaches,
And quartermasters loll in coaches."
[693:B] The expression is from Smollet's Ode to Independence.
[694:A] Anburey mentions a Dr. Fauchee as resident at
Charlottesville--probably Foushee.
[695:A] Colonel Bland, in some verses written during this year, alludes
thus to Mr. Jefferson:--
On yonder height I see a lofty dome;[695:B]
But, hapless fate, the master's not at home.
His high aspiring soul aloft had towered,
That like a God he was by men adored.
But envy now has placed him in Jove's car
To rule the tempest of the mighty war,
That he, like Phaeton, may tumble down,
And by his fall astonish all the town.
[695:B] Monticello.
[697:A] August eighteenth.
[697:B] October ninth.
[698:A] May twelfth.
[698:B] August sixteenth.
[698:C] September first.
[699:A] October sixth.
[700:A] Dodsley's Annual Register for 1781.