and the art of civil government; and they had secured the alliance of France, the powerful European rival of Great Britain, and the sympathies of Spain and Holland. The British forces occupied the real position of prisoners, for they were hemmed in upon only two islands,' almost two hundred miles apart, and each about fourteen miles in length; while the Americans possessed every other stronghold of the country, and, unlike the invaders, were warring for the dearest rights of common humanity.

The scene of the most active military operations now changed. In the autumn [Nov. 3, 1778], D'Estaing sailed for the West Indies, to attack the British possessions there. To defend these, it was necessary for the British flect on our coast to proceed to those waters. This movement would prevent any co-operation between the fleet and army in aggressive movements against the populous and now well-defended North; they could only co-operate in active operations against the sparsely-settled South. These considerations caused a change in the plans of the enemy; and late in November [Nov. 27], Sir Henry Clinton dispatched Colonel Campbell, with about two thousand troops, to invade Georgia, then the weakest member of the Confederacy. They proceeded by water, and landed at Savannah, the capital of the State, on the morning of the 29th of December. General Robert Howe3 was there, with only about a thousand men, and these were dispirited by the failure of a recent expedition against Florida in which they had been engaged. They defended the city nobly, however, until an overwhelming force, by power and stratagem, compelled them to retire. They then fled, in confusion, up the Savannah River, and took shelter in the bosom of South Carolina. The capital of Georgia became the head-quarters of the British army at the South; and the enemy retained it until near the close of the contest [1782], even when every foot of soil in the State, outside the intrenchments around the city, was possessed by the patriots.

CHAPTER VI.

FIFTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1779.]

THICKLY mottled with clouds of evil forebodings for the Republican cause, was the political firmament at the dawn of the year 1779. The finances of the of New York, in 1795, and his remains rest beneath a slab in the town of Steuben, about seven miles north-west of Trenton Falls. 1 Manhattan, or York Island, and Rhode Island.

2 Admiral Hotham sailed for the West Indies on the 3d of November; and early in December, Admiral Byron, who had just succeeded Lord Howe in chief naval command, also sailed for that destination. 3 Page 244. 4 A great number of Tories were organized in Florida, and committed so many depredations upon the settlers on the Georgian frontiers, that Howe, during the summer of 1778, went thither to disperse them. He penetrated to the St. Mary's River, in June, where he awaited reinforcements, and supplies, by water. Want of co-operation on the part of the governor of Georgia and the naval commander, produced much disunion; and sickness soon reduced the number of effective men so much, that the enterprise was abandoned.

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country were in a most wretched condition. Already, one hundred millions of dollars of continental money' were afloat without the security of even good. public credit; and their value was rapidly depreciating. While the amount of the issues was small, the credit of the bills was good; but when new emissions took place, and no adequate measures for redemption were exhibited, the people became suspicious of those frail representatives of money, and their value began to depreciate. This effect did not occur until eighteen months after the time of the first emission. Twenty millions of the continental bills were then in circulation, besides a large amount of local issues by the several States. It was perceived that depreciation was inevitable, and Congress proposed, as a substitute for further issues, a loan of five millions, at an interest of four per cent. A lottery had been early authorized, and was now in operation, designed to raise a like sum, on loan, the prizes being payable in loan-office certificates.* Although these offices were opened in all the States, and the interest raised to six per cent., the loans came in slowly. The treasury became almost exhausted, the loan-offices were overdrawn upon by the commissioners' drafts, and the issue of bills was reluctantly recommenced.

The financial embarrassments were increased by the circulation of an immense amount of counterfeits of the continental bills, by the British and the loyalists, which rapidly depreciated the currency. They were sent out from New York, literally, by "cart-loads." Congress felt the necessity of making some extraordinary efforts for redeeming the genuine bills, so as to sustain their credit. The several States were taxed, and on the 2d of January, 1779, it was, by Congress, "Resolved, That the United States be called on to pay in their respective quotas of fifteen millions of dollars, for the year 1779, and of six millions of dollars annually for eighteen years, from and after the year 1779, as a fund for sinking the emissions," &c. ; yet all was in vain; prices rose as the bills sank in value, and every kind of trade was embarrassed and

1 Page 245. At this time, when Congress could not borrow a dollar upon its own credit, Robert Morris [page 264] found no difficulty in raising millions upon his own. For a long time he, alone, furnished the "hard money" used by that body. 3 Note 3, page 245.

On the first of November, 1776, the Continental Congress "Resolved, That a sum of money be raised by way of lottery, for defraying the expenses of the next campaign, the lottery to be drawn in Philadelphia' A committee was appointed to arrange the same, and on the 18th, reported a scheme. The drawer of more than the minimum prize in each class, was to receive either a treasury bank note, payable in five years, with an annual interest at four per cent., or the preemption of such billets in the next succeeding class; this was optional with the adventurers. Those who should not call for their prizes within six weeks after the end of the drawing, were considered adventurers in the next succeeding class. Seven managers were appointed, who were authorized to employ agents in different States to sell the tickets. The first drawing was decided to be made at Philadelphia, on the first of March, 1777; but purchasers were comparatively few and tardy, and the drawing was postponed from time to time. Various impediments continually presented themselves, and the plan, which promised such success at the beginning, appears to have been a failure. Many purchasers of tickets were losers; and this, like some other financial schemes of the Revolution, was productive of much hard feeling toward the Federal Government.

It was no secret at the time, as appears by the following advertisement in Gaines' New York Mercury: "ADVERTISEMENT. Persons going into other colonies, may be supplied with any number of counterfeited Congress notes, for the price of the paper per ream. They are so neatly and exactly executed, that there is no risk in getting them off, it being almost impossible to discover that they are not genuine. This has been proven by bills to a very large amount, which have already been successfully circulated. Inquire of Q. E. D., at the Coffee-house, from 11 A. M., to 4 P. M., during the present month."

deranged. The federal government was thoroughly perplexed. Only about four millions of dollars had been obtained, by loan, from Europe, and present negotiations appeared futile. No French army was yet upon our soil, to aid us, nor had French coin yet gladdened the hearts of unpaid soldiers. A French fleet had indeed been upon our coasts,' but had now gone to fight battles for France in the West Indies, after mocking our hopes with broken promises of aid. Gloomy, indeed, appeared the firmament at the dawn of 1779, the fifth year of the War for Independence.

In the autumn of 1777, a plan for invading Canada and the eastern British provinces, and for seizing the British posts on the western lakes, had been matured by Congress and the Board of War,' but when it was submitted to Washington, his sagacious mind perceived its folly, and the influence of his opinions, and the discovery, by true patriots, that it was a part of the secret plan, entered into by Gates and others, to deprive Washington of chief command, caused an abandonment of the scheme. Others, more feasible, occupied the attention of the Federal Legislature; and for several weeks the commander-in-chief co-operated with Congress [January, 1779], in person, in preparing a plan for the campaign of 1779. It was finally resolved to act on the defensive, except in retaliatory expeditions against the Indians and Tories in the interior. This scheme promised the most beneficial results, for it would be safer and less expensive, than offensive warfare. During the entire year, the principal military operations were carried on in the two extreme sections of the confederacy. The chief efforts of the Americans were directed to the confinement of the British army to the seaboard, and chastising the Indian tribes. The winter campaign opened by Lieutenant-colonel Campbell [December 29, 1778], continued until June, and resulted, as we have mentioned [page 292], in the complete subjugation of Georgia to British rule.

When Campbell had garrisoned Savannah, and arranged for its defense, he prepared to march against Sunbury, twenty-eight miles further south, the only post of any consequence now left to the Americans on the Georgia seaboard. He treated the people leniently, and, by proclamation, invited them to join the British standard. These measures had their desired effect, and timid hundreds, seeing the State under the heel of British power, proclaimed their loyalty, and rallied beneath the standard of King George. At the same time, General Prevost, who was in command of the British and Indians in east Florida, marched northward, captured Sunbury [January 9, 1779], and assumed the chief command of the British forces in the South. With this post fell the hopes of the Republicans in east Georgia. In the * Page 289.

GENERAL LINCOLN.

1 Page 289.

On the 12th of June, 1776, Congress appointed a committee, to be styled the "Board of War and Ordnance," to have the general supervision of military affairs. John Adams was the chairman, and Richard Peters was secretary. Peters was the real "Secretary of War" under the old Confederation, until 1781, when he was succeeded by General Lincoln. General Gates was chairman in

1778.

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Page 291.

B

Page 293

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mean while, General Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts, had been appointed [September, 1778], commander-in-chief of the southern army of patriots.' He made his head-quarters at Purysburg [January 6], twenty-five miles above Savannah, and there commenced the formation of an army, composed of some continental regiments, new recruits, and the broken forces of General Howe. While Lincoln was collecting his army on the Carolina bank of the Savannah, Campbell marched up the Georgia side to Augusta, for the purpose of encouraging the Tories, opening a communication with the Creek Indians' in the West (among whom the British had active emissaries), and to awe the Whigs. At the same time a band of Tories, under Colonel Boyd, was desolating the Carolina frontiers, while on their march to join the royal troops. When within two days' march of Augusta, they were attacked' [February 14, 1779] and utterly defeated by Colonel Pickens, at the head of the militia of Ninety-six. Boyd and

seventy of his men were killed, and seventy-five were made prisoners." Pickens lost thirty-eight of his men.

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This defeat of Boyd alarmed Campbell and encouraged Lincoln. The latter immediately sent General Ashe, of North Carolina, with about two thousand men, to drive Campbell from Augusta, and to confine the invaders to the low, sickly sections near the sea, hoping for aid from the deadly malaria of the swamps, when the heats of summer should prevail. The British fled [February 13, 1779] at the approach of Ashe, and were pursued by him [February 16] as far as Brier Creek, about forty miles below Augusta, where he halted to establish a camp. There Ashe was surprised and defeated [March 3] by General Prevost, who, with quite a large force, was marching up the Savannah to the relief of Campbell. Ashe lost almost his entire army by death, captivity, and dispersion. Some were killed, others perished in the morasses, and many were drowned in attempting to escape across the Savannah. This blow deprived Lincoln of one fourth of his army, and led to the temporary re-establishment of royal government in Georgia.'

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1 Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1733. He was a farmer, yet took an active part in public affairs. He joined the continental army in 1777, and rose rapidly to the station of major-general He commanded the militia against Shay's insurgents [See 5, page 353.] in 1786. He was also a useful public officer in civil affairs, and died in 1810. Page 292. When Campbell departed for Augusta, Prevost sent Colonel Gardiner with some troops, to take possession of Port Royal Island, some sixty miles below Charleston, preparatory to a march upon that city. Gardiner was attacked by General Moultrie [page 249], with Charleston militia, on the morning of the 3d of February. Almost every British officer (except the commander), and many privates, were killed. Gardiner and a few men escaped in boats, and Moultrie, whose loss was trifling, joined Lincoln at Purysburg. Page 30.

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The place of the skirmish was upon Kettle Creek, in Oglethorpe county, Georgia. Page 336. Seventy of them were tried and found guilty of treason, and sentenced to be hung. Only five were executed.

Lincoln was joined by Generals Ashe and Rutherford, with North Carolina regiments, about the first of February, and his army now amounted to little more than three thousand men. John Ashe was born in England in 1721, and came to America when a child. He was engaged in the Regulator War [page 223], and was one of the most active of the North Carolina patriots. He died of small-pox in 1781.

About one hundred and fifty were killed and drowned, eighty-nine were made prisoners, and a large number, who were dispersed, did not take up arms again for several months.

10 At the beginning of 1776, the bold Whigs of Savannah had made the royal governor, Sir James Wright, a prisoner in his own house; and the provincial Assembly, assuming governmental

Prevost now prepared for an invasion of South Carolina. Toward the last of April, he crossed the Savannah [April 27] with two thousand regulars, and a large body of Tories and Creek Indians, and marched for Charleston. Lincoln had recruited, and was now in the field with about five thousand men, preparing to recover lost Georgia, by entering the State at Augusta, and sweeping the country to the sea. But when he discovered the progress of Prevost, and that even the danger of losing Savannah did not deter that active general from his attempts upon Charleston, Lincoln hastened to the relief of the menaced city. The people on the line of his march hailed him as a deliverer, for Prevost had marked his progress by plunder, conflagration, and cruelty. Fortunately for the Republicans, the invader's march was so slow, that when he arrived [May 11] before the city, the people were prepared for resistance.

2

Prevost, on the morning of the 11th of May, approached the American intrenchments thrown across Charleston Neck,' and demanded an immediate surrender of the city. He was answered by a prompt refusal, and the remainder of the day was spent by both parties, in preparations for an assault. That night was a fearful one for the citizens, for they expected to be greeted at dawn with bursting bomb-shells, and red-hot cannon-balls. When morning came [May 12, 1779], the scarlet uniforms of the enemy were seen across the waters upon John's Island, and not a hostile foot was upon the Charleston peninsula. The cause of this was soon made manifest. Prevost had been informed of the approach of Lincoln, and fearing his connection with Savannah might be cut off, he commenced a retreat toward that city, at midnight, by way of the islands along the coast. For more than a month some British detachments lingered upon John's Island. Then they were attacked at Stono Ferry, ten miles below Charleston [June 20] by a party of Lincoln's army, but after a severe engagement, and the loss of almost three hundred men in killed and wounded, they repulsed the Americans whose loss was greater. Prevost soon afterward established a military post at Beaufort, on Port Royal Island,' and then retreated to Savannah. The hot season produced a suspension of hostilities in the South, and that region enjoyed comparative repose for several months.

Sir Henry Clinton was not idle while these events were in progress at the South. He was sending out marauding expeditions from New York, to plunder and harass the people on the sea-coast. Governor Tryon' went from Kingsbridge on the 25th of March [1779], with fifteen hundred British regulars and

powers, made provisions for military defense [February, 1776], issued bills of credit, &c. Wright escaped and went to England. He returned in July, 1779, and resumed his office as governor of the "colony."

1 Charleston, like Boston [note 3, page 229], is situated upon a peninsula, the neck of which is made quite narrow by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, and the marshes. Across this the Americans had hastily cast up embankments. They served a present purpose, and being strengthened, were of great value to the Americans the following year. See page 310.

Hollow balls or shells of cast iron, filled with gunpowder, slugs, &c. In an orifice communicating with the powder, is a slow match. This is ignited, and the shell is hurled from a mortar (a short cannon) into the midst of a town or an army. When the powder ignites, the shell is bursted into fragments, and these with the slugs make terrible havoc. They are sometimes the size of a man's head. Note 5, page 166. ✦ Page 248. The passage across the Harlem River (or as it is sometimes there called, Spuyten Duyvil Creek), at the upper end of York or Manhattan Island.