5. But not so at the south. Sir Henry Clinton, with seven or eight thousand men, had landed at Savannah early this year, and sailed from that place to attack Charleston, which at the time was defended by the commander-in-chief of the army of the south, General Lincoln, and Governor Rutledge. He opened his batteries upon the city, April 2d. 6. The American forces amounted to about five thousand men; and they had four hundred pieces of artillery. But the forces of the enemy were much superior, and the siege was carried on with great spirit. On the 12th of May, the Americans, finding the fortifications of the city mostly beaten down, and various neighboring points of importance surrendered to the British, while no hopes of relief were afforded them, capitulated, and gave up the place. In the defence near one hundred of their number had been slain, and one hundred and forty wounded.

7. On the 14th of April, while the siege of Charleston was going on, a body of American cavalry and militia were surprised by the British at Monk's Corner, thirty-two miles north from Charleston, and dispersed. Fort Moultrie also, on Sullivan's Island, had surrendered on the 6th of May to the British naval forces.

8. Another misfortune befell the American army at the south on the 29th of May. Lord Cornwallis, who commanded a division of the British troops near the Santee River, detached a body of his men to a place in North Carolina, called the Waxhaws,* and completely cut off a corps of four hundred men, under Colonel Bufford; only one hundred effecting their escape.

9. Nor were these all the misfortunes of the Americans in this quarter at this period. The important fort of Ninety-Six, in South Carolina, one hundred and fifty miles north-west from Charleston, fell into the hands of the enemy, while the country along the Savannah was ravaged. Many of the Americans in the south, considering the cause of the country as hopeless, joined the royal standard.

10. The southern American army being now greatly reduced, the British found it easy to post garrisons in various parts of Carolina, and to regard it as, in effect, conquered. Only four thousand men were deemed necessary to complete what they had begun, and with the rest of the army Sir Henry Clinton returned to New York.

11. Meanwhile, the state, though overrun, was very far from being conquered. A partisan war was long kept up, sometimes with much

5. What was taking place at the south? 6. What were the forces of the two parties? What did the Americans conclude to do? 7. Where were a body of Americans surprised by the British? What of Fort Moultrie? 8. What was done by Lord Cornwallis? 9. What other misfortunes befell the Americans at the south? 10. What did the British find it easy to accomplish?

*This place, on the Waxhaw Creek, near its entrance into the Wateree or Catawba, was about one hundred and fifty miles north-west of Charleston.

GENERAL GATES.

263

spirit. Many gallant exploits were performed. and many triumphs ob tained, by Generals Sumpter, Marion, and others; so that the British could hardly fail to learn that to gain a few victories and to conquer a country, were very different things.

CHAPTER CXXVI.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.-Gates Commander of the Southern Army.-Disastrous Battle near Camden.- Various Events at the South and at the North.-Arrival of the French Fleet and Army under Rochambeau.

1. ABOUT this period, General Lincoln was superseded in the com

COUNT ROCHAMBEAU.

mand of the American army at the south by General Gates. The Baron de Kalb, a brave German officer, was second in the command. Their troops amounted to one thousand regular soldiers and three thousand militia.

2. General Horatio Gates was an Englishman by birth, but had often served in the British army in America during the colonial wars. Some where between the years 1763 and 1770 he removed to America, and settled in Virginia. In 1775 he was made a brigadier-general. He continued in the army-chiefly at the north -till the year 1780, when he was transferred to the south.

3. At the time of the cap. ture of Burgoyne, Gates was about fifty years of age. His

success had rendered him extremely popular, while Washington, less

11. What of Sumpter, Marion, etc.?

CHAP. CXXVI.-1. What of the American army at the south? Its commanders? 2. Give some account of General Gates. 3. What state of feeling was shown respecting Gates and Washington?

fortunate at this juncture was rather unpopular. Efforts were made to remove Washington from the command of the army, and supply his place by Gates, but they were as unsuccessful as they were unreasonable. 4. General Gates marched with his troops from North Carolina toward Charleston. On the road, six or seven hundred Virginia militia joined him. When near Camden, in South Carolina, one hundred and ten miles north-west from Charleston, he was met by Lord Cornwallis and two thousand regular troops, who gave him battle. The Virginia militia and part of the others threw down their arms and fled at the beginning of the fight. The regular soldiers fought bravely, but were finally overpowered by numbers.

5. This battle occurred August 16th, and was exceedingly severe. Not only the battle-ground itself, but the fields, roads, and swamps, for many miles round, were covered, as it were, with the slain. Of the Americans, seven hundred and thirty-two were killed or captured; the British loss in killed and wounded was also very heavy. Among the slain was the Baron de Kalb, to whose memory Congress ordered a monument to be erected. With the remnant of his forces Gates rapidly retreated into North Carolina.

6. Another defeat soon followed. General Sumpter, having taken a small fort, with about three hundred prisoners, and a large quantity of stores intended for the British army at Camden, was retreating with his booty up the Wateree River, when Colonel Tarleton, with a part of the British army, surprised him, rescued the prisoners, and killed, wounded, or dispersed his whole force.

7. But, after this long series of reverses, the tide of the southern war began to turn. Exasperated by the atrocities committed in North Carolina by a detachment of the British, and profligate Americans who had joined them, the militia armed themselves as best they could, and fell upon them fiercely at a place called King's Mountain.* They were defeated, with but little loss on the part of the Americans. No less than eight hundred of their best troops were taken prisoners, with fifteen hundred stand of arms. Ferguson, the British commander, was killed. This battle took place October 7th, 1780.

8. The British were also defeated on the 12th of November, in a partial engagement at Broad River, and again, eight days afterward on Tiger River. The losses, however, in either of these two last engage

4. What of the march of General Gates? What battle was fought near Camden? 5. What was the loss on both sides? What of Baron de Kalb? 6. What of General Sumpter and Colonel Tarleton? 7. Where were the British defeated? 8. Other defeats of the British?

* King's Mountain is near the boundary between North and South Carolina, and in the present Gaston county, North Carolina, two hundred miles west by south of Raleigh

THE TREASON OF ARNOLD.

265

ments, were but trifling; nor were the advantages gained of very great consequence.

9. It has been seen, in another place, that little was done at the north during the early part of the year 1780. In June, about five thousand British soldiers, under General Knip-hau'-sen, plundered and burned several villages in New Jersey, and, in a few instances, committed the grossest acts of barbarity.

10. The arrival of the French fleet at Newport, July 10th, 1780, consisting of seven sail of the line, five frigates, five smaller vessels, and several transports, under Admiral de Ternay, and about six thousand men under Count Rochambeau, a spirited officer, infused new courage into the whole country, and perhaps gave a new turn to the war.

CHAPTER CXXVII.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED..

Treason of Benedict Arnold.

The

1. WE come now to some of the most painfully interesting events in the history of the American Revolutionary war. These are, the treason of General Arnold, and the consequent capture and execution of Major André, an excellent British officer, as a spy.

2. General Benedict Arnold was a native of Norwich, in Connecticut. His father was a man of doubtful integrity, but he had a good mother. His education was merely such as the common schools of the place could give. While yet a lad, he was appren ticed to a firm of druggists in Norwich; but he ran away several times during his apprenticeship, beside being, in other ways, a source of perpetual trouble to his friends. 3. Every thing pertaining to this early period of his life, indicated a want of conscientiousness-cruelty, ill-temper, and recklessness with regard to the good or ill opinion of others. Robbing birds' nests,

ARNOLD.

9. Describe the pillage committed by the British in New Jersey. 10. What fleet and forces arrived at Newport? What effect had the arrival of these French forces at Newport?

CHAP. CXXVII.-1. Who was Major André? 2. Give some account of Benedict Arnold. 8. Iescribe his youth.

maiming and mangling young birds to draw forth cries from the old ones, vexing children, and calling them hard names, and even beating them, were among the frequent, if not daily, pastimes of his youth.

4. He was also fond of daring, not to say dangerous, feats. For example, he sometimes took grain to a grist mill in the neighborhood, and, while waiting for the meal, he would amuse himself and astonish his playmates by clinging to the arms of the large water-wheel, and passing with it beneath and above the water.

5. At the close of his apprenticeship, he commenced business as a druggist in New Haven. His enterprise and activity insured success for a time; but his speculations ended in bankruptcy. He returned, it is true, to his business; but he was never esteemed for honesty or solid integrity, either before or afterward.

6. While an apprentice, he had once enlisted in the army; but, disliking his duties, had deserted. When the news of the battle of Lexington arrived, Arnold, who had become a captain of what were called the Governor's Guard, took occasion to harangue the people, and call for volunteers. Sixty men joined him, and they set out for Cambridge. His subsequent movements have been alluded to in other chapters.

7. The autumn of 1780 found him in the command of West Point, on the Hudson. Here he secretly entered into an arrangement with Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in New York, to give up the fort of West Point, with the men, arms, stores, etc., to the British. Such a result, had it not been for a timely discovery of the plot, would doubtless have been effected.

8. What adds greatly to the wickedness of Arnold, in this matter, is the fact that he enjoyed the entire confidence of Washington, by whom he had always been well treated, and also that he had solicited the command of West Point with a special view to the commission of this act of treachery. Had he betrayed Washington and his country in a moment of angry excitement, the case would have been far different.

4. What were some of his feats? 5. How did he commence business? How was be esteemed? 6. What took place while he was enlisted as a soldier in the army? What did he do on hearing of the battle of Lexington? 7. What did he engage to do for the British as to West Point? 8. What added to the wickedness of Arnold?