Never was a victory of such magnitude so completely gained, with so little loss, amounting only to seven killed and nineteen wounded. The town, fort, cannon, shipping, and stores of every kind, fell into the hands of the victor: whose conduct to the inhabitants was peculiarly kind and amiable.

General Howe was, after a considerable lapse of time, brought before a court of inquiry, and acquitted.

However we must applaud the judgment displayed by the American general in selecting and improving his position; however we must honor his gallant determination to receive the enemy's attack, with an inferior force; yet, as his resolution, in prudence, must have been formed in the advantages of his ground, we cannot excuse the negligence betrayed by his ignorance of the avenues leading to his camp.

How happens it that he, who had been in command in that country for many months, should not have discovered the by-way passing to his rear, when Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell contrived to discover it in a few hours? The faithful historian cannot withhold his condemnation of such supineness. Thus it is that the lives of brave men are exposed, and the public interest sacrificed. Yet notwithstanding such severe admonitions, rarely does government honor with its confidence the man whose merit is his sole title to preference: the weight of powerful connections, or the arts of intriguing courtiers, too often bear down unsupported though transcendent worth.

Brigadier-General Prevost, having entered Georgia in conformity with his orders, invested Sunbury, which he soon compelled to surrender. Having placed a garrison in the fort, the brigadier continued his march to Savannah, and took upon himself the command of the united forces. He detached Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell to 1779. Augusta, then a frontier town, and, like Savannah, situated on the southern bank of the same river. Meeting with no resistance, Campbell readily effected his object by possessing himself of the town. Thus in the short period of one month, Feb. 1. was the State of Georgia restored to the British crown. General Prevost persevered in the lenient course adopted by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, sparing the property, and protecting the persons of the vanquished. Nor was he disappointed in the reward due to policy so virtuous and wise.

The affections of the people were enlisted on the side of the conqueror, and our youth flocked to the British standard.

From Augusta Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, of the North Carolina regiment, advanced, with a suitable detachment, further west, to crush all remaining resistance, and to encourage the loyalists to step forward and give their active aid in confirming the establishment of royal authority. Every attempt to interrupt the progress of this officer was ineffectual; and seven hundred loyalists embodied with the determination to force their way to the British camp.

Colonel Pickens, of the South Carolina militia, true to his country, and correctly interpreting the movement under Hamilton, assembled his regiment and drew near to him for the purpose of counteracting his operations.

Finding this officer invulnerable, he suddenly turned from him to strike at the loyalists advancing toward Augusta. He fell in with them at Kettle Creek, and instantly attacked them. The action was contested with zeal and firmness; when Colonel Boyd, the commander of the loyalists, fell; and his death was soon followed by the rout of his associates. Nevertheless, three hundred of the body contrived to effect their union with the British army.

This single, though partial check, was the only interruption of the British success from the commencement of the invasion.

The delegates in Congress from the States of South Carolina and Georgia, had some time before urged the substitution of a more experienced commander of the Southern Department* in the place of General Howe.

This solemn application did not fail to engage the serious attention of that respectable body. Not only was the desired substitution made, but the States of Virginia and North Carolina were pressed, in the most forcible terms, to hasten succor Sept. 25. to their afflicted sisters.

1778.

North Carolina obeyed with promptitude the demand of Congress; and two thousand of her militia, under Generals Ashe and Rutherford, reached Charleston before the expedition under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell was announced on the Southern coast. But this auxiliary force was unarmed; North Carolina being very destitute of that primary article of defence. South Carolina, more provident, because more attractive from the wealth concentred in its capital, had in due time furnished herself with arms, but was indisposed to place them out of her control, especially as it was then uncertain whether she might not be the point of invasion.

The Southern Department comprehended Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia; lately Maryland and Delaware were added.

The zeal displayed by North Carolina, while it entitled her to commendation, was thus unproductive of the expected effect. Nor until after the defeat of Howe was this force in readiness to repair to the theatre of action.

Major-General Lincoln, of Massachusetts, had been selected by Congress in the place of Howe.* This officer was a soldier of the Revolution; his stock of experimental knowledge, of course, could not have been very considerable, although he had seen more service than most of our officers of the same standing. He had uniformly possessed the confidence of Washington, who had often intrusted him with important commands; and he was second to Gates at Saratoga, greatly contributing by his judicious and spirited conduct, to the happy issue of that momentous campaign. Upright, mild, and amiable, he was universally respected and beloved; a truly good man, and a brave and prudent, but not consummate soldier. Lincoln hastened toward his post, and having reached Charleston, bestowed his unremitted attention to the timely completion of the requisite arrangements for the defence of the South. Here he heard of the descent of Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, and the disastrous overthrow of Howe. Hurried by this event he quick1779. ly reached the confines of Georgia, and having united the remains of the defeated army, with the troops of the two Carolinas, he established himself in Purysburg, a small village on the northern side of the Savannah, about fifteen miles above the capital of Georgia.

Jan. 7.

The British force under Prevost at this period is stated to have been nearly four thousand; while that under Lincoln did not exceed three thousand and six hundred; of which, only eleven hundred were Continentals. The superiority of Prevost, especially in the quality of his troops, was in a great degree lost by their distribution, in different stations, from Savannah to Augusta, a distance of one hundred and forty miles. Nor would it have been a safe operation, had his force been concentred, to pass the difficult river of Savannah, with its broad and deep swamps, in the face of Lincoln. The

* General Howe joined the main army under the commander-in-chief, where he served to the end of the war. A court of inquiry was held to investigate the cause of his defeat before Savannah, who reported favorably to the majorgeneral.

+"Continentals " mean regular soldiers, enlisted and paid under the authority of Congress. The Continental troops had not seen service, being composed of the line of the Carolinas and Georgia, with the exception of the gallant defenders of Fort Moultrie in 1776.

British general, satisfied for the present with the possession of Georgia, devoted his mind and force to the preservation and confirmation of the fruits of his success. With this view, and to this end, he persevered in sustaining his long line of defence, although his enemy, separated only by the river, kept his force compact.

About this time Prevost, availing himself of his naval aid, and of the interior navigation, made an establishment on the island of Port Royal, under Major Gardner, with two hundred men. The object of this inexplicable movement could not then be ascertained; nor has it since been developed. Colonel, now General, Moultrie, soon dislodged Gardner, with considerable loss, and would have annihilated the detachment, had not the want of ammunition prevented the victor from improving his advantage. The Charleston militia behaved admirably in this affair. The Captains Barnwell, Heyward, Rutledge, and Lieutenant Wilkins, eminently distinguished themselves: the latter officer was killed.

CHAPTER XII

Gen. Ashe moves against Augusta, then crosses the Savannah.-Is routed by Prevost.— John Rutledge dictator in South Carolina.-Lincoln moves upon Augusta.-Prevost threatens Charleston.-Charleston saved.-Proposition that South Carolina should remain neutral.-Rejected by Prevost.

GENERAL LINCOLN, at length strengthened by consider- February. able re-enforcements of the militia, came to the resolution of acting offensively.

A considerable detachment (nearly one thousand and five hundred, all militia, except one hundred regulars) was placed under the orders of General Ashe, who was directed to take post opposite to Augusta. Before Ashe reached the place of his destination, the British troops fell back from Augusta, and crossing Brier Creek, encamped at Hudson's Ferry, twenty-four miles above Ebenezer, then the head-quarters of the royal army.

The abandonment of Augusta very much gratified Lincoln, who was extremely anxious to cover the upper parts of the State, for the double purpose of reducing the enemy to narrower limits, and uniting to his arms the hardy sons of the West. He therefore ordered Ashe to pass the river, and to place himself behind Brier Creek, where it falls into the Savannah; secured in his front by the creek, on his left by the river, he could only be assailed on his right. To enable him to explore accurately this

Feb. 28th.

quarter, a squadron of dragoons was annexed to his corps, and to give to his condition the utmost activity, the baggage of the detachment was ordered to be removed to the north side of the Savannah.

General Prevost was not at a loss for the motives of this operation, nor insensible to its consequences.

He determined without delay to dislodge Ashe from the position he had taken. To conceal his real object, he made some demonstrations of crossing the Savannah with his main body, when the detachment prepared to strike at General Ashe, advanced upon Brier Creek. Major Macpherson openly moved along the main road, and attracted, as was intended, the undeviating attention of the American brigadier, while Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, March 4. by an occult march of fifty miles, forded the creek fifteen miles above our position, and fell suddenly in its rear. Colonel Elbert with the band of Continentals made a brave but ineffectual stand. They were made prisoners, and the whole body put to the rout, with the loss of only five privates killed, and one officer and ten privates wounded. Great was the loss on the side of America; and, of those who did escape, only four hundred and fifty rejoined our army.

Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost did honor to himself by the handsome manner in which he accomplished the enterprise committed to his conduct. While commendation is justly bestowed upon the British officer, censure cannot be withheld from the American commandant. The flattering prospect of recovering a lost State was dashed to pieces in an instant, by the culpable inattention of an officer high in rank, highly intrusted, and imperatively summoned to take care that his country should not be injured by his negligence; yet it was injured, and that too, while the late terrible blow, sustained from the same cause by General Howe, was fresh in recollection, and while the wounds there received were still bleeding.

Relieved, by this decisive victory, of all apprehension heretofore entertained of the stability of the change effected in Georgia, the British general re-established by proclamation the royal government, as it existed at the commencement of the Revolution, and renewed his endeavors to rekindle the spirit of loyalty, which had been very much damped by the victory of Pickens, the evacuation of Augusta, and the menacing movement of General Lincoln. Disaster upon disaster called for increased vigor in our coun