that any deficiency should occur in the moment of execution, unless from want of due attention in the department charged with their collection, which evinces culpable negligence. Due force of battle was pointed against the enemy's front, in which lay his strength, as he had improved that part of his position by three redoubts, and other defences; whereas our chief effort ought to have been on his flanks, which invited primary attention, as they were unfortified, and would, upon due examination, have been found only to present an opposition easily overthrown. The morass was considered as impassable, whereas it was a firm marsh, lieutenant colonel Henderson having passed it in the course of the action with a part of his corps. The halt of the line, returning the enemy's fire instead of pressing on with the bayonet, baffled our last hope of victory; nor is it improbable, had the appeal to the bayonet been uninterrupted, but that our courage would have surmounted all difficulties; and that we should have obtained the desired prize with heavy loss, which was attainable by a small sacrifice of lives, had we directed our attack against the enemy's vulnerable points. There was throughout our war, a lamentable ignorance in the topography of the country in which we fought, imposing upon our generals serious disadvantages. They had to ascertain the nature of the ground by reconnoitring, or by inquiry among the inhabitants. The first was not always practicable; and the result of the last was generally defective. Government ought to provide, in time of peace, maps on a

large scale of the various districts of the country, designating particularly the rivers, their tributary streams, the bridges, morasses and defiles, and hold them ready for use when wanting, or we shall have to encounter the same difficulties in any future, that we experienced in this, war.

The loss was nearly equal, amounting to one hundred and sixty-five killed and wounded on the side of America. Among our killed was colonel Robert, of the Charleston artillery, a much respected officer. The American troops conducted themselves in this affair very much like genuine soldiers, except in the deranging breach of orders.

Lieutenant colonel Hamilton, with the majors M'Arthur and Moncruff, nobly supported Maitland throughout the action.

In the course of a few days, the British general retired from John's Island and the adjacent main, unperceived, pursuing his route along the interior navigation to Georgia, leaving lieutenant colonel Maitland at Beaufort, in the island of Port Royal, while general Lincoln, reduced by the return of the militia to the continentals, (about eight hundred) established himself at Sheldon, conveniently situated to attend to the enemy at Beaufort. The sultry season had set in; which, in this climate, like the frost of the north, gives repose to the soldier.*

* The heat in the months of July and August forbade the toils of war. In 1781 we found the heat of September and October very oppressive.

preser

Preparations for the next campaign, and the vation of the health of the troops, now engrossed the chief attention of the hostile generals.

Prevost, having reached Savannah, took up his quarters for the season, detaching lieutenant colonel Cruger with one of the Provincial regiments to Sunbury.* This division of his force very well corresponded with the resumption of offensive operations, although it subjected the British to great hazard, should a superior French fleet visit our coast, as had happened the preceding year.

* By retaining the post at Beaufort, the British general could readily penetrate by the means of the inland navigation into South Carolina, unmolested by the Americans, destitute as we were of naval force.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE contest for the southern section of the United States had been regarded, by the respective commanders in chief, with watchful attention; and each took measures to strengthen and invigorate the operations in that quarter. Washington, enfeebled as he was, detached to the south Bland and Baylor's regiments of horse, and the new levies recruited for the Virginia line; while sir Henry Clinton, viewing the destruction of the resources of the commonwealth of Virginia, as cutting up by the roots resistance in the south, planned an enterprise against that state, no sooner conceived than executed.*

A body of troops amounting to two thousand men was, early in May, placed under the command of brigadier general Matthews. Having immediately embarked on board the British squadron, conducted by sir George Collier, the fleet stood out to sea on the

* This opinion of sir Henry Clinton was well founded: the destruction of the resources of Virginia must have led to the annihilation of southern opposition. She may be truly styled the matrix of resistance in the south. The other states were too remote to furnish many supplies, indispensable to the prosecution of the war in that extremity of the Union.

5th, and on the 9th anchored in Hampton roads. No country presents more easy access by water than Virginia, the object of his invasion. Deep navigable rivers every where intersect it, presenting to the maritime invader advantages too obvious to be overlooked, and trammeling the measures of defence with those difficulties which the severance of the inhabitants, by the enemy's possession of the rivers, and the toils and delays of circuitous marches, inevitably produce.

Aware of the disadvantages to which the state was exposed in war by these bountiful gifts of heaven, government had erected in the most vulnerable points slight fortifications to protect the inhabitants from predatory incursions, and raised a regiment of artillery at state expense, and for state purposes, particularly with the view of furnishing garrisons to their dispersed forts.

Norfolk, the great seat of Virginia commerce, is situated on the east side of Elizabeth river; opposite lies Portsmouth; and to the south, in the fork of the two branches of the Elizabeth, which unite immediately above Norfolk, is Gosport; where had been established a navy-yard for the use of the state. To this river, and to these towns, the British armament advanced. No difficulty interposed but the annoyance to be expected from one of those slight forts heretofore mentioned, and like all others erected in the state, exposed on the land side, being designed exclusively to defend the channel of the rivers on which they VOL. I.

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