1781.] CORNWALLIS IN THE CAROLINAS-DEFEATED AT COWPENS. 423 A similar mutiny in the brigade of New Jersey was quelled by a superior force, and by military executions. : The capture of Charlestown in May, 1780, and the victory of Camden in the following August, had led the English government to believe that another campaign would produce a favourable termination of the war. Lord George Germaine, in a letter to lord Cornwallis, takes the same high tone about the restoration of the constitution, and the punishment of rebels, as in the early stages of the conflict. He approves of the severities of Cornwallis towards traitors "The most disaffected will now be convinced that we are not afraid to punish, and will no longer venture to repeat their crimes in the hope of impunity should they be detected; and those who are more moderate will be led to withdraw from a cause which is evidently declining, before it becomes desperate, and they expose themselves to the consequences they may reasonably apprehend will fall upon such as persist in rebellion to the last."* With such an adviser, we can well understand how the king could have no other notion of three or four millions of Americans in revolt, than that they were mere traitors to be conquered, and then to be wholly dependent upon his royal mercy. The people of England were now, to a certain extent, in unison with the government as to the necessity of continuing the war. Mr. Hartley writes to Franklin, "I verily believe so great is the jealousy between England and France, that this country would fight for a straw to the last man, and the last shilling, rather than be dictated to by France." + The unfortunate union of common cause between America and France had turned aside the wish of the people of England for peace. This opinion of Mr. Hartley is confirmed-as far as a general sentiment can receive confirmation from the expression of opinion in particular localities-by the tone of public meetings and the words of addresses to the crown. Lord Cornwallis, in his camp at Wynnesborough, amidst the flooded rivers and creeks of South Carolina, was not so sanguine as the secretary at Whitehall. The whole country, he writes to sir Henry Clinton at the beginning of January, is kept in continual alarm by perpetual risings in different parts of the province, and the invariable success of these parties against the royalist militia. On the 7th of January, Cornwallis began his march for North Carolina. He sent forward lieut-colonel Tarleton, with seven hundred infantry and three hundred and fifty cavalry, "to endeavour to strike a blow at general Morgan." Heavy rains swelled the water-courses, and impeded the progress of the army. On the 17th Tarleton came up with Morgan; and the battle of Cowpens resulted in the total defeat of the British. The American line had given way, and the British were in disorderly pursuit, when Morgan's corps faced about and poured in a heavy fire upon the pursuers. A general panic ensued, in spite of the exertions, entreaties, and example of colonel. Tarleton. More than one-half of the royalist forces were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, by an enemy not superior in numbers. This defeat is described as "the most serious calamity which had occurred since Saratoga— and crippled lord Cornwallis for the remainder of the war." § * "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 81. "Franklin's Works," vol. ix. p. 119. § Ibid., vol. i. p. 84. "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 81. 424 VICTORY OF GUILFORD. [1791. Morgan, after his victory at the Cowpens, was enabled, though closely pursued by Cornwallis, to unite his forces with those of Nathaniel Greene, a meritorious officer, who was appointed to succeed Gates as commander of the American army in North and South Carolina. By the judicious arrangements of general Greene he was enabled to avoid a battle with the superior force of Cornwallis, and entered Virginia. Jefferson was the governor of that State. Thomas Jefferson. At the beginning of January, Arnold, who was now in full activity in the British service, landed about nine hundred men at James Town. They burnt all the public property at Richmond and other places, and having marched more than thirty miles into the interior, regained their vessels. This incursion occupied only forty-eight hours. Virginia had at that time a population of more than half-a-million, and there were fifty thousand enrolled militia. But these were scattered over the country; and Richmond, the capital, was a town, or rather village, of only eighteen hundred inhabitants. The militia was a force upon paper, with few men called into the field; and without money or arms it would have been useless to collect and embody them. This was the defence made by Jefferson, when his enemies accused him of neglect, and threatened impeachment.* Arnold made a second irruption in April, and again destroyed much property. General Greene had been reinforced with all the available militia from Virginia at the beginning of March; and on the 15th he was approaching Guilford, in North Carolina, with an army of seven thousand men. On that day lord Cornwallis attacked him, and after an action of an hour and a-half routed the American army, and took their cannon. The British sustained a heavy loss. "The great fatigue of the troops," writes Cornwallis to Rawdon, "the number of wounded, and the want of provisions, prevented our pursuing the enemy."+ Greene, who had fled twenty miles from Guilford, soon became the pursuer. By his incessant activity he cut off supplies from the British army, which was compelled to fall back to Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River. He arrived there on the 7th of April. On the 10th he wrote to major-general Phillips, "I have had a most difficult and dangerous campaign, and was obliged to fight a battle, two hundred miles from any communication, with an enemy seven times my number. The fate of it was long doubtful. We had not a regiment or corps that did not at some time give way." He adds, "I am quite tired of marching about the country in quest of adventures. If we mean an offensive war in America we must abandon New York, and bring our whole force into Virginia; we then have a stake to fight for, and a successful battle may give us America." Cornwallis wrote home to lord George Germaine to recommend "a serious attempt upon Virginia." On the 23rd, without waiting for instructions from the ministry, or receiving orders from sir Henry Clinton, his *Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," vol. i. p. 150. "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 86. Ibid. vol. i. p. 88, 1781.1 CORNWALLIS MARCHES INTO VIRGINIA. 425 superior officer, he resolved, upon his own responsbility, as he expressed in another letter to the Secretary of State, "to take advantage of general Greene's having left the back of Virginia open, and march immediately into that province, to attempt a junction with general Phillips." He apologizes to Clinton for deciding upon measures so important, without his direction or approbation; alleging "the delay and difficulty of conveying letters, and the impossibility of waiting for answers.' The opinions of Clinton and Cornwallis upon the conduct of the war were not in accord. Clinton thought the main object was to defend New York, and merely maintain the posts held in the Southern provinces. Cornwallis held that if a defensive war was the plan to be adopted, mixed with desultory expeditions, it would be best to abandon the Carolinas, which could not be held defensively whilst Virginia could be so easily armed. "Let us quit the Carolinas, and stick to our saltpork at New York, sending now and then a detachment to steal tobacco." Whilst Cornwallis was setting forth on an undertaking which, he says, " sits heavy on my mind," Rawdon, on the 25th of April, won a battle near Camden. He sallied from that post to attack general Greene, whose force doubled his own. The Americans quitted the field; but the victory had no eventual benefit for the British cause. Lord Cornwallis crossed James River, into Virginia on the 26th of May. General Phillips had died whilst his friend was on his march to join him. Cornwallis was, however, now strengthened by reinforcements, and proposed to dislodge La Fayette from Richmond. But La Fayette moved to the upper country, and though the English general wrote "the boy cannot escape me," the boy was too alert to be captured. The legislature of Virginia was sitting at Charlottesville, and colonel Tarleton was very near surprising the whole body. Jefferson himself had a narrow escape, having only quitted his own house at Monticello ten minutes before the British entered it. "His property, books, and papers, were all respected; with the exception of the waste which was committed in his cellars by a few of the men, without the knowledge of their commanding officer." The Virginians bitterly com† plained of the mischief committed upon their plantations by the invading army, crops of corn and tobacco destroyed, barns burnt, horses carried off. The damage of six months was estimated at three millions sterling.‡ On the 2nd of August Cornwallis was in possession of York Town, on the peninsula between the river York and the river James. "The position," he writes to his friend, brigadier O'Hara, "is bad, and of course we want more troops, and you know that every senior general takes without remorse from a junior, and tells him he has nothing to fear." § Clinton was urging him to send men to New York. During the month of August, Cornwallis was busily employed in fortifying York Town, and also Gloucester on the opposite side of the York River. On the 29th of August, the French West India fleet, under De Grasse, entered the Chesapeake, and landed a large force at James Town. Cornwallis wrote to Clinton, to apprise him of this event, and to announce that Washington "is said to be shortly expected." Clinton "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 94, 95. § "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 112. 426 DE GRASSE IN THE CHESAPEAKE WASHINGTON IN VIRGINIA. [1781. replied that he had no doubt that Washington was "moving with six thousand French and rebel troops" against Cornwallis; and that all the force that could be spared from New York should be sent to him. At the beginning of August, Washington, encamped in the neighbourhood of New York, was anxiously expecting the arrival of the fleet under De Grasse. He had conceived hopes, more than usually sanguine, that a combined attack upon New York by land and sea might have given a decisive turn to the war. The despatches of Clinton to Cornwallis show how anxiously the British general looked to the defence of this important place, which had so long been the scene of hostilities. On the 14th of August Washington received intelligence that De Grasse had sailed to the Chesapeake. instantly determined to abandon all idea of attacking New York, and to march for Virginia. On the 21st of August, the troops destined for the South were in motion, no attempt having been made by Clinton to interrupt their march. He Those qualities of a commander which are, at the least, as important, if not so dazzling, as his ability to "set a squadron in the field," have been rarely displayed more signally than in the provident care of Washington that no disorder should ensue from the sudden change in his whole plan of operations. He had to provide against the chance of attack on his march from New York to Trenton, and he adroitly managed to lead Clinton to believe that the march was a feint, and that he would return to his encampment. From Trenton his army had to be transported to Christiana, and from the Head of Elk down the Chesapeake. He had to make arrangements that, upon the instant of his arrival, all the craft fit for the navigation of the Delaware should be ready to embark his troops. He had to ensure a supply of salt provisions, flour, and rum, at the Head of Elk, to satisfy weary and grumbling men during their long river passage. They were grumblers because for some time they had received no pay. He arranged for "a douceur of a little hard money to put them in proper temper." He regarded the object of his movement as one of the greatest importance; and urged upon the authorities of the various States to provide the means for prosecuting a siege with rapidity. On the 6th of September, Washington was at the Head of Elk, and had put himself into communication with De Grasse. On the 10th he was for a few hours in his own home at Mount Vernon,-“ a modest habitation, quite in keeping with the idea that we have of Cincinnatus, and of those of the other great commanders of the Roman republic." The troops had been embarked at the Head of Elk, but their general suddenly commanded them to stop. He had heard that De Grasse had gone to sea on the 5th, and he doubted whether the navigation of the bay would have been secure. De Grasse had set sail to encounter the West India fleet of sir Samuel Hood, which had effected a junction with six ships under admiral Graves, who, as senior officer, took the command. On the 5th a general engagement ensued, in which both fleets were damaged, but no vessels on either side were taken or destroyed. The French being reinforced by the squadron from Rhode Island, Graves returned to New York, and De Grasse remained master of the Chesapeake. On the 17th of September, Cornwallis wrote somewhat despairingly to * Steuben, p. 346. 1781.] CORNWALLIS FORTIFIES YORK-TOWN. 427 Clinton: "I am just informed that since the Rhode Island squadron has joined, they have thirty-six sail of the line. This place is in no state of defence. If you cannot relieve me very soon you must be prepared to hear the worst." He was promised relief, and the co-operation of a force of five thousand men, which was to be conveyed by the whole fleet on the 5th of October. On the 8th of September, Cornwallis had provisions for six weeks. The French fleet in the Chesapeake entirely cut off any chance of further supplies. On the 14th of October, then, according to this calculation, the British army would be in peril of starvation. But, according to one account, Cornwallis subsequently thought that he might hold out to the middle of November.t On the 19th of September, Steuben, who had been appointed to a regular command in the siege of York Town, writes, "Cornwallis is fortifying himself like a brave general who must fall; but I think he will fall with honour."+ Steuben was the only American officer who had ever taken part in a regular siege, and his assistance in the siege of York Town appears to have been especially valuable. On the 30th of September the besieging army broke ground, and constructed redoubts about eleven hundred yards from the British works. On the evening of the 9th they opened their batteries, and, writes Cornwallis on the 11th, "have since continued firing without intermission with about forty pieces of cannon, mostly heavy, and sixteen * "Cornwallis Correspondence," vol. i. p. 120. "Life," p. 466. |