for the war. As soon as this injustice was redressed, and some pecuniary accommodation rendered, all not entitled to their discharge returned to their duty.

The violation of contract is always morally wrong; and however it may sometimes yield present good, it is generally overbalanced by subsequent injury. The government which is under the necessity of resorting to armed men, enlisted for a term of service, to protect its rights, ought to take care that the contract of enlistment is fair as well as legal, and that it be justly executed; or they afford a pretext for incalculable ills, which, though often avoided from the force of circumstances, are sometimes productive of irreparable misfortunes to the nation. Every effort was made at the time by the enemy to turn this menacing occurrence into the deepest injury; but the fidelity of the revolting troops remained invulnerable; the best possible apology for their previous conduct.

The present mutiny was marked by a very different character. It was grounded on the breach of allegiance, and reared in all the foulness of perfidy. Greene himself was to be seized and delivered to the enemy. How could treason ascend higher?

A sergeant in the Pennsylvania line took the lead in this daring conspiracy; a soldier heretofore much esteemed, and possessing talents adapted to the enterprise. No doubt exists but that he and his associates held continued correspondence with the enemy, and that a plan had been concerted for the protection of the mutineers by the co-operating movements of the British force.

The vigilance and penetration of Greene could neither be eluded nor overreached. He well knew that the soldiers were discontented; nor was he insensible to the cause of their complaints. But he confided in the rectitude of Congress, and in the well-tried fidelity of that portion of the army which had so often fought by his side. He nevertheless dreaded the effects of the wiles of the artful and wicked, when applied to the inflammable mass around him.

To the enemy's camp and to that description of his troops most likely to forget self-respect and patriotism, he directed his close and vigorous attention. From both he drew information which convinced him that his apprehensions were not groundless. Redoubling his exertions, as well to discover the plan and progress of the conspirators as to thwart their designs, he learned that the sergeant, supposed to be the leader, had, by indulging unwarily the free declaration of his sentiments, subjected himself to martial law,

and alarmed all the faithful soldiers, who, though prone to unite in the declaration of the wrongs they had suffered, and of their determination to obtain redress, had never entertained a thought of executing their views by the prostitution of military subordination, much less by the perpetration of the blackest treason, of the basest ingratitude. Greene, acting with his usual decision, ordered the arrest and trial of the sergeant. This order was immediately executed, and the prisoner being by the court-martial condemned to die, the sentence of the court was forth with carried into effect. (23d April.)

Some others, believed to be associates with the sergeant, among whom were Peters and Owens, domestics in the general's family, were also tried; but the testimony was not deemed conclusive by the court. Twelve others deserted in the course of the night, and got safe to Charleston.

Thus the decisive conduct of the general crushed instantly this daring conspiracy; and the result proved, as often happens, that although the temper of complaint and of discontent pervaded the army, but few of the soldiers were in reality guilty of the criminal intentions which were believed at first to have spread far through the ranks.

While the arrests and trials were proceeding in our camp, and while General Greene continued to watch the movements of the enemy, they disclosed a spirit of adventure, which had been for some months dormant. Large bodies of horse and foot were put in motion; some of which, in the course of the night, approached us with unusual confidence. This boldness tended to confirm the suspicions before entertained that the enemy was not only apprised of the intentions of our mutineers, but had prepared to second their designs. General Greene, feeling his critical situation, contented himself for the present with detaching select parties to hover around the enemy for the purpose of observing his motions, with the determination to strike his adversary as soon as he should find his army restored to its pristine discipline and character. On the morning after the execution of the traitor, Captain O'Neal of the Legion cavalry fell in with a body of the enemy's horse under Major Frazer.

April 24th.

O'Neal, being very inferior in strength to his antagonist, retired, and was vigorously pursued by Frazer. During his flight he perceived a second body of the enemy in possession of his line of retreat. He was now compelled to change his course; and with the

utmost difficulty escaped himself, after losing ten of his dragoons. Frazer had advanced as high as Stan's Bridge, the place assigned for the reception of that portion of the conspirators who had undertaken to betray the person of their general. On his return he was met by O'Neal, not far from Dorchester. This was the sole advantage resulting to the enemy in a conjuncture from which he expected to derive signal benefit.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

England determines upon peace with America.-A cessation of hostilities proposed.The war degenerates into one for supplies.-Discontent of the Legion.-Operations in Georgia-Remarkable expedition of Guristersigo. His battle with Wayne.-Is defeated and killed.-Savannah evacuated by the British.-War closed in Georgia. -Leslie repeats his pacific overture.-Death of Col. Laurens.-Correspondence between Gen. Leslie and Governor Matthews.-Nakedness of the American army. -Contract for clothing.-Charleston evacuated, and peace restored to the South.

THE unexpected events which had occurred in the preceding campaign, when known in England, attracted universal attention, and produced a determination to put a period to the war in America. In accordance with this resolution instructions were forwarded to the commander-in-chief of the royal forces, who conformed his subsequent measures to the change in the system of administration; further waste of life being in his opinion unnecessary. His lieutenant in South Carolina, Major-General Leslie, proposed to General Greene a cessation of hostilities. This proposition was rejected by the American general, as his powers did not reach the subject. He consequently communicated the same to Congress, who alone could give the requisite authority.

General Leslie, finding his pacific overture unavailing, was compelled to pursue measures to obtain supplies for his troops, although sure to produce the sacrifice of individuals in both armies; a sacrifice which he anxiously desired to avoid. For this purpose incursions into our territory were occasionally attempted; sometimes with success, but generally the British detachments were forced to regain their lines without the accomplishment of their views.

This little warfare, always irksome, unless the prelude to grand operations, was peculiarly so to troops inured to the most interesting scenes of war, and conscious that those scenes could never be renewed. Men of the sword only can appreciate this condition of

war, the most revolting to every real soldier. Inquietude and illhumor could not fail to prevail, especially in the American camp; where want of clothes, want of food, and empty purses, were superadded. Amid these a new cause of uneasiness was excited. Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens, who became a prisoner on the fall of Charleston, had been exchanged by Congress out of course, which was much disrelished by our officers in the hands of the enemy; as they considered every departure from the usage of war not only unjust in principle, but cruel to themselves in application. This usage secures to every prisoner his exchange in turn; and undoubtedly, as a general rule, is unexceptional. Deviations from it ought rarely to be admitted, and then only from a strong cause. In support of the present deviation, it was contended that the war raged in South Carolina, Laurens's native country; that his acknowledged talents would therefore be singularly useful in that theatre; and, moreover, that he was aid-de-camp to the commanderin-chief, and consequently was an exception to the general rule. No doubt these reasons are forcible, and will always have weight with the sovereign. They did not however tranquillize the feelings which the occurrence had excited. Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens, after joining the Southern army, continued in the family of General Greene, waiting for some change of circumstances which might enable the general to fix him permanently in the line of service. This Greene was very desirous of effecting; not only because the resolution of Congress authorizing his exchange called indirectly for it, but the commander-in-chief required it from his own conviction of the worth and capacity of this excellent officer.

Notwithstanding these high authorities, notwithstanding his own inclination and Laurens's reputation, stubborn difficulties interposed, not to be readily vanquished. Officers of the highest merit, who had served under himself from his accession to the command of the Southern army, to whom he owed, and to whom he felt, every obligation which a general can owe or feel, must be supplanted or overlooked to make way for the desired appointment.

Lieutenant-Colonel Lee had become incapable from ill-health of continuing in command of the light troops, and had obtained leave of absence. This contingency produced a vacancy which the general had the clear right of supplying at his will. The occurrence offered some relief to the embarrassment into which the resolution of Congress and the wishes of the commander-in-chief had involved General Greene; but as the vacant station was the most desirable within

his gift, because the most honorable, the preferment of an officer who had not shared in the arduous struggle just closed, to the many who had in every vicissitude of his eventful campaign, covered themselves with glory, did not comport with justice, and could not escape animadversion. To smooth the difficulties which intervened, the general had associated Laurens with Lieutenant-Colonel Lee in the expedition against St. John's Island, hoping that the brilliancy of success, would cover the substitution of the second for the first, as soon as that officer should retire. But unfortunately the attempt failed, and the general lost the aid which he expected to derive from the magic power of victory. In this perplexing situation some of General Greene's confidential advisers did not hesitate to urge him to recede from his purpose, upon the ground of the superior pretensions of officers, whose services imposed upon him primary attention. Nor would this counsel have been unavailing, had not the general been persuaded that his omission to employ Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens would be considered as disrespectful to the commander-inchief. One of Greene's aid-de-camps had been for some time at head-quarters; and from this gentleman was derived the information which led to the above conclusion. He had heard insinuations in the family of Washington which lisped these sentiments. It was more than once suggested that the general of the South had been less communicative than was expected; and even allusion to the conduct and fate of Gates were occasionally made, which clearly imported the possibility, if not the probability, that the conqueror in the South, like the conqueror in the North, might become the rival of the commander-in-chief. In justice to General Washington it was acknowledged that sentiments of this sort never fell from his lips, or in his presence. Nevertheless when those around him ventured to hold such language, it could not but inspire unpleasant feelings in the breast of Greene.

General Greene determined at every hazard, to afford no just cause for such unjust suspicions. He declared his conviction that Washington himself would spurn such insinuations, unless his mind should have been previously poisoned by artful and designing men, possessing his esteem and confidence.

He lamented that the motives which actuated his conduct must, from their nature, be concealed; as he was persuaded that the very officers themselves, whom he apparently neglected, would approve the course in the then stage of the war, when every opportunity for the acquirement of military reputation was probably finally closed.