History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 63

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776

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Morgan sveing his main line in full retreat, rode with feelings of alarm and astonishment up to Colonel Howard, who quickly explained to him the cause of the movement and removed the apprehension he expressed, by pointing to the line and remarking that " men were not beaten

1 Scharf's " History of Maryland," vol. ii., p. 405.

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who retreated in that order." Morgan was at of the vietor- when his troops threw down their once reassured and directed Howard to ride along the front and order the officers to halt and face about the moment the word was given, while he rode forward to select a place where the columns should be once more deployed for action. Mor- gan had scarcely lett when a messenger reached Howard from Colonel Washington, who had charged and broken the British cavalry. "They are coming on like a mob," were the words Wash- ington had put into the mouth of his courier, " Give them another fire and I will charge them "

The order to halt and turn upon the enemy was caught up from man to man. " Face about boys, give them one good fire and the victory is ours!"' sang out the strident voice of the old Virginia wagoner as he galloped along the ranks. The British were within thirty yards and rushing on in some disorder. They were stunned by the fire which Howard poured into them. It has been said of this battle that never before was there known such quick loading, discharge and reloading of the flint-loek muskets and rifles as the Americans then displayed. The rapidity and accuracy of their fire demoralized the British. Before they had recovered from the shock Howard shouted the order to charge. This completed the panie of the enemy in his front. Before his cold steel touched them the greater number had thrown down their arms and were begging for quarter, while others had turned their backs in speedy flight. The only part of the field in which the battle was still raging was off to the American right, where Washington was endeavoring to eap- ture the British guns, which were defended by Tarleton's light cavalry and by the crack Seventy- first Regiment of infantry. Pickens' militia came to the assistance of Washington and Howard charged into the midst of the Seventy-first. Tar- leton made a dash to save his guns, but was quickly beaten off and escaped with forty men, but not before he and Washington bad met face to face. Tarleton received a sabre eut on the hand and Washington a pistol wound in the face. Howard had so smashed the Seventy-first that he had at one time in his hands the swords of seven officers who had personally surrendered to him. The defeat of the British was complete. They lost one hundred killed, one hundred and fifty wounded, six hundred prisoners, three pieces of artillery, two stands of colors, eight hundred muskets, thirty-five wagons and baggage and one hundred cavalry horses. It was an utter destrue- tion of their foree, which amounted to eleven hundred and fifty veterans. There were but eight hundred Americans engaged, and they lost but twelve killed and sixty-one wounded The outrages inflicted by Tarleton upon prisoners and even upon non-combatants were fresh in the minds

arms. The ominous ery of " Tarleton's quarter" passed with bitter emphasis from one end of the line to the other, but the intervention of Morgan, Howard and other officers prevented the shedding of the blood of the captives. Incensed at the defeat of Tarleton, Lord Cornwallis, who was not more than thirty miles distant from the scene of action, determined to pursue his retreating ad- versary, regain his captured troops and baggage, re-establish the royal government in North Caro- lina and press forward to form a junction with the British troops under Arnold on the Chesapeake. Leaving Lord Rawdon with three thousand effec- tive men to hold South Carolina, Cornwallis, having been reinforced by Leslie's command, began, on January 19, 17>1, his long march to the North. Collecting his army at Ramson's mill, on the south fork of the Catawba, he resolved on the 25th to sever his communications with South Carolina and to put his army in light marching order. Destroying his extra baggage and nearly all his wagons, he took up his " tlying march " in pursuit of the American army. Mor- gan, anticipating the taeties of Cornwallis, on the 25th wrote to General Greene, advising a june- tion of their forces. On the receipt of this letter, Greene placed his army under the command of Major-General Huger, with orders to push forward with all speed by the direet road to Salisbury, while Greene, accompanied only by an aide and a sergeant's guard of dragoons, rode across the country nearly one hundred and fifty miles and on the 30th reached Morgan's camp at Sherrald's Ford, on the Catawba. The design was to unite all the forces at Salisbury, but it was necessarily abandoned because of the rapid advance of Corn- wallis and the crippled condition of the American troops. " More than half our members," wrote Greene to Sumter, "are in a manner naked, so much so that we cannot put them on the least kind of duty ; indeed, there is a great number that have not a rag of clothes on them except a little piece of blanket in the Indian form around their waists." These tatterdemalion heroes, however, formed the junction of Morgan and Huger's com- mands at Guilford Court-House on February 8th. All told they were too weak to offer battle to the enemy, and to cover their retreat Greene organ- ized a pieked force of cavalry and infantry, in which Kirkwood's Delawareans were included. He desired Morgan to take command of it, but the " Old Wagoner's " days of campaigning were ended. Rheumatism had done for him the work which the enemy's bullets failed to accomplish, and the trust which he was compelled to decline was placed in the capable hands of Colonel Otho H. Williams. Greene ordered him to "harass the enemy in their advance, check their progress, and,

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if possible, give ns an opportunity to retire set Pickens and Lee on his track. and on Febru- without a general action." Williamsobeyed orders ary 27th, Cornwallis marchal his whole force and the battle of Guilford followed.

On February 10th the American army was at Guilford, N. C., and Cornwallis at Salem, twenty- five miles distant. On the same day tireene started with his main body for Boyd's Frery, while Williams, Howard, Washington, Henry Lee and Carrington placed themselves in front of the enemy. The object of the movement of these light troops was to mislead the British in order to cover Greene's retreat, and it was quite a success. Cornwallis, who always needed twenty-four hours in which to comprehend truthfully a military situation, saw Williams' command in front of him and imagined that he had the whole Amer- ican army in position where he eould crush them with his overwhelming force. Greene meanwhile was pushing forward and had gained nearly a day's march. Williams was skilfully covering the retreat by destroying the bridges in front of the British advance and stripping the region of provi- sions. It was a chase in which both armies suffered almost incredible privations. " Most of the men," says Sergeant Seymour, "were entirely without shoes and had no time to eook what provisions they had." Lee wrote of Willianis' corps, in which the Delawareans were embraced : "The light corps was rather better off, but among its officers there was not a blanket for every three ; so that among those whose hour ad- mitted rest it was an established rule that at every fire one shoukl, in routine, keep on his legs to pre- serve the fire in vigor. The tents were never used by the corps under Williams in the retreat. The heat of the fires was the ouly protection from rain and sometimes snow ; it kept the circumjacent ground and air dry while imparting warmth to the body." The North Carolina militia becom- ing discouraged, by the third day all but about eighty of them had deserted, majors and captains going off with their men. "You have the flower of the army," wrote Greene to Williams ; " do not expose the men too much, lest our situation should grow more critical." Early on the following morning he wrote again ; " Follow our route, as a division of our forces might encourage the enemy to push us further than they will dare to do if we are together. I have not slept four hours since you left me, so great has been my solicitude to prepare for the worst. 1 have great reason to believe that one of Tarleton's officers was in our camp night before last."

On February 14th, Greene crossed the Dan river into Virginia, his last troops landing on the Virginia shore by the time the astonished and mortified enemy had reached the opposite shore. Cornwallis gave his troops a day's rest, and then fall back by easy marches to Hillsborough. Greene " Old Delaware Company under the brave Captain

across the law River and encamped near Alle- mance Cresk. Early in March, Greene received re-enforcements from: Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and the D dawarcans were strengtheard by come fitty men enlisted under an act pa -- ed by the Legislature on February 10th. With these ad- ditions to his ranks, Greene decided to risk an en- gagement with the enemy, and on March 14th enenmoed near Guilford Court-Hon-e. He had 1051 regular troops and more than 2000 militia, and C'orpwallis had 2400 veterans.

The battle of Guilford occurred on March 15th. Kirkwood's Delawareans were on the right flank of the army, in company with Col. William Wash- ington's dragoons ant Col. Lynch's Virginia militia. Near them, on the left, was the First Maryiand regiment, under Command of Colonel Guaby. The North Carolina mi- litia, who were the first to be attacked, gave way and tied, " none of them having fired," says Greene " more than twice, very few more than once, and more than half not at all " The British then attacked the second line, which was made up of Hawe's Virginians, who made a gallant defense, but were forced back to the position of Gunby's Marylanders and the Delawareans. Once more these tried soldiers of neighboring States proved that they were superior to the Hessians, High- landers and English ; " the enemy rushed into close fire," wrote General Greene. " but so firmly was he received by this body of veterans (Gunby's regi- ment), supported by Hawe's regiment of Virginia and Kirkwood's company of Delaware, that with equal rapidity he was compelled to recoil from the shoek." Henry Lee's account of the battle is " that though the British general fought against two to one, he had greatly the advantage in the quality of his soldiers, General Greene's veteran infantry being only the First Regiment of Mary- land, the company of Delaware, under Kirkwood, to whom none could be superior, and the Legion infantry, making all together 500 rank and file."

The Delawareans and Gunby's men charged with the bayonet upon the disordered ranks of the British. Gunby was shot down, but Col. John Eager Howard took his place at their head, and Washington's dragoons charged by their side. They were cutting down O'Hara's British brigade with sword and bayonet, when Cornwallis or- dered his artillery to fire upon the struggling mass of friends and foes. Arrested by this terrible fire, Iloward,collected his men among the dead and dying and retired in good order, followed by Washington. The battle was won, chiefly by the exertions of the Delaware and Maryland vet- erans. Greene, in his report of it, spoke of the

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Kirkwood," and Mr. Johnson, writing of the corps battles in which its bravery reduced it to a skole- of Marylanders and Delawareans in the Maryland Journal of April 3, 1781. said : ton the remnant made the most dependable soldiers in the world." The Delawareans had precisely followed John Churchill's formula.

"They did not exceed est in tomater, get, unassisted, they drove from the field in the first instance the al Beitwent, "t_2 strong. supported 1 v the , agen and the Light infantry of the Guards, Biber tuy l. I sit breathed from the performance of this ", rv, e, thes pierced the fink of the first battalion of the Guards, and saded by the cavalry of Wishing- ton, dissipate da coffs far exco ding their own in numer, ntal the very boast of the British nation Volleys of grape shot poured the. ugh their own ranks by the chemy, and the new approach of two Brunch Det ments on their left think, arrested them in the pursuit , but they calm ly and in perfect onder returned to the position and exhibited a spirit that seemed only to covet more ardnous service."

In this battle the Delawareans lost seven killed, thirteen wounded and fifteen missing.

While the Delaware soldiers were engaged in this campaign in the South, no important events occurred in the State. On February 10. 1781, Thomas Rodney, Thomas MeKean and Niche las Vandyke, were elected delegates to Congress for the ensuing year. On the 1st of March, the Articles of Confederation and Union between the States were formally ratified by Congress.

Immediately after Cornwallis left the vicinity of Guilford, Greene started in pursuit, eager for battle. Dismissing his militia, he set out with one thousand eight hundred regulars for the enemy's outposts in South Carolina. The strongest of these was Camden, which was held by Lord Rawdon, with a garri-on of nine hundred men. Greene determined to take this, as he believed he would thus break the enemy's line in the centre, and the other outposts would fall in detail. On April 20th he arrived at Hobki k's Hill, on the north of Camden, a mile and a half in advance of the British redoubts. He was expecting to be rejoined by Lee's legion, which he had sent to capture Fort Wat-on, on the left bank of the Santee ; but before Lee returned, Rawdon marched to the attack, on the morning of the 25th. Greene wrote :

" Kirkwood, with his light infantry, was placed in front to sup- port the pikets and retard the enemy's approach. As soon as the pockets began firing Kirkwood hastebed with Ins light mfantry to their support, and the quick sharp volleys from the week told how bravely he was learing up against the weight of the British army. Still he was slowly forced back, disputing the ground fout by tout to the lot on which the Americans sote waiting the signal to begin. . . . And soon Kirkwood, with his light infantry, and Smutth, with cangpu-znard-, were seen falling slowly back, and pressing close upon them the British van."

The battle of Hobkirk's Hill terminated unfavor- ably to the Americans through confusion and mistaken orders in their own lines, but the Dela- wareans maintained their untarnished reputation Greene, in his orders of the day on the 26th, alluded to " the gallant behavior of the light infantry, commanded by Capt. Kirkwood :" and Seymour recorded in his diary that " In this action The Amerjeans began the battle with the militia of the Carolinas in front, who fought stubbornly until their ammunition was exhausted, when they fell back under the protection of Lee and Hen- the light infantry under Capt. Robert Kirkwood, were returned many thanks by Gen. Greene, for their gallant behavior." They were a confirma- tion of the opinion of the Duke of Marlborough, derson. Summer, with his North Carolina Conti- that if he " could put a regiment through three

Though Rawdon was victorious at Habkirk's Hill, the movements of Marion and Sumter com- pelled the British to evacuate all the northwestern portion of South Carolina except Ninety-Six. They still held Augusta, on the banks of the Savannah River, but that place was captured by Leo during the last week of May. The Delawareans were in this engagement, after which Lee hastened with his troops to join Greene in the siege of Ninety-six, where he arrived on May 28th. Lord Rawdon was marching from Charleston with two thousand men to the relief of the post, and Greene thought it best to expedite affairs by assailing the formidable British entrenehments before Rawdon could come up. Lee was charged with the attack on the stoekade fort on the right with Kirkwood's com- pany and the infantry of the Lee legion. Fascines were prepared to fill the ditches, and close upon the footsteps of the forlorn hope came men with iron hooks fastened to the ends of long poles with which to pull down the sand bags. Major Ru- dolph commanded Lee's forlorn hope. Lee's eom- mand easily gained possession of the stockade in their front, which was held by a very small force of the enemy, but elsewhere along the line the American storming-parties were repulsed with heavy loss, and when Greene ordered them to re- treat Lee abandoned the advanced position which he had gained. Thus ended the siege of Ninety Fix, which lasted twenty-eight days, and cost the Ameri- can army one hundred and eighty-five men. Greene went into camp on the High Hills of Santee, about ninety miles northwest of Charleston, and rested un- til August 23d, when he moved to attack the British at their post near the junction of the Wateree and Congaree Rivers. They retreated before him and halted at Eutaw Springs. Early on the morning of September 8th he was elose upon them before they were aware of his approach. Kirkwood's Delawareans and Washington's cavalry were the American reserve, the army also embracing the North Carolina militia under Colonel Malmedy, South Carolina militia under Marion and Pickens, Sumner's North Carolina regulars, Campbell's Virginians and Williams' Maryland men under Iloward and Hardman. Lee with his legion, and Henderson with the militia under Hampton, Mid- dleton and Polk protected the flanks. Greene also had four cannon, four and six-pounders.

nental-, was ordered up to till the gap, while the

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veterans of Williams, Howard and Kirkwood were held baek for the final struggle. The British advance was commanded by Colonel stewart, a dashing and brilliant officer, who personally kd his men in charge after charge. In one of these he pushed Summer back, and the British left, springing forward as if to certain victory, fell into contusion. Before they could recover, Willams was upon them with the bayonet and pierced their centre. At the same moment Lieutenant Colonel Wade Hampton, who had taken command of the cavalry on the left flank after the wounding of Henderson, charged, and Washington and Kirk- wood plunged with sabres and bayonets upon Major Majoribanks, who was holding the British right.' Washington's horse was shot under him, and he was wounded and taken prisoner, together with nearly forty of his men, in the effort to dis- lodge Major Majoribanks, who held a strong position, from which he endangered the American left wing. The thicket was too dense for the movement of cavalry, and the men were taken one by one without the opportunity to resist. Kirkwood and Wade Hampton made a similar attempt with persistent valor, but Majoribanks only retired to a still stronger position and even- tually behind the palisades of a garden which surrounded a stone house which the British had converted into a fortress. Unfortunately, after the earlier charges of Kirkwood, Howard and Williams had driven the enemy from every other portion of the field, and the Americans were in possession of the British eamp, many of the sol- diers drank of the liquors which they found in the tents so plentifully that whole companies be- eame intoxicated. Of the incident when Greene was endeavoring to restore his disorganized line, and ordered the charge upon the house and garden held by Colonel Sheridan and Major Majoribanks, George Washington Greene, wrote:

" Kirkwood and Hampton were now at hand, and the men of Dela- ware pressed forward with the bayonet, while Hamptom collecting the shattered remains of Washington's cavahy, still bleeding, but not disheartened, made another trial with them, hint the preition was too strong to be forced, and though Kirkwood held his ground, Hampton was compelled to retire."

It is unquestionable that in this, their last, bat- tle, Kirkwood's little corps added to the laurels which they had already gained. General Greene said, in his official report to the President of Congress :

"I think myself principally indelited for the victory olit fined, to the free lise of the bayonet made by the Virginians and Marylandder-, the Infantry of the legion, and Cups un Kerknowd's light infantry, and though few armes over exhibited equit bravery with ours in general, yet the conduct and intrepidity of these corps were pecturly conspicuous."

Greene did indeed gain the victory on the 8th of September, 1781, at Eutaw Springs, through the efficacy of his bayonet charges, for during the

night the British positions were evacuated. On October 29th, Congress passed a resolution-

" That the thanks of the United States, in Cot grossa-childled, le pre- sented to the + fhurts and neu of the Maryland and Vigima Legades and the Delaware battalion et Confitental tieejs for the bojatalh lol btavery and hererm by them drynyrd n hết: mùng to the city through an incessant fue, and changing them with an ingetnosity and undvi that could not be resiste J."

General Greche and his army rested a few days near Eutaw Springs and then eressing Nelson's Ferry on September 12th, returned by slow marches to his old camp on the Heights of Santce. He had so effectnally elcared the British out of Georgia and the Carolinas that they held only the ports of Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah, but his own forces were greatly thinned and worn out. They were not expected to do any more immediate fighting; but although the war was drawing rapidly to a close, there were reasons for fear of further aggressive movements by the enemy, and Greene sent many of his officers home on missions to recruit their commands.

In Delaware, during the summer of 1781, the most difficult work of the authorities was to raise forty-five thousand dollars in specie or supplies for the use of the general government. It was voted at the session of June 14th, at Lewes, and two days later a bill was brought in to expedite the enlistment and forwarding of reeruits for the Delaware battalion. At the same time the Presi- dent of the State was requested by the Legislature to order the first class of the militia to hold them- selves in readiness to march wherever General Washington might direet ; this was in pursuance of a requisition of Congress of May 31st ; but as Delaware eould neither arm or equip these troops, the Board of War was asked to lend the State suf- ficent weapons and aceoutrements. Whether it was that the Board could not comply, or that the militia could not be mobilized, they were not brought into service. The efforts to raise enough men for Kirkwood to again elevate his command to the rank of a battalion, which would have in- volved his own promotion to a coloneley and eor- responding benefits to his subordinate officers, were more suece-sful in one aspect, though not in that of the first consequence to Kirkwood and his handful of veterans. Recruiting progressed fav- orably in Delaware in the early months of 1761, and some three hundred men were obtained under the expectation that they would be added to Kirk- wood's ranks in the Carolinas. But at that time the traitor, Benedict Arnold, had been dispatched by Sir Henry Clinton to the Chesapeake, with a fleet of sixty sail, and sixteen hundred men to replace General Leslie, who had gone to reinforce Cornwallis. The land force was composed of British, Hessians and Tories; and as Clinton dis- trusted Arnold, he sent with him Colonels Dundas and Simcoe, two experienced British ofheers, who

1 Carrington's " Battles of the Revolution, " p. 5-0.

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were to be consulted in every movement. Arnold overran the country on both sides of the Chesa- peake, and burned and plundered Riebmond, Portsmouth, Petersburg and other towns. On Jan. 1, 1781, Congress instructed General Washington " that he should immediately make such distribu - tion of his command, including those of our allies (the French) under Count Rochambeau, as will most effectually counteract the views of the enemy and support the Southern States." In compliance with these instructions, Lafayette marched south with twelve hundred men, and Admira! des Touches, upon whom the command of the French fleet devolved upon the death of Admiral de Ternay, di-patched from Newport, Rhode Island. Captain de Tilly with the men-of-war " L'Eveillee," "Gentile," "Surveillante" and " La Gueppe," to co- operate with him. De Tilly took his ships inte the Chesapeake, but sailed to sea again without encour ... tering the British fleet, and Lafayette was so houin- pered that he did not reach Virginia until May. These operations, however, brought the closing work of the war into the Virginia peninsula between the York and James Rivers, and so it occurred that when Cornwallis concentrated his forces in that State, and Washington and Rochambeau hurried thither to meet him, the Delaware recruits, instead of being sent to Kirkwood, were stopped on their march southward and ordered to join the army that in September began the siege of Cornwallis army at Yorktown. There are various indefinite allusions to their arrival at that focus of the con- eluding military events of the Revolution, and it is only certain that they were in the vicinity when General Lincoln opened his first parallel on the British front on October 6th. The surrender of Cornwallis took place on the 19th, and Washing- ton at once started northward with all his troops except the Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia Continentals, who, under command of General St. Clair, were sent to the support of General Greene in the South. On October 27th the Drla- ware Legislature passed a resolution reciting that as Washington with a portion of his command would shortly pass through the State by the post at Christiana Bridge, that post should be thoroughly provisioned, and General Patterson, Lieutenant- Colonel Henry Darby, Major James Black and Captain William MeClay were authorized to pur- chase the necessary provisions and storage upon consultation with Deputy-Quartermaster Yeates. On November 6th the term of Casar Rodney, as President of the State, having expired, the Legislature met in joint convention, and by a vote of twenty-five out of twenty-six members present elected as his successor John Dickinson for the legal term of three years On the 9th resolutions were passed appropriating three hundred pounds in specie to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Pope, for

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 63

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards Number of Pages: 776

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776