USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 43
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of the State to equip and supply her troops in the Revolu- tion.
As the war progressed the State established factories for making arms an l ammunition, set up salt works, and em- ployed large numbers of non-combatants to make shoes and clothes for the soldiers. Other means for raising supplies were purchases from private persons, impressments, and the levying of specific taxes. In every section of the State the government constantly had agents laying in supplies of pork, beef, flour, and other provisions for the army. In letters to Burke and Washington, both written February 15, 1778, Cas- well gives us some idea of his activities in this work. To Burke he wrote: "I am to buy leather and skins, shoes and other clothing, procure manufactures, set them to work, pur- chase salt and provisions, and procure boats and wagons for sending those articles on. All this I am really constantly, al- most busily [daily ?] employed about myself." "The dis- tresses of the Soldiery for want of clothing," he wrote to Washington, "are truly alarming, and the feelings of every man of the least sensibility must be wounded on receiving the information of their unhappy circumstances. Since I was favored with your Excellency's account of their sufferings, I have been happy in purchasing for our Troops about 4,000 yards of woolen Cloth, 300 Blankets, 1,500 yards of Osnaburgs, some Shoes and Stockings. I have also purchased a consid- erable quantity of Tanned leather and Deerskins, all which will be sent on to the Clothier General as soon as I can pro- cure wagons. A considerable quantity of salt and salted pro- visions have been also purchased under my directions."
Unfortunately many of the agents employed in this busi- less were inefficient and corrupt. Money entrusted to them was squandered on their personal wants or lost at gambling tables ; while large quantities of supplies which they purchased never reached the commissaries. In 1780, the General Assen- bly declared that "many persons have been intrusted with large sums of public money for the use of the State, and also public property, for which they have never accounted, but have abused the trust reposed in them by misapplying the same, to the great injury of the public credit," and created a board of auditors to investigate the accounts of all such agents and require them to settle with the State. Another species of corruption was practiced by "sundry persons who have lately," according to the Assembly of 1782, "stiled themselves State Commissaries, Quarter-masters, [and] Su- perintendents," and by such misrepresentations "committed
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great abuses and waste, by making unlawful impressments and misapplication of public stores." A special act was therefore passed to reach and punish this class of grafters and robbers.
The chief sources from which North Carolina, like many of the other states, received military supplies were the French, Spanish and Dutch West Indies. No sooner had war begun than the harbors of Ocracoke, Edenton, Beaufort, New Bern and Wilmington became white with the sails of merchantmen and privateers. "The contemptible Port of Ocracoke," wrote former Governor Martin, in January, 1778, "* * has
become a great channel of supply to the Rebels. * They have received through it and continued to receive at that inlet * * as lately as the beginning of this month very considerable importations of the necessaries they most want for the purpose of carrying on their Warfare from the Ports of France and the French West Indian Islands." This trade though hazardous held out prospects of large profits. Enterprising merchants invested their fortunes in it. To sea- men they offered "such exhorbitant pay," that the State found it difficult to find crews for the public ships. The State itself engaged in this business on a large scale. It carried on its negotiations both through French agents and agents of its own. In 1779 the Assembly appointed Benjamin Hawkins agent to purchase military supplies both at home and abroad. The next year, in order to introduce more system in the busi- ness, it appointed Richard Caswell, Robert Bignall and Ben- jamin Hawkins commissioners "for the express purpose of carrying on a trade for the benefit of this State," empow- ered them to hire, purchase, and build ships, to load them with naval stores, tobacco and other North Carolina products, "for the purpose of importing or procuring arms and other military stores for the army, as well as for the importation of salt and all kinds of merchandize" for general use.
This trade was a great stimulus to ship building. Ship- yards sprang up at Edenton, Beaufort, New Bern and Wil- mington and were busy throughout the war building and launching almost every kind of river craft and seagoing ves- sel. Some of the noted ships built at these yards were the armed brigs, King Tammany and Pennsylvania Farmer, which were built at Edenton for the State, and the Governor Burke, "a fine, fast sailing Brig," also built at Edenton; the Eclipse, a 14-gun brig built at Beaufort; the armed brigan- tine, General Washington, built and fitted out at Wilming- ton; and the Betsey, the Heart of Oak, the General Cas-
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well, the General Nash, and the Sturdy Beggar, "allowed to be the handsomest vessel ever built in America," all built at New Bern. These and many other fast sailing vessels slipped through the inlets of Eastern North Carolina, ran down to the West Indies, or crossed the Atlantic to France and Spain, sold their cargoes, and successfully elud- ing the British cruisers that patrolled our waters, returned to our ports laden with all manner of articles from heavy artillery and West Indian rum to French laces, silk stock- ings, and night caps. In June, 1776, the Polly and the Heart of Oak arrived at New Bern with "2,000 weight of gunpowder and 20 stand of small Arms, Compleate with Iron ramrods [and] bayonets," which their owner offered to the province at "a reasonable profit." In March, 1778, several vessels arrived at New Bern from the Bermudas with cargoes of salt, "which 'tis hoped," said The North Car- olina Gazette, "will bring down the extravagant price of that article." The next year the Holy Heart of Jesus imported from France twenty-three cannon for which the State paid 140 hogshead of tobacco. The Ferdinand, also from a French port, brought into Lookout Bay a large cargo including silk stockings, woolen and thread night caps, silk gown patterns, silk and thread handkerchiefs, "plumes for ladies and offi- cers," and numerous other articles of equal military value.
Most of the vessels engaged in this trade were privateers sailing under letters of marque and reprisal. Although those who engaged in it were liable if captured to be hanged as pi- rates, the profits were so enormous, the life so stimulating and the results so invaluable to the country that many an adven- turous youth, who preferred the excitement of the quarter- deck to the dull drudgery of the army camp, eagerly enlisted in this service. When the General Gates was lost in 1778 great anxiety was expressed at Edenton for the fate of "six young gentlemen of the first families and best expectations in this part of the country, who went [on her] volunteers to try their fortunes." The service was important not only for the supplies obtained, but also for the damage inflicted on British commerce. In the fall of 1777, the Lydia, 12 guns and 50 men, took a large British slaver with a cargo of negroes just from Africa "worth between Twenty and Thirty Thousand Pounds." At about the same time the Nancy captured the Invermay bound from Jamaica to Pensacola "with Rum and Slaves, said to be worth £35,000 Proclamation," and the Severn, bound from Jamaica to Bristol, with a cargo val- ued at £40,000. In September, 1778, the Bellona, 16 guns,
Vol. I-29
CANNON PURCHASED BY GOVERNOR CASWELL DURING THE REVOLUTION (Now in Capitol Square at Raleigh flanking Houdon's Statue of Washington) Inscription on the Tablets Bought in France by Richard Caswell Mounted at Edenton, 1778. Re-mounted 1861. Captured by U. S. Force 1862. Trunnion broken off. Presented by Edenton to the State of North Carolina, 1903.
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returned to New Bern "from a short cruize" with four prizes containing among other valuable commodities "a considerable sum in specie." The enormous losses of provisions and mil- itary stores occasioned by Gates' defeat at Camden, in August, 1780, was nearly made good in September by the ar- rival at Wilmington of the General Nash with two prizes con- taining almost everything needed by the army, one valued at £10,800 sterling, the other at £40,000. This latter prize was declared to be "the most valuable Cargo ever imported into this State." "The enemy," wrote Governor Naslı, in Decem- ber, 1780, "have not been entirely free of trouble off Charles- ton and on the coast in that quarter during this summer. They have suffered very considerably by our privateers, particularly by open row boats. These boats, with 40 or 50 men aboard, take in almost everything that comes their way. Two that went out in company returned here [New Bern] this week, after a leave of about 20 days, in which time they took and sent in 12 valuable prizes, besides burning, I think, four."
All the victories, however, were not won, nor were all the prizes taken by the Americans. Early in the war British cruisers and privateers began to patrol our coast and keep vigilant watch over our inlets. They frequently crossed the bars, cut out merchantmen which had taken refuge behind them, landed raiding parties, and plundered the country al- most with impunity. "The coast," so runs a report to Gov- ernor Caswell, in 1778, "is much infested at this time with the enemy which are constantly landing men and plundering." In April, 1778, a British privateer captured two French ves- sels which were loading behind Ocracoke Bar "with a consid- erable quantity of Tobacco." "Thus has a small sloop with 4 guns and 30 men," commented The North Carolina Gazette, lamenting the lack of protection to the inlets, "robbed this State of two fine vessels with more than 100 hogshead of tobacco and a considerable quantity of salt." In 1780 a ves- sel carrying 3,000 stand of arms to the American army in the South "was chased ashore in Virginia by one of the Enemy's privateers." The climax came in 1781 when Major James H. Craige with an insignificant force sailed up the Cape Fear River and occupied Wilmington without opposition.
Most of these disasters could have been prevented had the Assembly provided adequate coast defences. In 1777, after a visit of "some men of war" to the Cape Fear, during which they did "what mischief they transiently could," Samuel Ashe wrote to Burke: "These visits might be ren lered disagree- able, if not altogether prevented, would your Western mem-
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bers lay aside their local prejudices, and consider the True interest of the whole State, and suffer us to have a fort here." "God send our Assembly may have wisdom enough to fortify their seaports," wrote Cornelius Harnett from the Conti- nental Congress. "I am distressed beyond measure," he de- clared in a letter to Caswell, "to find our seacoast so much neglected." "Mr. Maclaine writes me," he wrote at another time, "he had hopes of getting our river [Cape Fear] forti- fied, but I have despaired of it long ago; if the Assembly should agree to it, I shall believe that miracles have not yet ceased." But so far as the Assembly gave evidence to the contrary miracles had ceased. As so often happens, the peo- ple's representatives saved their constituents' money, and the people paid the price in blood and suffering.
One reason why North Carolina's battalions were always short of men and equipment was the liberality with which the State stripped herself in aid of her sister states. What- ever may be said of the public men of North Carolina of the Revolution, it cannot be denied that in their public conduct they were inspired by a spirit that knew no boundaries be- tween colonies struggling.in the common cause. And so we find that in the summer of 1779, at the very time North Caro- lina militia were fighting among the palmettoes on the Stono, North Carolina Continentals were storming the rocky promontory of Stony Point on the Hudson.
It was to her immediate neighbors that North Carolina rendered the greatest service in the Revolution. When Vir- ginia threatened by the Indians in the West appealed to her for aid, she promptly sent 300 of her western militia to Virginia's assistance. In the East, too, as we have seen, North Carolina Continentals under Howe assisted the Vir- ginia troops in expelling the British from Norfolk. In 1777, a British fleet of one hundred sails entered Chesapeake Bay and Lieutenant-Governor John Page, anticipating an immedi- ate invasion, appealed to Governor Caswell for help saying, "we hope to receive considerable assistance from you, having on a former occasion experienced the readiness with which North Carolina furnished it." Caswell promptly ordered the commanding officers of the first and second brigades "to hold themselves in readiness to march at the shortest notice." In other chapters of this history something has been said of the bad feeling which existed between North Carolina and Vir- ginia in early colonial times; it is a pleasure, therefore, to be able to record now the incidents that obliterated the last traces of such feelings between the two commonwealths and laid the
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foundation for that mutual esteem and respect in which they have now for nearly a century and a half held each other. Acknowledging Governor Caswell's prompt action, Governor Page wrote: "I cannot refrain from acknowledging the obli- gations I think the State is under to you, Sir, for the orders you issued for one third of your Militia to hold themselves in readiness to march to our assistance on the late alarming occasion, and to the good people of North Carolina for the readiness they have always shown to assist us. May an affec- tionate mutual attachment between Carolina and Virginia ever increase, to the Honor and security of the United States in general, and of these contiguous sister States in particu- lar."
From the beginning of the war both South Carolina and Georgia drew largely upon the superior resources of North Carolina. In 1776, President Harnett of the North Carolina Council of Safety assured President John Rutledge of South Carolina that North Carolina would "upon all occasions afford South Carolina every possible assistance." This promise was made good. During the invasion of 1776, North Carolina poured troops, arms, ammunition and supplies into South Carolina with a liberality that "left this colony almost in a defenceless state, defenceless and very, very alarming," declared the Council, "as we have every reason to expect Gen- eral Clinton's return here should he fail in his Expedition against South Carolina." Early in the war both South Car- olina and Georgia sought permission to recruit their battal- ions in North Carolina. The Convention of 1776, considering that "the Defence of South Carolina is of the last Importance to the Well being of the United States," not only granted the request, but also offered to raise two additional brigades of volunteers to be sent to her assistance. A similar response was given to Georgia's request. "We have given every facil- ity and assistance to the recruiting officers from the State of Georgia," wrote the Council of Safety to the North Car- olina delegates in the Continental Congress, "and have the pleasure to acquaint you that they have met with great suc- cess." Indeed, so great was their success that John Penn thought it would "be prudent to stop the officers of the neigh- boring States from inlisting any more men in North Carolina untill we have compleated our Quota."
But such prudence did not appeal sympathetically to the men then directing the affairs of North Carolina. They cared little whether the men were enlisted in the service of North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia, provided only they
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were in the service of the United States. Consequently North Carolina became the "recruiting ground for the entire South," and many a soldier who followed the flag of another State thought, as he struck down his country's enemies, of his little cabin nestling among the pines of North Carolina. It was the manifestation of this spirit that led Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, during the invasion of that colony in 1779, to write with pardonable exaggeration: "As to further aid from North Carolina they have agreed to send us 2,000 more troops immediately. We have now upwards of 3,000 of their men with us, and I esteem this last augmentation as the highest possible mark of their affection for us and as the most convincing proof of their zeal for the glorious cause in which they are engaged. They have been so willing and ready on all occasions to afford us all the assistance in their power, that I shall ever love a North Carolinian, and join with Gen- eral Moultrie in confessing that they have been the salvation of this country."
But North Carolina's policy toward her sister states was not altogether altruistic. Her statesmen of course realized that her fate was involved in the fate of all and recognized the wisdom of the policy of defending North Carolina on the soil of Georgia and South Carolina. Harnett gave expression to the general feeling when, urging that the utmost exertions be made to aid Georgia and South Carolina, he said: "I am one of those old Politicians who had much rather see my neigh- bour's house on fire than my own, but at the same time would lend every assistance in my power to quench the flame." The progress of events proved the wisdom of this policy. When it finally came North Carolina's turn to suffer invasion the enemy was so exhausted by his efforts to conquer Georgia and South Carolina that after his Pyrrhic victory at Guilford Court House he was unable to maintain the struggle and soon departed from the State. Thus was North Carolina saved from the unhappy fate which had befallen her two neighbors.
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CHAPTER XXV
THE WAR IN THE SOUTH
North Carolina was able to send generous military assist- ance to her sister states because from 1776 to 1780, except for the Tories in her midst, her own soil was free from the enemy. A similar immunity was enjoyed by the other south- ern states for more than two years after Clinton's repulse at Charleston, but in the winter of 1778 this happy situation came to an end. The royal governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had never ceased to represent the people of those states as Loyalists at heart, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a British force which would enable them to overthrow the rebel governments and restore the royal author- ity. Accordingly having failed in the North, in the summer of 1778, Sir Henry Clinton determined to transfer the seat of war once more to the South. "If the rebellion could not be broken at the center, it was hoped that it might at least be frayed away at the edges; and should fortune so far smile upon the royal armies as to give them Virginia also, perhaps the campaign against the wearied North might be renewed at some later time and under better auspices." 1
The first blow fell on Georgia. In December, 1778, a Brit- ish force of 3,500 men, under Colonel Archibald Campbell, con- voyed by a British squadron, landed near Savannah, routed General Robert Howe's army of 1,200 Americans who at- tempted to resist their movement, and entered the city in tri- umph. In January, 1779, General Augustine Prevost with 2,000 regulars from Florida reached Savannalı, took command of the united forces, and dispatched Campbell into the interior of the State. Campbell drove the militia before him, occupied Augusta without opposition, and established posts in various parts of Western Georgia. Within six weeks from the time of Campbell's arrival at Savannah, the conquest of Georgia was so complete that the royal governor was invited to return from England to resume his government.
1 Fiske: The American Revolution, Vol. II, p. 163.
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The Americans, however, were not ready to acknowledge defeat. General Benjamin Lincoln, who had superseded Howe in command of the Southern Department, arrived at Howe's camp on January 2d, and took command, Howe going north to join Washington's army. Lincoln had collected at Charles- ton about 7,000 men, of whom a third were North Carolina militia under command of General John Ashe and North Car- olina Continentals under General Sumner. Feeling strong enough to assume the offensive, Lincoln dispatched Ashe with 1,500 men against Augusta, but on March 3d, at Briar Creek, Ashe permitted his army to be surprised and routed. His men were so badly scattered that only 450 of them rejoined Lin- coln's army. Ashe's defeat destroyed all hope of recovering Georgia at that time. Indeed a movement of Prevost com- pelled Lincoln to retire from Georgia and hasten to the de- fence of Charleston. Movements in and about that city cul- minated on June 20th in the battle of Stono Ferry in which Lincoln made a determined but unsuccessful attack on the enemy. North Carolina troops under Sumner formed the right and the Continentals under General Isaac Huger the left of the attacking force, while Hamilton's North Carolina and South Carolina Loyalists were in the front of the British line. The Americans lost heavily in killed and wounded. Among the wounded was a brilliant young cavalry officer, Major William R. Davie, twenty-three years of age that day, who was destined to win renown as a soldier and statesman. Although able to parry this blow, Prevost deemed it wise to abandon his attempt against Charleston and withdraw to Sa- vannah. The intense heat and sickly season of July and Au- gust put a stop to further operations during that summer.
In this interval Lincoln planned an attempt to recapture Savannah and recover Georgia in co-operation with the French fleet under Count d'Estaing who was then cruising among the West Indies. Accordingly on September 1st, D'Estaing with an army of 6,000 men convoyed by a fleet of thirty-seven ships appeared off Savannah while Lincoln with 6,000 troops invested the town from the land side. Prevost defended the city with about 3,000 men. Prompt action and intelligent leadership would probably have forced him to surrender, but the allies displayed neither. Failing to reduce the place after a three weeks' seige, on October 9th they undertook to carry it by storm. Again North Carolina Continentals led by Colonel Gideon Lamb and North Carolina Loyalists under Hamilton fought gallantly on opposing sides. The assault failed, D'Estaing weighed anchor and sailed away, and Lincoln was
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forced to fall back on Charleston leaving Georgia in the hands of the enemy.
The British had struck their first blow against Georgia because it was the weakest of the thirteen states, and its conquest would give them the necessary base for operations against the Carolinas. "Georgia should be taken first," Germain had written to Clinton, "and the passage into South Carolina will then be comparatively easy." Clinton, now commander-in-chief of the British armies in America, had never ceased to cherish hopes of taking Charleston and re- covering the prestige which his repulse there in 1776 had cost him; and keeping an observant eye on the operations in the South he saw in the conquest of Georgia the opportunity for which he had been waiting. With Savannah as its base an army could easily march overland and attack Charleston in the rear while a fleet assailed the city in front. Clinton resolved, therefore, upon operations against Charleston under his own command, and on the day after Christmas, 1779, sailed from New York with an army of 8,500 men, convoyed by a fleet of five ships of the line and nine frigates manned by crews numbering about 5,000. Later he was joined at Charleston by 2,500 men under Lord Rawdon whom he had ordered to follow him from New York. These together with the troops ordered up from Savannah raised Clinton's army to about 13,000 men. Not only were these troops the flower of the British army in America, but they were led by a group of extraordinarily able officers. Conspicuous among them were Lord Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon, Colonel James Webster, Colonel Patrick Ferguson and Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Confident of the outcome, Clinton approached his task with the utmost deliberation, planning every operation carefully before he finally opened the seige on March 29, 1780. In the meantime Lincoln had been making the utmost exertions to defend the city, throwing up works and gathering behind them all the troops he could summon to his aid. On March 3d, he was joined by 700 North Carolina Continentals under Hogun whom Washington had dispatched from his own army. He had also 1,000 North Carolina militia under Lillington, but about 800 of thesc departed during the seige; later, however, this loss was partially made good by the arrival of 300 other North Carolina militia. Altogether Lincoln gathered in the doomed city about 6,000 men. Military policy dictated the abandonment of the city and the preservation of the army; but the civil authorities of both State and city would not listen to such a proposal. The result was that after withstanding a
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