USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 44
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seige of over a month, on May 12th both city and army were forced to capitulate. Seven generals, 290 other officers, and more than 5,000 rank and file laid down their arms. The surrender carried with it the entire North Carolina Con- tinental Line, numbering 815 officers and men, including Gen- eral Hogun, and about 600 North Carolina militia.
The fall of Charleston stripped South Carolina of her organized defenders and opened the way for the conquest of the State. All the strategic points on the coast-Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah-were already in the hands of the enemy, and nothing prevented their occupying those in the interior at will. Of these the most important were Augusta, "the gateway to Georgia;" Ninety-Six which dom- inated the line of communication between Augusta and the backwoods settlements of North Carolina; and Camden, "the key between the North and the South," in which centered the principal inland roads by which South Carolina could be en- tered from the north. The line of communication between Camden and Ninety-Six, a distance of eighty miles, was com- manded by the smaller post of Rocky Mount. Northeast of Camden was Cheraw, controlling the northeastern section of South Carolina and overlooking the settlements of the loyal Highlanders in North Carolina. Immediately after the surrender of Charleston, Lord Cornwallis advanced inland and seized all of these points. No resistance was offered; the several posts were easily "possessed, fortified and garri- soned; all the immediate country was submissive, and pro- testations of loyalty resounded in every quarter." The in- terior secured, Cornwallis returned to Charleston to complete the restoration of the civil authority in South Carolina and to prepare for the invasion of North Carolina.
Confident that Georgia and South Carolina were subju- gated beyond recovery, on June 5th Clinton sailed for New York leaving Cornwallis with 8,345 men to hold those states and complete the work in the South by the conquest of North Carolina and Virginia. Clinton had no doubt of Cornwallis' ability to accomplish these tasks. The surrender of Charles- ton, he thought, "insures the reduction of this and the next province." He had ample grounds for his confidence. British troops held all the strategic points in South Carolina and Georgia. The way into North Carolina was open, and that State was helpless to prevent invasion. Her resources were exhausted. Her organized forces had been sacrificed in the defence of Charleston. Her people were dispirited and alarmed, her enemies jubilant, arrogant, and confident.
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Whigs and Tories alike anticipated the immediate invasion of the State, the former with dread and apprehension, the latter with enthusiasm and hope. Had Cornwallis advanced promptly, he would certainly have laid North Carolina at his feet, but pleading the intensity of the heat, the necessity of giv- ing his men rest, and the lack of provisions and stores, he de- cided to spend the summer at Charleston and enter North Carolina at his leisure in the fall.
The chief reason for his decision was the confidence which he placed in the representations of former Governor Martin and other fugitive Loyalists as to the general loyalty of the people of North Carolina. "Our hopes of success in offensive operations," he wrote, "were not founded only upon the efforts of the corps under my immediate command, which did not much exceed three thousand men; but principally upon the most positive assurances given by apparently cred- itable deputies and emissaries that, upon the appearance of a British army in North Carolina, a great body of the inhabi- tants were ready to join and co-operate with it, in endeavoring to restore his Majesty's Government." Accordingly from Charleston he established communications with the Tories of North Carolina to whom he sent emissaries to bid them attend to their harvests, collect provisions, and remain quiet until the king's army was ready to enter the State in August or September.
The very completeness of the British victory proved Corn- wallis' ruin. It conspired with the exaggerated representa- tions of the loyalty of the Carolinas which the exiled Loyalists unceasingly poured into his ears to produce a feeling of over- confidence which the real situation did not warrant. After the surrender of Charleston, Clinton had issued a proclama- tion offering pardon to all persons, except those guilty of crime, who would return to their allegiance to the king; and many of the people, looking upon the cause of independence as hopeless, tired of war and eager for peace, hastened to take advantage of his offer. Clinton reported to Lord Germain, secretary of state for the colonies, that "the inhabitants from every quarter repair to the detachments of the army, and to this garrison [Charleston] to declare their allegiance to the King." "A general revolution of sentiment seemed to take place, and the cause of Great Britain appeared to triumph over that of the American Congress." 2 But Clinton was not sat- isfied with passive obedience, and just before departing for
2 Tarleton : Campaigns, p. 25.
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New York, issued a second proclamation discharging all paroles, except prisoners captured in battle, and command- ing all persons to take an active part in the restoration of the royal government upon pain of being treated as rebels and enemies. The folly of this action became immediately apparent. It "produced a counter-revolution in the minds and inclinations of the people," says Stedman, the British his- torian, "as complete and as universal as that which succeeded the fall of Charlestown." 3 The people of South Carolina re- fused to become the instruments of their own subjugation; they rose again in rebellion, organized themselves into bands of partisans under the leadership of James Williams, Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, and Francis Marion, and opened a form of fierce guerrilla warfare upon the enemy's outposts which made it impossible for Cornwallis to advance with safety into North Carolina.
North Carolina took advantage of the British general's procrastination to reorganize her scattered forces and prepare for resistance. Caswell, who had been appointed to the com- mand of the militia with the rank of major-general, concen- trated the eastern militia at Cross Creek to overawe the High- landers. In the West, Rutherford, Davie, Davidson, Francis Locke and other bold and aggressive partisan leaders aroused the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg, Rowan, and surrounding counties, and by the middle of June, had assembled 900 men under Rutherford near Charlotte, and 400 under Locke and other officers near Ramsaur's Mill. Though short of ammu- nition and "obliged to turn their implements of husbandry into those of war by hammering up their scythes and sickles and forming them into swords and spears," + they more than made good their deficiency in equipment by the fierce and warlike zeal with which they rallied to the defense of their homes.
These partisan bands were too weak in numbers, too loose in discipline, and too short of equipment for extended cam- paigns, but for the sudden gatherings and hasty dispersions, the quick advances and the rapid retreats of guerrilla warfare they were unsurpassed. For this kind of service no troops ever had more skillful leaders. Rutherford, Davie, Davidson and Locke of North Carolina worked in complete harmony and co-operation with Williams, Pickens, Sumter and Marion of
3 History of the American War, Vol. 2, p. 198.
4 Moultrie, William : Memoirs of the American Revolution, Vol. II, p. 213.
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South Carolina. No foraging party escaped their vigilance. No Tory gathering was safe from their sudden onsets. No British post. was immune from their attacks. Though not always successful, they were a source of constant annoyance and apprehension to the British, while their activity and dar- ing kept alive the spirit of resistance among the patriots dur- ing the dark days of the summer of 1780.
The story of their exploits resembles rather the romances of knight errantry than the sober facts of history. At sun- rise in the morning of June 20th, Locke with a band of 400 men surprised and ronted 1,300 Tories whom emissaries of Cornwallis, contrary to his lordship's orders, had embodied at Ramsaur's Mill in Lincoln County preparatory to joining the British at Camden. Davie's cavalry arriving after the battle had begun, pursued the fugitives, killing and capturing many of them and completely dispersing the rest. On July 2d, Davie surprised and captured a convoy of provisions and clothing on its way to the British garrison at Hanging Rock. A few days later, July 21st, Davidson with 160 light horse from Rutherford's brigade attacked 250 Tories under Colonel Samuel Bryan, one of the most active of the Tory leaders, at Colston's Mill on Pee Dee River, killed and captured about fifty, "and put the rest to flight," reported Major Thomas Blount to Governor Nash, "with more precipitation than we fled from Bryar Creek." Ten days later, under the very eyes of the British garrison at Hanging Rock, Davie fell upon three companies of Bryan's Loyalists returning from an ex- cursion, cut them to pieces, captured 100 muskets and 60 horses without the loss of a man, and before the British gar- rison recovered from their consternation sufficiently to beat to arms was safely beyond their reach. Emboldened by the suc- cess of these and many other similar exploits, on August 6th Davie and Sumter united forces for an attack on Hanging Rock itself. Its garrison numbered 500 men of whom 160 were of Tarleton's famous legion. The attacking party consisted of about 500 North Carolinians under Davie and Colonel Irwin of Mecklenburg County, and 300 South Carolinans under Sumter. Taking the enemy by surprise, they drove through the British camp and were on the point of winning a brilliant victory when some of Sumter's men stopping to plunder the camp threw the American lines into confusion. The British rallied and Sumter and Davie were compelled to draw off their forces having, however, inflicted a heavier loss upon the enemy than they themselves sustained. These exploits are cited here not because they were more important than others.
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but because they were typical of many such enterprises too numerous to mention.
Such an outburst of activity among a people whom he had thought completely subjugated astounded Cornwallis, while the boldness and success of the Americans thoroughly cowed the great mass of Loyalists and neutrals in the two Carolinas. Cornwallis declared that he had not expected any hostile dem- onstrations in North Carolina and having "much business to do at Charlestown,"was arranging his affairs in that city quite satisfactorily "when our tranquility was first disturbed by the accounts of a premature rising of our friends [at Ram- saur's Mill] in Tryon County, North Carolina, in the latter end of June, who having assembled without concert, plan or proper leaders, were two days after surprised and totally routed. * * * Many of them fled into this Province, where their reports tended much to terrify our friends and encourage our enemies." So too Bryan's men fleeing from Colston's Mill did not halt "until they reached the Enemy's next Post at the Waxhaws, where they threw the whole into the utmost confusion and Consternation." The British soon found their grip on South Carolina slipping. In August the whole country between the Pee Dee and the Santee rivers was "in an absolute State of Rebellion." Hostilities were con- stantly breaking out "in different parts of the frontier" where, wrote Cornwallis, "General Sumpter [sic], an active
* and daring man, * was constantly Menacing our small posts." Then, too, "reports industriously propagated in this Province of a large Army coming from the Northward had very much intimidated our friends, encouraged our enemies, and determined the wavering against us." Before the summer was over Cornwallis became convinced that if he did not advance into North Carolina and subjugate that State he "must give up both South Carolina and Georgia, and retire within the Walls of Charlestown."
In the meantime the critical situation of the Carolinas had aroused both Washington and Congress to action. Early in the summer Washington had dispatched from his own army 2,000 excellent Delaware and Maryland troops under Baron de Kalb to reinforce Lincoln at Charleston. Kalb arrived at Hillsboro on June 20th. Everywhere he found an utter lack of preparation to meet the crisis, and complained bitterly that he was compelled to subsist his army by his own efforts. He could obtain supplies from the people only by military force and in his efforts received "no assistance from the legis- lative or executive power" of the State. Governor Nash de-
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fended himself by pointing out his lack of power under the Constitution which he declared to be totally "inadequate to the public exigencies." However, Kalb's presence greatly en- couraged the Whig leaders. Caswell in command of Gregory's and Butler's brigades of North Carolina militia and General Edward Stevens in command of the Virginia militia hastened to put themselves under the baron's command. Rutherford, too, with his command and Colonel William Porterfield then near the South Carolina border with 400 Virginia Continen- tals, prepared to join the main army. Kalb was planning an advance into South Carolina when on July 25th, he was super- seded in command by General Horatio Gates. After the sur- render of Charleston, Congress had unanimously chosen Gates, still masquerading as the conqueror of Burgoyne, to succeed Lincoln in command of the Southern Department. Notifying Gates of his appointment, Richard Peters, secretary of the Board of War, wrote: "Our affairs to the Southward look blue; so they did when you took Command before the Burgoynade. I can only now say 'Go and do likewise.' " But Gates' friend Charles Lee, who had formed a juster estimate of Gates' military capacity, cynically warned him to beware lest his northern laurels should change to southern willows. However, there were few who then doubted Gates' title to his northern laurels, and his appointment was, therefore, hailed with joy by the Americans and with apprehension by the British and Tories.
Gates began with a blunder and ended with a disaster. He took command at Hillsboro, July 25th. His objective was Camden, the chief British post, held by Lord Rawdon. Two roads led to Camden. Kalb, who had studied the situation carefully, advised the route through Salisbury and Charlotte which though the longer of the two ran through a region in- habited by friends and abounding in provisions. The short- er and more direct route ran through a barren region, thinly settled and generally hostile. Every consideration urged the choice of the former, yet Gates rejecting the advice of all his generals and pleading his eagerness to meet the enemy. chose the latter and on July 27th put his army in motion. On the march he was joined by Porterfield with 400 Virginia Continentals, Stevens with 700 Virginia militia, and Caswell with 1,200 North Carolina militia. When he encamped ten miles from Camden on the afternoon of August 15th, Gates had under his command 3,052 men of whom more than half were untrained militia. On their long march green corn and unripe fruit had been their principal diet, and dysentery and
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cholera morbus had wrought such havoc with their health that they were in no condition for a battle. Nevertheless Gates on the evening of August 16th, moved out of his camp to attack Lord Rawdon at daybreak.
Gates had scorned the use of cavalry and consequently was entirely ignorant of the situation in the enemy's camp. Lord Rawdon who knew every movement made by his adversary had called in the garrisons from the smaller posts scattered throughout the interior and concentrated his forces at Au- gusta, Ninety-Six and Camden. Moreover at his request Corn- wallis had come with reinforcements from Charleston arriv- ing at Camden unknown to Gates on August 14th. The com- bined forces under his command were but little more than 2,000 but they were seasoned troops. Among them were two regiments of North Carolina Loyalists. Although aware of his numerical inferiority to Gates, Cornwallis, relying upon the superior discipline and greater experience of his troops, determined to take the offensive.
Unknown to each other Gates and Cornwallis both planned a niglit attack. About 2 o'clock in the morning of August 16th, their advance guards came in contact about five miles from Camden. In the skirmish that followed the Americans were routed. From prisoners Gates now learned for the first time that Cornwallis had arrived at Camden with regulars and was himself in command. In a panic he thought only of retreat. He had in the first instance stubbornly taken the wrong road that he might hasten to meet the enemy, now in the presence of the foe both his eagerness and his courage vanished. Calling a council of war, he asked what should be done. Silence greeted his query until General Stevens ex- claimed, "Well, gentlemen, is it not now too late to do any- thing but fight?" Each side having now lost the advantage of a surprise, both drew up their forces for battle, about 200 yards from each other. Gates placed the Delaware regiment and the second Maryland brigade on his right under Kalb, the North Carolina militia under Caswell in the center, and Stevens with the Virginia militia on his left. The first Mary- land brigade, under General William Smallwood, was held in reserve. The British left opposed to Kalb was under com- mand of Rawdon, their right opposed to Caswell and Stevens was led by Colonel James Webster. Tarleton's cavalry hovered in the rear, ready to give aid where needed.
At daylight Cornwallis opened the battle with a vigorous attack on the Carolina and Virginia militia. As Webster's regulars in perfect formation swept down upon them, the un-
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trained militia were seized with a panic. The Virginians without firing a shot threw down their arms and fled. Cas- well's militia immediately followed suit. Breaking through the first Maryland brigade, they threw it into confusion and catching Gates up in the fleeing mass swept him along with them. As they fled, Tarleton's horse fell upon them like an avalanche cutting them down in large numbers. One regiment of North Carolina militia, under command of Major Hal Dixon, attaching itself to the brave Marylanders on its right, refused to join in the shameful rout. "None, without violence to the claims of honor and justice," wrote "Light Horse Harry" Lee in his "Memoirs," 5 "can withhold applause from Colonel [sic] Dixon and his North Carolina regiment of militia. Hav- ing their flank exposed by the flight of the other militia, they turn with disdain from the ignoble example; and fixing their eyes on the Marylanders, whose left they became, determined to vie in deeds of courage with their veteran comrades. Nor did they shrink from this daring resolve. In every vicissitude of the battle, this regiment maintained its ground, and when the reserve under Smallwood, covering our left, relieved its naked flank, forced the enemy to fall back." Gregory's North Carolina militia also acquitted themselves well. Formed immediately on the left of the Continentals, they kept the field while they had a bullet to fire; and many of those who were captured had no wounds except from bayonets. On the Ameri- can right the Delaware and Maryland troops under the gallant Kalb fought like veterans for nearly an hour, and did not break until Kalb was killed, and Webster's regulars had at- tacked them in the rear. The whole line then gave way and the rout became general.
The American army was destroyed. Its colors, artillery, ammunition wagons, military stores, baggage and camp equip- age, and 2,000 muskets fell into the hands of the enemy. More than 800 Americans were killed, including a third of the Con- tinentals, and 1,000 were captured. Among the killed were Porterfield, Gregory and Kalb; among the captured Ruther- ford. "The taking of that violent and cruel incendiary, Gen- eral Rutherford," wrote Cornwallis, "has been a lucky cir- cumstance." "None were saved," wrote Lee, "but those who penetrated swamps which had been deemed impassable." All along the line of retreat evidences of the completeness of the British victory were abundant. "The road was heaped with the dead and the wounded. Arms, artillery, horses, and bag-
5 P. 186.
Vol. I-30
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gage were strewed in every direction; and the whole adjacent country presented evidences of the signal defeat." The laurels of Saratoga had indeed changed to the willows of Camden.
Four hundred of North Carolina's militia had been killed, wounded and captured, the rest completely dispersed. Again the State lay open to invasion; again Cornwallis had but to advance to reap the fruits of his victory; again he let the opportunity slip from his grasp. His delay gave the Ameri- cans a breathing spell in which to rally their broken forces. Undismayed at their misfortune they set themselves to the task with determination. Gates at Hillsboro was all activity but being "execrated by the officers, unrevered by the men and hated by the people," he could accomplish but little. Cas- well was more successful. On the retreat from Camden, he stopped long enough at Charlotte to order out the militia of Mecklenburg, Rowan and Lincoln counties; while from Hills- boro he directed three regiments of the eastern militia which fortunately had not reached him in time for the battle to ren- dezvous at Ramsay's Mill in Chatham County, organized them into a brigade under General Jethro Sumner, and led them to the camp which General Smallwood had established at Salisbury. Smallwood had under his command "the shattered remains of the Maryland Division," numbering about 270 cavalry and infantry. He also was active in getting out the militia. "I have used every exertion," he wrote, "to encour- age and induce the militia to assemble at Charlotte and am happy to acquaint you that they have turned out in great numbers, seem spirited and desirous of being commanded by some Continental officer." Governor Nash called out the sec- ond draft of militia and directed them to embody at Hillsboro, Salisbury and Charlotte. On September 6th Gates reported to Washington that "1,400 of the Second Draught of the Militia of this State are marched to cover Salisbury and the country from thence to Charlotte, where Colonel Sumpter has a command. * * Three hundred Virginia Riflemen un- der Colonel Campbell and Militia from the back Counties are marching to the East Bank of the Yadkin at the ford, and General Stevens, with what have not run home of the other Virginia Militia is at Guilford Court House. The Maryland division and the Artillery are here to be refitted. The former will be put into one strong Regiment, with a good Light In- fantry Company under Colonel Williams. * * Gen- eral Muhlenburg acquaints me that near Five Hundred Regu- lars are upon their march from Petersburgh to this place;
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these with the Marylanders above mentioned will make us stronger in Continental troops than I was before the action."
There were men enough under arms in North Carolina to repel an invasion could they but be organized, equipped, and properly led. At Salisbury Smallwood's men were "in a most wretched situation for want of cloaths of all kinds." When Sumner took command of his new brigade at Ramsay's Mill he found the arms in bad order, a shortage of ammunition, no organized commissary, and one-third of his soldiers scat- tered about at various farm houses threshing out wheat. The Continentals at Hillsboro were "in want of everything except arms," many "almost naked," and large numbers unable to take the field for want of shoes. The General Assembly which met at Hillsboro August 23d undertook to relieve this situa- tion. Governor Nash had so strongly represented his lack of authority without the Council, and complained so bitterly of his councilors' neglect of their duties, that the Assembly determined to confer all the war powers of the governor and Council upon a board of war composed of Alexander Martin, John Penn and Oroondates Davis. To this board was given extra-constitutional powers for raising, organizing and equip- ping troops. Most important of all was the finding of a com- petent commanding officer. Gates' reputation was irrevocably lost but the Assembly had no control over him. Caswell's reputation had suffered only less than Gates', and over Cas- well who commanded the state militia the Assembly exercised complete authority. The only general officer who survived ยท the rout at Camden with an increased reputation for courage and military talent was Smallwood, and although he was a Marylander, the necessity was so urgent that the Assembly, sinking all state pride, offered him the command of the North Carolina militia, with the rank of major-general. Thereupon Caswell indignantly withdrew from the service, resigned his place on the Board of Trade, and retired to the privacy of his home at Kingston.
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