USA > North Carolina > North Carolina, 1780-'81 : being a history of the invasion of the Carolinas by the British Army under Lord Cornwallis in 1780-'81 > Part 11
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Cornwallis was panic-stricken at the news of the destruction of his left wing, and his own exposure thereby to sudden attack. The Whigs purposely exaggerated the number of the army that had over- whelmed Ferguson, and conveyed to Cornwallis intimations that these men were marching westward
#General Graham in University Magazine, vol. 5, p. 101.
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to join Davidson and attack the British at Char- lotte. Ninety-Six was now at the merev of these invincible mountain hordes and the British army could be cut off from its line of retreat. His lord- ship did not tarry to hear arguments on the other side ; he thought "discretion was the better part of valor" in the emergency, and therefore ordered his whole army to be in readiness in one hour :0 begin the retreat to Winnsboro, in Fairfield district, South Carolina, about seventy miles south of Char- lotte. The mud in the Black Jack (oak) country of the Waxhaws is proverbial for its sticky quality and the depth of its softness in rainy weather. It was then and is now a terror to all travelers, espe- cially wagoners, who are compelled to pass through it in the winter. At this time, the 8th of October, the rainy season had begun, and the roads were almost impassable.
One MeAfferty, a merchant of Charlotte, who was at heart a Whig, but who had remained in Charlotte to save his property, was selected as their guide. The retreat began at sunset on the event- ing of the 9th, taking the road leading to the old Nation Ford on the Catawba. "MeAfferty led them the road to the right, about two miles below Charlotte, which went to Park's Mill. When they got near that place, he suggested that they were on the wrong road, and he must ride out to the left to find the right one, and in pretending to do this he escaped from them."*
*Joseph Graham's account.
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The night was dark, and being near the hills of Cedar Creek, and floundering through the mud without guide or compass, the confusion was "worse confounded." In attempting to find roads leading to the left, so as to regain their proper route, they became separated and overcome by the fear that the Whigs had laid this suare to cover an attack. By midnight the two forces were three or four miles apart and did not succeed in reaching the Nation Ford road, and collecting their forces, until noon next day.
McAfferty had ridden all night to reach Colonel Davie's camp and inform him of the situation. Davie started in pursuit next morning, but found the cavalry so formidable in their rear that he was unable to make an attack. Davie returned to his camp, on Sugar Creek, the same evening. The roads were so deep with inud that Cornwallis was ten or twelve days reaching Winnsboro.
This narrative of the British retreat is condensed from General Graham's article in the University Magazine. Tarleton denies that he returned to Charlotte. He says he received orders, at the Ca- tawba, to cross the country and intercept the line of retreat of the main army, and he complains bitterly that not being present to get the Legion baggage off, he lost all his knapsacks, which were in the rear wagons that were left sticking in the mud. Graham says forty wagons. No doubt Colonel
*Tarleton places General Sumner at that time at Alexander's Mill, on a branch of Rocky River : p. 165.
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Davie's cavalry enjoyed this "treasure-trove" and added it to his scanty supply.
Tarleton" says, "The royal forces remained two days in an anxious and miserable situation in the Catawba settlement, owing to a dangerous fever which suddenly attacked Lord Cornwallis, and to the want of forage and provisions." Tarleton him- self had just passed through a spell of fever. "When the physicians declared his lordship could not endure the motion of a wagon, Colonel Lord Raw- don, the second in command, directed the troops to cross Sugar Creek."
Tarleton, in his usual vein of criticism, reflects on the judgment of Cornwallis for choosing Char- lotte as the basis of operations against North Carolina, on account of the disloyalty of the people of that region, whose hostility to the British was so injurious and annoying to him, and for allowing Ferguson to march so far from the main army that he could not be supported when necessity required. Tarleton was of opinion that the invasion should have been attempted by Cross Creek (near Fayette- ville), where the lovalists abounded, and would have assisted his march by communicating to him the movements of the American forces. At Char- lotte the Whigs watched every suspicious person. and intercepted all communication with the country. To this cause is to be attributed the fact that Fer- guson received 110 reinforcement.
It was the end of October before Cornwallis
*Page 167.
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recovered entirely from his fever. His headquar- ters were now established at Winnsboro, which, as before stated, was seventy iniles south of Charlotte. The region of South Carolina north of Ninety-Six. was abandoned. Camden on the right was in sup- porting distance, and the section around Winnsboro afforded provisions for the army during the winter. Cornwallis hoped to rest and recruit his army at this point, and be ready to renew his march into North Carolina in the spring. "The winter cam- paign was abandoned."#
His lordship, however, was not the sole arbiter of his own destiny. It was being "rough hewn" by the up-country men, who were gathering again to disturb his winter's repose, and force him a second time to navigate the miry roads that led him to the devoted province he fain would enter for conquest and glory. He had aroused the spirit of the hardy men of the mountains, who never waited for weather or the rules of warfare, as they are taught in books; men who had discovered their strength and were eager to encounter the British regulars, now they had " Burgoyned " Ferguson and his Provincials.
We shall leave his lordship to indulge in the dreams of a cozy fireside, while we visit the Ameri- can lines and relate the preparations being made to disappoint these dreams and hopes of conquest.
General Gates was exerting himself with unusual energy, at Hillsboro, North Carolina, to reorganize
*Tarleton, p. 168.
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his army and collect reinforcements. When he had begun his march to Camden, he had, for- tunately, been compelled to leave two pieces of cannon behind for want of transportation. To these he added a few iron pieces, and thus was able to form a small park of artillery. On the 16th of September Colonel Buford, of Virginia, with the mangled remnant.of his regiment and two hundred recruits, arrived in camp. Another small detach- ment from Virginia, without arms, came in a few days after. About fifty of Colonel Porterfield's regiment. that escaped from Camden, now joined this force and constituted the Virginia line.
About this time Colonel Daniel Morgan, a Vir- ginian, who had acquired such harvests of laurels at Quebec and Saratoga, arrived in camp. His great reputation as a hard fighter and intrepid leader greatly encouraged the troops and revived the hopes of the people. He had only a few fol- lowers. young men who had come to share with him in service and honor. General Gates ordered four companies to be drafted from the regiments, to be equipped as light infantry and to form a partisan corps under command of Morgan. Colonel White and Colonel William Washington, who had been so roughly handled by Tarleton after the fall of Charles- ton, had seventy cavalry and these were added to this corps." Colonel White, who was in disrepute, was granted leave of absence, and Colonel Wash- ington was placed in command. To these were
*Jolinson's Life of Greene, vol. I. p. 313.
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still added a small company of sixty riffemen under Major Rose.
North Carolina, whose military resources had been well-nigh exhausted by the capture of all her regulars at Charleston, and in supplying the militia who were under Caswell at Gates' defeat, was enabled, by extraordinary exertions, to collect a suit of comfortable clothing for each one of Mor- gan's command before they entered on the severe and active duties before them. She also supplied the other troops, but not so comfortably as Morgan's. Tents they had none, and blankets but a scant supply.
17So. Morgan's corps began its march for Salis- bury from Hillsboro, North Carolina, on the Ist day of November, and the remainder of the army followed on the ad day.
General Smallwood, who had been commissioned by the State, was in command of the militia and posted at Providence, six iniles south of Charlotte. Morgan passed Charlotte and ventured to the neigh- borhood of Camden and occupied the ground which was the scene of the great misfortune in August.
Cornwallis heard with amazement that the inva- sion from the enemy to the south was substituted for his own invasion to the north, and began to realize that his conquest of South Carolina was far from completion, and that North Carolina defied his boasting threats.
The winter campaign of the Americans had begin when his lordship abandoned his own.
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There was to be no repose for the distinguished convalescent.
Cornwallis had at this time about five thousand men at his various posts, and five hundred recruits had just reached him from the north.
On the soth of November Colonel Sumter de- feated Tarleton at Blackstocks, but himself received a ball through his right breast near the shoulder, which detained him for a length of time from ser- vice. Suspended between horses and guarded by one hundred faithful followers, he was conveyed to a place of safety in North Carolina.
The cavalry under Colonel Davie, and the militia under Davidson, whose term of service expired in November, returned home.# General Gates moved slowly westward, arriving at Charlotte the latter part of October. He recalled Morgan and Small- wood to that place and fixed his headquarters there.
This was the military situation when Major General Nathanael Greene, a native of Rhode Island and the trusted friend of General Washington, arrived at Charlotte on the ad day of December, 17So, and assumed command on the 4th of the same month at that place.
Judge Johnson announces the appointment of General Greene and describes him personally as follows:
"The order of the commander-in-chief, which assigned General Nathanael Greene to the command of the South-
*General Joseph Graham.
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ern Department, bears date the 14th day of October. 1-So. Until that period his standing in the army was of the first order of respectability. He enjoyed the con- fidence of Washington and the country, and had ever discharged the duties of the man and the soldier with fidelity and ability. But no opportunities had yet been afforded him of displaying those eminent talents which then broke upon the American people and exhibited a splendor of military character excelled only by him whom none can equal.
"General Greene was at that time in the thirty-ninth year of his age ; his stature about five feet ten or eleven inches : his frame vigorous and well proportioned ; his port erect and commanding ; nor was his martial appear- ance diminished by a slight obstruction in the motion of his right leg, contracted in early life. The general character of his face was that of manly beauty. His fair and florid complexion had not entirely yielded to the exposures of five campaigns ; nor was a slight blemish in the right eye observed but to excite regret that it did not equal the benevolent expression and brilliancy of the left. Such is the portrait of the man. His manners were uniformly consonant to the gravity of his character and dignity of his station. Yet he could be cheerful, even to playfulness, and his intercourse with the world was marked with that unaffected urbanity of manners that flowed from the politeness of his heart. Whether grave or gay, he could accommodate himself to society with a grace and facility which may be acquired from long and general intercourse with polite circles, but which, in him, is to be attributed to rapid observation, a quick perception of propriety, and a mind well stored with sound and useful information.
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"Advantages in early life he had none ; born and raised in obscurity, without education and without society, he exhibited a striking instance of what good examples, sound principles, and rative genius, and above all, industrious habits and a careful improvement of time can accomplish.">
Perhaps the best delineation of his military char- acter was given by a British officer who opposed him in New Jersey. He writes:
"Greene is as dangerous as Washington ; he is vigi- lant, enterprising and full of resources. With but little hope of gaining any advantage over him, I never feel secure when encamped in his neighborhood.""
General Washington thus bears testimony to his unselfish devotion to the cause of independence :
"There is no officer in the army more sincerely attached to the interests of his country than General Greene. Could he but promote those interests in the character of a corporal, he would exchange without a murmur his epaulette for the knob. For although he is not without ambition, yet ambition has not for its object the highest rank so much as the greatest good."
"Greene was born the 26th of May, 1742. His father was a miller, an anchor smith and a Quaker preacher. In early life he followed the plow and worked at the forge. His education was of an ordinary kind; but having an early thirst for knowledge, he applied himself sedulously to various studies whilst subsisting by the
#Life of Greene, vol. 1, pp. 1-2. *Garden's Anecdotes, p. 75.
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labor of his hands. Nature had endowed him with quick parts and a sound judgment. and his assiduity was crowned with success. He became fluent and instruc- tive in conversation, and his letters, still extant, show that he held an able pen.".
With these precedents and such a character as we have seen portrayed by the leading historians of our country, he came to the South to contend with one of the best trained soldiers of England. He found the fragments of a defeated army, unclothed and without tents, in the midst of winter. with a scant supply of provisions in a country already exhausted by a hostile army: soldiers poorly equipped with arms, and dispirited by defeat and loss of confidence in their commander. He was to create an army out of this raw material and fight it against the veteran soldiers of England. This was all that stood between North Carolina and British conquest.
We have this sketch of the early life of Corn- wallis, which will be interesting to a reader who follows his subsequent career:
"Earl Cornwallis, Viscount Brome, was born in Gov- ernor Square, London, December 31, 1738. He was educated at Eton. While at college, playing at hockey, he received a blow which produced a slight but perma- nent obliquity of vision. The boy who accidentally caused this was Shute Barrington, afterwards Bishop of Dur- ham. After finishing .his education he chose the army
*Irving's Washington, vol. 2, p. S.
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for his profession. His first commission, as ensign in the Foot Guards, is dated December 8th, 1756. MIis first lesson in war was as aid to the Marquis of Grandby in the context between England and France in 1761. He had been elected a member of Parliament from Eye, and, upon the death of his father the following year, took his seat in the House of Lords. When in Parliament he was strongly opposed to the scheme of taxing America, but when the war came, as an voficer of the army, he accepted active employment against the colonists. On February the 10th, 1776, he embarked for America in command of a division. "*
Cornwallis was personally a very brave man and an accomplished soldier. While he did not indi- vidually commit acts of cruelty, he allowed his subordinates to do so without rebuke, and at times commended them for their conduct. He was a hard-hearted man, that never listened with pity to the supplications for mercy, and oppressed the people whom he conquered without compunction or com- passion. He did not hesitate to violate his promises or break his engagements, if they stood in the way of his success. As a general he was vigilant and cautious, but slow. His judgment was not sound, and he was wanting in diplomacy or management. As a whole he was a military failure. He lost South Carolina and Georgia, and failed to overrun North Carolina. In Virginia he was captured and the cause he espoused went down beneath his ban- ners. It may be that with an ordinary man like
*Wheeler's Reminiscences, p. IS6.
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General Lincoln for an opponent, he might have attained renown, but unfortunately for his fume he was opposed by a man who was by intuition a soldier, and by experience skilled in the art of war.
The first preparation made by General Greene for the campaign in North Carolina, which was soon to begin, manifested his foresight and military sagacity. The country through which the movements of his army, whether in advance or retreat, were to be made, was traversed by three large streams, the Dan, the Yadkin and the Catawba, and a knowl- edge of their crossings and the roads leading to their fords and ferries was indispensable to safety and success.
Colonel Edward Carrington of Virginia, Greene's Quartermaster General, an energetic. judicious and efficient soldier, was sent to make a thorough explo- ration and map of the Dan; General Stevens, at that time commanding a detachment of militia, undertook the same work on the Yadkin, and Kosciusko, the patriotie Pole, then chief engineer of the army, explored the Catawba. The historical retreat across these streams was made possible by the information which General Greene derived from these reports. The first duty of a good soldier is to make himself master of the geography of the country in which he is to maneuver. Looking to future necessities, General Greene also established magazines of stores and ammunition on the Roanoke and at Oliphant's Mill, on the upper waters of the Catawba River.
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The first success of his little army was of a humorous character, and greatly enlivened the camp. Colonel Washington rode to Cleremount, in South Carolina, to attack a band of loyalists. who held that fort. Not being able to storm it, Washington resorted to the stratagem of painting a pine. log and mounting it on wheels, which he brought in sight of the besieged, threatening dire vengeance with his cannon if Rugely did not sur- render immediately. The garrison was surrendered. and when disarmed was allowed to inspect the cannon.
The whole number of regulars of all arins in Greene's camp did not exceed eleven hundred, and of these not eight hundred could be mustered with arms and clothing fit for duty. Some of Colonel Washington's cavalry were so naked that they were ordered back to Virginia to be clothed.
The provisions around Charlotte were nearly exhausted, and Colonel Thomas Poik, who was acting as Commissary General, reported that he could not gather more than a week's supply.
Colonel Polk resigned this place, and General Greene insisted on Colonel William R. Davie, who was just at this time without a command, taking the office of Commissary General. Colonel Davie reluctantly accepted, his nature being more adapted to field service and partisan warfare, but he yielded these objections and went to work with system and energy to find subsistence for the army; and to his timely efforts General Greene owed much of the
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success of his future operations. We have seen heretofore the adventurous skill and intrepidity of this distinguished North Carolinan, who was now to enter through his ofice into the most confiden- tial relations with his commander, and who in after life was to have heaped upon him honors which seldom fall to the lot of man. Colonel Davie was, at this time, only twenty-four years old.
The selection of Carrington and Davie was the evidence of Greene's wonderful discrimination in the selection of men.
In order to subsist his army, General Greene selected the head of navigation on the Pee Dee River as a " camp of repose," where he could feed and rest and diill his little army. Kosciusko was sent to select and lay out the camp and explore the country.
The States had been called upon by Congress to provide subsistence directly to the army, and Colo- nel Davie was sent to the Legislature of North Carolina to urge compliance with this reasonable requirement. He met with a prompt and liberal support, and " arrangements were made to collect magazines at every court-house in the State, and officers appointed to register and report the produce on hand and the wagons and means of transporta- tion in every county."
The next matter which strongly presented itself to General Greene was the re-establishment of the North Carolina Continental line. The whole of this class of the State's military force had been
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captured at Charleston, but it was estimated that two or three hundred had escaped or were left behind in North Carolina from sickness and other causes, and the supernumerary officers who had lost their commands at the reorganization were scattered through the country.
General Jethro Sumner, the senior officer on the Continental establishment in the State, was called upon to pay immediate attention to this matter, and strong appeals were made to the Governor to aid in this work.
There were various other matters requiring con- sideration, and it is said that Greene allowed him- self not a moment's respite from the most intense application to business until everything necessary for the operations of an army, even down to an axe or a nail, had received his attention.
On the 20th of December the army, except Morgan's command, abandoned their huts at Char- lotte and took up their line of march by Wadesboro to Haley's Ferry on the Pee. Dee, where it was originally designed to be posted ; but at the sug- gestion of Kosciusko they moved down the east side of the river to Hicks' Creek, nearly opposite the Cheraw Hill. General Isaac Huger, the only general officer, except Morgan, with Greene, was in command. Morgan had been appointed a Briga- dier General by Congress, with a commission dating the 13th day of October, 1780. On the 16th day of December he was given a separate command by General Greene, and ordered to put himself on the left flank of Cornwallis.
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The order itself is the best explanation of this movement, and it is given in full :
"CAMP CHARLOTTE, December 16th, 1780.
" You are appointed to the command of a corps of light infantry of 320 men detached from the Maryland line, a detachment of Virginia militia of 200 men, and Colonel Washington's regiment of light horse, amounting to from sixty to an hundred men. With these troops you will proceed to the west side of the Catawba River, where you will be joined by a body of volunteer militia under command of General Davidson of this State and by the militia lately under command of General Sumter.
" This force and such others as may join you from Georgia you will employ against the enemy on the west side of the Catawba, either offensively or defensively, as your own prudence and discretion may direct, acting with caution, and avoiding surprises by every possible precaution. For the present I give you entire command in that quarter, and do hereby require all officers and soldiers engaged in the American cause to be subject to your orders and command.
"The object of this detachment is to give protection to that part of the country and spirit up the people ; to ammoy the enemy in that quarter ; to collect the provi- sion and forage out of their way, which you will have formed into a'number of small magazines in the rear of the position you may think proper to take.
" You will prevent plundering as much as possible, and be as careful of your provisions and forage as may be, giving receipts for whatever you take to all such as are friends to the independence of America.
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"Should the enemy move in force towards the Pee Dec, where the army will take a position, you will move in such a direction as to enable you to join me if necessary. or fall upon the flank, or into the rear of the enemy, as occasion may require. You will spare no pains to get good intelligence of the enemy's situation, and keep me constantly advised of both you and their movements.
" You will appoint, for the time being, a commissary, quartermaster, and foragemaster, who will follow your instructions in their respective lines. Confiding in your abilities and activity, I intrust you with this command, persuaded," &c.
General Morgan was born of Welsh parents in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in the winter of 1736, and was now forty-four years old, but his strength and his spirit was unimpaired, except from occasional attacks of rheumatism, which he had contracted at Valley Forge. His parents were poor and he had in early age wandered from them never to return. Fate brought him to Virginia, where he became a wagoner, and in that capacity was attached to Braddock's army. It was while here that he struck a British officer who insulted him, and for this manly act was condemned to receive five hundred lashes. He languished but recovered from this inhuman and barbarous punish- ment; his accuser afterwards admitting that he himself deserved the blow that he received.
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