USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina, from its first European discovery to its erection into a republic: with a supplementary chronicle of events to the present time > Part 20
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Taking command of Mayhem's cavalry, Marion pro- ceeded to meet Gainey, who was an old and well known opponent ; and one, like himself, who had a high repu- tation for his adroitness as a partisan warrior. Colonel Mayhem was too sick to accompany his command, and was left at his own place, attended by a small guard. Here he was captured by a daring young loyalist, named Robbins, who had made a circuit and penetrated nearly sixty miles into the country with this object. Robbins was one of Cunningham's men, and Mayhem, from the known hostility of the loyalists to him, expected nothing but death at his hands. But Robbins, not having his su- perior with him, exhibited the natural generosity of a brave man, and parolled the sick captive to his own house.
The rapid progress of Marion, and his sudden ap- pearance before Gainey, convinced the latter that his movement was not likely to be attended by any favorable results ; and the willingness of Marion to spare the un- necessary shedding of blood, facilitated a pacification between the parties, and led to the renewal of a treaty of neutrality, to which Gainey had bound himself the year before. To this treaty, Marion added a clause, permit- ting such of the loyalists as wished it, to retire with their
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property from the country. These terms the tories were very ready to accept. They saw that they were abcut to be abandoned by the British, and yielded with the best grace to the necessity that pressed upon them.
This insurrection had scarcely been quelled before the partisan was summoned back to his former position. His absence had left the British at liberty to renew their depredations between Cooper and Santee rivers ; and his infantry, under colonel Ashby, had been compelled to retire before a superior foe. He was joined on his route by a newly raised corps, under major Conyers, and but for this timely aid, must have reached his position alone, for the rapidity of his movements had broken down the corps of Mayhem, which he left behind him to recruit.
At Murray's ferry he halted to collect his militia and await the arrival of his weary cavalry. Here he consolidated the two commands of Mayhem and Conyers, and about the middle of July, re-crossed the Santee, at the head of a respectable body of horse and about three hundred dis- mounted infantry. With these he took post on the Wassam- asaw, but had scarcely done so, before he was compelled, by the movements of general Leslie, to move immediately to Georgetown, against which place it was apprehended that a numerous fleet of small vessels, convoyed by gal- lies and armed brigs, and conveying eight hundred men, which issued late in July from Charlestown, was intended to operate. To this place he hurried with his usual speed and spirit ; but the enterprise of the enemy was di- rected to another point, and he succeeded in sweeping from the banks of the Santee more than six hundred bar- rels of rice. Again was the force of Marion set in mo-
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tion and thrown over the Sampit, to prevent the advance of the British upon Georgetown. In this he succeeded ; but it was utterly impossible to annoy them in their movements up the South Santee, and upon those plantations which they could plunder in safety, under the guns of their gallies.
At their departure he once more returned across the Santee, and took post at Watboo, as the return of the enemy's fleet to Charlestown suggested the probability of their attempting some similar enterprise upon another of the rivers communicating with that city. Here a party of his infantry drew upon themselves the attention of the British. They believed the infantry to be isolated. Knowing their cavalry to be with Marion, and ignorant of the rapidity of his return, they supposed him to be still at Georgetown. Major Frazier, at the head of above one hundred British dragoons, advanced to surprise this party. It was not without some uneasiness that Marion prepared to receive the enemy. The greater part of his force, at this time, consisted of what were termed, in the language of that day, new made whigs. They were men originally tories, who, in consequence of a judicious proclamation of governor Rutledge, which offered pardon to all who would join the American forces within a limited time, had deserted from the British.
But his uneasiness was misplaced. There could not have been a description of men more deeply interested in securing themselves against the British sabres. Not one of them, if taken, would have escaped military execution. Instead, therefore, of surprising the Americans, Frazier found them drawn out and ready to receive him.
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His charge was met with firm nerves and the keenest aim. A single fire terminated the action ; and it is seldom that a single fire has done equal execution on a like number of men. One officer, eight men and five horses were killed; three officers, eight men and a number of horses wounded and taken. The Americans sustained no loss in men, but a very severe loss in ammunition. The driver of the wagon which contained it, or his horse, took fright during the engagement, and made off in a direction which revealed its flight to the enemy, by a small detachment of whom it was captured. Unhappily, Marion was destitute of his cavalry, who were then patrolling the country below, and cavalry alone could have retrieved his loss. Five of his men, armed with the broad swords of the slain British, and mounted on as many captured horses, resolved upon the effort. They suc- ceeded ; but the prize was again wrested from their hands before they could reach the infantry, by the return of the enemy in force.
" It was certainly," remarks the historian, " the dis- tinguishing attribute of Marion, always to extract good service from the militia. They thought themselves invincible under him; and in the present instance, he declares that not a man faltered ; that he even had to check their anxiety to move out into the open field and receive the charge of the cavalry. But Marion's coolness never deserted him ; in the absence of his cavalry, a defeat would have been converted into a route, and both corps would have been sacrificed in detail."
Had his cavalry been present, the assailants must have been utterly cut to pieces. In an hour and a half
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after they had moved off, major Conyers arrived with his horse and went instantly in pursuit. But major Frazier had by this time formed a junction with a detachment of infantry which had advanced to his support; and without ammunition, Marion was forced to retire once more toward the Santee. Greene, with half his army on the sick list, could give him no succor. Gist was employed upon the Combahee, in protecting that river from the foraging parties of the enemy ; and partial, indeed, would have been the securities of the American army, were it not that the troops of the British in Charlestown, and the vicinity, were in not much better condition.
But events were approaching-brought about by the steady adherence of the Americans to their resolution of independence, in spite of privation, danger and every form of suffering-which were at length calculated to give them relief from present evils, and a triumphant solace for all the past. Early in September, Sir Samuel Hood arrived, with a convoying fleet, to cover the evacuation of the British from Charlestown. Major Frazier was recalled to the city, and Marion resumed his station at Watboo. The light brigade, under general Gist, took a position, soon after it was formed, in advance of the army near the Stono. Colonel Laurens, who had been charged with conducting the intercourse with the corps of intelli- gence in Charleston, had a guard assigned him, and placed himself without the pickets of the brigade and near to Wappoo Creek.
When general Gist was ordered to the southward, to protect the country on the Combahee from the foraging
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fleet of the enemy, general Greene did not think it ad- visable to withdraw Laurens from a post so highly confidential and important ; and, accordingly, issued no orders to the latter to join his brigade. But the ardor of Laurens was not to be restrained when the prospect was open for active operations against the foe. When made acquainted with the orders of Gist, "to strike at the enemy wherever he might meet them," he resolved to share in the enterprise ; and, rising from a sick bed, he hurried after the brigade, which he overtook on the north bank of Combahee river near the ferry. Colonel Laurens solicited from his commander an opportunity for immediate enterprise ; and, fatally fortunate in his appli- cation, he obtained his wish.
The enemy had landed from their boats on the opposite side of the river, and the cavalry, under major Call, had been ordered round by Salkehatchie bridge, to join the militia who had collected in that quarter. Twelve miles below the ferry, on the north side of the Combahee, the extreme end of Chehaw neck approaches the bed of the river, which generally, between these points, is bordered by extensive swamps and rice fields. At this point, general Gist had ordered a work to be thrown up, for the purpose of annoying the enemy in their retreat, and the command of this post was conferred on Laurens. With fifty infantry, some matrosses and a howitzer, he moved down the river on the evening of the 26th of August, near enough to take post at Chehaw point by the dawn of the fol- lowing day. At the place of Mrs. Stock he spent the night, in the enjoyment of company, and in the utterance of feel- ings and sentiments which heighten the melancholy inter-
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est of the fatal event which closed his adventure. The warm hospitality of the lady of the mansion, and the bland- ishments of female society, beguiled the time, and the company did not separate until two hours before the hour when the detachment was set in motion. The expected conflict was the subject of conversation, and the appre- hensions of the ladies were soothed by the pleasant indifference with which he spoke of the event.
At three o'clock he commenced his march, mounted, and at the head of his detachment, altogether unsuspicious of danger, when the enemy was discovered. They had probably received some intelligence of the march of the detachment; and, landing on the north bank of the river, and pushing into the road that communicates with the point, they had formed an ambuscade in a place covered with fennel and high grass, and were completely con- cealed from sight, until they rose to deliver their fire upon the unsuspecting Americans. With the discovery of the British, the decision of Laurens was promptly taken. He saw that his only alternative against a shameful surrender, or a more dangerous if not more shameful retreat, was an energetic charge. This he instantly ordered, and with characteristic courage led the way. He fell at the first fire ; so did captain Smith of the artillery, and the men were thrown into confusion and fled. The howitzer fell into the enemy's hands, who pursued the flying infantry about a quarter of a mile, when they were met by general Gist. The pursuers fell back and drew up under cover of a wood near the edge of the river. An attempt to dislodge them before the infantry came up, failed, and was attended with some loss.
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Their front was covered by logs and brush, so as to be inaccessible to cavalry, and in infantry they were supe- rior to Gist's command. The loss of the British on this occasion is unknown. That of the Americans was very serious for so small a force ; and in the death of Laurens the army lamented a tried and gallant soldier ; the country an unshrinking, unsleeping patriot. Greene, in a letter, speaks of him in this language : " Poor Laurens has fallen in a paltry little skirmish. You knew his temper, and I predicted his fate. The love of military glory made him seek it upon occasions unworthy his rank. The state will feel his loss." His body was deposited in the earth at the plantation of Mrs Stock, " where," says the biographer of Greene, " a small enclosure of the simplest structure, seems to excite, not answer, the inquiry, 'What undistinguished stranger lies buried here ?' "
From the Combahee river the British passed into the Broad, successively ascending the streams which com- municate with that river, and carrying off all the provis- ion and live stock which they could collect. From thence they put into Port Royal, and laid the islands of Beaufort and St. Helena under contribution. It was in vain that Greene, with the feeble army which he com- manded, sought to cover and protect these places. A country of vast extent, intersected with streams and marshes, easy of entrance, and quite as easy of egress, was liable to insult at a thousand quarters, to which the guardian eye could not extend, nor the guardian wing give shelter. Still, the attempt was every where made, with a promptness and energy which only needed corres- ponding resources to have been every where successful.
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3
General Gist pursued the British with all diligence to Port Royal ferry, where he found two of their gallies. Having opened a field piece upon them, he soon compelled them to slip their cables and attempt to make off. In this attempt one of them, the Balfour, of two double nines, ran aground, and was abandoned by her crew. They spiked her guns and scuttled her before their departure ; but their work was performed with too much hurry to be effectual. She was easily repaired, and under the com- mand of lieutenant Adams, with a picked crew of twenty- five men, did excellent service afterwards in defending these waters from the picaroons which at that time infested them.
Gist rejoined the main army after the expulsion of the British from Beaufort, and his brigade, from this period to the close of the war, remained inactive ; and the same may almost be said of the entire army, with very few and unimportant exceptions. The British had retired under the guns of their redoubts, and no longer sought occasions for conflict. Their operations were confined chiefly to the collection of cattle and provisions for their contemplated voyage. The Americans traversed the Neck in the face of their fortifications, and Kosciusko, the famous Polish exile, who had succeeded to colonel Laurens in the command of the advanced light troops before the enemy's lines, still farther abated their desire for adventure by the audacity of his frequent approaches.
The last blood shed in the American war was that of captain Wilmot, of the Americans, who, with a small command, continued to cover John's island, and watch the passage by the Stono. Impatience of inactivity and
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a love of adventure, led him frequently to cross the river and harass the enemy's parties on John's island. In one of these excursions, undertaken in conjunction with Kosciusko, against a party of the British woodcutters, he fell into an ambuscade and was killed.
Meanwhile, general Leslie was pressing his prepara- tions for the final evacuation of Charlestown. Greatly constrained and distressed in that limited position by the cordon, which, in spite of all his weakness, the American general had contrived to maintain around his foe, Leslie adopted a series of providential measures which some- what lightened his embarrassments. He relieved him- self of great numbers of unnecessary consumers in the garrison, by suffering the loyalists to leave his camp and make their peace with their countrymen-a privilege of which hundreds readily availed themselves. Another measure, of equally good policy, was his expulsion from the city of all those who were alledged to favor the Amer- ican cause. This measure was ingeniously calculated to furnish a pretext to many, who, having neglected to avail themselves of the benefits of the governor's proc- lamation, were necessarily dependent only on the mercy of the country. The harsh command of expulsion from the British camp, seemed to give them some claim to the indulgence of their countrymen.
Having levelled the walls of the town, and of Fort Johnson, the British commander opened a communication with general Greene, apprising him of the intended evac- uation, and proposing terms in order that his departure might be a peaceable one. An arrangement accordingly followed, by which the Americans were to take pos-
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session, as the enemy's rear guard retired ; the former pledging themselves to forbear all hostile attempts upon the movements of the British, on condition that they should do no injury to the city. On Saturday, the 14th of December, 1782, this event took place. The morning gun was the signal for the British rear guard to abandon their advanced redoubts. General Wayne, at the head of three hundred infantry, the cavalry of the legion, a detachment of artillery with two six pounders, having been detached from the American army, had crossed Ashley river the night before, and was stationed in read- iness to follow the enemy's movements. At the sound of the morning gun the two parties were put in motion, at an assigned distance asunder of two hundred yards. They moved down the King street road, till they had passed the lines, when the British filed off to Gadsden's wharf, where they embarked in boats which awaited them.
"It was a grand and pleasing sight," says general Moultrie in his memoirs, "to see the enemy's fleet, up- wards of three hundred sail, lying at anchor from Fort Johnson to Five Fathom Hole, in a curve line, as the current runs ; and what made it more agreeable, they were ready to depart."
The reluctance of the one party to leave, and the impatience of the other to succeed them in the posses- sion of the city, led the British, now and then, during the march, to cry aloud to general Wayne that he was pressing too rapidly upon them. On such occasions the halt imposed upon the Americans was a short trial of their patience. Well might the Carolinians be impatient
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to behold those dear homes from which they had been so long exiled. Wayne moved forward, and halted on the south side of Broad street, nearly opposite to Church. In the rear of the American advance, came the governor of the state, attended by general Greene and escorted by two hundred cavalry. His council, and long troops of officers and citizens, followed on horseback. Smiling faces and joyful voices saluted the deliverers as they came. The balconies and windows were crowded with the aged men, the women and the children, who, for nearly three years, had wept with apprehension and sorrow the absence and the loss of dear sons, affectionate brothers and warm friends. Their tears now were those only of joy and of triumph. " God bless you, gentlemen ; God bless you, and welcome, welcome home."
Such were the sweet words which hailed the long banished citizens, and the long suffering soldiery of Greene. In tears, in silence, and on bended knees, the full hearts of the rescued citizens found utterance that blessed day. The state was at last free from the defiling presence of the invader, never, we trust, to suffer again from his painful scourge and humiliating arrogance and footstep !
CHAPTER XXVIII. 1
The day after the restoration of Charlestown to the American authorities, the British fleet put to sea. If the joy of the Carolinians was great in once more resuming possession of their metropolis, the sorrows of the British on leaving it were comparatively greater. It had been for more than two years the scene in which they had played their several parts of power without restraint. Every passion of the tyrant had they shown in turn ; haughty scorn, contemptuous hate, reckless lust, and groping and grinding avarice. They had trampled upon its sensiblities, shed its best blood in wantonness, and gleaned it of its treasures. The last lingering hour of their stay was distinguished by the ravages of a spirit still as greedy of gain as they had shown at their first coming. Thousands of slaves, stolen from the plantations, swelled the flying train of the British officers. For these the spoilers ultimately found a profitable market in the West Indies. The share of lieutenant colonel Moncrieff, alone, is stated to have been no less than eight hundred negroes.
But this last robbery of the invaders sinks into insig- nificance, when compared with their frequent plunder of the same species of property during the first year of their conquest. It has been computed that South Carolina, alone, lost by these robberies no less than twenty-five thousand negroes. The losses of Georgia and North Carolina were proportionately great.
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The reluctance of the invaders to leave the metropolis of Carolina, showed itself even more conclusively in the number of deserters whom they left behind them. Hun- dreds emerged from cellars, chimneys and other hiding places, as soon as the certain absence of their army made it safe to do so. Scarcely a Hessian went back but under compulsion ; and thousands prepared to en- counter every danger of ill treatment from a people whom they had wronged, rather than return to a stand- ard to which they had been sold by their mercenary sovereigns. Among the deserters, the Irish were partic- ularly numerous. Their desertions were so frequent, long before the war had been brought to an issue, that their officers ceased entirely to confide in them ; and it is not improbable that the inactivity of general Stewart when at Orangeburg, and the subsequent imbecility which seemed to mark the proceedings of the commander while in garrison, arose, rather from doubts of the fidelity of the troops, than from their sickness or any other of the alledged causes.
The treaty of peace between the respective commis- sioners of America and Great Britain, very happily soon followed the evacuation, and relieved the country from other evils, scarcely less serious than those which came with a state of actual warfare. The southern army, thrown for its support entirely upon South Carolina, soon exhausted the few remaining resources of the province, and the patience of the people. The state became indig- nant at this charge, when it was known how much it had already contributed, and how much more than any of its sisters it had suffered for three tedious years.
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The army, seemingly abandoned by congress, and having got from South Carolina all that she was able to give, proceeded to collect its food at the point of the bay- onet. The state authorities became alarmed and angry ; and their resolution to prevent the exercise of any farther purveyance, increased the rage and suffering of the starving soldiery. General Gist, who was in com- mand at James' island, could no longer restrain his men. The cavalry at the Eutaw broke out into actual mutiny, and were brought back to their duty only by the eloquent entreaties and reproaches of their commander. To such a height did the discontents arise, that general Greene, on one occasion, was compelled to select and draw out in order of battle, from the sound parts of his army, a suf- ficient force to keep the rest in subjection. The tidings of peace, as they led to the disbanding of the army, relieved the fears of the country, and in some degree, the sufferings of the soldier. He could now return to those homes and happy anticipations, from which the calls of his country had so long withdrawn him. He had reason to rejoice in the beams of peace, though it is feared that thousands who survived the strife, received but a small share of the bless- ings for which they strove in war. A tardy justice on the part of the nation, has sought to compensate them for their wounds and sufferings ; but the consciousness of their desert has been, perhaps, their greatest and best reward.
Provisional articles of peace were signed at Paris, on the 13th of November, 1782, by which the king of Great Britain acknowledged " the United States of New Hamp- shire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
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York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent states; that he treated with them as such; and, for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquished all claims to the govern- ment, proprietary and territorial rights of the same."
The termination of the revolutionary war, resulting as it did in the unrestrained and individual sovereignty of the several states engaged in it, left South Carolina free to the adoption of her own plans of government, her laws and domestic policy. Her people, with that elastic temper which had distinguished them from the beginning, soon set themselves to work to repair the disasters occa- sioned by the long and painful conflict which has been just recorded, and to remedy those defects in their social and political condition which it developed. In this object, it was fortunate for the country that the moderation with which the republicans regarded and treated the loyalists, led to the hearty co-operation, in all leading respects, of these lately hostile parties. The greater part of the exiled tories were permitted to return, by legislative enactment, and, under some temporary disabil- ities and small fines, were restored to citizenship. 'Though laboring under an immense debt, the state generously restored to the late owners, half a million of pounds sterling of confiscated property in its actual possession.
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