USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
. 314
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
sition was heard in South Carolina with indignation and rejected with scorn.1
The Revolutionists in North Carolina fully recognized the fact that it was wise, as well as generous, to furnish assistance to their neighboring State. It was better for them to send troops to fight the British in South Carolina, and thus keep the seat of war there, than allow it to be transferred to their own soil. Early in 1779 Governor Caswell, in response to an appeal from South Carolina, called out three thousand militia, and conferred the com- mand on Major General John Ashe of New Hanover. These troops were from Wilmington, Newbern, Edenton, and Halifax districts. The State of North Carolina, however, had no arms, and sent these men forward on the expectation that they would be armed in South Caro- lina; but so scarce were arms that only the most inferior patterns could be furnished. All but one of the con- tinental battalions from North Carolina were now with Washington; but this one was also sent to South Caro- lina. Well might Charles Pinckney write, on the 24th of February, 1779: 2 __
" As to further aid from North Carolina they have agreed to send us 2000 more troops immediately. We have now upwards of 3000 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 General Moultrie in confessing that they have been the salvation of this country."
1 Bancroft, vol. V, 370. Some black dragoons were organized by the British in the last year of the war, and appeared in the field, as we shall see, upon one or two occasions.
2 Governor Graham's lecture, No. Ca. University Magazine, April, 1878, quoted in North Carolina, 1780-81, David Schenck, LL.D., 35.
315
IN THE REVOLUTION
But while Governor Caswell was doing all he could for the assistance of South Carolina, a curious episode, indica- tive of the spirit of the times, occurred between the dele- gates in Congress of the two States. Notwithstanding the conquest of Georgia and the threatened invasion of South Carolina, Congress was amusing itself with the negotiation of a treaty with the French envoy as to the ultimate terms upon which only the United States would make peace with Great Britain; and New England, not content with the independence which she believed, through the aid of the French, would now be secured, put in a demand that peace should not be made unless the common right of the United States to fish on the coasts, bays, and banks of Nova Scotia, the banks of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the straits of Labrador, and Belle Island should be recognized; 1 and on this question it appears that Henry Laurens had supported the demand of New England, William Henry Drayton, the other dele- gate from South Carolina present in Congress, opposing it. Thereupon, on the 2d of April, 1779, the delegates from North Carolina - John Penn, Whitmell Hill, and Thomas Burke - wrote to Henry Laurens and William Henry Drayton as delegates from South Carolina, protest- ing against Mr. Laurens's course.
" Considering," they wrote, " that a Question now before Congress involves the continuance of hostilities, even tho' our Liberty sov- ereignty & Independence, absolute and unlimited, as well in matters of Government as Commerce, shall be acknowledged & secured, unless Great Britain will, acknowledging a right of fishing on all Banks & Coasts of North America which were exclusively reserved to Britain by the Treaties of Utrecht & Paris, as fully as the Inhabitants of the Countries now composing the United States of North America en- joyed when subjects of Great Britain ; - a right which we deem more
1 Bancroft, vol. V, 320.
316
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
extensive than can with justice be insisted on, & which our Allies by their engagements are not bound to assist us in contending for, & which the Minister plenipotentiary of France assures us his Court cannot agree to continue this War for. Considering also that in a late Vote upon the Question alluded to, Mr. Laurens one of the Dele- gates from your State gave his Voice for continuing hostilities for the aforesaid object, even tho' our Allies should be not in a condition to assist us from which we infer, that he relies on a degree of strength & resources in your state which is unknown to us, or on a mistaken Idea of the strength & resources of North Carolina. . . . We esteem it our duty to inform you that in case of the continuance of the War for the aforesaid object North Carolina is not in a condition to make any exertions for the defence of South Carolina, nor do we believe she will be inclined to make any."
Enclosed in this paper was the copy of a communication which Messrs. Penn, Hill, and Burke informed Messrs. Laurens and Drayton they proposed to send to the Gov- ernor of North Carolina. The letter goes over the same ground. It says that although Congress a few days before had passed several resolutions stating the situation of South Carolina and Georgia to be such that they were incapable of any adequate efforts for their own defence, and recommending Virginia and North Carolina to make every effort to raise forces for their assistance, and that although it was clear that no succors could be sent to them from the main army or any other States, and that although North Carolina had been from the very begin- ning of the war harassed with efforts for her Southern neighbors under the idea that they were too weak for their own defence, yet that a late vote in Congress had inclined them to believe that they had been very much mistaken, that from Mr. Laurens's vote they were now driven to the conclusion that Mr. Laurens's State was so strong and powerful in resources unknown to them that he was able to defy all those difficulties which arise from deranged and almost annihilated finances, ruined com-
317
IN THE REVOLUTION
merce, want of manufactures, obstructed agriculture, wasted forces, and slaughtered fellow-citizens; from want of men, arms, ammunition, provisions, equipment, - difficulties which appeared to them almost ready to over- whelm the exhausted country. After much more of this sarcasm the letter concluded with the suggestion that any further exertion on the part of North Carolina might be dispensed with, and the expression of the hope that her militia might return home as soon as possible, and that no more battalions should be raised in the State for the purpose of being sent to South Carolina.
To the North Carolina delegates, aware of the appeals which were constantly coming from their sister State, and no doubt fully realizing the danger to their own if South Carolina should be overrun, it must have been provoking indeed to find Laurens sustaining the New Englanders in their extravagant demand, and voting with them to make England's compliance with it a condition of peace. But it was alike ungenerous and unwise to permit that resent- ment to carry them to this extent. To withdraw their troops from Laurens's State was simply to invite the invasion of their own.
Unfortunately for South Carolina her two attending delegates in Congress at the time were on unfriendly terms, and this unhappy personal relation was carried into their official intercourse to such an extent as to excite comment and observation. Mr. Drayton being asked by Mr. Adams how it happened that he always voted counter to Colonel Laurens, replied: "We vote systematically. As I always vote first, and could not possibly determine on which side he would give his voice, the system must have been confined to himself." With these relations existing between them Colonel Laurens believed, and said as much, that his colleague was concerned in procuring
318
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
these letters in order to injure him. He writes to Mr Drayton, sending him "the letter " and the address to the Governor of North Carolina, "You had some knowledge of these letters before we read them yesterday morning, therefore I request you will honor me with an explicit reply and candid opinion on the propriety of the measure which North Carolina has adopted on the occasion: if you, sir, approve of their proceeding, I shall be glad of a conference with you on the important subjects alluded to." Mr. Drayton, in his reply, does not deny his previous con- nection with the letter, but declines "giving an opinion which there is no necessity (he) should hazard," and adds that he had answered on his part the official memorial, ardently requesting that the delegates "of North Carolina would not send their intended letter to their Governor, and assuring them that South Carolina when attacked as she now is absolutely stands in need of the sisterly aid of North Carolina, and that in a powerful degree." Mr. Laurens replies to this very angrily. He writes: "You have declined giving an opinion or holding a conference, which evinces that you not only 'vote' but act 'sys- tematically '; here you have drawn a line between us, henceforth I will neither receive from you nor trouble you with a letter of controversy, but I will never with- hold my voice in confirmation of any motion of yours in Congress, nor my utmost support to your measures out of doors, where we may be jointly concerned, which shall appear to be conducive to public good. . ." He continues : -
" Did the measures adopted by the Gentlemen of North Carolina point, in your view, Sir, to no higher an object than aid to a sister State, which it is neither in their power to direct or restrain ? Were you less affected by an attempt of violence upon the suffrages of free Citizens as well as upon the honor of all these Independent States, than
319
IN THE REVOLUTION
you were by groundless apprehensions of temporary evils to your own ? Do you think Sir, that your ardent requests can lull the Resolutions of those Gentlemen or warp their inclinations from the pursuit of a duty which they hold indispensably necessary? Did not you feel a little for the breach of plighted faith and honor to keep secret deliberation upon a point, the disclosure of which may dash our infant Indepen- dence against the Stones? Or did you think me blind? Think, speak, and act Sir as you shall judge most convenient. I shall per- severe in acting in all respects with propriety towards you, with dili- gence and fidelity in the common Cause of America, and with all the inost inviolable attachment to that State whose particular Servant I ain."1
To the Governor of North Carolina Mr. Laurens writes a long letter, in which he charges that the whole matter was of a plan long settled to "hunt me down." It is not known whether the letters of the delegates were actually sent to the Governor of North Carolina. It is probable that they were not, as letters of explanation passed after- ward between Mr. Laurens and Messrs. Penn, Hill, and Burke. While this controversy between the delegates in Congress was going on, Prévost was in Georgia preparing for his invasion of South Carolina.
Ramsay the historian states that before the General Assembly, which elected John Rutledge, adjourned, they had delegated to him and to his Council power "to do everything that appeared to him and to them necessary for the public good." 2
This was following the precedent which had been adopted in 1775 when, upon an adjournment of the Gen- eral Assembly, William Henry Drayton, with two others, Charles Pinckney and Thomas Heyward, Jr., were author- ized to order whatever they should think necessary for
1 Laurens's MS., Promiscuous Letters, 1778-80, So. Ca. Hist. Soc.
2 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 19. There are no journals of the General Assembly of this time.
320
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the public safety until the meeting of Congress the next day; and as had been done in 1776 when, after adopting the Constitution, the Congress adjourned, "leaving the administration of the government to the President (John Rutledge) and Privy Council."1 Still larger powers were yet to be conferred upon John Rutledge in the supreme emergency of the struggle. For the present under these he proceeded with great vigor-a vigor that ran at times counter to the wishes and designs of the continental officers, who considered themselves in absolute and exclu- sive control of all military movements. He assembled all the militia he could collect and established a permanent camp at Orangeburgh, as a central point from Charlestown and Augusta.
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. II, 253.
CHAPTER XV
1778-1779
SOUTH CAROLINA was now to be the theatre of the war until the close of the struggle for independence. For four years she was to be rent and torn and trampled as no other State in the Union. The ploughers were to plough upon her back and make long their furrows. Her people were to fall by the sword, and to be consumed by the fire ; they were to be oppressed not only by the stranger, but every one by another, every one by his neighbor. And all this in a cause in which she had not willingly embarked ; the unequal burden of which her wise men had foreseen, and from the calamities of which they had endeavored to save her ; but through which sufferings in the providence of God the common foe was to be retained upon her soil until the nations of Europe should interpose and end the war, thus securing through her blood and treasure the liberty and independence of the thirteen States. Left mainly to her own resources, says Bancroft, it was through the depths of wretchedness that her sons were to bring her back to her place in the republic, after suffering more and daring more and achieving more than the men of any other State.1
After the disastrous expedition of General Lee against Florida, in 1776, the British had erected a fort at St. Mary's River, from which they frequently raided the southern parts of Georgia. To put an end to this Gen-
1 Hist. of the U. S., vol. V, 375.
VOL. III. - Y 321
.
322
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
eral Howe unfortunately resumed the invasion in 1778, and conducted it with no better success than had Lee. The troops which he took with him on the expedition were six hundred South Carolina continentals under Colonel Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, five hundred Georgia con- tinentals under Colonel Samuel Elbert of Georgia, and a considerable body of militia drawn from both States. That from Georgia was commanded by Governor Houston in person. The South Carolina militia were under Colo- nels Andrew Williamson and Stephen Bull. The route of the expedition lay through a country so barren that not a berry was to be found, nor a bud to be seen. No opposition of consequence from the enemy was met until the expedition reached Fort Tonyn. Indeed, it is not improbable that General Prévost who commanded in Florida was content to allow the season and climate to fight for him. And, as it was in Lee's invasion, the Eng- lish could have had no better ally. A malarial region, intense heat, bad water, insufficient shelter, and salt meat so impaired the health of Howe's troops that the hospi- tal returns showed one-half the men upon the sick list. Through lack of forage horses perished, and those which remained were so enfeebled that they were incapable of transporting the artillery and wagons. The soldiers were dispirited and distracted. The command was rent by factions, and Howe proved incompetent to deal with its discordant element. The same question which Gadsden had raised with Howe in Charlestown was now made in the midst of the expedition by Governor Houston and Colonel Williamson. Governor Houston refused to receive orders from Howe, and Williamson would not yield obedience to a continental officer.1 The only troops upon which Howe could rely were the continental detach-
1 Moultrie's Memoirs, vol. I, 230.
323
IN THE REVOLUTION
ments under Colonels Pinckney and Elbert. A council of war was called, and it ordered a retreat, but not before the little army had sustained a loss of upward of five hundred men 1 and more than half the six hundred South Carolina regular troops were in their graves or in the hospitals.2
There was, however, a brilliant episode to this unfortu- nate affair. Colonel Elbert, learning that several of the enemy's vessels, the brigantine Hinchenbrook, the sloop Rebecca, and a prize brig, were lying at Frederica, detailed three hundred men and a detachment of artillerists with two field-pieces, of which he took command in person. Putting them on board of three galleys, he embarked at Darien and effected a landing a mile below the town, to which he immediately sent a detachment which seized some marines and sailors of the Hinchenbrook, and the next morning with the three little galleys boldly attacked the British ships drawn up in order of battle, and cap- tured them without the loss of a man. Colonel Pinckney wrote General Moultrie that, notwithstanding the reflec- tions cast on the propriety of Howe's expedition at that season, it was incontrovertible that with the capture of the Hinchenbrook and the other vessels it had proved the salvation of the State of Georgia. But if so, its salvation was but for a short period. The expedition which sailed from New York under Colonel Campbell and Prevost's army from Florida were to find no force to oppose them, and Georgia was soon to be in complete possession of the British troops.
Prévost had wisely allowed Howe's expedition to ex- haust itself, and as it drew back its weak, sickly, and
1 Life and Services of General Samuel Elbert, Charles C. Jones, Jr., 21 ; Ramsay's Revolution, vol. I, 152.
2 Letter of Major Thomas Pinckney, Johnson's Traditions, 89.
324
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
discordant parts it left the whole country open to his movements in cooperation with the expedition from New York. For this purpose Prévost was instructed to invade Georgia from the south, and having captured Sunbury - a seaport of considerable wealth and importance - he was to move upon Savannah. In pursuance of this plan two detachments were sent forward by Prévost, - one by sea, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Fuser, to reduce Sunbury, and the other penetrating by land to devastate the lower portion of Georgia. The two detachments were to form a junction at Sunbury. The first party reached Sunbury and demanded its surrender, but Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan McIntosh in reply simply said, "Come and take it." Upon which the party retired to a neigh- boring island. The other party pursued their march, opposed only by a hundred militia under General Screven, who skirmished with them as they advanced. In one of these engagements General Screven was wounded and fell from his horse, when he was brutally murdered, in retalia- tion, it was said, for the manner in which one Captain Moore, of Brown's Rangers, had been killed. The invaders pursued their march until they were within three miles of Ogeechee Ferry, where they were met by Colonel Elbert with about two hundred continentals, in works erected by Mr. Savage with his own slaves, prepared to dispute their passage. This party, like that which had reached Sunbury, immediately retreated when opposed. Prévost and Fuser, failing to effect a junction, abandoned the siege of Sunbury, and, retreating upon Florida, did not unite with Campbell in his attack upon Savannah. But in their retreat they laid waste the country for many miles, burnt St. John's Church, a number of dwelling houses, and all the rice and other grain within their reach, and carried off with them all the negroes, horses.
325
IN THE REVOLUTION
cattle, and plate that could be removed either by land or water.1
Ramsay says it is impossible to tell whether this burn- ing, plundering incursion introductory to a serious plan of operations advanced or impeded the British designs. It certainly alarmed the fears of some ; but on others it produced quite the contrary effect. The indignation of the latter was roused, and they were stimulated to do and suffer everything rather than submit to such conquerors. There is little question that it was just such conduct as this which ultimately defeated the British. This was the experience in New Jersey the year before. The proclamations and the printed protections of the British commanders, on the faith of which the inhabitants in gen- eral had stayed at home and had forborne to take up arms, had proved of no avail. The Hessians could not or would not understand them, but plundered friend and foe alike. The British soldiery often followed their example, and the plunderings of both were at times attended by the most brutal outrages on the weaker sex, which inflamed the dullest spirits to revenge. The Jerseys were thus aroused against the invaders. In Washington's retreat of more than a hundred miles through the State he had not been joined by more than a hundred of its inhabitants, but when after Princeton the British retreated, sufferers on both sides arose as one man to avenge their personal injuries.2 The same was to be the experience in South Carolina.
These movements on the part of Prévost greatly alarmed Howe, as well they might, in view of the weakness of his command and its distance from any reinforcements. He writes, on the 27th of November, in great urgency to Moultrie at Charlestown to hasten up the troops under
1 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 3.
2 Irving's Life of Washington, vol. III, 3.
326
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the command of Isaac Huger, lately made Brigadier Gen- eral.1 "Let them march with all possible expedition,' he writes ; " baggage at this time is not to be considered, and provisions may be had at every house -let the men force on, and if some cannot march with the rest, let them proceed without the least delay, as this attempt upon Georgia is indeed a serious one." Moultrie replies on the 28th that he has sent an express to Huger to expedite his march, leaving his baggage and weak men behind him; that he will send Colonel Henderson's battalion off to- morrow; that Thomson's regiment, not far from him, is taking the shortest route to Purrysburg, and that the President, Rawlins Lowndes, has given the Quartermaster General a power to impress what wagons may be wanted for the expedition. Prevost, however, fell back to Florida, and Howe had a month's respite ; but the delay brought him no accession of strength.
On the 27th of December, 1778, the fleet from New York, which transported the expedition against Georgia, arrived off the mouth of the Savannah, crossed the bar, and lay at anchor within it.2 The troops which composed the invading force were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, and well for the British cause would
1 Colonel Isaac Huger, of the Fifth Regiment, South Carolina Con- tinentals (riflemen), was promoted Brigadier General, January 9, 1777. Moultrie's Memoirs, vol. II, 146.
2 The expedition consisted of the Seventy-first Regiment, - two bat- talions of Hessians, four battalions of North and South Carolina provin- cials in the British service, New York volunteers, and a detachment of royal artillery, amounting in all to three thousand men. The Seventy- first Regiment (Scotch) from this time is found in almost every battle fought in South Carolina or Georgia, until it was cut to pieces at Cowpens on the 17th of January, 1781. The North Carolina regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Hamilton ; the South Caro- lina regiment by Colonel Alexander Innes, who had been Secretary to Lord William Campbell, Governor of South Carolina.
327
IN THE REVOLUTION
it have been had he been given a commensurate rank and intrusted with the entire command in the Southern prov- inces. His brilliant conduct in defeating Howe and secur- ing Savannah, as we shall presently see, demonstrated his military fitness for such a command, while his nice sense of honor and noble conduct endeared him to the people whom he was sent to overawe. The friends of indepen- dence, it was said, had everything to fear from his wisdom and humanity, but their alarm on this account was of short duration. Smaller men with a narrower policy were to be intrusted with a work which could have been accom- plished only by one of his abilities and character.1 The naval force of the expedition was commanded by Commo- dore Hyde Parker. Major General Prévost with his troops from Florida was ordered to join the expedition and take command of the whole ; but, as we shall see, so ably did Colonel Campbell form his plans upon reaching the Savan- nah, and so well was he supported by the cordial coopera- tion of Commodore Parker and the naval forces, that the reduction of the province was practically completed before that General's arrival.
The morning after its arrival, the 28th, the fleet pro- ceeded up the river, and on the morning of the 29th the debarkation of the troops began. At daybreak the light infantry, the New York volunteers, and the first battalion of the Seventy-first Regiment effected a landing in front of Girardeau's plantation. From this landing-place a nar- row causeway, with a ditch on each side, led through a rice- field to the high ground beyond. Captain Cameron of the Seventy-first, having first reached the shore with his com- pany of light infantry, immediately formed them and ad- vanced. At the end of the causeway these were met with a general discharge of musketry, by which this officer was
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.