USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 25
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
1 Drayton's Memoirs, vol. II, 122.
284
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
arms ; yet so zealously and expeditiously did they work that, although frequently interrupted by daring attacks of the enemy, scarcely a night passing without loss of lives on both sides, by the 3d of June the second parallel was completed.
Greene now summoned the garrison to surrender. Singularly, the message was not only carried, but signed, by the adjutant general instead of himself. To it Cruger promptly replied : -
"I am honored with your letter of this day intimating Major General Greene's immediate demand of the surrender of his Majesty's garrison at Ninety Six; a compliance with which my duty to my Sovereign renders inadmissible at present."1
While boldly determined to maintain his post at all hazards, Cruger was not aware how serious a matter this his defiance was to the American general. The latter had now been for some time in possession of intelligence that a reenforcement of three regiments of British troops had sailed from Cork, and were probably destined for the port of Charlestown. Greene did not know, however, what was the fact, that Lord Cornwallis had sent from Wilmington a despatch boat to Charlestown, directing Lord Rawdon not to permit these troops even to cross the bar, but to forward them directly to New York, nor that that despatch boat had been interrupted by American cruisers.2 Looking out for such a reenforcement to the British army in South Carolina, as early as the 26th of May Greene had learned that a fleet had appeared off Charlestown bar, and wrote to Sumter to make the strictest inquiry who or what they were.3 While anxiously waiting for information confirm-
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 144.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 146; Clinton- Cornwallis Contro- versy, vol. II, 37.
3 Sumter MSS., Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 103.
285
IN THE REVOLUTION
ing or denying this report, Greene was impatiently expecting the arrival of fifteen hundred Virginia militia for which he had called. He had hoped for their coming in time to have taken part in the battle of Hobkirk's Hill, and their failure to do so was one of the causes to which he attributed his defeat on that occasion. Now he had been calculating with certainty on their joining him before Ninety Six, and en- abling him to press the siege with vigor and bring it to a close. But day after day elapsed under this last hope, when the astounding intelligence arrived that their march had been countermanded by Governor Jefferson. It had been Greene's intention, it appears, to hasten through the work in South Carolina with this help, that he might march with his more efficient troops to reinforce and supersede Lafayette in Virginia. But this the action of the gov- ernor of that State had prevented, and he was obliged to remain in South Carolina in this uncongenial service, and to wait the slow progress of the siege.
In the meanwhile Marion had written to him that Lord Rawdon lay at Monck's Corner, and asking permission to make an attack upon Georgetown. This request, in his let- ter of the 26th, he referred to Sumter for answer, upon two conditions : first, that Lord Rawdon was making no prepa- rations which had the appearance of interrupting the sieges of Augusta and Ninety Six ; and second, that Marion's moving to Georgetown would not expose Sumter's own position or interfere with his movements. Colonel Bran- don, he writes, had called at Ninety Six on his return home, and shown him Sumter's orders to bring his men to his aid below, but that, for particular reasons, which he would after- wards explain, he had interfered with that arrangement and had desired Brandon to join him with all the force he could collect, to expedite the reduction of Ninety Six.1
1 Sumter MSS.
286
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
To this Sumter replies, acquiescing in this diversion of his troops, and expressing his gratification that they could be of service to the general.1 The particular reason, which he would not risk committing to the possibility of falling into the enemy's hands, was doubtless his disappointment as to the coming of the Virginia militia, and the difficul- ties he began to realize in the siege he had undertaken. Johnson, indeed, states that on first reconnoitring the post General Greene predicted his failure in the attempt to re- duce it, and wrote to Lafayette that the fortifications were so strong and the garrison so large that success was very doubtful.2 But why had not this been ascertained before turning aside from the pursuit of Rawdon? The post was well known. Sumter or Pickens could no doubt have informed him minutely as to its works and its garrison, without the waste of men and time to ascertain its condi- tion himself. But now that he had come to Ninety Six and sat himself down before the post, disappointed in the reën- forcements he expected from Virginia, he had no other re- liance but upon the men of three States which had borne the brunt of the war for the last year. He immediately issued orders for the North Carolina levies to join him, and appealed to Governor Rutledge, Generals Sumter, Marion, and Pickens in South Carolina, and to Colonel Clarke in Georgia for assistance.3
While General Greene was thus engaged, Marion, having obtained Sumter's consent, marched on the 3d of June to Georgetown, and, appearing before it on the 5th,4 began his approaches ; but these were rendered unnecessary, for on
1 Letter of the 7th June, Nightingale Collection.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 141.
3 Ibid., 145.
4 This date is usually given as the 6th, but in Marion's letter to Sum- ter of the 6th he wrote, "Yesterday I levelled all the works." - Sumter MSS.
287
IN THE REVOLUTION
the night after the British garrison evacuated the town, tak- ing shipping for Charlestown, whereupon Marion immedi- ately levelled the works. Thus it was that three sieges were in progress at the same time, to wit, from the 3d to the 5th of June, that is, at Augusta, Ninety Six, and Georgetown. Augusta and Georgetown were taken possession of on the same day. It was while at Georgetown that Marion, on the 6th of June, received intelligence from one of his officers near Haddrell's Point that seventeen transports with troops, said to be two thousand in number, had crossed the bar and gone into Charlestown. The moment Marion received this information he wrote at once, informing Sumter.1 Johnson observes that the fleet arrived on the 2d of June, and that some idea will be formed of the efficiency of General Greene's arrangement for procuring intelligence, when it is told that on the 6th he received, at Ninety Six, Charles- town papers of the 2d containing the news-the distance is near two hundred miles. He cites also, as an instance of Marion's vigilance and capacity in procuring intelligence, that he received this paper the same day that it was printed, and forwarded it through Sumter, who by some fatality did not receive the intelligence, though it passed through his hands, until the enemy had commenced his march. But in this statement there is some confusion in dates from which Sumter suffers to the advantage of Greene and Marion.
The Royal Gazette, published in Charlestown at this time, was issued in the afternoon twice a week. In the issue "From Wednesday, May 30, to Saturday, June 2," under date of June 2, we find this item : -
" We have the happiness to congratulate our readers on the safe arrival of a large fleet from Corke with a powerful reenforcement for the Royal Army. They came to anchor this afternoon off our bar. Mr.
1 Sumter MSS.
288
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Greene, we are well assured, lately took occasion to announce in general orders to the army that the fleet above mentioned had been captured by the French."
This notice in the Gazette establishes the date of the arrival of the fleet off the bar, which had been some days before in the offing, as of the 2d, and not as of the 3d, as stated by most authors.1 The paper might have reached Greene some time before the 10th, possibly on the 6th, as stated by Johnson, but it did not come from Marion; it is apparent that Marion knew nothing of it, nor did it give Greene any information as to the reenforcement brought, nor assure him that the fleet off Charlestown bar would land any troops which it may have brought. Indeed, had not Lord Cornwallis's despatch boat been captured by the American cruisers the fleet would not have crossed the bar, but would have sailed for Virginia. Greene writes to Sumter on June 10th: "By a Charles- town paper of the 2d I find a fleet has lately arrived at that place and it is said with a large reinforcement. As you do not mention anything of it in your letter I imagine you have not received an account of it. Please to make particular inquiry into the matter."2 When Greene wrote this, on the morning of the 10th of June, he certainly had no special information from Marion. It was the paper of the 2d which had informed him of the arrival of the fleet off the Charlestown bar. If, indeed, it was remarkable that the paper should have reached Greene two hundred miles away from the place of its publication within four days, it would have been more wonderful, if not impossible, that it should have done so through the hands of Marion, who then was before Georgetown, thus adding many miles more at least
1 Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 371 ; Annual Register, vol. XXIV, 91 ; Tarleton's Campaigns, 480 ; Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 370.
2 Sumter MSS., Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 108.
289
IN THE REVOLUTION .
to its journey. The information which Greene received from Marion, and upon which he acted, he received through Sumter on the 10th, after he had written the letter just quoted. The next issue of the Gazette, that published on the 6th June, announces : " Yesterday afternoon the flank companies of the regiments lately arrived were landed in town. Their appearance was truly elegant, martial, and healthy." The troops landed, therefore, on the 5th. Marion at Georgetown, on the 6th, while writing to Sumter on other matters, received intelligence of the landing of these troops, -but from an official at Haddrell's Point, and not by the Gazette. He writes : " This moment Irec'd intelligence from one of my offrs near Haddrell's point that seventeen trans- ports with troops, sd to be two thousand, had arrived in Ch'stown, which information he had from two of our officers who sa they had seen the vessels go in." Marion himself, therefore, received the information, not from a newspaper, but from his officers, and did not receive it until the day after the landing of the British troops. The information he im-
mediately forwarded to Sumter on the 6th, and Sumter for- warded it as soon as received, on the 8th, to Greene, who received it on the 10th, after he had despatched to Sumter the letter of the same date already quoted, instructing him to make particular inquiry in regard to the fleet. On the receipt of this information Greene writes again to Sumter on the 10th : "I received your letter of the 8th accompany- ing a letter from Gen1 Marion. I wrote you this morning respecting the reinforcements mentioned having got intelli- gence thereof before the arrival of your letter."2 From these facts it is clear that Sumter was at no fault in this matter, and that Greene did not receive the information of the disembarkation of the troops directly from Marion, but
1 Sumter MSS.
2 Sumter MSS., Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 106. .VOL. IV. - U
290
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
through Sumter, who forwarded it to him. Nor can we agree with the biographer of Greene, that the incident exhibits any very great efficiency in his arrangements for procuring intelligence. The receipt of the paper four days after it was published, if it was then received, was certainly no great accomplishment. Still less was the receipt of the information of the landing of the troops five days after it had occurred. But the inference is strong that Greene had not received The Royal Gazette of the 2nd before the 10th. It is only on that day that he mentions so important a matter to Sumter, and directs him to make particular inquiry in regard to it. Surely, if he had received the paper on the 6th or any time before, he would not have delayed to the 10th to inform Sumter and to instruct him to make inquiries and report. On the 11th Sumter writes that he has received no further report upon the subject.1
In the meanwhile Colonel Lee, with the cavalry of his Legion, had reached Ninety Six from Augusta on the 8th, and Greene, on the receipt of Sumter's and Marion's let- ters, at once put Washington's horse and the cavalry of Lee's Legion in motion to join Sumter to meet the new danger ; and in his letter to Sumter he writes that it is his wish that, if the enemy should advance into the country, he should collect all his force and skirmish with them, moving out of their way all the cattle, means of transportation, and subsistence - that it was his intention to fight the enemy
before they got to Ninety Six. "Collect all the force you can," he writes, "and give positive orders for Gen1 Marion to join if the enemy attempt to penetrate the country. The force from Augusta," he adds, "has arrived at this post, and I think when we are collected we can fight a good battle, and if the enemy's force do not exceed
1 Letter of 11th, in Nightingale Collection, Year Book, City of Charles- ton, 1899, Appendix, 26.
291
IN THE REVOLUTION
twenty-five hundred we shall have a fair prospect of victory." 1
The British reenforcement which arrived from Ireland consisted of the Third, Nineteenth, and Thirtieth regi- ments of foot, a detachment of the Guards, and a con- siderable body of recruits, the whole under the command of Colonel Gould of the Thirtieth. Lord Cornwallis's despatch ordering the fleet to repair at once to Virginia had been intercepted, as has been stated; but it appears that under previous instructions Lord Rawdon and Colonel Balfour had been directed to send these troops on to that State unless the service in this required their presence here. These officers made known to Colonel Gould the power which Lord Cornwallis had given them for detain- ing such part of his command as they might deem neces- sary, and he at once concurred in the view that the immediate defence of this province was the more urgent service, and disembarked his troops. Lord Rawdon about this time was enabled also to add to the efficiency of his force in a manner which relieved him of one of his greatest difficulties. Since the movement of Cornwallis into North Carolina, taking with him Tarleton's Legion and the re- mains of the Seventeenth Dragoons, his greatest deficiency had been cavalry. To remedy this in a measure the loyal inhabitants of Charlestown made a subscription amount- ing to near 3000 guineas, which sum they requested his lordship to apply to the purpose of equipping a corps of dragoons in the manner he should judge most expedient. In compliment to the loyalty of the gentlemen who had made this subscription, Rawdon determined to use it in connection with the men of the province, and accordingly ordered the South Carolina Regiment of Royalists to be converted into
1 Sumter MSS., Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 107.
292
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
cavalry.1 The cavalry thus raised was put under the com- mand of Major John Coffin, a Loyalist officer from Boston, who commanded the few cavalry at Hobkirk's Hill.
With his force thus increased, now consisting of some- thing more than 1700 foot and 150 horse, Lord Rawdon marched on the 7th for the relief of Ninety Six. He was joined on his way by Colonel Doyle with the troops he had left at Monck's Corner, and pressed his march with all the rapidity which the excessive heat of the weather would per- mit.2 With Doyle's detachment Lord Rawdon's force now amounted to a total of 2000 men.3
In the meanwhile Greene had pressed the siege of Ninety Six. His approaches continued to be pushed in the hope that they might be completed in time to force the submis- sion of the garrison before Lord Rawdon could come to its assistance. Upon the arrival of the infantry of Lee's Legion that officer was directed to take post opposite the enemy's left, and on the 12th he began regular approaches against the stockade which protected the garrison's supply of water.
Two attempts were made by the besiegers to bring mat- ters to a crisis. The different plans which had been adopted with so much success at Fort Watson and Fort Motte were each now in turn again tried. The attempt was made to fire the buildings by means of arrows bearing combustible substances, as at Fort Motte. Cruger unroofed his houses and put an end to that danger. Then it was tried to fire the stockade, as had been done at Fort Watson. A ser- geant and nine brave men of the Legion approached the stockade from the most concealed direction, and when exposed to view crawling upon their bellies, reached the
1 Rawdon's letter to Cornwallis, June 5, 1781, Tarleton's Campaigns, 480-481 ; Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 89-90.
th
2 Annual Register, vol. XXIV, 92.
8 Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 373.
G
293
IN THE REVOLUTION
ditch, but unfortunately the sergeant was discovered while in the act of applying his fire, and, with five of his men, was killed. The remaining four escaped unhurt, although many muskets were discharged at them before they reached cover. These attempts failing, nothing remained to the besiegers but the slow progress of regular approaches.
About this time it was that one evening a countryman, says Lee, was seen riding along the lines south of the town, conversing familiarly with the officers and soldiers on duty. There was nothing in this, he adds, to attract particular attention, as from the beginning of the siege friends in the country were in the habit of visiting camp, and were per- mitted to go wherever their curiosity led them. This man was supposed to be one of these ; but when he reached the great road leading to the town, in which quarter were only an embankment thrown up for the protection of the guards, he put spurs to his horse and rushed with full speed into town, receiving the ineffectual fire of the Amer- ican sentinels and guards nearest him. The gate was opened, and he was received with loud expressions of joy. He was the bearer of a verbal despatch from Lord Rawdon to Cruger, announcing his arrival at Orangeburgh in ade- quate force, and informing him that he was hastening to his relief.1 This information infused new life and deter- mination in the garrison, and was correspondingly depress- ing to the besiegers.
The Americans, however, continued to push on their works. Maham towers were erected, but Major Green of the garrison, who commanded in the star redoubt, finding
1 Lee states that this messenger held in hand a letter as he rode into the garrison, but Stedman asserts that he bore only a verbal message, which would be most probable under the circumstances (Memoirs of the War of 1776, 374 ; Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 371 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 148).
294
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
that one of these would soon overlook his parapet, very judiciously covered it with sand-bags, leaving between each bag an aperture for the use of his riflemen, and thus ren- dered the towers in a great measure ineffectual. The regular approaches had been carried on with so much vigor that, notwithstanding repeated interruptions from sallies by the enemy, the stockade fort was now so completely enfiladed by a triangular fire that, being no longer tenable, it was on the 12th evacuated in the night. The loss of this work was a great blow to the garrison. It cut off the supply of water. This had been anticipated by Colonel Cruger, who had tried the digging of a well, but without success. The sufferings of the garrison on this account now began to be extreme. Water could only be obtained from the rivulet at night; and Stedman relates that this was done by send- ing out naked negroes, whose bodies in the darkness were not distinguishable from the trees surrounding them. The garrison could not much longer have endured this condi- tion of things, but cheered with the hope of Lord Rawdon's approach, they yet held out.
It was General Greene's hope that, with the reënforce- ment of Pickens and Clarke from Augusta, and the junc- tion with him of Sumter and Marion, he might be able to meet Lord Rawdon and give battle without raising the siege of Ninety Six. And for this purpose he was calling upon Sumter for information in regard to his lordship's movements. Sumter was at Granby on the Congaree, with Colonel C. S. Mydelton in command of the greater part of his brigade at McCord's Ferry, some thirty miles below. General Greene, it must be observed, had reluctantly given his consent to Marion's expedition to Georgetown, and in this instance he was undoubtedly right in hesitating to allow Marion to put himself so far out of the way of the line of present operations. He had cautioned Sumter only
r
G m
m me we to tha col
1 2
295
IN THE REVOLUTION
to allow it in case Lord Rawdon was making no prepara- tions which had the appearance of interrupting the sieges then going on at Augusta and Ninety Six. There had been no such appearances at that time, nor indeed had Lord Raw- don then any such purpose, as the fleet had not arrived. Still, the capture of such a detached post as Georgetown, out of the way of any line of communication, and so only valuable for what it itself contained, scarcely warranted the risk necessary upon so long a separation of Marion's com- mand from cooperation with Greene's army upon a sudden emergency. And so it happened that his position at George- town had greatly delayed the information of the landing of the British reinforcements ; nor could he now rejoin Sum- ter in time to interpose before Lord Rawdon's advance.
On the 14th of June Colonel Mydelton, at McCord's Ferry, reported to Sumter that he had certain accounts of the enemy's marching up in force by way of Orangeburgh; that the prevailing report was that they were going to Ninety Six; that he had ordered all his baggage and unarmed men across to the north side of the Congaree, while with the armed men he would change his position to one farther up the river, as a defeat in his present situation would prove ruinous. He reported also that Colonel Lacey had just joined him.1 This report Sumter at once communicated to Greene, but the latter could not believe that Rawdon's movement was against Ninety Six. "I cannot persuade myself," he wrote to Sumter, on the 15th, " that the enemy mean to pay a visit to the place. If they attempt it, and we can collect our forces, it may prove difficult for them to get forward or backward. Keep in front of the enemy that we may have an opportunity to fight them with our collective strength," etc.2 By the 17th, however, he be-
1 Sumter MSS., Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 110-111. 2 Ibid.
0 8
296
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
came more alarmed, and wrote to Sumter in reply to his of the 15th, that, as the enemy continued to advance, and by Marion's reports the reenforcement was so much more con- siderable than he expected, it was possible they meant to raise the siege. He urged Sumter, if possible, to secure prisoners, from whom he might learn what troops were out on this expedition, the names of the corps, and the command- ing officers. Captain Rudulph, who commanded the cavalry of Lee's Legion, he informed Sumter, was only thirty miles from his own headquarters that evening, having delayed his march through a mistake of his orders. Ammunition was getting scarce with him, but he would try to forward seven or eight thousand cartridges to him. General Pick- ens had arrived, and his militia would be in that evening, and would advance to his support.1 Later that day he received another report from Sumter of the 16th, and again wrote him that he could only repeat his wishes to have the militia constantly employed in galling the enemy as they advanced. Where can the enemy, he asks, have collected such a numer- ous cavalry as you mention? He informed Sumter that it would be impossible to reduce the place for several days to come, and that there was no chance therefore of effect- ing its reduction unless they could first beat the enemy.2
But this was now impossible. The opportunity which Sumter had seen and urged had been lost. Cruger's courage and fidelity had enabled his little force to neutral- ize for weeks Greene's whole army; and Marion's expedi- tion to Georgetown, Rudulph's delay under mistaken orders, and probably Sumter's own inaction, caused by his exhaus- tion from his wound, all united in preventing a junction before his lordship's column, which might possibly have somewhat delayed its march. But even this is doubtful.
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.