USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 40
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East Branch
Ilugers Br.
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Jacksonboro
Nelsons
Santee Slump
Target
Gailliards
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АЛІЛОЯАО HTUОГ
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CHAPTER XXI
1781
GENERAL GREENE'S apprehension that Lord Cornwallis might attempt a retreat to South Carolina was finally dis- pelled by the news of his lordship's investment at York- town in September by the combined American and French forces under Washington. As soon as the arrival of the French fleet under De Grasse had assured the destruction of Cornwallis's army, suggestions simultaneously came from Philadelphia and South Carolina to Washington for the further employment of the allies in the reduction of the British forces in South Carolina. As early as September 12, Mr. Edward Rutledge, who had just been released from St. Augustine, wrote to General Washington urging a cooperation between the French fleet and the land forces to recover Charlestown from the enemy. He said that he had consulted the Chevalier de la Luzerne on the subject, and laid before him a plan which that minister approved, and promised that he would use his influence with Count de Grasse to obtain naval aid from him to effect its object.1 General Greene also applied to Washington to the same effect, and sent on Colonel Lee, hoping that his pressing entreaties, engaging address, and military reputation would do something towards promoting the favorite project.2 Gen- eral Washington approved the plan, and the day after the surrender of Cornwallis wrote to the Count suggesting it
1 Washington's Writings, vol. VIII, 174.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 256.
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to him. Charlestown, he said, the principal maritime port of the British in the southern part of this continent, the grand deposit and point of support of the present theatre of the war, was open to a combined attack, and might be carried with as much certainty as the place just sur- rendered. This capture would destroy the last hope which induced the enemy to continue the war.
" It will depend upon your excellency, therefore," he wrote, "to terminate the war and enable the allies to dictate the law in a treaty. A campaign so generous and so fruitful in consequences could be re- served only for the Count de Grasse. It rarely happens that such a combination of means as are in our hands at present can be seasonably obtained by the most strenuous human exertions; a decisively su- perior fleet, the fortune and talents of whose commander overawe all the naval force that the most strenuous efforts of the enemy have been able to collect; an army flushed with success demanding only to be conducted to new attacks ; and the very season which is proper for operating against the point in question." 1
The day after he so wrote, General Washington himself went on board the admiral's ship both to pay his respects and offer his thanks for the services that had been rendered by the fleet, and to endeavor to impress upon Count de Grasse the importance of the plan he had suggested. He returned the same evening, but having promised Lafayette the command of a detachment against Wilmington in case the Count could be persuaded to undertake the convoy and debarkation of the troops, he left that officer for the pur- pose of further consultation with the admiral.
Two days after, Lafayette came back with the report that the Count de Grasse would be happy to be able to make the expedition to Charlestown, all the advantages of which he felt, but the orders of his court, ulterior projects, and his engagements with the Spaniards rendered it impossible to remain the necessary time for the operations against 1 Washington's Writings, vol. VIII, 185-186.
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Charlestown; but conditionally promising to assist the Marquis against Wilmington, that requiring less time.1
This was but a repetition of D'Estaing's conduct be- fore Savannah in 1779. A second time the French fleet abandoned the Americans just at the point at which the most important success might have been obtained. Gen- eral Washington did not overstate the position, - Charles- town could at this juncture easily have been taken and the war ended. But the interests of the States were not al- ways the interests of the French allies.
The fall of Cornwallis, however, enabled Washington to send at last some reinforcements to South Carolina. The Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia Continentals were ordered to General Greene. Colonels Shelby and Sevier also joined him about the end of October with five hundred men, and a detachment of one hundred and sixty North Carolina recruits were added to his infantry. The approach of these corps was the signal for preparing for active movements, the weather had become cold, the frosts had delivered his army from the remains of their agues, the survivors of his wounded had rejoined their regiments, and the corps under Sumter, Marion, and their officers were recruiting and concentrating.
The intelligence of the surrender of Yorktown reached the American camp the last of October, but the official communication was not received until the 9th of Novem- ber. The day was observed in camp as a day of jubilee.2
Relying upon his increased strength by the arrival of Shelby and Sevier, and the reinforcements on the march to join him, General Greene determined again to cross the Congaree for the long-wished-for purpose of driving the enemy into Charlestown. Every consideration induced
1 Washington's Writings, vol. VIII, 187.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 252.
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this move. Governor Rutledge, who was now with his army, was busy reorganizing a State government. He had, in pursuance of the powers conferred upon him, issued a proclamation for the election of members of a General Assembly under the constitution of 1778, and it was of the highest importance to recover as much ground as pos- sible that elections might generally be held for members of the Legislature. Military motives also concurred in rendering the movement in the highest degree advisable. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis put an end to the pur- pose of Greene's remaining north of the Santee, while, on the other hand, Marion had received intelligence from Charlestown of an intention on the part of the enemy to evacuate that place and concentrate his force at Savannah. This movement, it is supposed, was contemplated by the British on the supposition that some such plan as that which had been urged upon De Grasse would be undertaken. Greene, it is true, did not credit the information except as dependent on an event which he knew, and the enemy did not know, would not take place - the cooperation of the French fleet. Still, as the apprehension of such a combined operation did exist on the part of the enemy, it was important for the American general to be in a position to meet any such movement should it, upon some false alarm, be attempted; and all his arrangements were accord- ingly made. Shelby, Sevier, Horry, and Maham were ordered to place themselves under Marion, to act in the country between the Santee and Charlestown. Together a e they formed a very efficient corps of mounted infantry and riflemen. General Sumter was ordered, at the head of his brigade of State troops and a detachment of his militia brigade, to take post at Orangeburgh and cover the country from the inroads of the Loyalists from Charles- town; while Pickens, with Colonel Robert Anderson's
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regiment and a part of Colonel Samuel Hammond's, was despatched to put down an uprising of the Indians.1
In the early part of November Sumter and Marion crossed the rivers and advanced upon the enemy. Sumter crossed the Congaree on Monday, the 12th, and early the following morning Major Blewford, with seventy mounted men, was despatched after a Tory Captain Giessendanner, who, Sumter was informed, had just arrived in the neigh- borhood of Orangeburgh with some wagons escorted by sixty men. Two men only were found at Giessendanner's, who fired at the party and escaped. Major Moore of the State troops, who was to have joined Major Blew- ford at Giessendanner's, passed on to Orangeburgh and thence set out for Rowe's plantation, two miles distant. Unfortunately he fell in with General Cuningham and a large party lately from Charlestown. The enemy at first gave way, but their superior numbers soon prevailed, and pressing Moore's men back, the latter gave way in turn and were thrown into disorder by a heavy fire from a party concealed in a swamp; a rout ensued. Some of the scattered troops reached Major Blewford and with him joined Sumter eight miles above Orangeburgh. Cuning- ham's force was upwards of 500 men. Sumter had with him 418.2 This reverse caused Sumter to fall back; but his advance had been fortunately timed to check the further progress of General Cuningham who had issued from Charlestown upon a more formidable expedition to the upper country, than those of which an account was given in the last chapter. General Marion was also checked in his advance by encountering at Wan- his toot Colonel Stuart, who had returned to the field, at the
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 258; Johnson's Traditions, 515.
2 Sumter's letter to Greene, November 14, 1781, Nightingale Collection, Year Book, City of Charleston, 1899, Appendix, 55.
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head of nearly two thousand men. The enemy, it seems, were at this time seriously engaged in preparing to sustain a siege in Charlestown, anticipating the cooperation of the French, and were laying in provisions and collecting the slaves in the country, first for fortifying Charlestown, and then to be appropriated as plunder.1
On the 18th of November the camp at the High Hills was a second time broken up; and as the route to be pursued led the army away from the support of Marion, who was charged with guarding the left of the army on its march, Captain Eggleston, with the Legion strengthened by a de- tachment from the Virginia line, was ordered to join him. The main army then took up the line of march on the route by Simons's and McCord's ferries through Orange- burgh to Riddlesperger's, thence by the Indian Fields road to Ferguson's Mill, where that road crosses the Edisto, intending to take post at Mr. Sanders's plantation on the Round O. Greene's intention appears to have been to take a position on the Four Hole Swamp in the parish of St. George, Dorchester, east of the Edisto, about thirty miles from Charlestown, for the double purpose of covering the country beyond him and controlling the movements of the enemy on his right towards Savannah; but an event had now occurred which rendered it indispensable that he should have the Edisto between himself and the enemy.
It was on the sufficiency of the force assembled under Marion to keep in check that of the enemy under Stuart that Greene had ventured to advance to the Four Holes, or meditated taking a position so much exposed to an attack from Charlestown. The mountaineers under Shelby and Sevier constituted the reenforcement upon which he had ventured into the field. And this force, to his aston- ishment, now deserted him. He had been given to under.
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 258.
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stand that they were to remain in service "until the spring of the year or until Charlestown was reduced." To his disappointment and surprise they all abandoned Marion by the 25th of November. Johnson supposes that this was caused by Shelby's obtaining leave of absence, or per- haps because the service at the time was not sufficiently active for their habits. Greene had warned Marion that he must give them something to do, or they would become lissatisfied.1 But in all his efforts to effect this Marion had been unsuccessful. He had approached the enemy, but could not tempt him from his encampment. With numbers known to be decidedly superior to the Americans, t was with chagrin that Marion found it impossible to e- ad to, he to of iles the the had & hel hduce him to take the field. And it was not until Stuart ecamped from Wantoot and retired near to the Goose freek bridge that Marion discovered the cause. The rderly of Colonel, now General, Stuart - he having lately een promoted - fell into the hands of Marion, and on him as found a return from which it appeared that out of 272 men the enemy had 928 on the sick list. To keep old on public opinion, to command the country, or to col- ct provisions and plunder slaves, the enemy had kept the ld in the Low-Country amidst the swamps and rice fields tring the whole fall, the sickliest season of the year. To mye recently arrived Europeans this was most deadly ; and ry many of them fell a prey to disease.
The only services in which the mountaineers were ployed while with Marion were in attacks upon the to anst at Fair Lawn and on the redoubts at Wappetaw in Shelby ich aston under Thomas's Parish. Detachments of about 200 of them, oported by Maham's cavalry of about 180, were in both tances employed under the command of Colonel Shelby. e latter place, on being approached, was abandoned, for
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 260.
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General Stuart was then drawing in his forces under th protection of Charlestown.
The attack on Fair Lawn was made while the enemy la at Wantoot. A garrison of considerable strength had bee usually kept at that post to cover the landing-place o Cooper River; but when the main army of the British la in advance of it, the garrison had been weakened, no douk upon the supposition that its services were rendere unnecessary. Marion knew that the garrison was I'd duced, and determined to strike a blow turning the enemy left, and moving rapidly into their rear. The landing place was covered by a fort of too much strength to b carried by assault with such troops as Shelby's an Maham's ; but at the distance of half a mile was Colleton house, a strong brick building built at a very early period and known to have been constructed for defence as well a comfort. This had been enclosed by a strong abatis, an ho being on the route from Charlestown to Monck's Corne had been used as a station for their troops and convoys i passing from post to post. It was sufficiently capacious 1 cover a party of considerable strength, and was unassai able by cavalry, the only force from which sudden incu sions could be apprehended. It was also a convenier depot in the transportation of negroes, stock, etc taken above the British posts and moving to Charlestow: and had been used also as a hospital.
In passing the post at Wantoot, Maham was ordered them show himself and to endeavor to draw the British cavali speci I hay was into the field. The manœuvre did not succeed, but brought out a strong detachment to tread on his heels ar preclude the possibility of his effecting anything furth any unless with great despatch.
On approaching Fair Lawn on the morning of the 27 of November, everything within the abatis indicated resi
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ance ; and the loss of time, with the fort in view and the enemy in his rear, must have resulted in disappointment. la A party of riflemen were at once ordered to dismount and to move as infantry, while the remainder of the corps, headed by the cavalry, advanced boldly into the field and lay ub re demanded a surrender. No resistance was made and the place surrendered at discretion. In it were found three red hundred stands of arms, many stores of value, some sick, and eighty convalescents. The medical men were paroled, ny and the convalescents carried off on horseback behind Maham's men. But the house with its contents and the abatis were committed to flames.1
General Stuart, insolently addressing General Marion ton through the adjutant general instead of writing himself, rio complained of the taking and burning of this place as an ell aputrage upon a parcel of sick and helpless soldiers in a , an hospital. "The burning an Hospital," he wrote, "and drag- rneging away a number of dying people to expire in swamps ysius a species of barbarity hitherto unknown in civilized jus nations - especially when that hospital has been left with- assa put a guard for its defence - that could justify an attack incumpon the defenceless inhabitants."2 This complaint was eniem communicated by Marion to General Greene, who at once ete stow alled upon Colonel Maham for a report of the facts. He wrote to Marion : " I shall be obliged to Colonel Maham to give me a particular report of the condition of the prisoners ered caval but he made as well as the manner of making them, also the pecial reasons which induced him to burn the Hospital. have not the least doubt that the burning the Hospital els & vas to destroy the stores, which could not be effected in furth ny other way; but I wish to have materials to con- radict their charges with."3 We have no record of the
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 260-262.
2 Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 213.
8 Ibid., 215.
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report then called for; but the practical answer to the charge was the delivering at the High Hills, the American depot, of eighty prisoners all able to bear arms.1 An enemy has no right to protect a depot of stores, arms, and plunder by hoisting over it a hospital flag.
Major William Cuningham now again made his appear- ance, dashing into Orangeburgh, and surprising Colonel Richard Hampton, killing eleven of his men, and dispersing the rest without the loss of a man to his own party.2
General Greene received with astonishment the intelli- gence of the intended return of the mountaineers. Upon this reenforcement he had ventured across the Santee, and was now too far advanced to recede. Marion, also relying on this support, had passed the Santee and penetrated down the country on the enemy's right. The most pressing en- treaties were despatched to prevail on the mountaineers to remain, but before the message reached Marion's camp, there was not one of them left. Fortunately, however, Greene's movement across the Congaree had induced Stuart to draw toward Charlestown and leave Marion in safety; and that movement of the enemy, evincing his igno- rance of the actual state of the American army, or a con- sciousness of his own weakness, induced Greene to undertake an enterprise calculated both to confirm the enemy in his opinion of the American strength, and, by forcing him into Charlestown without risking an action, to secure the entire command of the State. This was an important object just at this time, as it would assist Gov- ernor Rutledge in his plans for the election of the General Assembly he was about to convene.3
With these views, General Greene, leaving the army on
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 263.
2 The Royal Gazette, November 21, 1781.
3 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 264.
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its march under the command of Colonel Williams, moved briskly forward towards Dorchester at the head of about two hundred cavalry of Lee's and Washington's com- mands, and one hundred drawn from Sumter's. The infantry consisted of those of the Legion and detachments from the Maryland and Virginia lines. In the absence of Washing- ton, who was a prisoner, and Lee, who was an invalid, the command of the cavalry was given to Colonel Wade Hamp- ton,1 who, in his short career, had already risen high in the confidence of the general in command and of his troops.
Colonel Williams was directed to advance by easy marches to the Four Hole, a branch of the Edisto, while the general hastened by a circuitous route in the hope that he would surprise the post at Dorchester, garrisoned at the time by 400 infantry, all the British cavalry, not, however, exceeding 150, and some militia. But notwith- standing the celerity of his movements, the pursuit of the least-frequented paths, and every precaution for preventing intelligence, he was so watched and surrounded by Loyalists in the woods and swamps that notice of his approach pre- ceded him half a day, and the enemy lay on their arms all the night of the 30th, expecting an attack. As Greene did not appear, at a late hour on the 1st of December a reconnoi- tring party of fifty Loyalists was despatched for intelli- gence. Hampton's advance guard fell in with this party, and suffered but few of them to escape. Twenty or thirty, chiefly Loyalists, were killed, wounded, or taken, and such an alarm excited by the presence of the general and the belief that his whole American force was upon them, that during the night the garrison destroyed everything, threw their cannon into the Ashley River, and retreated to Charles- town.2 The fort at Dorchester was so situated that a
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 264.
2 Ibid. ; Greene's letter to Sumter, Sumter's MSS.
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retreat from it was practicable either by land or water, and either on the east or west side of the river, whichever was most secure from annoyance. A bridge on the east side of the river being taken up, the advance of the Americans on that side was stopped ; but Greene could not have pur- sued, as the enemy was too strong for the force he had with him. Their infantry exceeded five hundred.
The enemy halted and was reenforced at the Quarter House, about five miles from the city, where the neck is very narrow; and General Stuart making a simultaneous movement from Goose Creek bridge to the same point, all the force that could be summoned from Charlestown joined them, and the whole were actively engaged in pre- paring to resist an immediate attack.1
The Royal Gazette of November 7th announced the arrival of General Leslie and a corps of artillery for the garrison. To this had also been added the garrison 1 of Wilmington under Colonel Craig, which, upon the approach of Lafayette, had evacuated that town. Gen- eral Leslie, who relieved General Stuart of command, had now a force in the town and its immediate neighborhood of 3300 men besides 1000 Loyalists. But so alarmed was he at the approach of Greene and the anticipated siege, that he resolved to embody into regiments the young and active of the slaves that had recently been crowded into the town, - a measure which proved most unpopular, and was aban- doned when the alarm subsided.
Count Kosciuszko, who was serving as an engineer on Greene's staff, had preceded the army and had selected San- ders's plantation on the Round O as a proper position for an encampment. This place is situated between the swamp or river of that name, and the Ashepoo, about forty
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 264, 265 ; Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 523-524.
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or fifty miles to the southwest of Charlestown, and ten northeast of the present Walterboro, thus commanding the communication between Charlestown and Savannah.
The whole British force was thus crowded into the town and the narrow isthmus, or neck, as it is called, between the Cooper and the Ashley rivers. To relieve this Colonel Craig, the commandant of the garrison of Wilmington, with some additional infantry and cavalry, was detached to John's Island to the south of the town, where most of the cattle collected for the British army were at pasture, where long forage was procurable for the cavalry, where cooperation with the garrison of Charlestown was con- venient, and whence infantry might be readily transported along the interior navigation to Savannah.1
General Greene took up his headquarters at Round O on the 7th of December. Marion was advanced nearer to Charlestown to keep the right of the enemy in check. He took post at Wadboo on the eastern side of the Cooper.2 Sumter occupied Orangeburgh and the Four Holes. Colonel Wade Hampton with fifty of the State cavalry kept open the communication between Sumter and Marion. Colonels Harden and Wilkinson watched the enemy's movements on the south, while Colonel Lee, who had rejoined the army, in command of the light detachment posted in advance, kept the enemy from prying into the real weakness of the American army. This was indeed necessary, for the invest- ing force did not at this time number eight hundred men, nor had the army four rounds of ammunition to a man.3
Prior to General Greene's leaving the High Hills the last time, he had been straitened for ammunition. For ten days
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 265 ; Memoirs of the War of 1776 Lee), 524.
2 James's Life of Marion, 148.
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