USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 53
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
General Gist, though reinforced by a six-pounder with
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 336-338 ; James's Life of Marion, 168, 169.
2 James's Life of Marion, 169.
1
& d. nd il- es 8 by
S 1, S.
1
652
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
some matrosses and infantry, did not venture to cross the Combahee until, by the enemy's landing troops on Beaufort and St. Helena islands, he was satisfied it was not a feint to draw him off from covering the provisions on the north of the Combahee. On the 2d of September he crossed the river and pressed down to Port Royal Ferry. There he found the Balfour and another galley lying, and having gained an advantageous position for his field-piece, Lieu- tenant Bocker, who commanded it, soon made the galleys slip their cables and attempt to escape. In this the Bal- four galley ran aground and was abandoned by the crew. The crew did not leave without scuttling the vessel and spiking her guns, but this was done so hastily that she was easily repaired and secured under the guns of the brigade.
The enemy was recalled on the 6th by the arrival of a fleet to convoy the army, which it had now been officially announced would soon evacuate the city. As soon as the enemy passed the bar of Beaufort, General Gist hastened back to reenforce the main army, and nothing more occurred during the war in which this brigade was en- gaged. But this expedition in the rice fields in the months of August and September had nearly invalided the whole of these troops. The general himself did not escape, and the number on the sick list was greatly increased on their return to camp.
When General Leslie's foraging expeditions set out, the one to Wadboo, and the other to Combahee, in the hope of recalling them, General Greene put his whole army in motion down the Ashley road, feigning a design on James Island, while Pickens, at the head of the militia, was ordered down between the Ashley and the Cooper to draw the attention of the enemy to his post at the Quarter House. The feint did not succeed in its principal object,
in
e
C
653
IN THE REVOLUTION
but their posts at the Quarter House and on the islands were abandoned, and the troops drawn in under the pro- tection of their redoubts. General Pickens continued in command of his own brigade and General Henderson's until September, when he organized and conducted a last expedition against the Indians on the frontier, who had again become troublesome.1
When the British general, Clarke, in Savannah, found his bounds contracted by General Wayne's movements, he sent expresses to the Creek and Cherokee nations request- ing assistance of the Indian allies. This assistance was provided by some of the leading warriors of both nations, but Pickens's expedition in April had disconcerted the movement. Though the grand council did not sanction a continuance of the war in alliance with the British, whose power they saw was rapidly passing away, a few warriors determined to comply with the promises made, and three hundred Creeks, headed by Guvistersigo, who stood high in the opinion of his countrymen for bravery and military skill, set out from the nations for Savannah early in the month of June. So stealthily did these war- riors approach, that but for an accidental change of his camp, General Wayne would have been captured by them. A smart action took place on the 23d of June in which Guvistersigo with seventeen of his warriors and white guides were left dead on the field, and twelve taken pris- oners, who were shot a few hours after by order of Gen- eral Wayne. The American loss was only four killed and eight wounded.
As the limits of the British lines became more and more contracted, a number of those who adhered to the Royal cause were unwilling to be confined within their narrow- ing circle, and General Clarke conceived that they could
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 346.
654
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
render him an essential service by retiring to the Cherokee Nation. At the head of these was one Colonel Thomas; Waters, who had formed a settlement on Hightown River at the mouth of Longswamp Creek, in what is now Wilkes County, Georgia, where they had collected a number of negroes, horses, cattle, and other property, which they had plundered from the frontiers of Georgia and Carolina.
To break up this banditti, General Pickens now applied to Governor Mathews to be allowed to carry another expedition into the Cherokee Nation. His scheme was approved, and an express sent to Colonel Elijah Clarke of Georgia, on the 5th of September, requesting the aid of a part of his regiment, and fixed on the 16th at Long Creek, as the time and place of rendezvous with 30 days' provision. This was agreed to, and General Pickens, with 316 men, joined Colonel Clarke accordingly, who had 98, including 10 volunteers from Richmond County, making in the whole 414, including officers.
The general marched on the morning of the 19th in a westerly direction for the Chattahoochie River, which he reached and crossed on the 24th at Beaver Shoal. Pursuing their course on a small Indian trail, they met two Indians who were taken prisoners. From these they learned that there were several Indian towns within the distance of ten or twelve miles, and from thence Colonel Waters's party was about twenty miles. The general thereupon detached Colonel Robert Anderson with one hundred men, guided by one of the Indian prisoners, to destroy the villages and towns upon the river. Colonel White was ordered down the river with a detachment for a similar purpose, while General Pickens with Colonel Clarke took a more direct course for Colonel Waters's position, the destruction of which was the principal object of the expedition; but Waters had received information of Pickens's approach just in time
e I d
Si
a
655
IN THE REVOLUTION
to escape with his party. A few Indians were killed and a number of women and children were taken prisoners. An- derson and White joined the main body in the afternoon, having killed eight Indians and destroyed a number of towns.
General Pickens sent out some of his prisoners in search of the chiefs, offering terms with assurances that no more towns would be destroyed if they would surrender the white people among them, and enter into a treaty of peace. In the meantime he marched from one town to another, procuring supplies of provisions and forage for his men. Several of the chiefs met in the mountains and sent one of their head men, called the Terrapin, with a party of war- riors and six of Waters's men prisoners, promising that every exertion should be made to bring in the others. On the 8th of October Colonel Clarke marched from Selacoa with one hundred men in pursuit of Waters who had halted on the Estanala River about sixty miles west of Long Swamp ; but Waters, hearing of his advance, retreated through the Creek Nation and made his way to St. Augustine. On the same day Captain Maxwell's company marched to Estanala town where he took twenty-four negroes, the principal part of whom had been plundered by Waters's party from the inhabitants of Georgia and Carolina, a num- ber of horses, and a quantity of pelfry with which he returned on the seventh day.
Finally a number of chiefs came in and proposed to Gen- eral Pickens while he was at Selacoa to hold a treaty at Long Swamp on the 17th, to which he agreed. On the lay appointed twelve chiefs and two hundred warriors ap- peared and entered into temporary articles of treaty, which were afterwards to be confirmed by the whole nation at such time and place as the governor of Georgia should uppoint.
me
B
n Le
ch
656
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
By this treaty all the lands claimed by the Cherokees south of Savannah River and east of the Chattahoochee were to be surrendered to the State of Georgia as the price of peace. The Indian trade was opened upon terms not less advantageous to the Indians than that which had previously been carried on between them and the British government. The articles being signed by the parties, General Pickens returned to his former position of Long Creek, where the troops were discharged on the 22d of October, and returned to their homes without the loss of one man.
General Pickens carried with his command not a tent or any other description of camp equipage. After the small portion of bread which they could carry in their saddle- bags was exhausted, his men lived upon parched corn, potatoes, peas, and beef, which they collected in the Indian towns ; salt they had none.
e
a e
Early in the succeeding year the governor of Georgia invited the Cherokee chiefs to Augusta, and finally con- cluded the articles of treaty which had been temporarily entered into by General Pickens.1
All the blood to be lost in South Carolina in the strug. gle for American independence was not yet shed, but these were the last military operations of any consequence in the war.
1 McCall's Hist. of Ga., vol. II, 408-414.
1
th to sel Ma
th
th
me
wi
1 So.
CHAPTER XXIX
1782
THE British administration having resolved upon aban- doning offensive operations in America, the scheme of evacuating the weaker posts in the United States was adopted. Savannah, which had been the first Southern post to fall, was the first to be relieved. It was evacuated on the 11th of July.1 A heavy firing off the bar on the morning of the 6th of September announced the arrival of Sir Samuel Hood with a fleet to convoy and cover the evacuation of Charlestown. It was the arrival of this fleet which recalled Leslie's foraging expeditions from Wadboo and Beaufort. It was three months, however, before the evacuation did actually take place.
During the possession of the city by the British, a num- ber of merchants had come from England and established themselves in business. These were now in a most unfor- tunate position. They had entered into extensive com- mercial engagements. Those of their debtors who were without the lines were not subject to British jurisdiction ; those who were within were unable to pay. Surrounded with difficulties, and threatened with bankruptcy should they leave the State with the British troops, they applied to General Leslie and obtained leave to negotiate for them- selves. A deputation of the body waited on Governor Mathews and obtained from him permission to reside in
1 Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 300-301 ; Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 369.
VOL. IV .- 2 U 657
1
1
658
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina for eighteen months after the evacuation. with the right to dispose of their stock of goods on hand, and to collect the debts already due them, - an indulgence which was extended to a longer term by the legislature at their next meeting, before information was received that the preliminary articles of peace had been signed.1
When the long-expected evacuation drew near, the citi- zens of the State were apprehensive that the British army, on its departure, would carry off with them the thousands of negroes who were within their lines. To prevent this Governor Mathews wrote to General Leslie, on the 17th of August, warning him " that if the property of the citizens of South Carolina was carried off by the British army, he should seize on the debts due to the British merchants and to the confiscated estates, and the claims on those estates by marriage settlements, which three articles were not included in the Confiscation Act." This announcement operated to some extent as a check on this plunder, and induced General Leslie to propose a negotiation for secur- ing the property of both parties. This was agreed to, and Benjamin Guerard and Edward Rutledge were appointed commissioners in behalf of the State, and Alexander Wright and James Johnson in behalf of the Royalists. On the 10th of October these commissioners agreed to the following articles : 2-
" First, that all the slaves of the citizens of South Carolina, now in the power of the honourable Lieutenant General Leslie, shall be re- stored to their former owners, as far as is practicable, except such slaves as may have rendered themselves particularly obnoxious on account of their attachment and services to the British troops, and such as had specific promises of freedom.
1 Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 301 ; Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 371-372.
2 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 376-378.
1
CO res for BI gr G
-
t
a l it
of th sh it
pe in
659
IN THE REVOLUTION
" That the faith of the State is hereby solemnly pledged, that none of the debts due to British merchants, or to persons who have been banished, or whose estates have been confiscated, or property secured by family settlements fairly made on contracts relative thereto, shall now, or at any time hereafter, be arrested or withheld by the executive authority of the State-that no act of the Legislature shall hereafter pass for confiscating or seizing the same in any manner what- ever, if it is in the power of the executive to prevent it - and that its whole power and influence, both in its public and in private capacity, shall at all times be exerted for that purpose.
" That the same power shall be allowed for the recovery of the debts and property, hereby protected and secured by the parties or their representatives, in the courts of justice, or otherwise, as citizens of the State may at any time be entitled unto, notwithstanding any act of confiscation or banishment, or any other disability whatever, and that this same may be remitted to whatever part of the world they may think proper, under the same, and no other, regulations than the citizens of the State may be subject to.
" That no slaves restored to their former owners, by virtue of this agreement, shall be punished by authority of the State for having left their masters, and attached themselves to the British troops; and it will be particularly recommended to their respective owners to forgive them for the same.
" That no violence or insult shall be offered to the persons or houses of the families of such persons as are obliged to leave the State for their adherence to the British government, when the American army shall take possession of the town, or at any time afterwards, as far as t is in the power of those in authority to prevent it.
" That Edward Blake and Roger Parker Saunders, Esquires, be permitted to reside in Charleston, on their parole of honor to assist n the execution of the first article of this compact."
In consequence of this agreement Governor Mathews ommissioned Thomas Ferguson and Thomas Waring to eside at Accabee near the British lines to receive and orward the negroes which should be recovered by Messrs. Blake and Sanders in the city. The owners of the ne- roes were to attend at Accabee to receive them, and Governor Mathews earnestly entreated that the negroes so
3 DE
8
660
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
restored should be forgiven for having deserted their mas- ters and joined the British. Great were the expectations of the citizens that under this arrangement they would soon obtain possession of their property. But in their hopes they were disappointed.
Messrs. Blake and Sanders, having waited on General Leslie, were permitted to examine the fleet bound to St. Augustine, but were not suffered to examine any vessel that wore the king's pennant. Instead of an examination, the word of the commanding officer to restore all the slaves that were on board in violation of the compact was offered as an equivalent. In their search of the fleet bound to St. Augustine, they found and claimed 136 negroes ; but when they attended to receive them no more than 73 were landed for delivery. Upon their demand for the remainder, they were informed by General Leslie that no negroes would be delivered till three soldiers that had been taken by a party of General Greene's army were restored.
2 f
W W pl
General Leslie's adjutant general, on the 18th of October, addressed a communication to Messrs. Blake and Sanders, complaining that a large patrol from General Greene's army, two days before, had come down so near his advanced post on Charlestown Neck as to carry off three soldiers who were a little way in the front, while Mr. Ferguson and another person were at Accabee to receive the negroes, without any other sanction but that of the agreement; and declaring that, if a line of conduct so different from theirs was adopted, it must put an end to the pacific intention of General Leslie in regard to the Province during the short time he was to remain in it. He demanded the return of the soldiers, and announced that until this was done he was under the necessity of putting a stop to the further completion of the agreement.
ti nte
s hu
esse
661
IN THE REVOLUTION
This letter was forwarded to Governor Mathews, who replied the next day to General Leslie, in person, that he had not been without apprehensions of an intended evasion of the compact, but on receipt of this letter no room was left for doubt, which obliged him, without giving fur- ther trouble to those engaged in the business and intro- ducing further altercation, to declare that he looked on the agreement as dissolved and had accordingly ordered his commissioners to quit the British lines.1
The distinguishing fault of Governor Mathews, it was said, was a hasty temper, and it was thought that a little more temporizing in managing this affair would either have secured a number of slaves or put the enemy so much in fault as to furnish strong ground for demanding an indemnity of their government after peace. The saving clause, "except such as had rendered themselves obnoxious by services rendered the enemy, and such as had been ex- pressly promised their freedom," would itself, however, have furnished abundant ground for carrying off a large number. Scarcely an officer or his wife or mistress was without one or more of the planters' slaves, to whom no doubt they would all have promised freedom ; and there were many who, if they had not been actually in arms, had been em- ployed in various services that relieved the British soldiers. Thus five hundred were shipped to New York to be used as pioneers, and Colonel Moncrief is said to have had eight hundred employed in all the numerous duties of the engi- heer and ordinance departments, and to have taken them ill off with him when he sailed. It is also confidently isserted of this officer that, after shipping them as king's nen, he sold them in the West Indies as his own property. t is highly probable, as it has been observed, that after entering into this treaty General Leslie found it exceed-
1 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 379-380.
1 0
d S, d r's of rt of he er
662
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
ingly difficult to carry it into execution. Opposition must have met him in every quarter, not only from avarice and party interest, but from the great number of amorous con- nections well known to have existed. And finally, there can be little doubt that multiplied evasions of his authority took place to effect the shipping of innumerable individuals. An instance is cited of the body of a suffocated slave, headed up in a rice barrel, drifting into the market dock the day that the fleet crossed the bar.1
Upon Colonel Laurens's death the confidential services upon the lines were committed to Count Kosciuszko, who was scarcely less eager for enterprises than Laurens him- self had been. The successful issue of one of these brought General Greene in conflict with the governor and council of the State.
After the enemy had retired under the guns of their redoubts, they were obliged daily to drive their cattle to pasture on Charlestown Neck under a strong guard. A number of their cavalry horses also, particularly those of re e 1g Fat igł e the Loyalists, were placed on James Island, where they were secured at night near the fort and by day driven out to pasture. Kosciuszko attempted to seize and secure both of these, and though he found the cattle too well guarded for his small force, succeeded in bringing off a number of very fine horses. These horses were committed to the quartermaster-general to be sold, and after making a compensation to the soldiers, the balance of the proceeds was directed to be placed in the public coffers. But i happened that among the captured horses were a number that were claimed by citizens as horses that had beer plundered from them by the enemy. The governor wa instructed by the council to demand that these horse I
1 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 384 ; Moultrie's Memoir. vol. II, 351 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 369.
663
IN THE REVOLUTION
should be restored to the owners on a salvage of one fourth, the rate, it will be recollected, established by Gen- eral Sumter when endeavoring to reorganize the military force of the State while it was without a government. This General Greene refused to do, claiming the horses for Congress. A very warm and, it is said, learned dis- cussion followed, turning upon the doctrine of the right of postliminium in which it was claimed that General Greene displayed a perfect acquaintance with the best civilians.1 If so well acquainted with the civil law upon the subject, it is a pity that, in a matter of so much deli- cacy, for the sake of a few dollars, he should have insisted upon the strict letter of a technical rule, against the spirit and reason of the rule itself, and against the opinion of so eminent a lawyer and statesman as Colonel Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
The right of postliminium is defined by Vattel to be that in virtue of which persons and things taken by an enemy are restored to their former state on coming again into the power of the nation to which they belonged.2 ut re el It is a right recognized by the laws of nations, and con- tributes essentially to mitigate the calamities of war. When, therefore, property taken by the enemy is either recaptured or rescued from him by the fellow-subjects or ted ing allies of the original owner, it does not become the property of the recaptor or rescuer, as if it had been a eds new prize, but it is restored to the original owner by ight of postliminium upon certain terms.3 Naturally, says be Dee Vattel, every kind of property might be recovered by the ight of postliminium, and there is no intrinsic reason why novables should be excepted in this case, provided they
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 344.
2 Vattel, B. III, ch. XIV, § 204.
8 Kent's Commentaries, vol. I (12th ed.), 109.
r 0 A of
orse
moir
664
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
can be certainly recognized and identified. Accordingly the ancients, on recovering such things, frequently re- stored them to their former owners. But the difficulty of recognizing things of this nature, and the endless dis- putes which would arise from the prosecution of the owners' claims to them, have been deemed motives of sufficient weight for the general establishment of a contrary practice. Movables, therefore, says Chancellor Kent, are not entitled by the strict rules of the laws of nations to the full benefit of the postliminy, unless retaken from the enemy promptly after capture; the original owner then neither finds a difficulty in recognizing his property nor is presumed to have relinquished it.
It was upon this technical exception to a general rule, the reason of which did not apply in this case, that Gen- eral Greene chose to stand, and to withhold the return of property the ownership of which was admitted. It was peculiarly unfortunate, too, that the dispute should have arisen about this particular class of property. As has appeared in the course of this history, the people of South Carolina, like those in Virginia, were devoted to their horses, and prided themselves upon their racers and riding animals. Wills are still on record in Charlestown whereby slaves were given their freedom for having saved their masters' horses from capture by the enemy.1 And unfortu- nately, it had happened that several collisions had already occurred in regard to the taking of horses in each of these States. The impressment of blooded stock in Virginia for the purpose ostensibly of public use, but, as was charged, for the gratification of officers, had led to serious difficulties in that State.2 Colonel Lee's desire to appro- priate the best of the horses taken by Marion had led to
1 Hist. of So. Ca. under the Roy. Gov. (McCrady), 524, 525.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, p. 41.
0 t sa U ti in OC con the act less qual
665
IN THE REVOLUTION
the tender of the latter's resignation; and one of the rea- sons for which Sumter had tendered his was because, by the terms of Maxwell's surrender of Fort Granby, Lee had allowed that officer to march out with his men mounted on horses stolen from Sumter's people. The corrupt practice by which the officers of the Continental cavalry had appropriated the best horses, and were in the habit of trading in them, had recently come out in the case of Captain Gunn, in which Colonel White of the Third Regi- ment, justifying himself for having in some measure sanctioned the practice by exchanging one of his own for a public horse ridden by a cavalry officer, had declared in a letter, "I believe I am the only officer in the cavalry, from Colonel Moylan to the youngest cornet, that does not possess at this time from one to three public horses." 1 The taking of the horses and forcing their sale under such circumstances was regarded by the citizens with great resentment.
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.