CAPTAIN CUNNINGHAM. Ar the beginning of the war of the revolution, Captain Cunningham enlisted in one of the minute companies, and continued in that service until Virginia armed a few fast sailing pilot boat schooners. Thus was the navy of that state commenced. It, however, varied materially; sometimes amounting to as many as fifty vessels, and occassionally to only one. Among them was the schooner Liberty, which was never captured, although several times sunk in the rivers to conceal her from the enemy. Captain Cunningham embarked and remained in the Liberty, as her first lieutenant, until the war assumed a more regular form. Captain Cunningham purchased a small schooner, and engaged in traffic to the West Indies. Sea officers were encouraged to engage in commerce as the only means of procuring the munitions of war. "On these occasions he encountered great risk from the enemy's fleets. Once, in the month of June, he suddenly came upon an English frigate, off Cape Henry, in a dense fog. The English commander ordered him to strike his colors, and haul down his light sails, or he would sink him. By a judicious and skilful stratagem, he made the enemy believe he intended to surrender. He, therefore suspended his threatened firing. At the moment they discovered that Cunningham intended to escape, the jib-boom of the frigate caught in the topping-lift of the schooner's main-boom. Captain Cunningham sprang up to the stern, with a knife, to free his vessel. While in the act of cutting the rope, a British marine shot him through the arm. Nothing daunted, he deliberately effected his object, and amid a shower of grape, his vessel shot away from the frigate, and in a few moments was out of sight. "Some time after, Captain Cunningham joined the army, on the south side of James river, and had the misfortune, while on a foraging expedition, to be taken by the enemy, and carried into Portsmouth. He had then been recently married. "One day he said to an uncle of his, (also a prisoner) that he would see his wife the next evening, or perish in the attempt. 'My dear Will, are you mad?' was the reply. "The prison in which he was confined, was a large sugar-house, at the extreme end of the town, enclosed by a strong stockade fence. At sunset every evening, the guard, composed of forty or fifty men, were relieved by fresh troops, and on their arrival, the two guards, with their officers, were paraded in front of the prison, on each side of the pathway to the gate. At this hour, the ceremony observed on the occasion was in progress; the relieved guard had stacked their arms, and were looking at their baggage; the fresh guard were relieving sentinels, and, in a degree, at their ease. This was the time selected by Captain Cunningham. The sentinel had just begun to pace his ground, and awful, indeed, was the moment. Captain Cunningham was justly a great favorite with the prisoners, who all, in silent terror, expected to see their beloved companion pinned to the earth by many bayonets, for expostulation had been exhausted. My wife, or death was his watchword. "The sentinel's motions had been sagaciously calculated upon, and as he turned from the prison, Captain Cunningham darted out, and butted him over at his full length, and ran past him through the gate. It was now nearly dark. All was uproar and confusion. Cunningham soon reached a marsh near the house, and was nowhere to be found. Volley after volley was fired after him, and some of the balls whistled over his head. Ere long, he arrived at the southern branch of Elizabeth River, which he swam over a little below the navy yard at Gosport, and finally reached the place whither his wife had fled. Lieut. Church, who had served as Captain Cunningham's first lieutenant, was determined that his master should not alone encounter the danger of an escape. He, therefore, followed him; and strange as it may appear, he was never heard of, or accounted for." ADVENTURE OF A SOLDIER. "PETER FRANCISCO, of Virginia, early enlisted in the continental service, and was a man of wonderful personal prowess. He was over six feet in height, and his weight was two hundred and sixty pounds. He usually carried a sword, having a blade five feet in length and of great weight, and this he wielded with so much skill and force, that every swordsman who came in contact with him paid the forfeit of his life. Such was his personal strength, that he could easily shoulder a cannon weighing 1100 pounds. This wonderful strength induced in him so much confidence, that he was utterly fearless, and never was daunted at any danger, no matter how formidable. The following anecdote is related of him : "While the British army was spreading havoc and desolation all around them, by their plunderings and burnings in Virginia, in 1781, Francisco had been reconnoitering, and while stopping at a house of Mr. Wand, nine of Tarleton's cavalry came up, with three negroes, and told him he was their prisoner. Seeing he was overpowered by numbers, he made no resistance. Believing him to be very peacable, they all went into the house, leaving him and the paymaster together. "Give up instantly all that you possess of value,' said the latter, or prepare to die.' "I have nothing to give up,' said Francisco, 'so use your pleasure.' 'Deliver instantly,' rejoined the solder, 'those massy silver buckles which you wear in your shoes.' "They were a present from a valued friend,' replied Francisco, ' and it would grieve me to part with them. Give them into your hands I never will. You have the power; take them, if you think fit.' The soldier put his sabre under his arm, and bent down to take them. Francisco, finding so favorable an opportunity to recover his liberty, stepped one pace in his rear, drew the sword from under the arm of his enemy, and instantly gave him a blow across the scull. "My enemy,' observed Francisco,' was brave, and though severely wounded, drew a pistol, and in the same moment that he pulled the trigger, I cut his hand nearly off. The bullet grazed my side. Ben Wand, (the man of the house) very ungenerously brought out a musket, and gave it to one of the British soldiers, and told him to make use of that. He mounted the only horse he could get, and presented it at my breast. It missed fire. I rushed on the muzzle of the gun. A desperate struggle ensued. I disarmed and wounded him. Tarleton's troop of four hundred men were in sight. All was hurry and confusion, which I increased by repeatedly hallooing, as loud as I could, 'come on, my brave boys; now's your time; we will soon despatch these few, and then attack the main body! The wounded man flew to the troop; the others were panic-struck and fled. I seized Wand, and would have despatched him, but the poor wretch begged for his life, he was not only an object of my contempt, but pity. The eight horses that were left behind, I gave him to conceal for me. Discovering Tarleton had despatched ten more in pursuit of me, I made off. I eluded their vigilance. They stopped to refresh themselves, I, like an old fox, doubled and fell on their rear." He succeeded in escaping from his pursuers. He was engaged in numerous encounters with the enemy, in all of which he displayed the same fearlessness and great strength. ADVENTURES OF GENERAL PUTNAM. Ar one time, when General Putnam had command of the army in New York, he was visiting his out posts at West Greenwich, when Gov. Tryon, with a corps of fifteen hundred men, was on a march against it. Putnam had with him only one hundred and fifty men, with two pieces of artillery; with them he took his station on the brow of a steep declivity, near the meeting house. The road turned to the north, just before it reached the edge of the steep; after proceeding in this direction for a considerable distance, it inclined to the south, rendering the descent gradually and tolerably safe. As the British advanced, they were received with a sharp fire from the artillery; but perceiving the dragoons about to charge, Putnam ordered his men to retire to a swamp, inaccessible to cavalry while he himself dashed directly down the precipice, in a spot where one hundred stone steps had been cut out in the solid rock, for the accommodation of foot passengers. |