XLI.

culty he procured the recall of the prisoner; but Jamison CHAPTER persisted in sending forward the letter to Arnold. Washington, then on his return from Hartford, missed the ex- 1780. press with the documents; his aids-de-camp, who preceded him, were breakfasting at Arnold's house when Sept. 24. Jamison's letter arrived. Pretending an immediate call to visit one of the forts on the opposite side of the river, Arnold rose from table, called his wife up stairs, left her in a fainting fit, mounted a horse which stood saddled at the door, rode to the river side, threw himself into his barge, passed the forts waving a handkerchief by way of flag, and ordered his boatmen to row for the Vulture. Safe on board, he wrote a letter to Washington, asking protection for his wife, whom he declared ignorant and innocent of what he had done.

Informed of Arnold's safety, and perceiving that no hope of escape existed, Andre, in a letter to Washington, avowed his name and true character. A board of officers was constituted to consider his case, of which Sept. 29. Greene was president, and La Fayette and Steuben were members. Though cautioned to say nothing to criminate himself, Andre frankly told the whole story, declaring, however, that he had been induced to enter the American lines contrary to his intention and by the misrepresentations of Arnold. Upon his own statements, without examining a single witness, the board pronounced him a spy, and, as such, doomed him to speedy death.

Clinton, who loved Andre, made every effort to save him. As a last resource, Arnold wrote to Washington, stating his view of the matter, threatening retaliation, and referring particularly to the case of Gadsden and the other South Carolina prisoners at St. Augustine. The manly and open behavior of Andre, and his highly amiable private character, created no little sympathy in

CHAPTER his behalf; but martial policy was thought to demand XLI. his execution. He was even denied his last request to 1780. be shot instead of being hanged. Though in strict acOct. 2. cordance with the laws of war, Andre's execution was denounced in England as inexorable and cruel. It certainly tended to aggravate feelings already sufficiently bitter on both sides.

The committee at camp, of which Schuyler was chairman, had matured at length, in conjunction with Washington, a plan for a new organization of the army, to Oct. 8. which Congress gave its assent. The remains of the sixteen additional battalions were to be disbanded, and the men to be distributed to the state lines. The organization was also changed. The army was to consist of fifty regiments of foot, including Hazen's, four regiments of artillery, and one of artificers, with the two partisan corps under Armand and Lee, and four other legionary corps, two thirds horse and one third foot. All new enlistments were to be for the war. Massachusetts and Virginia were to furnish eleven regiments each, Pennsylvania nine, Connecticut six, Maryland five, North Carolina four, New York three, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Carolina two each, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Georgia each one. Hazen's regiment, and the corps of Armand and Lee, were to be recruited at large. If full, this army would have amounted to thirty-six thousand men; but never half that number were in the field.

The officers thrown out by this new arrangement were to be entitled to half pay for life, now promised also to all officers who should serve till the end of the war. Washington's earnest and repeated representations had extorted this promise from Congress, in spite of the opposition of Samuel Adams, and of a party which he head

ed, very jealous of military power, and of every thing CHAPTER which tended to give a permanent character to the army.

XLI.

Robert H. Harrison, who had filled so long the confi- 1780. dential post of secretary to the commander-in-chief, having accepted the office of chief justice of Maryland, was succeeded by Jonathan Trumbull, son of the governor of Connecticut, and late paymaster of the northern department. The office of adjutant general, resigned by Scammell, was given to Hand. Smallwood succeeded to the command of De Kalb's division; Morgan, lately sent to the southern department, was made a brigadier.

To provide means for supporting the army, the states were called upon for their respective quotas of six millions of dollars in quarterly payments, to commence the following May, and to be met partly in "specifics," and the residue in gold or silver, or paper of the new emis

sion.

Gates's laurels, acquired in the campaign against Burgoyne, had been quite blasted by the disastrous rout at Camden. Having ordered an inquiry into his conduct, Oct. 5. Congress requested Washington to name his successor. Thus called upon, he selected Greene. Lee's corps of horse and some companies of artillery were ordered to the south; Steuben was sent on the same service, and Kosciusko, as engineer, to supply the place of Du Portail, taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston.

Cornwallis, meanwhile, having completed his arrangements, had commenced his march into North Carolina. The main army, under his own command, was to advance by Charlotte, Salisbury, and Hillsborough, through the counties in which the Whigs were the strongest. Tarleton was to move up the west bank of the Catawba with the cavalry and light troops; while Furguson, with a body of Loyalist militia, which he had volunteered to em

CHAPTER body and organize, was to take a still more westerly route XLI. along the eastern foot of the mountains.

1780. The British army had not been long on its march
when a numerous but irregular body of insurgents from
the upper country of South Carolina appeared before Au-
gusta. Colonel Brown, who commanded there, intrench-
ed himself on a neighboring hill; and on the approach
of a British force from Ninety-six, a post intermediate be-
tween Camden and Augusta, but more northerly than
either, the assailants retreated with precipitation. Word
was sent to Furguson, in hopes that he might be able to
intercept them.
With that view, he pressed close upon

the mountains, when he suddenly encountered an unex-
pected enemy.
A strong force of mounted backwoods-
men, armed with rifles, their provisions at their backs, led
by Shelby and Sevier, afterward first governors of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, issuing from the valleys of Clinch
and Houlston, and joined by some partisan corps in the
region east of the mountains, directed their march against
Furguson. Informed of his danger, he retreated with
precipitation, but was pursued by a thousand men with
the best horses and rifles, selected from a body of twice
that number. In thirty-six hours they dismounted but
Finding escape impossible, Furguson chose a
strong position at King's Mountain, a few miles west of
the Catawba, where he drew up his men and waited the
attack. The assailants were repeatedly driven back by
the bayonet, but they returned as often, pouring in a
murderous fire from their rifles, by which one hundred
and fifty of the Tories were killed, and a greater number
wounded. So long as they had Furguson to encourage
them, they stood their ground, but when he fell, eight
hundred men, the survivors of the fight, threw down their
arms and surrendered. Ten of the most active and ob-

Oct. 9. once.

XLI.

noxious of these prisoners were selected and hung upon CHAPTER the spot an outrage which did not fail of severe and speedy retaliation. The backwoodsmen soon dispersed and 1780. returned home; but the spirits of the Southern people, depressed as they had been by a long series of disasters and defeats, were not a little raised by this their first considerable victory.

Cornwallis had already reached Salisbury, a district which he found very hostile, and where he was living at free quarters. Having relied a good deal on the support of Furguson, on hearing of his defeat he commenced a retrograde movement as far as Winnsborough, in South Oct. 29. Carolina.

Immediately after the battle of Camden, General Leslie had sailed from New York with three thousand men to re-enforce Cornwallis. He had entered the Chesapeake, ascended the Elizabeth River, and fortified himself at Portsmouth, a convenient station whence to cooperate against North Carolina. When Leslie heard of the defeat of Furguson and the retreat of the British army, he embarked his troops and proceeded to Charles- Dec. ton, thence to march to join Cornwallis.

Marion meanwhile again issued from the swamps, and threatened to cut off the communication with Charleston; but Tarleton drove him back to his coverts. Sumter, also reappearing in the northwest, repulsed a detachment under Major Wemyss, and, having joined with some other partisan corps, threatened to attack Ninety-six. Tarleton was sent to cut him off; but Sumter, informed of his danger by a deserter, commenced a rapid retreat. As he could not escape, he chose an advantageous position at Blackstock Hill. The British van coming up, Nov. Tarleton made a precipitate attack, but was repulsed with loss. Sumter, however, was severely wounded; and,