XLII. CHAPTER the militia; but the attack was so sudden, the white population was so small, the plantations were so scattering, 1781. and the planters were so much occupied in looking after their slaves, that hardly two hundred men could be collected for the defense of Richmond, a village of eighteen hundred inhabitants, of whom half were blacks. Arnold entered the town without resistance. Many public and some private buildings were burned, and with them a great many valuable stores. removed by the activity of Jefferson. of tobacco and other private property was destroyed by the invaders. Jefferson promptly rejected a proposal that Richmond should be spared if ships might be sent to take away the tobacco. Others had been A large quantity Steuben was in Virginia collecting and organizing recruits for Greene's army. Some had been forwarded, but several hundred remained behind, waiting for clothing and arms, which it was very difficult to supply. A body of militia presently rallied around Steuben. Nelson collected another corps. A French sixty-four and two frigates from Newport, taking advantage of a storm, which had disabled the blockading squadron, entered the Chesapeake. Thus threatened by land and water, Arnold found it necessary to retire to Portsmouth, too high up to be reached by the French ships, which, after making some prizes, presently returned to Newport. Not strong enough for offensive operations, Steuben was content to watch Arnold. To assist in his capture, Washington detached La Fayette with twelve hundred men, drawn from the New England and New Jersey lines; and to co-operate in this movement, at Washington's earnest request, the whole French fleet presently sailed from Newport with a body of French troops on board. The British blockading squadron, which had made its XLII. March 16 winter station in Gardiner's Bay, at the east end of Long CHAPTER Island, pursued the French ships, and off the capes of the Chesapeake a naval engagement took place. Worsted 1781. in this engagement, the French returned to Newport; the British squadron entered the Chesapeake; and the troops at Portsmouth were speedily re-enforced by two thousand men sent from New York, under General Phillips, long a prisoner in Virginia under Burgoyne's convention, but lately exchanged for Lincoln. This failure on the part of the French fleet, the fourth futile attempt at co-operation, stopped the march of La Fayette's troops. They halted at Annapolis, in Maryland, in a great state of destitution-without shoes, hats, or tents. The British frigates, ascending the rivers of Virginia, levied contributions upon all the tide-water counties. One of these vessels entered the Potomac; and the manager at Mount Vernon, to save the buildings from destruction, consented to furnish a supply of provisions. Washington, in a letter to his manager, highly disapproved of this procedure, declaring his preference to have had the buildings burned rather than saved by the "pernicious example" of furnishing supplies to the enemy. Without waiting for Leslie, who was marching from Charleston to join him, cotemporaneously with Arnold's invasion of Virginia, Cornwallis left his camp at Winns- Jan 1 borough, and pushed northward, between the Broad River and the Catawba, designing to interpose himself between Greene, and Morgan against whom Tarleton had been detached with the light troops, about a thousand in number. Aware of Tarleton's approach, Morgan retired behind the Pacolet, intending to defend the ford; but Tarleton crossed six miles above, and Morgan made a precipitate retreat. The Broad River was before him, and if he could cross it he was safe. There was also a hilly dis CHAPTER trict on his right, which might afford him protection; but XLII. rather than be overtaken while retreating, Morgan pre1781. ferred to fight on ground of his own selection. He chose for that purpose a place called "the Cowpens," some three miles south of the boundary of the Carolinas, and thirty miles west of King's Mountain, the scene of Furguson's defeat. The forces on both sides were about equal, but half or more of Morgan's men were South Carolina militia, under General Pickens, who had recently joined him. These he drew up in front, in a line by themselves. His Continentals, on whom his hopes chiefly rested, were stationed on an eminence in an open wood, and the cavalry, as a reserve, on the slope in the rear. The British, Jan. 17. though worn down by the rapid pursuit, advanced impetuously with loud shouts, confident of victory. The militia fled before them. The advance of the British endangered the flanks of the Continentals, and it became necessary to make a retrograde movement. This movement the British mistook for retreat, and they were rushing forward with some confusion, when the Continentals suddenly faced about, poured in, at thirty yards' distance, a deadly fire, and charged and broke the British line. The British cavalry, while pursuing the flying militia, were charged and defeated by the American horse. Tarleton's whole force was thus put to total rout. Closely pursued, the British lost, in killed and prisoners, more than six hundred men, with all their baggage and artillery. Morgan's loss was less than eighty. Escaping with a few horsemen, Tarleton joined Cornwallis, who was near at hand. When Leslie came up the next day, Cornwallis ordered all the stores and superfluous baggage to be burned, himself setting the example by giving up a large part of his own. The loss of his light troops was thus made up for by converting XLII. his whole army into a light infantry corps. The only CHAPTER wagons saved were those with hospital stores, salt, and ammunition, and four empty ones for the sick and 1781. wounded. Having made this sacrifice, Cornwallis marched the next day, in hopes to intercept Morgan before he could Jan. 19 cross the Catawba. Sensible of his danger, that active officer, leaving the severely wounded under a flag of truce, having crossed the Broad River immediately after the action with Tarleton, had pushed for the Catawba as fast as his encumbered condition would allow; and, two hours before the British van made its appearance, he completed the passage of that river. A sudden rise of the water Jan. 29. took place before the British could cross, and Morgan thus gained time to send off his prisoners and to refresh his weary troops. As soon as Greene heard of the battle of the Cowpens, he put his troops in motion for a junction with Morgan. Hastening forward himself with a small guard, two days after the passage of the Catawba he assumed in person Jan. 31. the command of Morgan's division. In hope to detain the British on the other bank till his main body came up, Greene called out the neighboring militia to assist in guarding the fords of that river. As soon as the waters fell, Cornwallis attacked a private ford, guarded by Feb. 1 General Davidson with three hundred men, and, in spite of a gallant defense, in which the commander and forty others fell, he forced a passage. Another body of militia was attacked and dispersed by Tarleton. The passage of the river being thus secured, it became necessary for Greene to push for the Yadkin, so the Peedee is called in its upper course. Before he was fairly over the Brit- Feb. 3 ish van came up, and, after a smart skirmish, several of Greene's wagons fell into the enemy's hands. But he XLII. CHAPTER had taken care to secure all the boats, and the river was so high that the enemy could not follow 1781. Keeping on to Guilford Court House, Greene effected a junction with his main body, which had moved up the left bank of the Yadkin to meet him. While these movements were still going on, he had heard of the invasion of Virginia by Arnold; also, that Wilmington, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, had been occupied by a British force from Charleston. Notwithstanding the junction of his two divisions, Greene was yet by no means out of danger. His united force amounted to only two thousand three hundred men, of whom six hundred were militia. Cornwallis, with an army somewhat superior in numbers, and much better appointed, was marching up the Yadkin, intending to occupy the fords of the Dan, the name of the Roanoke in its upper course, so as to cut off the American army from Virginia, whence alone supplies and recruits could come. It was necessary to anticipate this movement; and, leaving Colonel Williams, an able officer of the Maryland line, to whom Morgan, on account of ill health, had relinquished the command of the light troops, to delay the march of the enemy, Greene hastened to the Feb. 14. nearest ferry, and crossed into Virginia with his baggage and main body. The light corps, closely pursued by the British army, effected the passage also, after a forty miles' march that same day. Few of the soldiers had shoes, and this long and hasty march was tracked with blood. The American army thus driven out of the state, Cornwallis marched to Hillsborough, the late seat of the state government. The North Carolina state authorities had Red to Newbern; but that town was presently attacked by a detachment from Wilmington, which dispersed the militia of the intervening counties, entered Newbern, de. |