It was at about this time, while the army of General Greene was in repose near the Wateree, that the execution of Colonel Isaac Hayne, a leading Whig of South Carolina, took place at Charleston; an event which, in the opinion of the Americans, and of just men in Europe, marked the character of the British officer in command at Charleston with the foul stain of dishonor and savage cruelty. * The patriots were greatly exasperated by it, and
* Isaac Hayne was a highly respected and well-beloved citizen of South Carolina. He was among the early patriots of that state who took the field, and at the siege of Charleston, in 1780, he served in a company of mounted militia, and at the same time was a member of the State Legislature. His corps was not in the city, but operated in the open country, in the rear of the besiegers, consequently it was not included in the capitulation. After that event his command was dispersed, and be returned to his family and estate, near the Edisto. Believing that the wisest policy for him to pursue was to go to Charleston, surrender himself a prisoner, and take his parole like others, he repaired thither. He was too confiding in the honor of the conquerors, for, knowing him to be a man of influence, the commandant refused the privilege, and told him that he must either become a British subject or submit to close confinement. He would gladly have endured imprisonment, but he could not bear the thought of leaving his family exposed to the insults of marauders, and the pestilence of small-pox, then spreading over the lower country. He consulted his friend, Dr. Ramsay, the historian, who was himself a prisoner in Charleston, and, influenced by family affection, he accepted a British protection upon the humiliating terms proposed by Clinton in his second and cruel proclamation, and took the oath of allegiance. He was assured by Patterson, the deputy British commandant in Charleston, that he would not be called upon to take up arms for the king, "For," he said, "when the regular forces of his majesty need the aid of the inhabitants for the defense of the province, it will be high time for them to leave it."
* Colonel Hayne was often called upon by subordinate officers to take up arms for the king, but steadily refused. When, in 1781, Greene approached with a Continental army, and the partisan troops had swept royal power from almost every place where it had planted its heel of military subjugation, Colonel Hayne felt released from his oath of allegiance, because its conditions were such that its obligations ceased when royal rule should be suppressed. When again summoned (as he was peremptorily, while his wife was upon her dying bed) to repair, with arms, to the British camp at Charleston, he again refused. He did more; he buckled on his armor, repaired to the American camp, and, forswearing his forced allegiance to the British erown, he pledged his life to the defense of his country. With a troop of horse, accompanied by Colonel Harden, he scoured the country toward Charleston, and captured General Andrew Williamson, a former efficient patriot, but now aetive in the British service. When intelligence of the event reached the city, a troop of cavalry was sent in pursuit of Hayne. A battle ensued, and the patriot was made a prisoner and conveyed to Charleston. Colonel Nesbit Balfour, a proud, vain, and ambitious man, was then the commandant. He knew that the surest road to distinction was rigor toward the rebels. He chose to consider Hayne a traitor, because he had signed an oath of allegiance, and then took up arms against the king. Here was an opportunity for Balfour to distinguish himself, and Hayne was east into the provost prison, and kept there until Rawdon arrived from Orangeburg. He was then taken before a court of inquiry, where neither the members nor the witnesses were sworn. The whole proceeding was a mockery, for Rawdon and Balfour had prejudged him worthy of death. Without even the form of a trial, he was condemned to be hung. No one, not even the prisoner, supposed that such cruelty was contemplated, until the sentence was made public, and he had but two days to live! The men of the city pleaded for him; the women signed petitions, and went in troops and upon their knees implored a remission of his sentence. His sister, Mrs. Peronneau, with his orphan children (for his wife was in her grave), clad in deep mourning, knelt in supplication before his judges, but in vain. Rawdon and Balfour were inexorable, and on the thirty-first of July, 1781, one of the purest patriots and most amiable of men was hung upon a gibbet. Like Andre, he asked to be shot as a soldier, but this boon was denied him. Thirty-two years afterward, Lord Rawdon, in a letter to General Henry Lee (see his Memoirs, page 459), attempted to excuse his want of humanity, by pleading the justice of the sentence. But the denunciations of the Duke of Richmond at the time, in the House of Lords, and the truth of history, have given the whole transaction the stamp of barbarism.
Skirmish at Parker's Ferry.—Retreat of the British from Eutaw.—Attack on British Posts near Charleston.
General Greene gave the British commander notice that he would retaliate when opportunity should offer, not by the sacrifice of misguided Tories, but of British officers. He soon had power to exhibit terrible retribution, but happily, actuated by a more humane policy, Greene hesitated; the beams of peace soon appeared in the horizon, and bloody human sacrifices were prevented.
Here let us resume the general narrative of events in the South not already related, from the time of the encampment of Greene upon the High Hills of Santee, in 1781, until the evacuation of Charleston by the British the following year.
We have noticed on page 705, that Greene's camp upon the Hills was broken up on the eighteenth of November, and the remnants of his diminished army were put in motion toward Charleston. Already intelligence of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown had reached him, and the day of its arrivalOct. 30 was made jubilant by the army. In the mean while, Marion was operating with vigor. He suddenly disappeared from the Santee upon one of his secret expeditions, and as suddenly was seen sweeping across the country in the direction of the Edisto, on his way to relieve Colonel Harden, who was closely pressed near Parker's Ferry, a few miles above Jacksonborough, in Colleton District, by a British force of five hundred men, under Major Fraser. That officer's camp was at the ferry. Marion prepared an ambuscade, and then sent out some of his swiftest horses with experienced riders to decoy his enemy into the snare. Fraser, with his cavalry, fell into the ambuscade in a narrow place, and was terribly handled.Aug. 30, 1781 The sure rifles of Marion's men thinned his ranks, and had not their ammunition failed them, they would have accomplished a complete victory. For the want of powder, they were obliged to retire at the moment when the palm was offered to them. The loss of the British was severe, while Marion was not bereft of a man. He had succeeded in rescuing Harden, and as we have seen (page 699), obedient to the call of Greene, hastened toward the Santee and joined the American army at Laurens's plantation,Sept. 7, 1781 when pressing on toward Eutaw.
After the great battle at that place, and his pursuit of Stewart, Marion encamped in the deep recesses of a cane-brake on Santee River Swamp, and awaited an occasion again to go forth to action.
The British commander, ignorant of the weakened condition of Marion's brigade, * and the great diminution of Greene's army, was alarmed when he was informed that the latter had crossed the Congaree, and was again pressing on toward Eutaw. He struck his tents and hastened toward Charleston. Perceiving this movement, Greene left his army while on its march from the Santee Hills, and at the head of two hundred cavalry and as many infantry moved rapidly toward Charleston. The garrison at Dorchester, more than six hundred strong, advised of his approach, went out to meet him. But so sudden and vigorous was the charge of Colonel Hampton, of the advance, that the enemy wheeled and fled in great confusion to their camp. Believing the whole army of Greene to be near, they destroyed all the public property, cast their cannons into the Ashley, and then fled toward Charleston, closely pursued. At the Quarter-house they were joined by Stewart's forces, retreating by another road, and all hastened to the city gates. Terror spread through the town. The bells were rung, alarm guns were fired, and every friend of the crown was called to the defense of the city. Greene's object was accomplished; the British outposts, were driven in, and he hastened to join his army, now encamped at Round O, not far from the Four Holes' Creek, forty or fifty miles from the city. Marion and his men lingered around the head waters of the Cooper to watch the enemy, and prevent his incursions beyond Charleston Neck. St. Clair had driven the British from Wilmington, and only Charles-
* After the battle at Eutaw, Marion was re-enforced by detachments of mountain men, under Colonels Shelby and Sevier, the heroes of King's Mountain, and with them he confidently took the field. He attacked the British outpost at Fairlawn, while the main body, under Stewart, were encamped behind redoubts at Wappetaw and Wantoot. The attack upon Fairlawn was successful. The garrison, and three hundred stand of arms, with provisions and stores, were the spoils of victory. Encouraged by this success, Marion prepared for other enterprises, when the Mountaineers, after about three weeks' service, suddenly left him and returned to the upper country. No satisfactory reason for this movement has ever been given.