CHAPTER XCVIII.
1781.
Greene, Commander of Southern Army—Morgan's Victory at Cowpens—Arnold at Portsmouth—Battle of Guilford—Re-enforced by Phillips—The Enemy at Petersburg—Devastations—Phillips proceeds down James River—Returns to Petersburg—His Death—Succeeded by Arnold—Simcoe—Virginia Navy—John Tyler—John Banister.
In accordance with a resolution of congress, passed in November, 1780, General Gates was superseded, and Washington, who was required to appoint an officer to fill the vacant post, selected General Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island. He reached Charlotte, the headquarters of the Southern army, early in December. About this time Lee's legion was ordered into South Carolina, to a point west of the Catawba. Cornwallis, whose headquarters were at Winnsborough, detached Tarleton in pursuit of Morgan, who retreated to the Cowpens, and resolved to risk a battle there. Tarleton leaving his baggage behind him well guarded, started, with his accustomed celerity, at three o'clock in the morning,[715:A] in pursuit. Before day Morgan received intelligence of his approach, and prepared for action. He drew up his regulars and Triplett's corps, reckoned not inferior to them, and about four or five hundred men, under Howard, on an eminence in an open wood. In their rear, on the declivity of the hill, Lieutenant-Colonel Washington was posted with his cavalry and some mounted Georgia militia as a reserve; and with these two corps Morgan remained in person. The front line was composed of militia, under Pickens. Major McDowell, with a battalion of North Carolina volunteers, and Major Cunningham, with a battalion of Georgia volunteers, were advanced about one hundred and fifty yards in front of this line. Morgan's whole force amounted to eight hundred men. Soon after the troops were disposed, the British van appeared in sight, and Tarleton forming his line of battle, his troops rushed forward to the attack, shouting. Morgan's first line soon retreated into the rear of the second. The British advanced in spite of a firm resistance; Tarleton ordered up his reserve, and Howard's infantry being outflanked, Morgan rode up and directed that corps to retreat over the summit of the hill, about one hundred yards, to the cavalry. The British, now confident of victory, pressed on, in some disorder, and when the Americans halted, were within thirty yards of them. At Howard's order, his men turning, faced the enemy, and poured in, unexpectedly, a deadly fire. Howard, perceiving that the enemy's ranks were thrown into some confusion, ordered a charge with the bayonet, and the British line was broken. The cavalry on their right was at the same time routed by Washington. Howard and Washington pressed their advantage until the artillery and greater part of the infantry surrendered; but Washington pursuing too eagerly, received a temporary check, and sustained a heavier loss in this part of the action than in any other. However, the infantry advancing to support him, Tarleton resumed his retreat.[716:A]
In this battle one hundred British, including ten commissioned officers, were killed; twenty-nine commissioned officers and five hundred privates made prisoners. A large quantity of arms and baggage and one hundred dragoon horses fell into the hands of the victors. Morgan lost less than eighty men in killed and wounded.
Tarleton retreated toward Cornwallis, whose headquarters were now twenty-five miles distant. In this action Cornwallis had lost one-fifth of his number and the flower of his army. But Greene was not strong enough to press the advantage; and Morgan, apprehensive of being intercepted by Cornwallis, abandoned the captured baggage, interring the arms, and leaving his wounded under the protection of a flag, hastened to the Catawba, which he recrossed on the twenty-third. The prisoners were sent by General Greene, under escort of Stevens' brigade of Virginia militia to Charlottesville.
In the mean while Arnold, ensconced, like a vulture, was prevented from planning new schemes of devastation by apprehensions that he now began to entertain for his own safety.[717:A] Richard Henry Lee wrote: "But surely, if secrecy and despatch were used, one ship-of-the-line and two frigates would be the means of delivering Arnold and his people into our hands; since the strongest ship here is a forty-four, which covers all their operations. If I am rightly informed, the militia now in arms are strong enough to smother these invaders in a moment if a marine force was here to second the land operations."
February the ninth a French sixty-four gun-ship, with two frigates, under Monsieur De Tilley, sailed for the Chesapeake, and arriving by the thirteenth threatened Portsmouth. But the ship-of-the-line proving too large to operate against the post, De Tilley, in a few days, sailed back for Rhode Island. It was a great disappointment to the Virginians that the French admiral could not be persuaded to send a force competent to capture the traitor. Governor Jefferson, in a letter to General Muhlenburg, offered five thousand guineas for his capture; and suggested that men might be employed to effect this by entering his quarters in the garb of friends—a measure not to be justified even toward Benedict Arnold.
After the battle of the Cowpens, Greene, closely pursued by Cornwallis, retreated across the Dan into Virginia. His lordship then proceeded to Hillsborough, then the capital of North Carolina, where he invited the inhabitants to repair to the royal standard. Greene, re-enforced by a body of Virginia militia under General Stevens, soon re-entered North Carolina, where numerous tories were embodying themselves to join Cornwallis. On the twenty-fifth of February, Lee, with his cavalry, by stratagem surprising a body of royalists under Colonel Pyle, cut them to pieces. On the fifteenth of March occurred the battle of Guilford. Greene's army was much superior in numbers, but consisted mainly of militia and new levies. The cavalry of Lee and Washington was excellent, but the ground was unfavorable for their action. The officers under Greene were mostly veteran. The Virginia militia were commanded by Generals Stevens and Lawson, and by Colonels Preston, Campbell, and Lynch; those of North Carolina by Generals Butler and Eaton. Of the continentals one Maryland regiment alone was veteran. Guilford court-house, near the great Salisbury road, stood on a hill which descends eastward, gradually, with an undulating slope for half a mile, terminating in a little vale intersected by a rivulet. On the right of the road the ground was open, with some copses of wood; on the left a forest. Greene, with not quite two thousand regulars, was posted at the court-house; in the field to the right of the road, the two regiments of Virginia under Huger, the two of Maryland under Williams. Three hundred yards in advance of the regulars were stationed the Virginia militia, crossing at right angles the great road; and as far in front of them and across the same road the North Carolina militia were formed: the Virginia line in the woods; the Carolinians partly in the forest and partly on its edge, behind a strong rail-fence, in front of which lay an open field. Two pieces of artillery, under Captain Singleton, were placed in the road a few yards in advance of the first line. The right flank was guarded by Washington's cavalry, a veteran Delaware company under Kirkwood, and Colonel Lynch with a battalion of Virginia militia. The left was guarded by Lee's legion and Campbell's riflemen. At about ten o'clock in the forenoon, after some firing of artillery, the British, reaching the rivulet, deployed into line of battle, the right commanded by Leslie, the left by Webster. The North Carolina militia, unable to stand the shock, a few excepted, broke, threw away their arms, and fled precipitately through the woods. The Virginia line received the enemy with more firmness, but the greater part of them were compelled to retreat, which was accelerated by the fall of General Stevens, who was wounded in the thigh. The struggle between the enemy and the continentals was stoutly contested, but the second Maryland regiment unexpectedly giving way, Greene was compelled to retreat. Cornwallis pursued but a short distance. The American loss in killed and wounded amounted to thirty officers and four hundred privates. The British loss amounted to five hundred and thirty-two, including several valuable officers. Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart of the guards was killed; Colonel Webster mortally wounded. The total number of Greene's army was forty-five hundred, of whom thirty hundred were actually engaged. Cornwallis' force, according to American accounts, numbered two thousand; according to his statement, to only fourteen hundred and forty-five. After this disastrous victory Lord Cornwallis found it necessary to retire toward Wilmington.
In the mean while Arnold's anxiety for his safety at Portsmouth was relieved by the arrival[719:A] of a re-enforcement under General Phillips. This accomplished and able but proud and passionate officer, exasperated by a tedious captivity, upon his exchange had been indulged by Sir Henry Clinton in a desire to invade Virginia, and wreak his vengeance on a State where he had been so long detained (unjustly as he, not without some reason, believed) a prisoner of war. Having united Arnold's force with his own, Phillips left Portsmouth,[719:B] and on the following day the army landed at Burwell's Ferry, from which the militia fled. Phillips, with the main body, marched upon Williamsburg, and entered it without serious opposition. Simcoe, with a small party of cavalry, early next morning surprised a few artillery-men at Yorktown, (the rest escaping across the river in a boat,) and burnt "a range of the rebel barracks." The British sloop, Bonetta, anchored off the town. How little did the parties engaged in this little episode anticipate the great event which was destined soon to make that ground classic! The Bonetta, too, was destined to return to that picturesque place to play her part in the closing scene. Phillips, embarking at Barret's Ferry, near the mouth of the Chickahominy, issued "the strictest orders to prevent privateers, the bane and disgrace of the country which employs them;" but these orders were disregarded. When off Westover, he issued further orders, saying: