| [96] | Born, 1752; died, 1818. Went from Virginia to Kentucky in 1775; became a leader against the hostile Indians and the British; gained the Northwest for the Union in 1778. |
| [97] | Born, 1747; died, 1792. Came from Scotland to Virginia shortly before the Revolutionary War; entered the service of his adopted country with great enthusiasm; commissioned first lieutenant in the navy, and made a number of successful cruises; went to France in 1777, where he was given command first of the Ranger, and then of the Bon Homme Richard; he devastated St. George’s Channel, and finally fought the Serapis; was thanked by Congress and given a sword by France; became a rear admiral in the Russian navy, and died at Paris. |
CHAPTER X.
the campaigns of 1780 and 1781.
THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.
213. Clinton’s Success in the South.—Sir Henry Clinton, even without a very large force, found it possible to carry out his designs in the South with energy and success. Leaving Knyphausen a part of his force to defend New York, he started, December 26, 1779, with eight thousand men, for the South. Savannah fell into his hands, and a little later he invested Charleston. General Lincoln made the great mistake of allowing himself with five thousand men to be shut up in that city with no means of escape, and accordingly he was forced to surrender on the 12th of May, 1780, with his whole army. This was the severest blow the Americans had received. Clinton at once put Lord Cornwallis in command, after issuing a proclamation, threatening to deal with all who did not return to allegiance as traitors and rebels. He then went back to New York. South Carolina was soon overrun by the troops of Cornwallis, Tarleton, and Ferguson.
Lord Cornwallis.
214. Northward Movement of the British.—The American standards, however, were kept flying by the heroic deeds of the partisan generals, Marion and Sumter. The British advanced northward, hoping to find very little opposition before reaching Virginia. Washington recommended the appointment of Greene to the command of the Southern army; but the intriguers were successful, and Congress recalled Gates from his retirement, in the hope that the experience of Burgoyne would be repeated by Cornwallis.[[98]] But in North Carolina there had been no Schuyler to plan the campaign in advance, and there was no Arnold or Morgan to assist in carrying it out. Gates revealed his inefficiency at every step; and when the two armies finally came together, on the 16th of August, 1780, his troops suffered at Camden the most disastrous defeat ever inflicted on an American army. Though the American force was superior to the British, it was routed, driven in utter confusion from the field, and dispersed. Gates himself, after committing a succession of gross blunders, crowned his ignominy by joining in the panic and finally leaving the army to its fate. In four days he reached Hillsborough, some two hundred miles away. Thus the worst fears of Washington were fully realized, and the whole South was practically in the grasp of the British. Clinton might well suppose the end to be near at hand.