General John Stark.
Burgoyne's situation was now critical in the extreme. In the heart of
the enemy's country, his forces melting away while his opponents were
increasing, nearly out of provisions and his connections with his base
of supplies threatened by a party assailing Ticonderoga, Burgoyne's only
hope was that Clinton would force a passage up the Hudson. But the
latter, after capturing Forts Clinton and Montgomery early in October,
fell back to the lower Hudson and left Burgoyne to his fate.
October 7th, Burgoyne advanced a picked body of 1,500 men to reconnoitre
the American lines. Morgan's riflemen were sent out to "begin the game."
The fighting soon became even hotter than in the previous battle. In an
hour the whole British line was retreating toward the camp. At this
point Arnold, whom, because of his preference for Schuyler, Gates had
deprived of his command, filled with the fury of battle, dashed upon the
field and assumed his old command. The soldiers greeted him with cheers,
and he led them on in one impetuous charge after another. The enemy
everywhere gave way in confusion, and at dusk the Germans were even
driven from their entrenched camp. The British loss was fully 600.
General Horatio Gates.
The next day Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, followed by Gates. The fine
army, which had set out with such high hopes only four months before,
was now almost a wreck. Eight hundred were in the hospital. On the 12th
the army had but five days' rations. Burgoyne could neither advance nor
retreat, and on the 17th he surrendered. The army were allowed free
passage to England on condition that they would not re-engage in the
war. The Americans got 35 superb cannon and 4,000 muskets. The Sunday
after the surrender, Timothy Dwight, afterward President of Yale
College, preached to Gates's soldiers from Joel ii. 20, "I will remove
far off from you the northern army."
Gates deserved little credit for the defeat of Burgoyne. Put forward by
New England influence against Schuyler, the favorite of New York, he but
reaped the results of the labors of Herkimer at Oriskany, of Stark at
Bennington, and of Schuyler in obstructing Burgoyne's advance and in
raising a sufficient army. Even in the two battles of Stillwater Gates
did next to nothing, not even appearing on the field. Arnold and Morgan
were the soul of the army on both days. Arnold's gallant conduct was at
once rewarded by a major-generalship. Schuyler, underrated and even
maligned in his day, had to wait for the approval of posterity, which he
has now fully obtained.
The surrender of Burgoyne was the most important event of the war up to
that time. It was of immense service at home, raising the country out of
the despondency which followed upon Brandywine and Germantown. Abroad it
disheartened England, and decided France to acknowledge the independence
of America and to send military aid. From the end of this year, 1777,
victory over England was a practical certainty.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS
[1778]
After the summer of 1778 little of military importance occurred at the
North. July and November of that year were marked by bloody Indian
massacres at Wyoming, Pa., and Cherry Valley, N. Y., the worst in all
that border warfare which was incessant from the beginning to the end of
the Revolution. In August an unsuccessful attempt to regain Newport was
made by General Sullivan, co-operating with a French fleet under
D'Estaing. In the spring and summer of 1779, Clinton, who lay at New
York with a considerable army, closely watched by Washington, sent out
to Connecticut and the coasts of Virginia a number of plundering
expeditions which did much damage. "Mad Anthony Wayne" led a brilliant
attack against Stony Point on the Hudson, captured the British garrison,
and destroyed the fortifications. This year was also marked by a great
naval victory. Paul Jones lashed his vessel, the Bonhomme Richard, to
the British Serapis, off the northeast coast of England, and after a
desperate fight of three hours forced the Serapis to surrender.
But the brunt of the war now fell on the South, where the British,
unsuccessful in the Northern and Middle States, hoped for an easy
conquest. The capture of Savannah in December, 1778, and of Augusta the
next month, laid Georgia prostrate. The royal government was re-instated
by Prevost, the British general. Our General Lincoln, who had been
placed in command of the Southern army, assisted by D'Estaing with his
fleet, besieged Savannah, but on October 9, 1779, was repulsed with
heavy loss.
[1780]
In the spring of 1780 Clinton arrived from New York with a fleet and
troops. Charleston, S. C, was besieged by land and sea. Lincoln was
compelled to surrender with his whole army. Beaufort, Ninety-Six, and
Camden capitulated in rapid succession. Marauding expeditions overran
the State. President Andrew Jackson carried to his grave scars of hurts,
one on his head, another on his hand, given him by Tarleton's men when
he was a boy at Waxhaw. The patriots lay helpless. The loyalists
organized as militia and joined the British. Clinton, elated by success,
hoped to force the entire population into allegiance to the king. The
estates of patriots were sequestered. Any Carolinian found in arms
against the king might be, and multitudes were, hung for treason.
Clinton even issued a proclamation requiring all inhabitants to take
active part on the royalist side. Sumter, Marion, and other leaders,
gathering around them little companies of bold men, carried on a
guerilla warfare which proved very annoying to the British. They would
sally forth from their hiding-places in the swamps, surprise some
British outpost or cut off some detachment, and retreat with their
booty and prisoners before pursuit could be made.
John Paul Jones's Medal.
"Joanni Pavlo Jones" "Classis Praefecto." "Comitia American"
John Paul Jones's Medal (Reverse).
"HOSTIVM NAVIBVS" "CAPTIS AVTFVCATTS"
"AD ORAM SCOTIAE XXIII SEPT."
"MDCCLXXVIII."
"Dupre E"
But the British army in South Carolina and Georgia was 7,000 strong.
Help must come from without. And help was coming. Washington detached
from his scanty army 2,000 Maryland troops and the Delaware
regiment--all veterans--and sent them south under De Kalb, a brave
officer of German blood, who had seen long service in France. Virginia,
though herself exposed, nobly contributed arms and men. Gates, the
laurels of Saratoga still fresh upon his brow, was, against Washington's
judgment, appointed by Congress to succeed Lincoln.
Cornwallis, whom the return of Clinton to New York had left in command,
lay at Camden, S. C. Gates, as if he had but to look the Briton in the
eye to beat him, pompously assumed the offensive. On August 15th he made
a night march to secure a more favorable position near Camden.
Cornwallis happened to have chosen the same night for an attack upon
Gates. The two armies unexpectedly met in the woods, nine miles from
Camden, early in the morning of the 16th. Gates's force, increased by
North Carolina militia, was between 3,000 and 4,000. Cornwallis had
about 2,000. The American position was strong, a swamp protecting both
flanks, but at the first bayonet charge of the British veterans the raw
militia threw away their guns and "ran like a torrent." The Maryland and
Delaware Continentals stood their ground bravely, but were finally
obliged to retreat. De Kalb fell, with eleven wounds.
General Sullivan.
This heroic foreigner had been sent hither by Choiseul before the
Revolution to report to the French minister on American affairs, and at
the outbreak of war had at great cost cast in his lot with our fathers.
Sent south to aid Lincoln, he arrived only in time to be utilized by
Gates. De Kalb was the hero of Camden. Wounded and his horse shot from
under him, on foot he led his stanch division in a charge which drove
Rawdon's men and took fifty prisoners. Believing his side victorious he
would not yield, though literally ridden down by Cornwallis' dragoons,
till his wounds exhausted him. Two-fifths of his noble division fell
with him.
The whole army was pursued for miles and completely scattered. Arms,
knapsacks, broken wagons, dead horses strewed the line of retreat. The
Americans lost 900 killed and as many more prisoners. The British loss
was less than 500. Gates, who had been literally borne off the field by
the panic-stricken militia, rode in all haste two hundred miles north to
Hillsborough, N. C, where he tried to organize a new army.
