General Lincoln.
The gloom created at the North by this defeat was deepened by the
startling news that Benedict Arnold, the hero of Saratoga, had turned
traitor. Smarting under a reprimand from Washington for misconduct,
Arnold agreed with Clinton to surrender West Point. The plot was
discovered by the capture of Clinton's agent, Major Andre, who was hung
as a spy. Arnold escaped to the British lines.
There was now no organized American force in the Carolinas, and
Cornwallis began a triumphant march northward. The brave mountaineers of
North Carolina and Virginia rose in arms. October 7th, 1,000 riflemen
fell upon a detachment of 1,100 British, strongly posted on King's
Mountain, N. C, and after a sharp struggle killed and wounded about 400,
and took the rest prisoners. In this battle fell one of the Tory
ancestors of the since distinguished American De Peyster family.
The King's Mountain victory filled the patriots with new hope and zeal,
and kept the loyalists from rising to support the British. Cornwallis
marched south again.
General Marion in Camp.
Gates was now removed and General Nathaniel Greene placed in charge of
the Southern department. Greene was one of the most splendid figures in
the Revolution. Son of a Rhode Island Quaker, bred a blacksmith,
ill-educated save-by private study, which in mathematics, history, and
law he had carried far, he was in 1770 elected to the legislature of his
colony. Zeal to fight England for colonial liberty lost him his place in
the Friends' Society. Heading Rhode Island's contingent to join
Washington before Boston at the first shock of Revolutionary arms, he
was soon made brigadier, the initial step in his rapid promotion.
Showing himself an accomplished fighter at Trenton, Princeton,
Germantown, Monmouth, and the battle of Rhode Island, and a first-rate
organizer as quartermaster-general of the army, he had long been
Washington's right-hand man; and his superior now sent him south with
high hopes and ringing words of recommendation to the army and people
there.
Marquis de Lafayette.
[1781]
Greene's plan of campaign was the reverse of Gates's. He meant to harass
and hinder the enemy at every step, avoiding pitched battles. January
17, 1781, a portion of his army, about 1,000 strong, under the famous
General Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, another hero of Saratoga, was
attacked at Cowpens, S. C., by an equal number of British under the
dashing Tarleton. The British, riddled by a terrible cross-fire from
Morgan's unerring riflemen, followed up by a bayonet charge, fled, and
were for twenty-four miles pursued by cavalry. The American loss was
trifling. Tarleton lost 300 in killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners,
besides 100 horses, 35 wagons, and 800 muskets.
Benedict Arnold.
Cornwallis began a second march northward. Greene's force was too weak
to risk a battle. His soldiers were poorly clad, and most of them were
without tents or shoes. He therefore skillfully retreated across North
Carolina, chased by Cornwallis. Twice the rivers, rising suddenly after
Greene had crossed, checked his pursuers. But on March 15th, re-enforced
to about 4,000, the Quaker general offered battle to Cornwallis at
Guilford Court-House, N. C. He drew up his forces on a wooded hill in
three lines one behind the other. The first line, consisting of raw
North Carolina militia, fled before the British bayonet charge, hardly
firing a shot. The Virginia brigade constituting the second line made a
brave resistance, but was soon driven back. On swept the British
columns, flushed with victory, against the third line. Here Greek met
Greek. The Continentals stood their ground like the veterans they were.
After a long and bloody fight the British were driven back. The
fugitives, however, presently rallied under cover of theartillery, when
Greene, fearing to risk more, withdrew from the field. The British lost
500; the Americans, 400, besides a large part of the militia, who
dispersed to their homes. Cornwallis, with his "victorious but ruined
army," retreated to the southern part of the State. The last of April he
forsook Carolina, and marched into Virginia with 1,400 men.
Arnold's Escape.
Greene, his force reduced to 1,800, carried the war into South Carolina.
Defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, and compelled by the approach
of General Rawdon to raise the siege of Ninety-Six, he retreated north.
Meantime Marion and Lee had brought about the evacuation of Camden and
Augusta. Rawdon soon evacuated Ninety-Six, and moved toward the coast,
followed by Greene.
A ceaseless guerilla warfare was kept up, attended with many
barbarities. Slave-stealing was a favorite pursuit on both sides. It is
noteworthy that the followers of Sumter, fighting in the cause of
freedom, were paid largely in slaves. The whole campaign was marked by
severities unknown at the North. The British shot as deserters all who,
having once accepted royal protection, were taken in arms against the
king. In a few cases Americans dealt similarly with Americans fighting
for the British, but in general their procedure was infinitely the more
humane.
