[Illustration: GIVING THE COUNTERSIGN AT STONY POINT.]
GENERAL SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.—The atrocities of the Indians had kept the inhabitants of the Wyoming and Mohawk valleys in continued terror. In the summer, General Sullivan led an expedition into the Genesee country. Near Elmira, N. Y., he fought a fierce battle with the Indians and their tory allies. The latter being defeated, fled in dismay, while Sullivan marched to and fro through that beautiful region, laying waste their corn-fields, felling their orchards, and burning their houses.
[Footnote: The Indians, in the fertile country of the Cayugas and Senecas, had towns and villages regularly laid out, framed houses, some of them well finished, painted, and having chimneys, and broad and productive fields, with orchards of apple, pear, and peach trees.]
NAVAL EXPLOITS.—No American successes caused more annoyance to the British than those of the navy. In 1775, Washington fitted out several vessels to cruise along the New England coast as privateers. In the same year Congress established a naval department. Swift sailing vessels, manned by bold seamen, infested every avenue of commerce. Within three years they captured five hundred ships. They even cruised among the British isles, and, entering harbors, seized and burned ships lying at English wharves.
Paul Jones is the most famous of these naval heroes. While cruising with a squadron of five vessels off the northeast coast of England, he met the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough convoying a fleet of merchantmen. At half-past seven in the evening of September 23, he laid his own vessel, the Bon Homme Richard, alongside the Serapis, and a desperate struggle ensued. In the midst of the engagement he lashed the ships together.
[Footnote: Jones had given this name (Goodman Richard) to his ship in honor of Dr. Franklin, whose sayings as "Poor Richard" he warmly admired.]
[Footnote: At this point the contest had been raging an hour, and
the ships had twice fallen foul of each other. The first time, the
Serapis hailed the Richard, asking if she had "struck her colors."
"I have not yet begun to fight," was the reply of Jones.]
The crews then fought hand to hand. The Richard was old and rotten. Water poured into the hold. Three times both vessels were on fire. At ten o'clock the Serapis surrendered. Meanwhile the Pallas, one of his companions, captured the Countess of Scarborough, but the other ships rendered him no aid. Indeed, the Alliance, Captain Landis, repeatedly fired into the Richard, hoping to force Jones to surrender, that Landis might then capture the Serapis and retake the Richard. As Jones's vessel was already in a sinking condition, he transferred his crew to the captured frigate, and sailed for the Texel.
1780.
CAMPAIGN AT THE SOUTH.—Georgia having been subdued, the war was now renewed in South Carolina. Charleston was attacked by land and sea. General Lincoln, after enduring a siege of forty days and a terrible bombardment, was forced to surrender. Marauding expeditions were sent out which soon overran the whole State. Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis in command.