Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 / Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched

by John Frederick Schroeder; Benson John Lossing

The expedition planned by Washington for chastising the Indians who had committed such atrocities last year on the frontier and particularly at Wyoming, was the most important of this campaign. Washington entrusted the command of it to General Sullivan. The largest division of the army employed on that service assembled at Wyoming. Another division, which had wintered on the Mohawk, marched under the orders of Gen. James Clinton and joined the main body at the confluence of the two great sources of the Susquehanna. On the 22d. of August (1779), the united force, amounting to nearly 5,000 men, under the command of General Sullivan, proceeded up the Cayuga or western branch of the last-named river which led directly into the Indian country. The preparations for this expedition did not escape the notice of those against whom it was directed, and the Indians seem fully to have penetrated Sullivan's plan of operation. Formidable as his force was they determined to meet him and try the fortune of a battle. They were about 1,000 strong, commanded by the two Butlers, Guy Johnson, M'Donald, and Brandt. They chose their ground with judgment and fortified their camp at some distance above Chemung and within a mile of Newtown.

There Sullivan attacked them and, after a short but spirited resistance, they retreated with precipitation. The Americans had thirty men killed or wounded; the Indians left only eleven dead bodies on the field, but they were so discouraged by this defeat that they abandoned their villages and fields to the unresisted ravages of the victor, who laid waste their towns and orchards, so that they might have no inducement again to settle so near the settlements of the whites.

The severity of this proceeding has been censured by some writers, but it requires no apology. Nothing could convince the savages of the injustice and inhumanity of their usual system of warfare on the frontier so effectually as to give them a specimen of it, even in a milder form, in their own country. Sullivan desolated their villages and farms, but we do not learn that he took any scalps or murdered any women or children, or tortured any of his prisoners. The measure of retaliation which he dealt to the miscreants who sacked Wyoming was gentleness and humanity when compared with their proceedings. It is only to be regretted that his retaliation could not have been applied to the homes of the British and Tories who assisted the Indians at Wyoming. Sullivan and his army received a vote of thanks from Congress, but the general's health failing, he soon resigned his commission and retired from the service.

Sullivan's orders from Washington exculpate him from all blame as to the mode of punishing the Indians. "Of the expedition," Washington says, in writing to him, "the immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible." Washington knew that this kind of warfare was the only possible means of putting an end to Indian wars. Any other mode of proceeding, he was fully aware, was treachery and cruelty to his own countrymen.

A few days after the surprise of Paulus Hook by Major Lee, the long-expected fleet from Europe, under the command of Admiral Arbuthnot, having on board a reinforcement for the British army, arrived at New York. This reinforcement, however, did not enable Clinton to enter immediately on that active course of offensive operations which he had meditated. It was soon followed by the Count D'Estaing, who arrived on the southern coast of America with a powerful fleet, after which Clinton deemed it necessary to turn all his attention to his own security. Rhode Island and the posts up the North river were evacuated and the whole army was collected in New York, the fortifications of which were carried on with unremitting industry.

The Count D'Estaing and Admiral Byron having sailed about the same time from the coast of North America, met in the West Indies, where the war was carried on with various success. St. Lucia surrendered to the British in compensation for which the French took St. Vincent's and Grenada. About the time of the capture of the latter island D'Estaing received reinforcements which gave him a decided naval superiority, after which a battle was fought between the two hostile fleets, in which the count claimed the victory and in which so many of the British ships were disabled that the admiral was compelled to retire into port in order to refit.

Early in May (1779) Sir Henry Clinton had dispatched from New York a squadron under Sir George Collier with 2,500 troops under General Mathews, who entered Chesapeake Bay, and, after taking possession of Portsmouth, sent out parties of soldiers to Norfolk, Suffolk, Gosport, and other places in the neighborhood, where there were large deposits of provisions and military and naval stores, and many merchant vessels, some on the stocks and some laden with valuable cargoes. These were all burnt and the whole neighborhood subjected to plunder and devastation. This was a severe blow to the commerce on which Congress placed great dependence for supplies to the army and for sustaining its own credit.

In compliance with the solicitations of General Lincoln and the authorities of South Carolina, D'Estaing directed his course to the coast of Georgia with twenty-two ships of the line and eleven frigates having on board 6,000 soldiers, and arrived so suddenly on the southern coast of America that the Experiment, of fifty guns, and three frigates, fell into his hands. A vessel was sent to Charleston with information of his arrival and a plan was concerted for the siege of Savannah.

General Lincoln, who, after the fall of Savannah, had been sent to Charleston to take command of the southern department of the army, was to cooperate with D'Estaing's fleet and army in the siege. Instead of assaulting the place at the earliest practicable moment, they granted Prevost, the British commander at Savannah, an armistice of twenty-four hours, during which he received reinforcements and set them at defiance. They then commenced a siege by regular approaches on land and cannonade and bombardment from D'Estaing's formidable fleet in the harbor. This lasted for three weeks.

On the 9th of October (1779), without having effected a sufficient breach, the united French and American forces stormed the works. Great gallantry was displayed by the assailants. The French and American standards were both planted on the redoubts. But it was all in vain. They were completely repulsed, the French losing 700 and the Americans 340 men. Count Pulaski was among the slain.