In the midst of these distresses a circumstance occurred that was exceedingly trying to his mind. By the constitution, the governor acted only in concert with the council. Two of that body had fallen into the hands of Tarleton, and two had resigned. It was impossible to raise a quorum for business. The awful crisis demanded immediate and decisive action. In this dilemma he transcended the existing law, and proceeded to act as though the council was with him.
At a subsequent period this was made the foundation of a complaint against him, after he retired to private life and was sinking under disease, which was forever put at rest by the legislature, by the passage of laws sanctioning his every public act during that campaign. Ingratitude is the prime minister of hell, and revenge its secretary.
At length Lord Cornwallis found himself snugly ensconced in Yorktown. A dark cloud gathered over his military fame. Awful forebodings haunted his blood-stained soul. Retributive justice pierced his conscience with a thousand stings. The cries of widows and orphans, the curling flames of hospitable mansions, the sweeping destruction of villages and towns, and the dying groans of innocent victims, the bitter fruits of his tyranny, preyed upon his imagination like a promethean vulture. The die was cast. The siege was commenced. At the head of the Virginia troops was General Nelson—cool, brave, fearless and vigorous. His native town, his own domicile and property, were now to be razed. At first he observed that the American batteries carefully avoided the direction of his house. The principal British officers, anticipating this, had made it their rendezvous. On hearing that it was out of respect to him, he directed the gunners to point their guns at once at his mansion. The first discharge sent a shot through it and killed two of the officers, a number of whom were enjoying the comforts of a good dinner. They soon left this retreat for safer quarters.
The following extract from the general orders of the illustrious Washington, of the 20th of October, 1781, will best inform the reader how highly the services of Governor Nelson were prized at that memorable siege that crushed the power of Great Britain in America.
“The general would be guilty of the highest ingratitude, a crime of which he hopes he shall never be accused, if he forgot to return his sincere acknowledgements to his excellency Governor Nelson for the succours which he received from him and the militia under his command, to whose activity, emulation and bravery, the highest praises are due. The magnitude of the acquisition will be ample compensation for the difficulties and dangers which they met with so much firmness and patriotism.”
The fatigues of this campaign and his arduous gubernatorial duties proved too much for the physical powers of Governor Nelson. He again sunk under disease, and on the 20th of November, 1781, he resigned his station and retired to private life. He spent the remainder of his days principally on a small estate he had saved from the wreck of his large fortune, situated at Offly, in the county of Hanover. His health continued to decline, and on the fourth of January, 1789, he was numbered with the dead.
His obituary, written by his bosom friend, Colonel Innes, fully portrays the character of this devoted patriot and deserves a place in this memoir.
The illustrious general Thomas Nelson, is no more! He paid the last debt to nature on Sunday, the fourth of the present month, at his estate in Hanover. He who undertakes barely to recite the exalted virtues which adorned the life of this great and good man, will unavoidably pronounce a panegyric upon human nature. As a man, a citizen, a legislator and a patriot, he exhibited a conduct untarnished and undebased by sordid or selfish interests, and strongly marked with the genuine characteristics of true religion, sound benevolence and liberal policy. Entertaining the most ardent love for civil and religious liberty, he was among the first of that glorious band of patriots whose exertions dashed and defeated the machinations of British tyranny and gave to United America freedom and independent empire. At a most important crisis during the late struggle for American liberty, when this state appeared to be designated as the theatre of action for the contending armies, he was selected by the unanimous suffrage of the legislature to command the virtuous yeomanry of his country. In this honourable employment he remained until the end of the war. As a soldier, he was indefatigably active and coolly intrepid. Resolute and undejected in misfortunes, he towered above distress and struggled with the manifold difficulties to which his situation exposed him with constancy and courage. In the memorable year of 1781, when the whole force of the southern British army was directed to the immediate subjugation of this state, he was called to the helm of government. This was a juncture which indeed “tried men’s souls.” He did not avail himself of this opportunity to retire in the rear of danger, but, on the contrary, took the field at the head of his countrymen, and, at the hazard of his life, his fame and individual fortune, by his decision and magnanimity, he saved not only his country, but all America from disgrace, if not from total ruin. Of this truly patriotic and heroic conduct, the renowned commander-in-chief, with all the gallant officers of the combined armies employed at the siege of York, will bear ample testimony. This part of his conduct even contemporary jealousy, envy and malignity were forced to approve—and this, more impartial posterity, if it can believe, will almost adore. If, after contemplating the splendid and heroic parts of his character, we shall inquire for the milder virtues of humanity and seek for the man, we shall find the refined, beneficent and social qualities of private life, through all its forms and combinations, so happily modified and united in him, that in the words of the darling poet of nature, it may be said,
“His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him, that nature might stand up
And say to all the world—THIS IS A MAN.”