As the commissioners had disparaged France in this document, the Marquis La Fayette, as the representative of his country, sent a challenge to the Earl of Carlisle, which that nobleman declined to accept, on the plea that he was responsible only to his sovereign for his public acts. Shortly after this time the Marquis La Fayette returned to France, in which country he believed that he could serve the rising interest of America more effectually than in her armies.
At the end of the forty days, having flung their firebrand into the country, the commissioners departed, much to the relief of congress, but not before their threatened warfare of desolation had commenced its work.
Sir Henry Clinton, finding all quiet at Newport, returned to New York, whence he despatched Major-General Grey on an expedition against the southern shores of Massachusetts and the adjacent islands. In Buzzard’s Bay, a great resort of American privateers, he destroyed about 100 vessels with all the stores in the neighbourhood, burnt the towns of New Bedford and Fairhaven, and carried off from the inhabitants of the fertile island of Martha’s Vineyard a vast quantity of sheep and oxen. But this was little in comparison with his next achievements. He surprised, in the dead of the night, a sleeping American regiment of light horse, near Tappan, killed a number of them in cold blood, wounded many others and took the rest prisoners. The town of Egg-harbour in New Jersey was burnt, and all the houses and mills and property belonging to the Whig party in that neighbourhood destroyed; while a detachment under one Captain Ferguson, guided by deserters, surprised and cut to pieces the greater portion of Pulaski’s legion. Such was the spirit of ferocity which existed at this moment in the British soldiery; but horrible as were these instances of merciless warfare, they were trivial in comparison with what was going forward in remoter regions, where the Indian savage became the bloody tool of the American loyalist. All our readers know the tragedy of Wyoming. It was enacted at this time. We have already mentioned the settlement of this beautiful valley of the Susquehannah by a number of the quiet people of Connecticut. It had greatly flourished and become very populous, although from the first it had been a cause of dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, both of which states claimed it as belonging to their territory. A few years before the present time, some Scotch and Dutch settlers from New York had come to the valley, thirty of whom having been lately seized on suspicion of being Tories, were sent to Connecticut for trial. Nothing being proved against them, they were discharged, and immediately, as if in confirmation of the accusation, they enlisted in the partisan corps of Butler and the half-blood Indian Brandt, then stationed in the Mohawk valley, eager for the moment of revenge, which was not far off.
Although Wyoming had been only settled since the last war, it numbered about 4,000 inhabitants, one-third of whom it had sent out to the American army, thus leaving itself undefended. This weak state was well known to the offended party, who induced Butler and Brandt to lead to Wyoming a body of 1,500 men, partly Indians, and partly loyalists disguised as such, for the purpose of extermination. On the first rumour of the probability of such an invasion, a body of men was raised to garrison the valley; but they were hardly organised when, at the commencement of July, Butler and his terrible army appeared and commenced their bloody work by waylaying and murdering some of the inhabitants. There were four forts in the valley; the upper fort, being held by a disaffected party, surrendered at once; the few soldiers hastily mustered marched out to meet the enemy, but being a mere handful, were surrounded, many were killed on the spot, and others who were taken prisoners were put to death with every Indian ingenuity of torture. Such as escaped fled to Fort Wyoming, which was then besieged. Under pretence of a parley, the principal officer was drawn out with a number of his men, when the fort was attacked and the greater part slain. The remnant which remained, on desiring to know what terms might be expected, received for reply the emphatic words, “The hatchet.” At last compelled to surrender, the men were put to the sword, and the women and children shut up in the houses and the barracks, which were consumed in one general conflagration. The last fort offered no resistance, and surrendered on the promise of security to life and property; but the promise was not kept, the unhappy people suffered the fate of the others. Butler, it is said, marched away with his Tories at the surrender of the fort, but could not induce the Indians to follow his example; and frenzied with the rage of blood, they remained behind, burning the houses, ravaging the fields, killing and maiming the very cattle with horrible tortures, murdering the men who resisted, and driving such women and children as escaped with life into the forests and mountains. According to some historians there were loyalists among these Indians, who excelled even them in barbarity.
The fate of Wyoming awoke the liveliest indignation; and an expedition of retaliation was very soon undertaken against the Indians of the Upper Susquehannah; and though the Indians, aware of their approach, fled, yet were their harvests destroyed and their fields laid waste. Another expedition was undertaken against the Canadian settlers, most of whom were loyalists, west of the Alleganies. These incursions served only to call forth reprisals; and in November, the flourishing settlement of Cherry Valley, in New York, was surprised by a party of Indians and loyalist regulars. The fort, which was garrisoned by about 200 soldiers, was not taken; but its colonel, who lodged in the town, was killed, the lieutenant-colonel taken prisoner, and the inhabitants suffered the cruel fate of those of Wyoming.
We have already mentioned that Commodore Hyde Parker had been sent in November with a detachment of 3,500 men, under Colonel Campbell, against Georgia; at the same time instructions had been forwarded to Major-General Prevost, who commanded the troops in East Florida, to make all necessary preparations for the defence of Fort St. Augustine, and to co-operate in the views of the present expedition by entering the province of Georgia from that side, and advancing, if possible, so far as to assist Colonel Campbell in the intended attack on Savannah.
The scene of events is now about to be in great measure removed from the North to the South. While the northern provinces had been so long harassed, and had suffered from the calamities of war, the southern had enjoyed such comparative tranquillity that they had duly cultivated their affluent lands and gathered in their abundant harvests, and had carried on their export trade with most of the European markets without impediment, except from British cruisers in the ocean. There had, it is true, been a continuance of petty hostilities between Georgia and East Florida, which had kept up a rumour of war in the south; and in West Florida the British settlements had quietly submitted to the Americans; but as yet all had been comparative peace.
The shortness of provisions in the north, from which the British suffered, rendered it additionally important for them to gain possession of Georgia, the feeblest of the southern provinces. As regards, indeed, the want of provisions, it was felt by the Americans equally with the British; and it is stated that D’Estaing would have found it impracticable to have victualled his ships at Boston but for the opportune seizing, by the New England cruisers, of so large a number of English provision-ships on their way to New York, that there was not only abundance for the French fleet, but the general price of food was lowered thereby in Boston market. This event, which was a great triumph to the Americans, was a serious cause of increased anxiety and suffering to the British army.
But the possession of Georgia was not only important to the British, as furnishing an abundant supply of its staple commodity, rice, and its other numerous products, but as enabling East Florida to join her forces, and thus to form an aggregate establishment in the south, which might greatly influence the ultimate fortunes of the war; besides which, a door would thus be opened into South Carolina.
The commander of the American forces in the southern department was at this time Major-General Robert Howe, who, however, not having given satisfaction to congress, was about to be superseded by General Lincoln, when, on the 23rd of December, the British fleet arrived at the island of Tybee, near the mouth of the river Savannah. The Americans were wholly unprepared for the removal of the scene of war from the north to the south, and no measures of defence had been taken to secure Savannah. Though Howe was there with the whole regular force of the southern department, consisting of six South Carolina and the one Georgia regiments, the whole force did not amount to 800 men; while the batteries which had been constructed for the defence of the river had been suffered to fall into decay.