The present alarming state of affairs was useful in arousing the Carolinians. Every effort was now made to reinforce General Lincoln’s army. John Rutledge, a popular man, in whom all had confidence, was appointed governor and vested with extraordinary powers; a stringent militia law was enforced, and by the middle of April, two months after the defeat at Briar Creek, Lincoln found himself at the head of 5,000 men. About the end of that month, therefore, leaving General Moultrie with 1,500 troops to garrison the lower passes of the river, at Purysburg and the Black Swamp, Lincoln, hoping to recover the upper parts of Georgia, as well as to protect the meeting of the assembly of that state, quitted his position, which had hitherto enabled him to protect Charleston, and proceeded towards Augusta. The movement was unfortunate. No sooner was he gone than General Prevost, whose force had received a considerable accession of loyalists from South Carolina as well as Georgia, resolved to cross the river and penetrate into Carolina, where he knew that the royal cause had many friends, and at the same time to obtain a good store of provisions, of which he was in want. Crossing the Savannah, therefore, at the end of April, with about 3,000 men, Prevost advanced forward with but little opposition from Moultrie, whose troops behaved no better than those of Ashe at Briar Creek, though defended like them by almost impassable swamps, and who now fled before him to Charleston. The ease with which every impediment was overcome by the British army, the assurance which the general received on all hands from the loyalist party that Charleston would surrender without resistance on his first appearance, furnished a new object to his enterprise.
Lincoln was on his way to Augusta, when news reached him of the British army having crossed the Savannah, and believing it only a foraging expedition, he contented himself with sending off a battalion to reinforce Moultrie. A few days later an express conveyed to him the more serious information that the British army was now several days on its march towards Charleston; the country was up, and hundreds flocking to the royal standard. Without a moment’s delay the American army now re-crossed the river, and a detachment on horseback was sent forward for the greater despatch.
The British army was in the meantime advancing on the capital of South Carolina, almost without opposition. Moultrie’s militia, which was retreating before him, was weakened at every turn; for as the effects and families of the militia lay on the very line of retreat, they deserted for considerations which were nearer to them than patriotism and honour. The British general himself, astonished at his undertaking, delayed and deliberated instead of availing himself of all the advantages which offered; which had he done, and marched at once upon Charleston, he might have taken the city at once. As it was, the townspeople had time to throw up fortifications, at which every master and slave laboured alike; and Charleston was saved for that time.
On the 11th of May the British army appeared before the city, and Moultrie, with the remains of his troops, the battalion despatched by Lincoln, and Rutledge with 500 militia, were then within its walls. Pulaski and his legion arrived at the same time as the enemy, while Lincoln with his army might be daily expected. There was no immediate fear, therefore, for the town, and Rutledge, when summoned to surrender under favourable conditions, proposed stipulations of neutrality for South Carolina during the war. The terms of each party were rejected by the other, and the townspeople and garrison prepared for a general assault, which was expected on the morrow. The British general now found himself in a difficult and dangerous position. The spirit friendly to the royal cause, which he had been led to expect in Charleston, did not meet him there; on the contrary, the town was prepared for vigorous resistance; he had neither battering artillery nor a naval force to co-operate with him, and Lincoln, with a force equal if not superior to his own, might hourly be looked for. Under these considerations it was better to provide for his own safety than to risk a doubtful contest. Leaving, therefore, a guard at the river Ashley, the British troops quietly retreated during the night, the garrison, who stood to their arms all night in fear of a sudden attack, not having the least suspicion of such a movement. The enemy had retreated to the islands of St. James and St. John, which lie to the southward of Charleston harbour—the commencement of a labyrinth of islands which continue to the sea. These islands, being well cultivated and fertile, afforded good quarters and excellent provision for his army, which retired in a few days, carrying off with them about 4,000 slaves as booty. Lincoln, in the meantime, having arrived, attacked the British at Stono River, where was a strong redoubt between the mainland and St. John’s Island. The attack was made with great spirit, and so vigorously repelled, that the Americans were obliged to retire with considerable loss.
The hot season was now at hand, and both the British and American troops began to suffer severely from fever. In order, therefore, to have an eligible retreat for his army during the intense heats and the unhealthy season which was commencing, and at the same time to keep hold on South Carolina, General Prevost determined to secure possession of Beaufort, in Port Royal, by placing a garrison there under Colonel Maitland, after which he retired to Savannah with his main army.
While these events were occurring in South Carolina, Sir Henry Clinton despatched from New York a fleet under command of Commodore Collier, now appointed to the naval command in America, with 2,000 troops under Major-General Mathews, to make a descent upon Virginia, and by devastating the coast and plundering the country, to inflict as much misery and ruin on the colonies as possible. Entering the Chesapeake, the squadron which escorted the troops advanced up Elizabeth River, and took possession of the town and fort of Portsmouth, the garrison of which, knowing themselves incapable of defence, fled at the approach of the enemy. On the opposite side of the river stood the town of Norfolk, which having already been destroyed in the present war was just recovering from its ruin, and now also fell into the hands of the enemy. These two towns were the seats of the Virginian foreign export trade, which, spite of the war, was considerable; and higher up the river lay Gosport, where the state of Virginia had established a navy yard. A great number of ships lay at these different places, among the rest two large French merchantmen laden with tobacco, which the Americans burnt, together with several of their own ships, on the approach of the fleet, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. In the meantime detachments having landed carried fire and sword inland. The town of Suffolk was attacked and plundered, as were the villages of Kempes’, Shepherd’s and Tanner’s Creeks. “Within a fortnight,” says the British chronicler of that day, “while the fleet and army continued on the coast, the loss of the Americans was prodigious.” To say nothing of cruelty, outrage, and general devastation practised on defenceless people, above 130 ships and vessels of various kinds were destroyed. “Seventeen were brought away as prizes, all that were on the stocks were burnt, naval stores were carried off or destroyed, as well as everything relative to the building or fitting up of ships. Among other booty carried off were 3,000 hogsheads of tobacco. The damage done in this expedition was estimated at above half a million sterling.”[[26]]
Spite of the flattering assurances of support which the naval and military commanders received from the loyalist inhabitants of Virginia, and which were eagerly reported by them to Sir Henry Clinton, and spite of the advantages which they urged would accrue to the royalist cause by converting Portsmouth into a place of arms, and thus destroying the trade of the Chesapeake, Sir Henry issued orders of recall; and the fleet and the army having fired the storehouses and dock-yard buildings of Gosport, set sail with their booty and prizes, and reached New York within a month of their setting sail.
The British troops were needed to assist in an attack on the American works, situated at Stony and Verplank’s Points, two opposite projections on the Hudson, about forty miles north of New York, and highly important to the Americans, as commanding a ferry, the loss of which would oblige them to make a detour of ninety miles through the mountains, to communicate with the eastern and southern provinces. To prevent the completion of these works, therefore, Sir Henry Clinton undertook an expedition in person, which set out on the last day of May. His first object of attack was Stony Point on the west bank of the river, which being unfinished and incapable of defence was evacuated at his approach. Cannon placed on the heights of Stony Point unfortunately commanded Verplank’s Point, on which a little fortress called La Fayette was just completed, and this being invested from the land side also was compelled, after a brave resistance, to surrender. These important works being secured, Clinton ordered them immediately to be completed, and on the 2nd of June encamped his army at Philipsburg, half-way between Verplank’s Point and New York; and Washington, in order the better to cover the yet unfinished works of the Americans in the Highlands, which were endangered by the garrisons of these conquered posts, removed his army from Middlebrook to New Jersey.
While the campaign on land was confined to the surprise of posts and desultory expeditions, the Connecticut cruisers, with their whaleboats and other small craft, seriously inconvenienced and distressed the British army and the loyalist city of New York, by intercepting and taking almost every vessel that came upon their waters, and in preventing any intercourse with Long Island, whence the supplies of the army and city were principally sent. To put a stop to this annoyance, as well as to make a most severe retaliation, Sir Henry Clinton ordered ex-governor Tryon, now a general officer, to embark with about 2,600 men. On July 5th, the fleet reached New Haven, which was plundered and the fort with everything available for naval or military purposes destroyed; but the town was spared because the inhabitants made but small resistance. Fairfield and Norwalk, however, two other ports having a stronger military force, fared much worse; both towns, together with Greenfield, a village near Norwalk, were set on fire and everything of value destroyed. The loss which the Americans sustained in this predatory expedition was very great; besides houses and other property, shipping of all kinds with stores and merchandise were destroyed totally. After these devastations on the mainland, he was proceeding to Long Island, intending to make a descent on New London, when he was suddenly recalled. Whether he had exceeded the orders of Clinton in these outrages, or whether his forces were required in another direction, of which we shall speak anon, is not known; but probably the former cause had some influence, for Tryon deemed it necessary to excuse the fires and destruction which marked his career, by a letter to the general, in which he said that the Americans, or usurpers, as he called them, placed their hopes of securing the empire by avoiding decisive actions, and in the escape of their own property during the protraction of the war. Their power, he said, was supported by the dread of their tyranny and the arts which they practised to inspire the credulous public with confidence in the forbearance of the royal forces. It had been his wish, therefore, to detect this delusion, and that without injury to the loyalists. All that he regretted was that places of worship were burnt; but these, he said, being built of boards and standing among the houses, could not be preserved, it being impossible to fix limits to a conflagration.
The surprise of Verplank’s and Stony Points had, as we have said, called Washington out of New Jersey, and he was now encamped on high and strong ground above those places, and on each side of North River. Sir Henry Clinton desired nothing more than to draw him down from these fastnesses into the flat country, and bring on a general engagement in such ground as would insure success to the British army. But Washington was too wary to be seduced into such an error. Nevertheless he was not inactive. While the two armies lay, as it were, watching each other, a bold enterprise was undertaken and executed with so much spirit and success as to be the most brilliant action of the whole campaign. This was no other than the surprise and retaking of Stony Point, the works of which had been now carefully completed and strongly garrisoned by the British.