Thus recruited and reinforced, Greene, being joined also by the partisan corps of Marion, at the commencement of the cool season, marched up the Wateree to Camden, in South Carolina, crossed first that river, then the Congaree, and thus approached the British army, commanded by Colonel Stuart, who had succeeded Lord Rawdon, which retired before him down the Santee to Eutaw Springs, whither Greene pursued them. It was the 8th of September when the two armies, about equal in force, engaged. The British were at first driven back in great confusion, victory strongly inclining to the American side, but rallying again in a favourable post, the British repulsed their assailants with heavy loss. The battle of Eutaw Springs is memorable as being one of the bloodiest and the most valiantly-contested fields of the war, and also for being the last of any consequence at the South. The loss of the British was about 500, with 250 prisoners, that of the Americans about the same.

Both sides, Hildreth tells us, claimed the victory, but all the advantage accrued to the Americans. The British immediately retired to Monk’s Corner, and were thus restricted to the narrow tract between the rivers Ashley and Cooper. Congress, in acknowledgment of Greene’s service in this battle, voted him their thanks and presented him with a conquered standard and a medal struck for the occasion. He, however, was too much exhausted to continue active operations. His troops were barefoot and half naked; he had no hospital stores, hardly even salt, and his ammunition was very low. He retired again to the hills of the Santee.

CHAPTER XII.
CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

We now return to Washington, who at length received the long-wished-for intelligence, that De Grasse, with the French fleet, was approaching the Chesapeake. Admiral Rodney, who had been busy in the West Indies, whither De Grasse had also sailed, apprehending that a part of the French fleet would proceed to the American coast, had sent Hood, with fourteen ships of the line, to reinforce Admiral Graves, who commanded on the American station. Hood arrived off the Chesapeake, August 25th, and not finding Graves there as he expected, proceeded to New York, where he learned that Du Barras, who commanded the French squadron at Newport, in Rhode Island, had put to sea three days before, evidently with the design of a junction with the French West India fleet. In the hope of intercepting this junction, Graves sailed with the united English fleet; but had the mortification of discovering on his arrival, September 5th, off the entrance of the Chesapeake, that De Grasse had arrived six days before, and now, with four-and-twenty ships of the line, lay safely at anchor inside Cape Henry.

All the present operations of the combined American and French forces were evidently the result of a well-concerted plan, besides which an extraordinary coincidence occurred in their several movements by sea and land, which was beyond the reach of calculation. We have already seen that Du Barras sailed from Rhode Island on the 25th of August; on the 28th De Grasse arrived with his fleet at the Chesapeake. On the same day the French and American armies reached the Head of Elk, and an hour after their arrival received an express from De Grasse, with the welcome intelligence of his safe anchorage at Cape Henry. This is the more remarkable when we consider the distance of the parties from each other as well as the scene of action, and the difficulties and delays to which all were liable.[[46]] But the run of ill luck which had hitherto attended every combined attempt of the French and Americans appeared now to have changed. All went well with them, as in the rapid winding up of a long story, where the heroes are crowned with especial success as a compensation for past sorrows and sufferings.

Du Barras, however, did not arrive in the Chesapeake for near a fortnight after De Grasse, having put out to sea from fear of being intercepted by the British fleet, which was a very necessary caution, as he had under his charge the transports which conveyed from Rhode Island the heavy ordnance and other necessaries indispensable for the siege of York Town, and upon which the success of the enterprise depended. De Grasse, in the meantime, sent four ships of the line and several frigates to block up James and York rivers, so as to cut off the retreat of Cornwallis, and landed also 3,000 French troops, under the Marquis St. Simon, who had joined La Fayette, then at Williamsburg.

The first intelligence which Admiral Graves received of the French fleet, was the discovery of it, early in the morning of September 5th, lying within the mouth of the Chesapeake. Each enemy was an unwelcome sight to the other, and the French ships immediately stood out to sea. For five days the two fleets manœuvred in sight of each other; a distant cannonade was kept up; but De Grasse had no intention of coming to a close action, his sole object was to keep possession of the Chesapeake, and to cover the arrival of Du Barras with his squadron and convoy from Rhode Island. All this was done so successfully that Du Barras entered the bay without the slightest impediment, on the 10th of September, which was in fact signing the doom of Lord Cornwallis; and the French fleet, no whit the worse, returned to their old anchorage in the Chesapeake; while Graves, who had suffered considerably, having lost two of his ships and been obliged to burn a third, sailed immediately to New York to refit. On the 17th of September, transports began to bring down a portion of the French and American armies from the Head of Elk, while Washington proceeded with the remainder to Annapolis, whence they too were conveyed by the same easy mode to Williamsburg, where all had arrived by the end of the month. Washington and the principal commanders having already had an interview, the plan of operations was agreed upon. Before, however, we proceed to this, we must return to Sir Henry Clinton.

Having at length discovered the true purpose of Washington’s deeply-laid scheme, Sir Henry Clinton attempted to prevent its full accomplishment, by rendering it necessary for that commander to divide his forces. Arnold, therefore, having now returned from Virginia, was immediately despatched on a plundering expedition against Connecticut, of which state he was an unworthy native.

Landing his troops from the shore of Long Island, in the night of the 6th of September, at New London, a resort of privateers and the seat of the West India trade, Arnold advanced up the Thames, at the mouth of which New London is situated, and having taken Fort Trumball, about a mile below the town, New London was plundered and then burned, and a large amount of property destroyed. On the other side of the river was Fort Griswold, which, being strongly garrisoned, was resolutely defended by Colonel Ledyard. At length, however, it was carried by assault, with a loss to the British of 200 men, and the retaliation for this loss was as cowardly as it was bloody. Entering the fort, a British officer inquired who was the commander. “I was,” replied Colonel Ledyard, presenting his sword, “but now you are.” On these words the weapon so surrendered was plunged into the bosom of the late brave commander, and an almost general slaughter followed; forty out of 160 being all that escaped.

Washington, to Clinton’s disappointment, took no notice of this movement, but proceeded calmly with his operations in the South; and these enormities having roused a spirit in Connecticut which Arnold did not dare to encounter, he retreated to New York. The loss which the Americans sustained, besides about a dozen ships which were burnt, was very great. The quantities of naval stores, of European manufactures, and of East and West India goods found here, was almost incredible. Everything on the town-side of the river was destroyed by fire. Nothing was carried off excepting such small articles of spoil as afforded no trouble in the conveyance.[[47]]