CHAPTER V
THE BATTLE-GROUND
In Virginia, about to become the battle-ground of the Revolution, the condition of affairs was gloomy, humiliating, apparently almost desperate. After a war of five years the state was still unfortified, unarmed, unprepared. Her strength, her money, her sons had been sent to fight her battles in the North. She had entered the war already loaded with debt from the Indian and French wars, and further depleted through her patriotic non-importation policy. Navigable rivers ran, at intervals of a few miles, from her interior to the coast. An invading fleet had but to sail up these rivers, to lay waste the entire country, and end all by a single, well-directed blow.
Virginia was slow to appreciate the necessity of an armed naval force. She never desired to meet her enemy at sea. One of her sons declared in Congress, "I deem it no sacrifice of dignity to say to the Leviathan of the deep, 'We cannot contend with you in your own element, but if you come within our limits we will shed our last drop of blood in their defence,'" adding "What! Shall the great mammoth of the American forests leave his native element, and plunge into the water in a mad contest with a shark? Let him stay on shore and not be excited by the muscles and periwinkles on the strand to venture on the perils of the deep. Why take to water where he can neither fight or swim?"
But in 1775 the Convention of Virginia directed the Committee of Safety to procure armed vessels for the better defence of the colony.[17] About seventy vessels were placed in service, built at the Chickahominy Navy-yard, South Quay, and Hampton near Norfolk. George Mason, for the Committee of Safety, built two galleys and a fine battle ship, The American Congress, to carry fourteen guns and ninety-six marines. The vessels were to serve separately for the defence of the coast, but there was great difficulty in obtaining sailors to man them. Among the seamen were faithful negroes who purchased their freedom by serving through the war. These ships sometimes captured sloops laden with supplies for the officers of the invading army. Luxuries intended for British officers found their way to rebel tables. The planters lacked many essential articles,—food, clothing, medicines,—but they had a pineapple now and then. They sent out their own tobacco in ships which often never returned, and in time most of the Virginia ships were either destroyed or captured. Then it was that John Paul Jones obtained a commission from Congress to "harass the enemies of the Commonwealth," and swept the seas.
In January, 1781, Virginia was invaded by the enemy. Tarleton's cavalry carried the torch and sword throughout the whole James River region, burned houses, carried off horses, cutting the throats of those too young for service. They made a dash to the mountains and captured seven members of the assembly, then in session at Charlottesville, announcing an intention to go as far as Fredericksburg and Mount Vernon. In May, Tarleton was confidently expected at Fredericksburg. The planters abandoned their homes and removed their families from place to place for safety. The homestead was totally destroyed or pillaged, china pounded up, servants carried off, and every animal stolen or slaughtered. "Were it possible," said one old citizen, "I should remove my family to some other country, for nothing can compensate for the sufferings and alarms they daily experience. Scarce do they remain one week in a place, before they are obliged to abandon their shelter and seek an asylum from the bounty of others." The state was swept as by a tornado—growing crops destroyed, plantations laid waste. The destruction of property was estimated at thirteen million sterling. So dearly did the peaceful citizens of Virginia purchase freedom for their descendants!
Among the stories of this prince of raiders still told at Virginia firesides, is one of a day when he made a clean sweep of everything portable on an old lady's plantation. Standing calmly in her doorway, she watched the rifling of her poultry-yard. One cowardly and aged Muscovy drake basely abandoned his harem and hid in a hedge. The old dame espied him just as Tarleton and his staff rode off. "Here, you Jim," she called to a negro lad; "catch that old duck and ride for your life after that general. Tell him he forgot one lean old duck, and I send it to him with my compliments." "What did he say?" she asked the boy on his return. "He jes put dat old Muscovy in he wallet, an' he say he much obliged."
The raids of the enemy along the navigable waters of Virginia became incessant. Gunboats would ascend the rivers, to the terror of all who dwelt on their banks. One of these went up the Pamunkey at night, and was kept from landing by a handful of men who fired, ran on ahead and fired again, and so on until the captain, believing himself to be in the midst of a large force on shore, and uncertain as to the possibility of return, hoisted a white flag in the moonlight and surrendered! Then the captain on shore (John Otey, with only twenty men) was, indeed, in a dilemma! Waiting until the moon went down, he ordered the crew ashore, forbade any to speak, took their arms and marched them through the darkness to headquarters!