The besiegers in the mean time were daily advancing their works, and had now completed their third parallel; the garrison of fort Moultrie surrendered; and the broken remains of the American cavalry under colonelWhite were again surprised by colonel Tarleton, and the whole either killed, taken, or dispersed. Sir Henry Clinton, thus successful in every operation, renewed his former offers to the garrison in case of their surrender, but the terms, so far as they respected the citizens, not being satisfactory, hostilities recommenced. The batteries of the third parallel now opened on the town, and did great execution; several houses were burned; numbers of the besieged were killed at their guns; and the British prepared to make a general assault by land and water. At length a great number of citizens of Charleston addressed general Lincoln in a petition, requesting his acceptance of the terms which had been previously offered. A capitulation was consequently signed on the 12th of May,and the next day major-general Leslie took possession of the town.[135]
The capital having surrendered, measures were adopted to overawe the inhabitants of the country, and induce them to return to their allegiance to the king. Garrisons were placed in different parts of the state, and two thousand men were despatched towards North Carolina, to repel several parties of militia, who were hastening to the relief of Charleston. Colonel Tarleton, making a rapid march of a hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, met, at the Waxhaws, and attacked one of these parties, commanded by colonel Buford. The Americans, being defeated by his superior forces, implored quarter; but nearly the whole of them were either killed or too badly wounded to be removed from the field. This sanguinary conduct spread dismay throughout the country, and imparted a similar character to future conflicts.
Indignant at the treatment they received, great numbers of the inhabitants seized their arms, and resolved on a vindictive war with their invaders. A party who had taken refuge in North Carolina, chose colonel Sumpter their leader. At the head of these he returned to his own state, attacked and defeated several scattered detachments from the British army; and by a succession of gallant enterprises he kept alive a spirit of determined hostility to Great Britain in every part of the state. His exertions were rendered the more effective by the approach of four thousand men, principally continentals, under the command of general Gates. Lord Cornwallis, whom Sir Henry Clinton, on his return to New York, had left chief in command, hastened to oppose the conqueror of Burgoyne. On the night of the 15th of August he marched, with his whole force, to attack the Americans in their camp at Clermont. They at the same hour began to move towards Camden, where lord Cornwallis had his head-quarters. As the two armies were marching on the same road, in opposite directions, their advanced guards met and fired on each other about half-past two in the morning. From some prisoners made on both sides, the commanders learned each other’s movements.
Both armies halted, and were formed, and the firing soon ceased, as ifby mutual consent. The ground on which the two armies thus accidentally met, was exceedingly favorable to lord Cornwallis. A swamp on each side secured his flanks, and narrowed the ground in front, so as to render the superiority of the Americans in numbers of less consequence. In the morning a severe and general action was fought. The charge of the British was made with such vigor, that the Virginia militia threw down their arms, and fled with the utmost precipitation; and the greatest part of the North Carolina militia soon followed their example. The American reserve was now brought into action, and general Gates, in conjunction with general Caswell, endeavored to rally the militia at advantageous passes in the rear of the field of action, but in vain. On the left and in the centre the contest was more obstinately maintained by the Americans, whose artillery did considerable execution; but by the flight of the militia their left flank was exposed, and the continentals, after a brave resistance of nearly three-quarters of an hour, were thrown into confusion, and forced to give way. The Americans lost the whole of their artillery, the greatest part of their baggage, several hundred men, and some very valuable officers; the loss of the British was also severe.
Sumpter, who had lately been victorious in a skirmish, retreated precipitately on hearing of the defeat of Gates; but supposing he was beyond danger, he halted at the Catawba ford to refresh his troops. Here his sentinels unhappily slept at their posts, and Tarleton’s legion rode into his camp before preparations could be made for defence. Between three and four hundred were killed or wounded. The remainder were dispersed in the woods, three hundred British prisoners were released, and all the baggage and stores fell into the power of the victors.
Apprehending the state to be subdued, Cornwallis adopted measures of extreme severity to suppress every latent inclination to revolt. He directed that all who, having once submitted, had lately given aid to the armies of congress, should be deprived of their property and imprisoned; and that all who had once borne arms with the British, and afterwards joined the Americans, should suffer death. In consequence of these orders several were executed, and many were reduced to poverty and wretchedness. In these times of confusion and distress, the mischievous effects of slavery in facilitating the conquest of the country became apparent. As the slaves had no interest at stake, the subjugation of the state was a matter of no consequence to them. Instead of aiding in its defence, they, by a variety of means, threw the weight of their influence into the opposite scale.
Although his corps had been dispersed, general Sumpter speedily recollected a band of volunteers, and kept the field in South Carolina for three months, when there was no continental army in the state. Varying his position along the Evoree, Broad, and Tyger rivers, he had frequent skirmishes with the enemy, whom he incessantly harassed. In November, he was attacked at Broad river by major Wemys, commanding a corps of infantry and dragoons, but the British were defeated, and their commanding officer taken prisoner; and in a few days afterward he was attacked near Tyger river by colonel Tarleton, who, finding himself unable to dislodge the Americans, retreated with considerable loss, and left Sumpter in possession of the field. The zeal, activity, and bravery of this officer, at that trying period, procured him the thanks of congress and the applause of his country.
While the affairs of the south were in a state by no means encouraging to the cause of independence, the general army under the command of Washington was in a state of insufferable destitution, and of consequent mutiny. Two hundred millions of dollars in paper currency were at this time in circulation upon the credit of the United States. Congress had the preceding year solemnly pledged the faith of government not to issue more than this sum, and the national treasury was now empty. Congress, the head of the nation, had, therefore, no further command of the resources of the country. The power of taxation, and of every coercive measure of government, was vested in the state sovereignties, and a system which in its execution required the conjoint agency of thirteen sovereignties, was too complex for the prompt operations of a military body. In the course of the winter, forage had failed, and many of the horses attached to the army had died, or were rendered unfit for use. General Washington therefore struggled with almost insuperable difficulties in supplying the army. The pay of the officers also had now scarcely more than a nominal value; and the officers of whole lines belonging to some of the states, in a body, gave notice, that on a certain day they should resign their commissions, unless provision was made for their honorable support.
Congress possessed not the means to apply adequate remedies to these threatening evils. They passed a resolution, indeed, “That congress will make good to the line of the army, and to the independent corps thereof, the deficiencies of their original pay, which had been occasioned by the depreciation of the continental currency;” but the promise of future compensation from a country whose neglect was conceived to be the source of all their sufferings, they deemed a feeble basis of dependence, at the moment they were severely pressed by privations of every kind. Murmurs at length broke out into actual mutiny. Two of the Connecticut regiments paraded under arms, announcing their intention to return home, or by their arms to obtain subsistence; but by the spirited and prudent exertions of the officers, the ringleaders were secured, and the regiments brought back to their duty.
This disaffection was reported to New York, with the customary exaggerations of rumor. General Knyphausen, the commanding officer at that post, supposing the American citizens and soldiers ripe for revolt, passed over into New Jersey with five thousand men, to avail himself of favorable events; but the behavior of the Americans soon convinced him he had been deceived in the report of their disaffected disposition. The troops detached from the army to oppose his progress fought with obstinate bravery; and the inhabitants, seizing their arms with alacrity, emulated the spirit and persevering courage of the regular soldier. The general, finding he must encounter serious opposition, retreated to Elizabeth Point, opposite to Staten island. In the mean time, Sir Henry Clinton, returning with his victorious troops from Charleston, ordered a reinforcement to Knyphausen, who, with the whole body, advanced a second time towards Springfield. The British were now opposed by general Green with a considerable body of continental troops, and a severe action was fought, but the Americans were forced, by superior numbers, to retire. General Green took post with his troops on a range of hills, in the hope of being attacked; but the British, having burned the town, retreated, and the next day set out on their return to New York.