[1085] This is given entire by Moultrie, who presided over the court (Memoirs, i. 337-354. The finding of the court is on p. 353). The assertion of Lossing that Ashe was acquitted "of every charge of cowardice and deficiency of military skill" is not correct, as the court expressly stated that it was of the opinion that "Ashe did not take all necessary precautions." There is a "Sketch" of Ashe's career in North Carolina University Magazine, iii. pp. 201-208 and 366-376.
[1086] Accounts of varying degrees of excellence are in McCall, Georgia, ii. 206; Moultrie, Memoirs, i. 310-330; Gordon, iii. 232; Ramsay, Rev. in S. C., ii. 16; Stedman, ii. 107. See also Lossing, Field-Book, ii. 507; Marshall's Washington, iv. 23; C. C. Jones, Georgia, ii. 346, etc.; Stevens, Georgia, ii. 180; Moore's Diary, ii. 138; Penna. Mag. of Hist., 1880, p. 249.
[1087] Cf. Prevost to Lord G. Germain in The London Gazette, April 17-20, 1779; reprinted in Remembrancer, viii. 168; and in Gentleman's Magazine (1779), p. 213.
[1088] Prevost had about three thousand men, but of these only two thirds were fit for duty when he retired from Charleston. Moultrie (Memoirs, i. 430) gives his own force at three thousand one hundred and eighty, including eight hundred Continentals. According to Prevost, Maitland had at Stono not far from eight hundred men, though Lowell (Hessians, 241) gives him only five hundred. The attacking party numbered twelve hundred. The American loss was one hundred and sixty-two; that of the British one hundred and thirty-one.
[1089] See also Ramsay, Rev. in S. C., ii. 23; Gordon, iii. 254; Stedman, ii. 109, 120 (115-120 deal with Stono); Johnson's Greene, i. 271; Johnson's Traditions, 217; Flanders's Rutledge, in his Lives of the Chief Justices, ii. 358-365. Something has also been gleaned from Eelking, ii. 24; Lowell, Hessians, 240 (giving June 19 instead of 20 as the date of the attack on Stono); Marshall's Washington, iv. 28; and P. J. S. Dufey, Résumé de l'histoire des Revolutions de l'Amérique Septentrionale, depuis les premières découvertes jusqu'au voyage du Général Lafayette, Paris, 1826, i. 293-312. The British are supposed to have carried away a large amount of plate and more than a thousand slaves. The terror they inspired in the souls of the fair Carolinians is well set forth in the Letters of Eliza Wilkinson during the invasion and Possession of Charleston, S. C., by the British in the Revolutionary War. Arranged by Caroline Gilman, N. Y., 1839.
[1090] Life of Lincoln in Sparks's Am. Biog., xxiii. 285.
[1091] Judge Johnson, in his Greene, went out of his way to assert that Pulaski slept at his post just before the battle at Germantown. In a defence of his former commander, Paul Bentalou put forth the claim that the retreat of Prevost was due to Pulaski. Unless the documents (cited above) are untrustworthy this claim cannot be maintained. On the contrary, a gallant charge that the brave Pole made had no other effect than to dispirit the garrison. Cf. Pulaski Vindicated by Paul Bentalou, a captain in his "legion", Baltimore, 1824, p. 27; Jared Sparks in the North American Review, xx. 385; Remarks, etc., on the above article, by Judge Johnson, Charleston, 1825; Bentalou's Reply to Judge Johnson's Remarks; and another article by Sparks in the North American Review, xxiii. 414.
[1092] There are two editions of this book in the Harvard College library bearing the same date. One contains 158 pages, the other 126, but in other respects they seem to be the same. The portion dealing with Savannah, which Mr. Jones has translated (Siege, pp. 57-76), runs from page 128 to 158 in one edition, and from page 101 to 126 in the other. In Sabin this journal is attributed to D'Estaing. (Cf. Sabin, under Estaing.) There seems to be no authority for this, and it would certainly be astonishing for an officer to speak of his own conduct as the writer of this journal constantly speaks of D'Estaing's motives and actions.
[1093] In F. B. Hough's Siege of Savannah by the combined American and French forces, in the Autumn of 1779, Albany, 1866, p. 171, it is reprinted from the New Jersey Journal, June 21, 1780, as a Summary of the Operations of the King's squadron commanded by the Count D'Estaing, Vice Admiral of France, after the taking of Grenada, and the Naval Engagement off that Island with Byron's Squadron.
[1094] Reprinted in Remembrancer, ix. 71; Gentleman's Magazine, 1779, p. 633; and, in an abridged form, in Political Magazine, i. 50, also 106; and Historical Magazine, viii. 290.