The British government had decided upon the abandonment of all posts in America with the exception of New York. On August 7th, Leslie, then commanding in the South, announced in "after orders" that the evacuation of Charleston had been determined on. He also wrote to Greene, proposing a cessation of hostilities. The proposal was declined, Greene having no instructions on the point. Later Leslie again wrote, offering to pay for all rice and other provisions that might be brought into Charleston; but Greene, fearing that the rice was intended for use during a campaign against the French in the West Indies, again refused. Leslie then endeavored to seize the coveted articles by force. One of his foraging parties, commanded by Lieutenant Benjamin Thompson,—better known by his later title of Count Rumford,—surprised and dispersed Marion's brigade while its commander was absent attending a meeting of the legislature. The most serious loss through these desultory expeditions was in the death of the younger Laurens, who was killed during a useless skirmish at Combahee Ferry. This was the last action of the war in the South. On the 14th of December the British left Charleston, and three days later their last ship passed the bar and went to sea. The South was free.
[CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.]
THE most complete contemporary account of the Southern campaign is David Ramsay's Revolution of South Carolina.[1034] This author, by birth a Pennsylvanian, removed to Charleston in 1773, and at once took a leading part in the management of the affairs of that town. During the stormy years of 1779-1780 he was a member of the governor's council, but went with the Charleston artillery company to the siege of Savannah. When Rutledge, with a portion of his council, left Charleston during the siege, Ramsay remained behind with Gadsden. He was, therefore, a prisoner during the greater portion of Gates's and Greene's campaigns. Ramsay was thus a prominent actor in many of the scenes described in his volumes, while his facilities for obtaining accurate information as to the rest were so excellent that his book may be regarded as an authority of the first importance. He retold the story in a condensed form in several other publications.
NATHANAEL GREENE. (Norman's print.)
Moultrie[1035] was a prominent actor in the defence of his native State before the capitulation of Charleston. After that he resided with the other officers at Haddrell's Point until his exchange in 1781. At a later day he was present at the entry of the victorious army into Charleston. Whenever he speaks from his own observation, Moultrie may be trusted[1036]. But he seems to have been too ready to listen to exaggerated stories, and though we must believe that there was a foundation for his account of the sufferings of the Charleston prisoners, it should always be remembered that the charges were indignantly denied by the British officers in charge.
GENERAL GREENE. (From Andrews' History of the War.)
Portraits of General Greene.—One of the earliest of the contemporary prints is the rude copperplate, made by the Boston engraver Norman, which appeared in the Boston edition (1781, vol. ii. p. 229) of An Impartial History of the War in America. A fac-simile is annexed. In 1785, Andrews' History of the War, published in London (vol. i.), had a youthful picture, a reproduction of which is also given herewith. The next year the Columbian Magazine (Sept., 1786), published in Philadelphia, gave an engraving after R. Peale's likeness of Greene, of which a better engraving by Robert Whitechurch can be found in Irving's Washington (ii. p. 8) and in E. M. Stone's French Allies (p. 496). In 1794 the New York Magazine (May) gave as from an original painting a copperplate engraving, of which a fac-simile is given on another page. It is evidently a rendering of the canvas of which, after a photograph given in George W. Greene's Life of Greene, the woodcut on the page opposite to the other is a more adequate representation. There is also a print in the Monthly Military Repository, N. Y., 1796-1797. A portrait by C. W. Peale was engraved, while in the Philadelphia Museum, by Edwin, and appeared in Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (vol. i., Philadelphia, 1812). It was again engraved by James Neagle in 1819 for Charles Caldwell's Memoirs of the life and character of the Honorable Nathanael Greene (Philadelphia, 1819); and in 1822 it furnished the head and shoulders, turned in the opposite direction, for the full-length figure, engraved by J. B. Longacre, after a drawing by H. Bounetheau, which is in the first volume of William Johnson's Sketches of the life and correspondence of Nathaniel Greene (Charleston, 1822). One of the pleasantest of the likenesses of Greene is that painted by Col. John Trumbull, which was engraved by J. B. Forrest for the National Portrait Gallery (New York, 1834). The same picture is selected by W. G. Simms for his Life of Greene, and it is given in R. E. Lee's ed. of Henry Lee's Memoirs of the War (N. Y. 1869), and H. B. Anthony's Memorial Address (Providence, 1875) on presenting the statue of Greene to Congress. This statue, modelled by Henry K. Brown, was offered in 1870, and a cut of it is given in the Presentation of the Statue of Major-General Greene in the Senate, Jane 20, 1870 (Washington, 1870), an account of which, under the title of Proceedings in Congress attending the reception of the statue of Maj.-Gen. Greene, was reprinted (twenty copies) in Providence the same year. For congressional documents pertaining, see B. P. Poore's Descriptive Catal. of U. S. Gov't publications, pp. 896, 901, 1221. Congress voted a medal to Greene after the battle of Eutaw, and on one side it bears a profile likeness of Greene. It is engraved in Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 704; and in Ibid. p. 720, is a view of the monument erected to the memories of Greene and Pulaski. The Polish hero has since, however, been commemorated in a separate monument, so that the shaft first erected is now called a memorial of Greene alone. Greene died in 1786 of a sunstroke, at a plantation near Savannah, which had been given to him by the State of Georgia,—it being the confiscated estate of the late royal lieutenant-governor,—and he was buried in Savannah; but when the monument was built, the search to discover his remains was unsuccessful. Cf. The Sepulture of Greene and Pulaski, by C. C. Jones, Jr. (Augusta, 1885)—Ed.