[FN] Idem.
Glancing yet farther south, the Cherokee Indians having again become troublesome, and made an incursion into South Carolina, massacring some of the inhabitants and burning their houses, General Pickens proceeded into their own country, and inflicted upon them severe and summary chastisement. In the space of fourteen days, at the head of less than four hundred men, he killed upward of forty of the Indians, and destroyed thirteen towns. His troops were mounted men, who charged rapidly upon the Indians, cutting them down with their sabres with great effect. Unused to this mode of warfare, they sued immediately for peace.
The fall of Cornwallis was, in fact, the last important act of that great drama—The American Revolution. Although the British were yet in considerable force in New-York, and were likewise in the occupancy of various posts in the southern states, still the season for active operations was past; and after the loss of the army of Cornwallis, they were not in sufficient force in the north to resist the troops that could now be directed against them. The campaigning of the year 1781, and in fact of the war of the Revolution, were therefore at an end. Still, there were other belligerent incidents occurring for months afterward, the record of which will require another chapter.
[CHAPTER VII.]
Character of Joseph Bettys—His exploits—Capture and execution—Progress of the war—Gradual cessation of hostilities—Dwindling down to mere affairs of outposts and scouting parties—Commissioners appointed to negotiate a treaty of peace—Indian battles on the Kentucky frontier—Defeat of Colonel Boon—Destruction of the Shawanese towns—The Moravians on the Muskingum—Their removal to Sandusky by the Wyandots—Return to secure their crops—Invasion of their towns by Colonel Williamson—Treachery of Williamson and his men to the Indians—Horrible massacre—Invasion of the Sandusky country by Crawford and Williamson—Defeat of their army—Colonel Crawford captured—Sentenced to die by torture—His interview with the sachem Wingemond—His execution—Close of the year—Doubts as to a treaty of peace—Colonel Willett's attempt to surprise Oswego—The news of peace—Sufferings of Tryon County—Return of its population—End of the wars of the Mohawk.
Among the minor, but yet not unimportant events of the border war at the north and west of Albany, was the capture, some time in the Winter of 1781—'82, of the celebrated loyalist marauder, Joseph Bettys, whose name has occurred in connexion with that of John Waltermeyer in the preceding chapter. Bettys, or "Joe Bettys" as he was commonly called, was a man of uncommon shrewdness and intelligence. Bold, athletic, and of untiring activity; revengeful and cruel in his disposition; inflexible in his purposes; his bosom cold as the marble to the impulses of humanity; he ranged the border settlements like a chafed tiger snuffing every tainted breeze for blood, until his name had become as terrific to the borderers, as were those of Kidd and Pierre le Grande upon the ocean in the preceding century. At the commencement of the war, Bettys was an inhabitant of Ballston. He early took the field in the cause of the republic, and a sergeant's warrant was conferred upon him in Colonel Wynkoop's regiment. But he had a proud, independent spirit, that could ill brook the severity of military discipline; and for some act of contumacy, he was reduced to the ranks. Still, knowing well his determined character and unflinching courage, and unwilling that his country should lose his services, the same gentleman [FN] who had obtained his first warrant, procured him another, and a transfer to the fleet under the command of General Arnold on Lake Champlain, in the Summer of 1776.
[FN] The late Colonel Ball, of Balston.
In the severe naval engagement fought on that lake between Arnold and Sir Guy Carleton, on the 11th of October of that year, Bettys exhibited great bravery, and was of signal service during the battle, which lasted four hours. He fought until every commissioned officer on board his vessel was either killed or wounded. Assuming the command then himself, he continued the fight with such reckless and desperate intrepidity, that General Waterbury, Arnold's second in command, perceiving that his vessel was about to sink, was obliged to order Bettys and the survivors of his crew on board his own vessel. Having thus observed his good conduct, General Waterbury stationed him by his side on the quarter-deck, and gave orders through him, until his own vessel in turn became entirely crippled—the crew mostly killed—the General himself wounded—and only two others, exclusive of Bettys, left in fighting condition—when his colors were struck to the enemy. General Waterbury afterward spoke in the most exalted terms of the high courage of Bettys, adding, that the shrewdness of his management showed that his conduct was not inferior to his courage.
While a prisoner in Canada, the arts of the enemy subverted his principles. He was seduced from the service of his country, and entered that of the enemy with the rank of ensign—proving himself an enemy equally subtle and formidable. From his intimate knowledge of the country and his artful address, he was frequently employed, sometimes as a messenger, at others as a spy, and at others, again, in the double capacity of both. During one of his missions of this nature, he was captured, tried, and condemned to the gallows. But the entreaties of his aged parents, and the solicitations of influential Whigs, induced General Washington, on a promise of reformation, to grant him a pardon. Yet if honor, generosity, and gratitude, had ever been qualities of his soul, they had taken their departure.