LXXXIX. Richard Henry Lee--Francis Lightfoot Lee--Carter Braxton
RICHARD HENRY LEE, a signer of the Declaration, was born at Stratford, on the Potomac, in Westmoreland, January the 20th, 1732, about a month before the birth of Washington. The father of Richard Henry was Thomas Lee; the mother, Hannah, daughter of Colonel Philip Ludwell, of Greenspring, of the old family of that name, in Somersetshire, England, who were originally, it is said, from Germany. Richard Henry Lee's early days were passed somewhat after the Spartan manner, his mother, one of the high-toned aristocracy of Virginia, confining her care to her daughters and her eldest son, and leaving her younger sons pretty much to shift for themselves. After a course of private tuition in his father's house, Richard Henry was sent to Wakefield Academy, Yorkshire, England, where he distinguished himself by his proficiency in his studies, particularly in the Latin and Greek. Having finished his course at this school, he travelled through England, and visited London. He returned when about nineteen years of age to his native country, two years after his father's death, which occurred in 1750. Young Lee's fortune rendering it unnecessary for him to devote himself to a profession, he now passed a life of ease, but not of indolence; for he indulged his taste for letters, and diligently stored his mind with knowledge in the wide circle of theology, science, history, law, politics, and poetry. Being chosen (1755) captain of a company of volunteers raised in Westmoreland, he marched with them to Alexandria, and offered their services to General Braddock in his expedition against Fort Du Quesne; but the offer was declined. In his twenty-fifth year Mr. Lee was appointed a justice of the peace, and shortly after a burgess for his county. Naturally diffident, and finding himself surrounded by men of extraordinary abilities, for one or two sessions he took no part in the debates. One of his early efforts was a brief, but strong, elaborate speech in support of a resolution "to lay so heavy a tax on the importation of slaves as effectually to put an end to that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the colony of Virginia;" and on this occasion he argued against the institution of slavery as a portentous evil, moral and political.[660:A]
In November, 1764, when the meditated stamp act was first heard of in America, Mr. Lee, at the instance of a friend, wrote to England making application for the office of a collector under that act. It was difficult to retrieve so unpopular a step. During this year he brought before the assembly the subject of the act of parliament claiming a right to tax America; and he composed the address to the king, and the memorial to the commons. His accomplishments, learning, courtesy, patriotism, republican principles, decision of character and eloquence, commanded the attention of the legislature. Although a member at the time of the introduction of Henry's resolutions of 1765, Mr. Lee happened not to be present at the discussion; but he heartily concurred in their adoption; and shortly after their passage organized an association in Westmoreland in furtherance of them. When the defalcations of Treasurer Robinson came to be suspected, Mr. Lee, like Patrick Henry on another occasion of the same kind, insisted with firmness on an investigation of the state of the treasury. It was he who introduced the motion (November, 1776,) for separating the offices of speaker and treasurer; and he had a principal agency, together with Henry, in carrying that measure into effect.[660:B] A fragment of his speech on this occasion is preserved.
In the succeeding year he vigorously opposed the act laying a duty on tea, and that for quartering British troops in the colonies. He was now residing at Chantilly, his seat on the Potomac, a few miles below Stratford. In July, 1768, in a letter to John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Lee suggested that not only select committees should be appointed by all the colonies, but that a private correspondence should be conducted between the lovers of liberty in every province. The Virginia Assembly, in 1773, (about the same time with that of Massachusetts,) appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of six members, of whom Mr. Lee was one. In the next year he was a delegate in the congress that met at Philadelphia. Patrick Henry spoke first, and he was followed by Richard Henry Lee.
He was an active and laborious member of the leading committees, and he composed the memorial to the people of British America--a masterly document.[661:A] When Washington was chosen commander-in-chief, Mr. Lee, as chairman of the committee chosen for the occasion, prepared the commission and instructions. He prepared the second address to the people of Great Britain.
In May, 1776, the convention of Virginia passed a resolution instructing her delegates in congress to propose to that body to declare the colonies free and independent; and when those instructions were received at Philadelphia, the delegation appointed Mr. Lee to bring forward a proposition to that effect. He accordingly, on the second of June, made that motion, which was seconded by John Adams. On the tenth Mr. Lee received by express, from Virginia, intelligence of the dangerous illness of his wife; and he, therefore, left Philadelphia on the eleventh, the day on which a committee was appointed to draught a declaration of independence. Had he remained he might have been chairman of that committee, and author of the Declaration of Independence.[661:B]
That instrument was adopted on the eighth of July, and shortly afterwards Mr. Jefferson enclosed to Mr. Lee the original draught, and also a copy of it as adopted by Congress. In August Mr. Lee resumed his seat in that body.
He was in person tall and well proportioned; his features bold and expressive; nose, Roman; forehead high, not wide; eyes light colored; the contour of his face noble. He had lost by an accident the use of one of his hands; and was sometimes styled "the gentleman of the silver hand;" he kept it covered with a black silk bandage, but leaving his thumb free. Notwithstanding this disadvantage his gesture was very graceful. His voice was melodious, his elocution Ciceronian, his diction elegant and easy. His eloquence flowed on in tranquil beauty, like the stream of his own Potomac.[662:A] He was a member of the Episcopal church. He married first a Miss Aylett, and the children of that union were two sons and two daughters; secondly a lady named Pinkard, a widow.
Francis Lightfoot Lee, brother of Richard Henry, was born in October, 1734. He was educated under a private tutor. He inherited an independent fortune. He became, in 1765, a member of the house of burgesses, and continued in that body until 1775, when the convention returned him a member of congress, in which he remained until 1779, when he re-entered the assembly. His talents, as an orator and statesman, were of a high order, but it appears that he was never able to overcome his natural diffidence. His seat was Monocan, in the County of Richmond. He married Rebecca, daughter of Colonel John Tayloe, of Richmond County.
Carter Braxton was born at Newington, on the Matapony, in King and Queen, in September, 1736. His father, George Braxton, a wealthy planter, married Mary, daughter of Robert Carter, of the council, and in 1748 represented the County of King and Queen, being the colleague of John (known as speaker) Robinson. Carter Braxton was educated at the college of William and Mary. Inheriting in his youth, upon his father's death, a large estate, at the age of nineteen he married Judith, daughter of Christopher Robinson, of Middlesex. She dying, in 1757, Mr. Braxton visited England, where he remained for several years, and returned in 1760: a diary which he kept while abroad is preserved by his descendants. He married, in 1761, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Richard Corbin, of Laneville. During his first marriage he built a mansion at Elsin Green, on the Pamunkey, and afterwards another at Chericoke on the same river. He lived in a style of lavish hospitality, according to the fashion of that day. He was, in 1761, a member of the house of burgesses from the County of King William, and took an active part in the session of 1765. His colleague was Bernard Moore, of Chelsea, son-in-law of Governor Spotswood. Mr. Braxton was, in 1769, a delegate and a signer of the non-importation agreement. He was a member of the convention of 1774. In the following year, when Henry at the head of a party of volunteers had advanced within sixteen miles of Williamsburg, for the purpose of recovering the gunpowder removed by Dunmore, Mr. Braxton interposed his efforts to prevent extremities. In this course Mr. Braxton coincided with the moderate councils of Pendleton, Nicholas, and Peyton Randolph. During this year Mr. Braxton was a member of the assembly, and of the convention that met at Richmond. He was also one of the committee of safety. In December he was elected a delegate to congress in the place of Peyton Randolph, and he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The convention having, in June, 1776, reduced the number of delegates in congress from seven to five, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Braxton were not re-elected. According to Girardin,[663:A] Mr. Braxton's "Address on Government" was not universally relished, (it was indeed severely denounced, as has been seen,) and his popularity had been in some degree impaired by persons whose political indiscretions, though beyond his control, fatally reacted against him. He was, nevertheless, returned by the County of King William a member of the convention, and if he had fallen under a cloud of suspicion, it appears to have been soon dispersed, for, in October, 1776, the thanks of the convention were unanimously returned to Thomas Jefferson and Carter Braxton, for their ability, diligence, and integrity, as delegates in congress.
FOOTNOTES:
[660:A] Life of Richard Henry Lee, i. 17.
[660:B] S. Lit. Messenger, August, 1858.
[661:A] To be found in Life of Richard Henry Lee, i. 119.
[661:B] See Randall's Jefferson, i., and a review of his opinions on this subject, by Mr. Grigsby, in Richmond Enquirer of January 15th, 1858.
[662:A] The motto of his arms was: "Haud incautus futuri."
[663:A] Burk's Hist. of Va., iv.
Chapter XC
1776.
Dunmore on Gwynn's Island--Driven thence by General Lewis-- Dunmore retires from Virginia--Affairs at Boston--Canada invaded--Howe evacuates Boston--Battles of Long Island and White Plains--Fort Washington captured--Washington retreats-- Enemy defeated at Trenton and Princeton--Death of Mercer.
DUNMORE, pressed for provisions, burnt his entrenchments, near the smouldering ruins of Norfolk, and sought refuge on board of his fleet. General Charles Lee devised energetic means for curbing the disaffected in the lower country; and his orders were carried into effect by Colonel Woodford, whose vigor was tempered with humanity. Dunmore with his fleet left Hampton Roads about the first of June, and entrenched himself with five hundred men, including many runaway negroes, on Gwynn's Island, in the Chesapeake, to the east of Matthews County, and separated from it by a strait.[664:A]
In the evening of July the eighth, General Andrew Lewis, with Colonel Adam Stephen, reached the camp before Gwynn's Island, and during the night a battery was erected. Next morning the enemy's fleet lying within range, the embrasures were unmasked, and a fire opened upon the Dunmore. This ship, after firing a few guns, cut her cables and retreated, towed off by boats, two batteries playing on her. She was damaged, her cabin shattered, and some men killed. Lord Dunmore himself was wounded in the leg by a splinter, and had his china-ware smashed about him, and exclaimed, as was reported: "Good God, that ever I should come to this!" The other vessels did not escape with impunity, and all retired in confusion to a safe distance. The guns of the batteries were now turned upon the enemy's camp, the shot crossing each other in the centre of it, and the troops were dislodged. On the next morning Lewis, with the aid of some canoes, captured two small armed vessels, and some of his men landing on the island, the look-outs ran exclaiming, "the Shirt-men are coming!" a panic seized Dunmore's men, so that they precipitately evacuated the island, (before two hundred and fifty of the Provincials could be landed on the island,) and the boats of the fleet, consisting of eighty sail, took them on board. They left valuable stores behind, and burnt some vessels. The inhabitants reported that Dunmore had recently received a re-enforcement of one hundred and fifty tories from Maryland, and some cattle. Part of these last fell into Lewis's hands. A detachment was sent to protect the people on the Potomac. Numerous half-covered graves on the island gave proof of the fatality of the place, and the bodies of negroes were found lying unburied. The small-pox was left as a legacy to the island. Among the graves was one neatly done up with turf, which was supposed to cover the remains of Lord Gosport, who had recently died. Ovens, newly erected, and a windmill commenced, made it evident that Lord Dunmore had contemplated a longer stay there. It was reported that he was sick. The negroes, horses, cattle, and furniture of Mr. John Grymes, a tory, fell into possession of the Provincials. Major Byrd, who was sick, upon their approach was conveyed to Cherry Point in a cart, and embarked there. Dunmore shortly afterwards, despatching the remnant of his followers to Florida and the West Indies, retired to the North, and thence returned to England, where he continued to exhibit himself an untiring opponent of America. He entertained hospitably in London the Virginia refugee loyalists Randolph, Grymes, Brockenbrough, Beverley, Wormley, Corbin, and others. Lord Dunmore was appointed (1786) Governor of Bermuda, and died in 1809.
On the 3d of July, 1775, Washington had assumed the command of the American army, encamped near Boston, and had made his headquarters at Cambridge. His first business was to organize, equip, and discipline his force. The British army, blocked up on the land side, remained inactive in Boston, finding itself, although strongly re-enforced, gradually hemmed in and besieged.
In the mean time, in pursuance of the Quebec act, a Canadian force having been marched into the colonies, and it being the manifest design of the enemy to bring down the savages upon the frontier, a detachment was sent to invade Canada. Marching under command of Montgomery, they crossed Lake Champlain, and laid siege to Fort St. Johns, the key to Canada, strengthened by Carleton, the ablest of the British generals, and strongly garrisoned. During this siege a detachment, penetrating further into the country, captured Fort Chamblee, between St. Johns and Montreal. Carleton, marching to the relief of St. Johns, was met and defeated. St. Johns, after a siege of forty-seven days, in a rigorous season, and in a low and wet ground, where the besiegers slept on piles of brush, covered over with weeds, to keep out of the water, surrendered. November the thirteenth Montreal capitulated to the gallant Irishman, General Montgomery. Arnold, accompanied by Morgan and Greene, rubbing through exposure, hardship, and privation, made his way into Canada by the Kennebec and Chaudière Rivers, and was about to unite his forces with Montgomery's. At this time it appeared as if the whole of Canada would probably soon be reduced, and it was confidently expected that Canadian delegates would shortly appear in congress, and complete the union of fourteen colonies. This brilliant prospect was soon overcast; Montgomery fell in a daring but unsuccessful attack upon Quebec. Re-enforcements of American troops were sent to Canada, but owing to their insufficiency in number and in discipline, the rigor of the climate, and the energy of Carleton, the British commander, the expedition eventually proved fruitless in effecting a conquest; and it was found necessary to evacuate that country. While these reverses occurred by land, it was observed with satisfaction that the colonies abounded in materials and resources requisite for building up a naval force; and in some of the colonies vessels were arming. Richard Henry Lee, in a letter to Mrs. McCauley, of England, compared America on the sea, in that year, to "Hercules in his cradle." The American navy was indeed "nursed in the whirlwind and cradled in the storm."
The British army at Boston, admonished by the scenes of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker's Hill, and finding their position more and more restricted by Washington's lines of fortification, remained in gloomy inaction until March, 1776, when Sir William Howe, who had succeeded General Gage, evacuated that city, and sailed with the troops and many unhappy tory refugees to Halifax.
The American army proceeded to New York. Early in July, 1776, Sir William Howe with his army landed on Staten Island. The commander of the fleet was Lord Howe, brother of Sir William, and these two were constituted commissioners for restoring peace. In the battle of Long Island, which occurred on the twenty-seventh of August, the American army, inferior in number, and without cavalry, fought confusedly and badly, and was defeated with heavy loss, variously estimated. Among the prisoners was Major-General Sullivan. The enemy's loss was by no means inconsiderable. From the commencement of the battle on the morning of the twenty-seventh till the morning of the twenty-ninth, Washington never slept, and was almost incessantly on horseback. The disastrous result of this action cast a gloom over the cause of independence, elated disaffection, and damped the ardor of the American troops. The militia in large numbers quit the camp and went home; and Washington was obliged to confess his "want of confidence in the generality of the troops." He urged upon congress the necessity of a permanent army. On the fifteenth of September he was compelled to evacuate New York, with the loss of his heavy artillery and a large part of his stores, and General Howe took possession of the city.
In a skirmish on Haerlem Heights, a detachment of the third Virginia regiment, which had arrived on the preceding day, formed the advanced party in the attack, and Major Leitch, while intrepidly leading them on, fell mortally wounded.
In accordance with Washington's solicitation congress made arrangements to put the army on a better footing. To obviate the movements of the enemy he moved his forces up the Hudson River. On the twenty-fifth of October the battle of White Plains took place, warmly contested, with equal loss, and without decisive result. In November Fort Washington, on the Hudson, was stormed by the British, and the garrison, consisting of twenty-six hundred men, were made prisoners. Washington is said to have shed tears on occasion of this disaster. The enemy's loss was eight hundred. Early in December Washington, finding his army sadly reduced, retreated across Jersey. They were pursued by a British army, numerous, well-appointed, and victorious. At this conjuncture Major-General Lee was surprised and made prisoner--as is now believed--by collusion with the enemy.[668:A] The reanimated spirit of disaffection rendered the American cause still more hopeless. December the twentieth, Washington's army on the west bank of the Delaware, augmented by re-enforcements, amounted to seven thousand effectives; but in a few days all of them, except about fifteen hundred men, were to be discharged upon the expiration of the term of enlistment. Washington became convinced that some bold enterprise was necessary to rekindle the patriotic spirit, and listening to the advice of those about him, resolved to strike at the posts of the enemy, who had retired securely into winter quarters. Crossing the Delaware, a few miles above Trenton, in a night of extreme cold, amid floating ice, he early on the morning of the twenty-six surprised there a body of Hessians, and made one thousand prisoners. Lieutenant Monroe, afterwards president, was wounded in this affair. Lieutenant-Colonel Baylor, of Virginia, aid of the commander-in-chief, carrying the intelligence of this success to congress, was presented with a horse caparisoned for service, and was recommended for promotion. Near Princeton another corps was routed with heavy loss; but the joy of the Americans was mingled with grief for the loss of General Mercer.
Hugh Mercer, a native of Scotland, having been graduated in the medical profession, was present, in the capacity of assistant surgeon, at the battle of Flodden, on the side of the vanquished. Escaping, he came to America, and settled at Fredericksburg, in Virginia, where he married, and successfully pursued his profession. During the French and Indian war of 1755 he was a captain under Washington. In an engagement, being wounded in the wrist by a musket ball, separated from his comrades, and faint with loss of blood, he was closely pursued by the savage foe, whose war-whoop rang through the surrounding forests. Concealing himself in the hollow trunk of a giant tree, he narrowly escaped. After a journey of more than one hundred miles through an untrodden wilderness, and supporting life on roots and the body of a rattlesnake, he finally reached Fort Cumberland. For his gallant conduct the City of Philadelphia presented him an honorary medal. In 1775 he was in command of three regiments of minute-men, and in 1776 a colonel of the Virginia troops, and rendered important services in drilling and organizing the new levies. In quelling a mutiny in a company of riflemen called, ironically, "Gibson's Lambs," at Williamsburg, whom he disarmed, he displayed that intrepidity and decision for which he was so distinguished. During the same year, being made a brigadier-general in the continental army, he exhibited signal courage and energy throughout a disastrous campaign. On the 3d day of January, 1777, this excellent officer, leading the van of Washington's army, encountered, about sunrise, near Princeton, three British regiments, and while rallying his troops his horse was shot from under him, and he fell dangerously wounded, and died shortly afterwards in a small house near the scene of the encounter. He was attended by Major George Lewis, a nephew of General Washington, who had sent him to perform that duty, and by Dr. Rush.
The death of General Mercer forms the subject of a picture long familiar to the students of the college of New Jersey. He lies buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia.
FOOTNOTES:
[664:A] There is a tradition that Pocahontas, in swimming across the Pyanketank, was near being drowned, and was rescued by one of the colonists, who received from her, or her father, this island as a reward.
[668:A] George H. Moore, Esq., librarian of the New York Historical Society, is preparing an interesting memoir on the subject of General Lee's treasonable conduct.
Chapter XCI
1776.
Death of Richard Bland--Genealogy of the Blands--First Assembly under new Government--Petitions against Church establishment-- Memorial of Hanover Presbytery--Rev. Caleb Wallace--Petitions in favor of Established Church--Proceedings of Assembly--Alleged scheme of Dictator--Hampden Sidney--Virginia Navy.
ON the 26th day of October, 1776, died Richard Bland, at Williamsburg, aged sixty-six. He was in attendance as a member of the house of delegates at its first session, and was struck with apoplexy while walking in the streets. His intellectual calibre was capacious, his education finished, his habits of application indefatigable. Thoroughly versed in the charters, laws, and history of the colony, he was styled the "Virginia Antiquary." He was a political character of the first rank, a profound logician, and as a writer perhaps unsurpassed in the colony.
His letter to the clergy, published in 1760, and his enquiry into the rights of the colonies, are monuments of his patriotism, his learning, and the vigor of his understanding. He was an ungraceful speaker. It is said that he was pronounced by Mr. Jefferson to be "the wisest man south of the James River." He resided at Jordan's Point, on the James, in Prince George. His portrait and that of his wife were mutilated by the bayonets of British soldiers during the revolutionary war.[670:A] His wife had died in 1758, aged forty-six years.
The Blands of Virginia derive their name from Bland, a place in or near Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, or Cumberland, England. William de Bland flourished in the reign of Edward the Third, and did good service in the wars which that king carried on in France, in company of John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond. Thomas de Bland obtained a pardon from Richard the Second, for killing his antagonist in a duel, by the intercession of his friend the Duke of Guyenne and Lancaster. The coat of arms of Bland is quartered by the family of Wansford, of Kirklington, in the County of York, afterwards Lord Viscount Castle-Comer, in the kingdom of Ireland; and the family of Thistlewait, of Thistlewait, bear the arms of Bland for their paternal coat as descended from the ancient family of Bland. Edward Bland, of Burfield, died in the reign of Edward the Fourth; from him was descended Adam Bland, who lived in the reign of Edward the Sixth. John Bland was free of the "Grocers and Merchants Adventurers Company." Thomas Bland, receiver of the rents for Yorkshire in the time of Charles the First, married, secondly, Katherine, sister of Sir Richard Sandys, of Northbourne, in Kent. Giles Bland, collector of the customs for James River, owing to a quarrel with Sir William Berkley, became a partisan of Bacon, and was executed during the rebellion. Edward Bland, a merchant in Spain, (1643,) afterwards removed to Virginia, where he lived at Kimages, in Charles City County. Robert Bland was rector of Weyborough-magna, with the chapel of Sale appendant, in the County of Essex. Richard Bland, of the company of "Framework Knitters," was Lord of the manor of Preston Hall, and Lord Mayor of Preston. Theodorick Bland was some time a merchant at Luars in Spain, but came over to Virginia in the year 1654. He settled at Westover, on James River, where he died April 23d, 1671, aged forty-one, and was buried in the chancel of the church which he built, and gave, together with ten acres of land, a court-house and prison, for the county and parish. His tombstone is to be found in Westover churchyard, lying between those of two of his friends; the church has disappeared long ago. This Theodorick Bland was one of the king's council for Virginia, and was both in fortune and understanding inferior to no person of his time in the country. He married the daughter of Richard Bennet, Esq., sometime governor of the colony. Richard Bland, born at Berkley, son of this Theodorick Bland, married, first, Mary, daughter of Colonel Thomas Swan; secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel William Randolph, of Turkey Island, on James River. Mary Bland, eldest daughter of Richard Bland, gentleman, of Jordans, born 1704, married Colonel Henry Lee, of Westmoreland. Elizabeth, second daughter of said Richard Bland, married Colonel William Beverley, of Essex County. Theodorick Bland, Sr., of Cawsons, in Prince George, was clerk of that county and member of the house of burgesses. He married Frances Boiling. The children of that union were Theodorick Bland, Jr., and four daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, and Jenny. Theodorick Bland, Sr., married, secondly, a widow Yates. Theodorick Bland, Jr., was a colonel of a regiment of horse during the revolutionary war, a member of congress, and of the convention of Virginia that ratified the Constitution of the United States. Patsy, daughter of Theodorick Bland, Sr., married Colonel John Banister, of Battersea, near Petersburg, member of the convention of 1776, lieutenant-colonel of cavalry during the war of Revolution, and member of congress. Frances, another daughter of Theodorick Bland, Sr., married John Randolph, of Matoax, and these were the parents of John Randolph, of Roanoke, the orator, who was born at Cawsons, in Prince George County, the residence of Theodorick Bland, Sr. The mother of John Randolph, of Roanoke, married, secondly, St. George Tucker, judge of the court of appeals of Virginia, and subsequently district judge of the federal court.
The Cherokees, instigated by the English, having made bloody incursions on the Virginia frontier, Colonel Christian, with a body of troops, burnt their towns, and compelled them to sue for peace.
On the 7th day of October, 1776, the general assembly of Virginia met for the first time under the constitution adopted in the preceding July. The house of delegates was composed of the same members as those who constituted the convention which framed the constitution, and who held over without an election, and thus became the house of delegates under the constitution of their own making. The examples which probably guided them were, that of the convention of 1660, which, after calling Charles the Second to the throne, resolved itself into a house of commons; and that of the convention of 1688, which, after settling the crown on William and Mary, also resolved itself into a house of commons. The new senate, however, was elected by the people.[673:A] Edmund Pendleton was elected speaker of the house, and Archibald Cary speaker of the senate.
The new declaration of rights asserted that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience;" yet it appeared that the assembly intended to continue the old church establishment. This and the circulation of petitions in behalf of episcopacy, as established by law, alarmed the dissenters, and they enquired what advantage then in this great point "shall we derive from being independent of Great Britain? And is it not as bad for our assembly to violate their own declaration of rights as for the British parliament to break our charter?" The Baptists accordingly circulated a counter-petition, which was signed by ten thousand persons, chiefly freeholders. The presbytery of Hanover also presented a memorial to the same effect, pledging themselves that nothing in their power should be wanting to give success to the cause of the country. In the frontier counties, containing one-fifth of the inhabitants of Virginia, the dissenters, who constituted almost the entire population, were yet obliged to contribute to the support of the church as established, and a considerable portion of the inhabitants of the other parts of the colony labored under the same disadvantages. "Certain it is," say the memorialists, "that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion; and there is no argument in favor of establishing the Christian religion but what may be pleaded with equal propriety for establishing the tenets of Mohammed by those who believe the Alcoran; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a chair of infallibility which would lead us back to the church of Rome." Religious establishments (they contended) are injurious to the temporal interests of any community; and the more early settlement of Virginia, and her natural advantages, would have attracted hither multitudes of industrious and useful members of society, but they had either remained in their place of nativity, or preferred worse civil governments and a more barren soil, where they might enjoy the rights of conscience more fully. Nor did religion need the aid of an establishment; on the contrary, as her weapons are spiritual, Christianity would flourish in the greatest purity when left to her native excellence; and the duty which we owe our Creator can only be directed by reason and conviction.
This memorial was composed, in behalf of the presbytery, by the Rev. Caleb Wallace, of Charlotte County, a graduate of Princeton. He was in attendance upon the assembly for six or eight weeks for the furthering of this object.[674:A]
The clergy of the established church presented petitions in favor of continuing the establishment, and they were re-enforced by the Methodists as a society in communion with the Church of England. It was urged that good faith to the clergy required that they should not be deprived of their livings, which belonged to them for life, or during good behaviour; that an ecclesiastical establishment was in itself a desirable institution, it being for the benefit of the community that a body of Christian ministers should be thus supported; and that if all denominations were reduced to an equality, the contest for superiority among them would involve confusion, and probably civil commotion; and finally that a majority of the people of Virginia desired to have the church establishment maintained.
The assembly exempted dissenters from contributions for the support of the Church of England, and repealed all penal laws against any mode of worship, leaving all denominations for the present to support their clergy by voluntary contributions, and reserving the consideration "of a general assessment for the support of religion" to a future session, so that the sense of the people on that subject might be, in the mean time, collected.[675:A] This matter was debated for a day or two in the house, and gave rise to some newspaper controversy. Religious freedom was gaining ground; but, although all penal statutes were repealed, the restrictions and penalties sanctioned by the common law remained.
In the struggle that preceded the Revolution more than two-thirds of the Virginia clergy of the established church and a portion of the lay members were loyalists. Of those clergymen who adhered to the patriotic side several were men of note, such as Jarratt, Madison, (afterwards the first bishop of Virginia,) Bracken, Muhlenburg, of the Valley of the Shenandoah, who accepted a colonel's commission, raised a regiment, and served throughout the war; and Thruston, who also became a colonel.
Congress having ordered the army to be augmented to eighty-eight battalions, to serve during the continuance of the war, a quota of fifteen battalions was assigned to Virginia; and to complete them the assembly took measures to raise seven battalions in addition to those already embodied. Attention was bestowed upon the building up of a naval force, and men were transferred from the army to the marine service. Infantry and cavalry, speedily raised and well officered, were sent to join General Washington, and measures were adopted for calling forth the resources of Virginia, and to strengthen her for the exigencies of war. Courts of admiralty were established; entails abolished, the bill for this purpose being framed by Mr. Jefferson; treason was defined, and penalties denounced against such as should maintain and defend the authority of the king or parliament, or should excite sedition in the State; importation from Great Britain was prohibited; loyalist British factors were ordered to depart from the commonwealth under a statute of twenty-seventh year of Edward the Third.
Governor Henry, owing to the state of his health, retired, with the concurrence of the assembly, to the country. An effort made at this time by David Rogers, a member of the senate, and some other malecontents in West Augusta, to erect themselves into a separate state, proved abortive. Robert C. Nicholas, resigning the office of treasurer, received the thanks of the legislature for his faithful discharge of the duties of his office. He was succeeded by George Webb. The estate of Lord Dunmore was disposed of, and the proceeds appropriated to the payment of his debts.[676:A] Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee were appointed a committee to revise the laws. By the resignation of Mr. Mason, and the indisposition of Mr. Lee, the duty eventually devolved upon the other three.
Congress, with a view of gaining the alliance of France, appointed three commissioners to that court: Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson declined the appointment, and it was then given to Dr. Arthur Lee.
Toward the close of this session of the Virginia Assembly, when Washington was retreating through the Jerseys, and when the cause of independence seemed almost desperate, several of the members, it is said, meditated, in imitation of the Roman Republic, the appointment of a dictator. The tradition is, that such was the animosity engendered by this scheme, that they who espoused, and they who opposed it, walked on opposite sides of the street. Who they were that favored it, or where it was concocted, or how developed, does not appear. It is reported, indeed, that Patrick Henry was the person held in view as the dictator; but that he suggested the plan, or favored it, or consented to it, or was in any way privy to it, there is no evidence to prove, nor has it even been alleged. The tradition (resting on no testimony) relates, that Archibald Cary, a man of violent temper, and a life-long opponent of Henry, sent a message to the governor, (by his brother-in-law, Colonel Syme,) that on the day in which he should accept the dictatorship he should fall by his dagger; and the Colonel has been compared to Brutus--as if the example was worthy of imitation, or as if a dictator appointed by a Virginia assembly can be justly compared to Julius Cæsar at the head of his legions, usurping the government by his sword.
South Carolina invested her governor, John Rutledge, a native of Ireland, with dictatorial powers during the revolutionary war. The Virginia assembly at this session invested Governor Henry with several extraordinary powers, and recommended to congress "to invest the commander-in-chief of the American forces with more ample and extensive powers for conducting the operations of the war." Washington urged the States to clothe their executives with extraordinary powers, and he himself was invested by congress with such. The safety of the people, the supreme law, may demand, in a crisis of extreme danger, the appointment of an officer charged with extraordinary powers, (but who, nevertheless, would be as much the creature of law as any ordinary judge or deputy-sheriff,) "to take care that the Republic shall receive no detriment."
A year or two before the rupture with the mother country, the Presbytery of Hanover established a seminary in Augusta, beyond the Blue Ridge. The Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, who had been a teacher of languages in the College of New Jersey, was at this time a missionary in Virginia, and the school was founded upon his recommendation. The superintendent was John Brown, and the tutor William Graham. From this seminary Washington College, at Lexington, arose. By the advice of Rev. S. S. Smith it was determined to found another seminary east of the Blue Ridge, and the funds were raised by subscription; and although it was a period of apprehension and alarm, yet the enterprise was urged with energy and success.[677:A] This work was accomplished in 1775, amid the throes of revolution, and Prince Edward Academy, the original foundation of Hampden Sidney College, was opened in January, 1776.[678:A]
Increased educational means were much needed, all communication with Great Britain being cut off; and educated youth would be wanting to fill the places of such as would soon fall victims of the war. The College of William and Mary was indeed old and tolerably well endowed; but it was near the scene of war and surrounded by noisy camps. In a short time more than a hundred students flocked to the Prince Edward Academy, and their number exceeded the means of accommodation. During the year a military company of the students was organized, Mr. John Blair Smith, Jr., a tutor, being captain. The uniform was a purple hunting-shirt. This company, upon a requisition of the governor for militia from Prince Edward during the following year, marched to Williamsburg, where, however, their services were not required. Some of them became officers in the army, and others enlisted as common soldiers.
In 1775 the convention of Virginia had directed the committee of safety to procure armed vessels, for the better defence of the colony; and the control and management were entrusted to them. The few small vessels and barges in their service were useful in restraining the tories, in protecting property, and in recapturing fugitive slaves. In May, 1776, a board of naval commissioners was appointed, consisting of Thomas Whiting, John Hutchins, Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, Jr., and George Webb. They met for the first time on the eighth of July following, at Williamsburg. About seventy vessels appear to have been in service at some time or other during the war of Revolution--including thirty ships, brigs, and brigantines, and thirty-eight smaller vessels.[678:B] Many of the vessels were built at the Chickahominy navy-yard, South Quay, Hampton, and near Norfolk. Early in April, 1776, George Mason, of the committee of safety, had charge of the building of two galleys, and of "the American Congress," this last to carry fourteen guns, four and six-pounders, and her complement of marines and seamen being ninety-six men. The look-outs were a sort of winged sentries, and were exposed to hard service. But a small part of the vessels of the Virginia navy were in actual service at any one time; and there was a deplorable want of men, some having not more than one-twentieth of their full number. The vessels usually served separately, but early in the contest Commodore Boucher commanded fifteen sail in the Potomac; and at another time Captain Richard Taylor was in command of a squadron in Hampton Roads. The Virginia-built vessels, although plain and simple in their construction, were very fast sailers. This, together with their lighter draught and familiarity with the waters, often enabled them to escape from the enemy. Of all the vessels of the Virginia navy not one remains.
James Maxwell, Esq., was superintendent of the navy-yard on the Chickahominy, and he was assisted by Captain Christopher Calvert. The former officer commanded the ship Cormorant in 1782. He was father of the late William Maxwell, Esq., Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society. The three commodores commissioned during the struggle were J. Boucher, Walter Brooke, and James Barron. Richard Barron, brother of James, was a captain during the whole war. The Barrons appear to have had a natural proclivity for the water. Lieutenant William Barron, of the continental navy, lost his life by the bursting of a gun on board of the frigate Boston, in bringing to a vessel off the coast of France, in 1778. John Adams, and his son John Quincy, then a boy, were on board of this ship on this occasion. Mr. Adams held the lieutenant in his arms while his leg was amputated. This William Barron had been a lieutenant in the Virginia naval service. Among the captains were Richard Barron, Eleazer Callender, John Calvert, John Cowper, Thomas Lilly, John Pasture, John Harris, James Markham, Richard Taylor, Edward Travis, Cely Saunders, Isaac Younghusband, and John Catesby Cocke. Of the lieutenants may be named Dale, Cunningham, Chamberlayne, Lewis, Pickett, Watkins, and Jennings. Among the surgeons are found the names of Kemp, Lyon, McClurg, Brockenbrough, Christie, Riddle, Reynolds, Sharpless, Swope, and Pell. Among the seamen were many faithful blacks, who served through the whole war. Most of the Virginia armed vessels were eventually captured at sea or destroyed in the rivers. The vessels commanded by the Barrons were the Liberty and the Patriot. The former was engaged in twenty actions, and was probably the only one that escaped the enemy.
Early in 1776 an armed tender, commanded by the tory Goodrich, was captured off Bowler's wharf, in the Rappahannock. Shortly afterwards the Barrons captured, near the capes, the British transport-ship Oxford, from Glasgow, having on board two hundred and seventeen Scotch Highlanders, who were shaping their course to join Governor Dunmore, whom they supposed to be in Virginia. This ship was destroyed by Arnold in 1781.
Early in July, 1776, Captain Richard Barron captured a sloop, from the West Indies, laden with pine apples, limes, etc., and shortly after the Fanny, an English vessel, laden with supplies for Boston. She had on board numerous presents to the officers in that city. Captain Richard Taylor captured several merchantmen in the Rappahannock. One of them, the Speedwell, was armed, and sent to the West Indies for powder and supplies. In September several large vessels, laden with tobacco, were despatched to the same islands for the like purpose.[680:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[670:A] The name of Bland ought to be given to a county.
[673:A] I am indebted to Mr. Grigsby for this statement. His opinions on this point are given fully in a review of Randall's Life of Jefferson, in the Richmond Enquirer of January 15th, 1858.
[674:A] In a letter addressed to Rev. James Caldwell, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, April 8th, 1777, he wrote: "I do not know that we have sinned against the King of England, but we have sinned against the King of Heaven; and he is now using Great Britain as the rod of his anger: by them he is executing just judgment against us, and calling us to repentance and humiliation. I also hope He is bringing about great things for His church." He also adds: "An American ought to seek an emancipation from the British King, ministry, and parliament, at the risk of all his earthly possessions of whatever name; nor is it the fear of danger that has prevented my preaching this doctrine in the army at headquarters." "I meddle very little with matters of civil concern, only to countenance the recruiting business, as far as I have it in my power, and sometimes I have a fight with the prejudices--I would rather say the perverseness--of such as are inclining to toryism among us; but we have reason to rejoice that we have few such cattle with us." (Hist. Mag., i. 354.)
[675:A] Burk's Hist. of Va., iv. 182.
[676:A] A number of his books came into Mr. Madison's possession. I remember seeing in Southampton County a Shakespeare with Dunmore's arms. A gentleman in Petersburg has a black-letter Coke, which once belonged to Dunmore, and afterwards to Patrick Henry; it has his lordship's arms, and the orator's autograph.
[677:A] The site selected for it was at the head of Hudson's Branch, in Prince Edward County, on a hundred acres of land given for that use by Mr. Peter Johnston. The trustees appointed were Rev. Messrs. Richard Sankey, of Buffaloe, John Todd, of Louisa, Samuel Leake, of Albemarle, and Caleb Wallace, of Cub Creek, together with Messrs. Peter Johnston, Colonel Paul Carrington, Colonel John Nash, Jr., Rev. David Rice, and Colonel James Madison, Jr.
[678:A] Foote's Sketches of Va., 393.
[678:B] Among the ships and brigs are found the names of Oxford, Virginia, Loyalist, Pocahontas, Washington, Oliver Cromwell, Marquis La Fayette, Raleigh, Jefferson, Gloucester, Northampton, Sally Norton, Hampton, Liberty, Wilkes, American Fabius. Among the smaller were the Speedwell, Lewis, Nicholson, Harrison, Mayflower, Patriot, Congress, Accomac, Henry, Norfolk, Revenge, Manly, Caswell, Protector, Washington, Page, Lewis, York, and Richmond.
[680:A] Va. Navy of the Revolution, by Dr. Wm. P. Palmer, Secretary of Va. Hist. Society. (S. Lit. Messenger, 1857.)
Chapter XCII
1777.
Commodore Hotham--Proceedings of Assembly--Charges against Richard Henry Lee--He demands an Enquiry--His Defence and Honorable Acquittal.
IN January, 1777, when Commodore Hotham was cruising in the Chesapeake, the prisoners that fell into his hands were humanely treated and readily exchanged. In February, the Phoenix man-of-war came to Yorktown with a flag, and sent ashore a party of prisoners, among whom was Colonel Lawson, who had been long in captivity, and who was exchanged for Colonel Alexander Gordon, of Norfolk, a Scotch tory, who had been arrested in 1775 and released on parole. Captain Lilly, in the brig Liberty, captured off the coast of Virginia the British ship Jane with a valuable cargo. Captain Pasture, in the Molly, a small craft, returned from the southward with a supply of gunpowder. The schooner Henry was captured by the British man-of-war Seaford.
When the assembly again met in May, 1777, George Wythe was made speaker of the house of delegates; the oath of allegiance was prescribed; a loan-office was established, and acts passed to support the credit of the Continental and State paper currency. Benjamin Harrison, George Mason, Joseph Jones, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and John Harrison were elected delegates to congress, Richard Henry Lee having been left out. There were no little dissension and animosity in congress between the delegates of the movement party and the moderates; and, added to this, it was believed that an old grudge, harbored in Virginia against Mr. Lee for the prominent part he had taken many years before in disuniting the offices of speaker and treasurer, followed him to Philadelphia. The charges alleged against him by his enemies in Virginia were, first, that he had altered the mode in which his tenants should pay their rent from money to produce, with the design of depreciating the currency of the country; and secondly, that he had favored New England to the injury of Virginia; thirdly, that as a member of the secret committee in congress, he had opposed laying their proceedings before congress--it being thereby intended to insinuate that in so doing he had wished to conceal the embezzlement of the public money.
A letter from Richard Henry Lee to Mr. Jefferson, dated at Philadelphia, November 3d, 1776, contains the following paragraph: "I have been informed that very malignant and very scandalous hints and inuendoes concerning me have been uttered in the house. From the justice of the house I should expect they would not suffer the character of an absent person to be reviled by any slanderous tongue whatever. When I am present I shall be perfectly satisfied with the justice I am able to do myself. From your candor, sir, and knowledge of my political movements, I hope such misstatings as may happen in your presence will be rectified." Early in June, 1777, as well on account of his health as for the purpose of rebutting the charges circulated against him, Mr. Lee returned home; and having been elected to the assembly from Westmoreland, he repaired to Richmond and demanded an enquiry into his conduct.
Mann Page, Jr., and Francis Lightfoot Lee, owing to the proceedings of the house of delegates against Richard Henry Lee, condemning him in his absence without opportunity of defence, addressed a letter from Philadelphia, dated June tenth, to the speaker, tendering the resignations of their seats in congress.
The demand made by Richard Henry Lee for an enquiry into his conduct was acceded to, and the senate on the occasion united with the house of delegates. Several persons were examined, and Mr. Lee was heard in his own defence. It appeared that he had first proposed to make the alteration in the payment of his rents from money to tobacco at a fixed valuation, as early as August, 1775, when the tenants on account of the association could not sell their produce, and when but little paper currency had as yet been issued for the war of Revolution, and, consequently the alteration could not have been proposed for the purpose of depreciating a currency which did not then, to any sensible extent, exist. When in March, 1776, the alteration in the rents was actually made, very little paper money had yet been issued. And it appeared that in August of that year the tenants of Loudoun County themselves petitioned the convention to have their money-rents changed to produce. The truth was, as Mr. Lee declared, certain evil-disposed men hated him for the same reasons on account of which he was devoted to destruction in the British camp, which were, because he had faithfully served his country, and, in concert with other generous friends to human liberty and the rights of America, had contributed to the defeat of the enemy and to the raising of America triumphant over its cruel and vindictive foes.
As to the second charge, that Mr. Lee opposed the laying the proceedings of the secret committee of congress before that body, for the purpose of concealing embezzlement of the public money, it was well known that he had no sort of connection whatever with any commercial business, and, therefore, could not propose to himself any advantage from any such source. But it was very probable that those who themselves entertained designs of peculating upon the public funds, would be glad to get Mr. Lee out of their way. To lay the proceedings of a secret committee before congress would be to defeat its very object and contradict its name. The third charge was that he favored New England at the expense of Virginia and the South. It was known that America could be conquered only by disunion. Mr. Lee called on his accusers to show that he ever had in a single instance preferred the interest of New England to that of Virginia. Indeed, he knew not in what respects their interests conflicted. New England and Virginia had both exhibited a fixed determination against British tyranny, and their guilt was alike in the eyes of the common enemy. The majority of the other colonies had entitled themselves to some hopes of pardon from the tyrant by vacillating conduct. Among the Middle and Southern States there was, in Mr. Lee's opinion, much enmity to Virginia, owing to jealousy of her wisdom, vigor, and extent of territory; but he had ever discovered, "upon every question, respect and love for Virginia among the Eastern delegates." It was his consolation, that "the malignants, who would represent him as an enemy to his country, could not make him so." He gave his enemies credit for more address than he had supposed they possessed, in making use of a good principle--rotation in office--for his ruin; and he believed that the act, limiting the term of service to three years, was framed expressly to fit his case; and thus a malicious slander, uttered in his absence, appeared likely to be successful.[684:A] Mr. Lee had been superseded early in the session while absent--a flagrant injustice against which no reputation could be safe. John Banister, although not very fond of Mr. Lee, said of his speech on this occasion: "Certainly no defence was ever made with more graceful eloquence, more manly firmness, equalness of temper, serenity, calmness, and judgment, than this very accomplished speaker displayed on this occasion; and I am now of opinion he will be re-elected to his former station instead of Mr. George Mason, who has resigned."[684:B] Mr. Lee is said to have shed tears while speaking on this occasion. The enquiry being ended, the senate withdrew, and in compliance with a resolution of the house, the speaker returned Mr. Lee their thanks for the faithful services which he had rendered his country while in congress. The speaker added his own testimony, and said: "Serving with you in congress, and attentively observing your conduct there, I thought that you manifested in the American cause a zeal truly patriotic; and as far as I could judge, exerted the abilities for which you are confessedly distinguished, to prosecute the good and prosperity of your own country in particular, and of the United States in general." Thus Mr. Lee's vindication of himself was triumphant.
"Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt; Surprised by unjust force, but not inthralled; Yea, even that which mischief meant most harm, Shall in the happy trial prove most glory."
FOOTNOTES:
[684:A] Letter of Richard Henry Lee to Patrick Henry--among the Lee MSS. I am indebted to N. F. Cabell, Esq., for the use of his transcripts of these interesting MSS., which are deposited in the library of the University of Virginia.
[684:B] Life of Richard Henry Lee, 192; Bland Papers, i. 58.
Chapter XCIII
1777.
Battle of Brandywine--Virginia Brigades--Burgoyne's Expedition-- His Surrender--Daniel Morgan--Washington at Valley Forge-- Frigate Randolph--Treaty with France--Clinton retreats--Battle of Monmouth--General Lee--Anecdote of Colonel Meade--The Meade family--Colonel Baylor--General Clarke.
IN the battle of Brandywine, which took place on the 11th of September, 1777, Sir William Howe again proved victorious; but the action was well contested, and the loss on both sides heavy. The Virginia brigades, under Wayne and Weedon, particularly distinguished themselves. General George Weedon, before the Revolution, had been an inn-keeper at Fredericksburg. The third Virginia regiment, under command of Colonel Thomas Marshall, (father of the chief justice,) which had performed severe duty in 1776, was placed in a wood on the right, and in front of Woodford's brigade and Stephen's division. Though attacked by superior numbers, the regiment maintained its position until both its flanks were turned, its ammunition nearly expended, and more than half of the officers and one-third of the soldiers were killed or wounded. Colonel Marshall, whose horse had received two balls, then retired to resume his position on the right of his division, but it had already retreated. Among the wounded in this battle were La Fayette and Woodford. The enemy passed the night on the field of battle. On the twenty-sixth the British entered Philadelphia.
On the fourth of October occurred the battle of Germantown, in which the American forces, by a well-concerted plan, attacked the enemy at several points early in the morning. The British were at first driven back, precipitately, toward Philadelphia, but at length made a successful stand at Chew's house, garrisoned by five companies of the fortieth regiment, under the command of Colonel Musgrave. Lieutenant Matthew Smith, of Virginia, having volunteered to carry a flag of truce to Chew's house, was mortally wounded, and died in a few days. The Americans being thrown into confusion in a dense fog, Washington, when victory had seemed to be almost within his grasp, was eventually compelled to retreat. A British officer afterwards declared in parliament that Sir William Howe had received information beforehand of the intended attack. The ninth Virginia regiment and part of the sixth were made prisoners. Colonel Matthews, after penetrating to the centre of the town with his regiment, was made prisoner. Major-General Stephen, who commanded the right division of the left wing, was cashiered for misconduct on the retreat, and intoxication. The loss of the enemy was heavy; and congress expressed its approbation of the plan of the battle and the courage displayed in its execution, and the thanks of that body were given to the general and the army.
In the mean time, at the north, Burgoyne, with a well-appointed army, had advanced from Canada, in order to open a communication between that country and New York, and to cut off New England from the rest of the States. Washington, in a letter to General Schuyler, gave it as his opinion that Burgoyne would, eventually, receive an effectual check; that his confidence of success would precipitate his ruin; that his acting in detachment would expose his parties to great hazard, and prophetically adds: "Could we be so happy as to cut one of them off, though it should not exceed four, five, or six hundred men, it would inspirit the people."
After capturing Ticonderoga, Burgoyne moved toward the Hudson, encountering continual obstructions in his route through a wilderness, and harassed by the American troops. A strong detachment was overwhelmed by Starke and his countrymen near Bennington, in Vermont. After a series of engagements, in which he suffered a terrible loss, Burgoyne was at length, on the 17th day of October, 1777, thirteen days after the battle of Germantown, forced to surrender at Saratoga to Gates, who had shortly before succeeded Schuyler. Among those who distinguished themselves at Saratoga was Daniel Morgan, with his Virginia riflemen. He was a native of New Jersey, son of a Welshman, and removed in his youth to Virginia, about 1755, and made his living for a time by driving a wagon. In Braddock's expedition, when about twenty-two years of age, he served as a private, and was wounded. There is a tradition of his having been severely whipped on a charge of contumacy to a British officer.[687:A] For some years after he was twenty years of age he was addicted to fighting and gambling; and the reputed scene of his combats, in Clarke County, retains its name of Battletown. When the revolutionary war began he was appointed a captain, and in command of a troop of Virginia horse he marched thence in the summer, with extraordinary expedition, to the American army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Washington, who knew him well, and had strong confidence in his bravery and patriotism, detached him to join the expedition against Canada; and he exhibited his accustomed courage at Quebec; and when Arnold was wounded the command devolved on him. When Montgomery fell, Morgan was taken prisoner. While in the hands of the British he was offered the rank and pay of a colonel, but he indignantly rejected them. Exchanged in the following year, he rejoined the army; and in command of a rifle corps rendered signal service at Saratoga.
On the thirtieth day of October Gates' victory was celebrated at Williamsburg by a feu de joie, joyful shouts, ringing of bells, and illuminations; and all prisoners, except deserters, were discharged from confinement; and a gill of rum was issued to every soldier. The troops were reviewed by General Nelson, by the speakers of both houses of assembly, and by many of the members. Governor Henry, by proclamation, appointed a day of thanksgiving.
In December the American army encamped at Valley Forge, on the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The winter was one of extraordinary rigor; the soldiers destitute of clothing, and the hospitals filled with the sick. To aggravate Washington's troubles a cabal formed a design at this time of supplanting him, and making Gates commander-in-chief. But Washington stood unshaken: the angry billows dash in vain against the ocean rock, and fall in empty murmurs at its base.
In May, 1778, the American frigate Randolph, (so called in honor of Peyton Randolph, president of congress,) carrying thirty-six guns and three hundred and five men, sailed on a cruise from Charleston. The Yarmouth, British man-of-war, of sixty-four guns, discovered her and five other vessels, and came up with her in the evening. Captain Vincent hailed the Randolph to hoist colors, or he would fire into her; on which she hoisted the American flag, and immediately gave the Yarmouth her broadside, which was returned, and in about a quarter of an hour the Randolph blew up. Four men escaped upon a fragment of the wreck, and subsisted for five days on rain water alone, which they sucked from a piece of blanket which they had picked up. They were rescued by the Yarmouth.[688:A]
Early in this month congress received despatches containing a treaty between the king of France and the United States of America. In consequence of Burgoyne's surrender and of the treaty with France, the British army (under command of Sir Henry Clinton, who had relieved Sir William Howe,) evacuated Philadelphia in June, 1778. Crossing the Delaware, they marched for New York. Washington pursued them across the Jerseys, and on the twenty-eighth of June occurred the battle of Monmouth. The result was not decisive; many died from heat and fatigue; the Americans remained on the field of battle, where Washington passed the night in his cloak in the midst of his soldiers. It was during this action that General Charles Lee retreated before the British, who had turned upon him. He was met by Washington, who reprimanded him, ordered the division to be formed, and, with the aid of artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Carrington, checked the enemy's advance. General Lee was arrested, tried, and convicted of disobedience of orders, of making an unnecessary and disorderly retreat, and of writing disrespectfully to the commander-in-chief, and suspended from the army for one year. Recent developments strengthen the suspicion long entertained that he acted traitorously. It is strange that, conscious of this, he should have remained among those whom he had endeavored to betray. He had previously been signally serviceable in the American cause; and at the time of his suspension there were not wanting divers leading men who thought him hardly dealt with. But a man is never better than his principles, and General Lee's were bad from the beginning. La Fayette said that Washington never appeared to better advantage than in this action, when roused by Lee's misconduct.
Colonel Richard Kidder Meade, the father of Bishop Meade, was one of Washington's aides-de-camp. The following anecdote relative to him is taken from the Travels of Anburey, who was a lieutenant in the British army, and in 1779 a prisoner of war in Virginia, and visiting the lower country on parole: "On my way to this place I stopt and slept at Tuckahoe, where I met with Colonel Meade, Colonel Laurens, and another officer of General Washington's suite. More than once did I express a wish that the general himself had been of the party, to have seen and conversed with a character of whom, in all my travels through the various provinces, I never heard any one speak disrespectfully as an individual, and whose public character has been the admiration and astonishment of all Europe." * * * * "The colonel (Meade) attributed the safety of his person to the swiftness of his horse at the battle of Monmouth, having been fired at and pursued by some British officers as he was reconnoitering. Upon the colonel's mentioning this circumstance it occurred to me he must have been the person that Sir Henry Clinton's aide-de-camp had fired at, and requesting to know the particular color of his horse, he informed me it was black, which convinced me it was him; when I related the circumstance of his meeting Sir Henry Clinton, he replied he recollected in the course of the day to have met several British officers, and one of them wore a star. Upon my mentioning the observation Sir Henry Clinton had made to his aide-de-camp,[689:A] the colonel laughed, and replied, had he known it was the commander-in-chief he should have made a desperate effort to take him prisoner."
The name of Richard Kidder is said to be derived from a bishop of Bath and Wells, who was from the same stock with the Meades of Virginia. Andrew Meade, first of the name in Virginia, born in County Kerry, Ireland, educated a Romanist, came over to New York, and married Mary Latham, a Quakeress, of Flushing, on Long Island. He afterwards settled in Nansemond, Virginia, and for many years was burgess thereof; from which it appears that he must have renounced the Romish religion. He was prosperous, affluent, and hospitable. He is mentioned by Colonel Byrd in his Journal of the Dividing Line run in 1728. His only son, David Meade, married, under romantic circumstances, Susannah, daughter of Sir Richard Everard, Baronet, Governor of North Carolina. Of the sons of David Meade, Richard Kidder Meade was aide-de-camp to General Washington; Everard Meade aide to General Lincoln. Richard Kidder, Everard, together with an older brother, David, were educated at Harrow, England, under the care of Dr. Thackeray. Sir William Jones, Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Parr, were at the same time scholars there.
In June, 1778, Colonel Arthur Campbell wrote to the Rev. Charles Cummings, of Washington County: "Yesterday I returned home, the assembly having adjourned until the first Monday in October. The acts passed, and a list of their titles, I here enclose, together with an address of congress to the people of America, for you to publish, agreeable to the resolve. I wish you could make it convenient to preach at the lower meeting-house in this county, if it was but a week-day, as the contents of the address are of the most interesting nature, both as to the moral and political conduct of the good people of America. Providence is daily working out strange deliverances for us. The treaty with France is much more advantageous than the wisest men in this country expected. The Indians the other day were unexpectedly discomfited on Greenbrier. I think the overthrow was something similar to what happened in this county about two years ago. I must give you the intelligence at full length, as the most hardened mind must see and admire the Divine goodness in such an interposition."
The Rev. Charles Cummings, by birth an Irishman, resided for some time in the congregation of the Rev. James Waddell, in Lancaster, and probably studied theology under his care. Mr. Cummings married Miss Milly, daughter of John Carter, of Lancaster, and in 1773 settled near where Abingdon now stands. His meeting-house was of unhewn logs, from eighty to a hundred feet long and forty wide. Mr. Cummings was of middle stature, well formed, of great firmness and dignity. His voice was of great compass, and his articulation distinct. At this time the inhabitants, during the summer months, were compelled to take shelter in forts for protection against the Indians. The men went to church armed, taking their families with them. The armed congregation, seated in the log meeting-house, presented a singular spectacle of frontier life. Mr. Cummings, when he ascended the steps of the pulpit, deposited his rifle in a corner and laid aside his shot-pouch. He was a zealous whig, and was chairman of the committee of safety of Washington County, formed as early as January, 1775. He was a Presbyterian of the old stamp, a rigid Calvinist, and a man of exemplary piety.
After the battle of Monmouth Sir Henry Clinton occupied New York. The arrival of a French fleet under D'Estaing reanimated the hopes of the Americans. Arthur Lee argued unfavorably of the removal of D'Orvilliers and D'Estaing's appointment. Washington took a position at White Plains, on the Hudson. About this time Colonel Baylor's regiment of cavalry was surprised in the night by a British corps under General Gray. Of one hundred and four privates forty were made prisoners, and twenty-seven killed or wounded. Colonel Baylor was himself dangerously wounded and taken prisoner.
In the year 1778 the town of Abington was incorporated. Virginia sent General George Rogers Clarke on an expedition to the northwest. After enduring extreme sufferings in marching through a wilderness, he and his hardy followers captured Kaskaskias and its governor, Rocheblave. In December, 1778, Hamilton, British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, under Sir Guy Carleton, governor-in-chief, took possession of the post (now the town) of Vincennes, in Indiana. Here he fortified himself, intending in the ensuing spring to rally his Indian confederates to attack Kaskaskias, then in possession of Clarke, and to proceed up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky in the way, and finally overrunning all West Augusta. This expedition was ordered by Carleton. Clarke's position was too remote for succor, and his force too small to withstand a siege; nevertheless, he prepared to make the best defence possible. At this juncture a Spanish merchant brought intelligence that Hamilton had, by detaching his Indian allies, reduced the strength of his garrison to eighty men, with a few cannon. Clarke immediately despatched a small armed galley, with orders to force her way and station herself a few miles below the enemy. In the mean time, early in February, 1779, he marched, with one hundred and thirty men, upon St. Vincennes: many of the inhabitants of the country joined the expedition; the rest garrisoned the towns. Impeded by rain and high waters, his little army were occupied for sixteen days in reaching the fertile borders of the Wabash, and when within nine miles of the enemy it required five days to cross "the drowned lands" near that river, "having to wade often upwards of two leagues, up to our breasts in water." But for the unusual mildness of the season they must have perished. On the evening of February the twenty-third they reached dry land, and came unperceived within sight of the enemy; and an attack being made at seven o'clock, the inhabitants of St. Vincennes gladly surrendered it, and assisted in besieging Hamilton, who held out in the fort. On the next day he surrendered the garrison. Clarke despatching some armed boats up the Wabash, captured a convoy, including forty prisoners and £10,000 worth of goods and stores. Hamilton, and some officers and privates, were sent to the governor at Williamsburg. Colonel Shelby about the same time attacking the Cherokees, who had taken up the tomahawk, burnt eleven towns and a large quantity of corn, and captured £25,000 worth of goods.
The assembly of Virginia afterwards presented to General Clarke an honorary sword, on the scabbard of which was inscribed: "Sic semper tyrannis;" and on the blade: "A tribute to courage and patriotism, presented by the State of Virginia to her beloved son, General George Rogers Clarke, who, by the conquest of Illinois and Vincennes, extended her empire and aided in defence of her liberties." In his latter years he was intemperate.
FOOTNOTES:
[687:A] The Rev. Dr. Hill told Mr. Grigsby that he had seen the marks of the flogging on Morgan's back.
[688:A] Cooper's History of North America, 106.
[689:A] To wit, that he ought by no means to have fired at the American, as he probably might have wished to speak to him and give him intelligence.
Chapter XCIV
1779.
Condition of Affairs--Mason's Letter--Convention Troops removed to Charlottesville--Miscellaneous--Church Establishment abolished--Clergy and Churches--Suffolk burnt--D'Estaing's Siege of Savannah--Lincoln surrenders--Gates defeated at Camden--Sumpter defeated--Battle of King's Mountain--Colonel Campbell--Colonel Ferguson.
WASHINGTON looked upon the early part of 1779 as more fraught with danger than any preceding period of the war, not on account of the strength of the enemy, but owing to the spirit of selfish speculation, money-making, and stock-jobbing that prevailed, the depreciation of the paper currency, the States employing their ablest men at home, the idleness and dissipation of men in public trust, and the dissensions in congress. The demoralizing influences of war were making themselves manifest.[693:A]
Colonel George Mercer, of Stafford, who had been compelled to resign the office of stamp collector before the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, retired to England. George Mason, who was related to him, in October, 1778, addressed him a letter, in which he said: "If I can only live to see the American Union firmly fixed, and free governments well established in our western world, and can leave to my children but a crust of bread and liberty,[693:B] I shall die satisfied, and say with the Psalmist: 'Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' God has been pleased to bless our endeavors in a just cause with remarkable success. To us upon the spot, who have seen step by step the progress of this great contest, who know the defenceless state of America, and the numberless difficulties we have had to struggle with; taking a retrospective view of what is passed, we seem to have been treading upon enchanted ground."
Washington, in compliance with the resolutions of congress, had ordered the removal of the convention troops of Saratoga, then quartered in Massachusetts, to Charlottesville, Virginia. Congress, whether from distrust in the British prisoners, or from reasons of state, resolved not to comply with the articles of the convention, allowing the prisoners to embark for England on parole, until the convention should be ratified by the English government. Burgoyne had sailed for England in May, and from that time the command of the British troops of convention, quartered at Cambridge, had devolved upon General Phillips. Colonel Bland, with an escort, conducted the prisoners of war to Virginia. Upon their arrival, in December, at their place of destination, on Colonel Harvey's estate, about six miles from Charlottesville, they suffered many privations, being billeted in block-houses without windows or doors, and poorly defended from the cold of an uncommonly rigorous winter. But in a short time they constructed better habitations, and the barracks assumed the appearance of a neat little town. In the rear of each house they had trim gardens and enclosed places for poultry. The army cleared a space of six miles in circumference around the barracks. A representation of the barracks is given in Anburey's Travels. The officers were allowed, upon giving parole, to provide for themselves lodging-places within a circuit of a hundred miles.[694:A] Mr. Jefferson exhibited a generous hospitality toward the captives; and his knowledge of French, his taste for music, his fine conversational powers, and his fascinating manners, contributed not a little to relieve the tedium of their captivity. Governor Henry afforded them every indulgence in his power; and the amiable disposition of Colonel Bland, who commanded the guard placed over the convention troops, still further ensured their quiet and comfort. General Phillips, described by Mr. Jefferson as "the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth," occupied Blenheim, a seat of Colonel Carter's; General the Baron de Riedesel occupied Colle, a residence belonging to Philip Mazzei, Mr. Jefferson's Italian neighbor; and the Baroness, whose romantic sufferings and adventures are so well known, has given, in her Memoirs, an entertaining account of her sojourn among the picturesque mountains of Albemarle. Charlottesville at this period consisted of a court-house, a tavern, and about a dozen dwelling-houses.[695:A]
Anburey has given a graphic picture of the manners, customs, and the grotesque scenes that he witnessed at Charlottesville and in its vicinity.
Violent dissensions convulsed congress; some of the members were suspected of treasonable designs. Early in May, Richard Henry Lee wrote from Philadelphia to Mr. Jefferson, hoping that he "would not be blamed by him and his other friends for sending his resignation to the assembly, and averring that he had been persecuted by the united voice of toryism, speculation, faction, envy, malice, and all uncharitableness," so that nothing but the certain prospect of doing essential service to his country could compensate for the injuries he received. But he adds: "It would content me indeed to sacrifice every consideration to the public good that would result from such persons as yourself, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Mason, and some others being in congress. I would struggle with persevering ardor through every difficulty in conjunction with such associates."
In 1779 the legislature rejected a scheme of a general assessment for the support of religion. Patrick Henry was in favor of it. The glebe-lands were also declared to be public property; and thus was destroyed the last vestige of a religious establishment in Virginia. During the Revolution, the loyalist clergy of Virginia who remained, found themselves in a deplorable condition. The prohibition to pray for the king was strictly enforced upon them by the incensed people: some ministers omitted the obnoxious petitions; others abandoned the churches and offered no prayer in public; while a few appeared disposed, if possible, to resist the popular tide, but were compelled eventually to succumb to it. In 1775 Virginia contained sixty-one counties, ninety-five parishes, one hundred and sixty-four churches and chapels, and ninety-one clergymen of the establishment. During the interval of the war part of the parishes were extinguished, and the greater number of the rest were deprived of ministerial help; but few ministers were able to weather the storm and remain at their former posts; the others having been compelled to seek precarious shelter and support in other parishes. Some of the churches, venerable for age and connected with so many interesting associations, were left roofless and dismantled; others used as barracks, or stables, or lodging-places of prisoners of war; and the moss-grown walls of some were pulled down by sacrilegious hands, and books and vessels appurtenant to holy services pillaged and carried off.
Until this year the British arms had been chiefly directed against the Middle and Northern States; but they were now turned against the South. Georgia soon fell a prey to the enemy, and South Carolina was invaded. In May a squadron under Sir George Collier anchored in Hampton Roads, and General Matthews took possession of Portsmouth. The enemy destroyed the public stores at Gosport and Norfolk, burnt Suffolk, and destroyed upwards of a hundred vessels, including several armed ones. The Virginia navy had been reduced previously, and many of the vessels ordered to be sold, and from this time the history of those remaining is a series of disasters.
Upon the approach of six hundred British infantry upon Suffolk, the militia and greater part of the inhabitants fled; few could save their effects; some who remained for that purpose were made prisoners. The enemy fired the town, and nearly the whole of it was consumed: hundreds of barrels of tar, pitch, turpentine, and rum, lay on the wharves, and their heads being staved, the contents flowing in commingled mass and catching the blaze, descended to the river in torrents of liquid flame, and the wind blowing violently, the splendid mass floated to the opposite shore in a conflagration that rose and fell with the waves, and there set on fire the dry grass of an extensive marsh. This broad sheet of fire, the crackling flames of the town, the lurid smoke, and the occasional explosion of gunpowder in the magazines, projecting ignited fragments of timber like meteors in the troubled air, presented altogether an awful spectacle of the horrors of civil war. The enemy shortly after, laden with plunder, embarked for New York.
While Sir Henry Clinton was encamped near Haerlem, and Washington in the Highlands on the Hudson,[697:A] Major Lee, of Virginia, surprised in the night a British post at Paulus Hook, and with a loss of two killed and three wounded, made one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, including three officers. Soon after this a fleet, commanded by Admiral Arbuthnot, arrived at New York with re-enforcements. D'Estaing returned to the southern coast of America with a fleet of twenty-two ships-of-the-line and eleven frigates, and having on board six thousand soldiers. He arrived so unexpectedly that the British ship Experiment of fifty guns, and three frigates, fell into his hands. In September, Savannah, occupied by a British force under General Prevost, was besieged by the French and Americans, commanded by D'Estaing and Lincoln.[697:B] In an ineffectual effort to storm the post the French and Americans suffered heavy loss. The siege was raised, and D'Estaing, who had been wounded in the action, sailed again for the West Indies, after this second abortive attempt to aid the cause of independence. The condition of the South was now more gloomy than ever.
Clinton, toward the close of the year, embarked with a formidable force in Arbuthnot's fleet, and sailed for South Carolina. In April, 1780, Sir Henry laid siege to Charleston; and General Lincoln, undertaking to defend the place, contrary to his own judgment, and in compliance with the entreaties of the inhabitants, after an obstinate defence was compelled to capitulate.[698:A] Shortly after this disaster Colonel Buford's regiment was cut to pieces by Tarleton. Georgia and South Carolina now succumbed to the enemy: it was the bending of the willow before the sweep of the tempest. In June, General Gates was appointed by congress to the command in the South. Having collected an army he marched toward Camden in South Carolina, then held by the enemy. While Gates was moving from Clermont toward that place in the night,[698:B] Cornwallis marched out with a view of attacking the American army at Clermont. Thus the two armies, each essaying to surprise the other, met unexpectedly in the woods, at about two o'clock in the morning. At the first onset the American line was thrown into disorder; but a body of light infantry, and in particular a corps under command of Colonel Porterfield, of Virginia, maintained their ground with constancy. This brave officer, refusing to give way, fell mortally wounded. The battle was resumed in the morning, and Gates' army was utterly discomfited: the militia fled too soon; the regulars fought too long. The fugitives retreating in promiscuous disorder, were pursued by the unrelenting sabres of cavalry; and the horrors of the rout baffle description. Thus Gates, verifying General Lee's prediction, "turned his Northern laurels into Southern willows." The defeated general retired to North Carolina to collect the scattered remains of his army. In August, Sumpter was overwhelmed by Tarleton; and for a time the British army were in the ascendant throughout the South.
Cornwallis[698:C] detached Colonel Ferguson, a gallant and expert officer, across the Wateree, with one hundred and ten regulars; and in a short time tory recruits augmented his numbers to one thousand; and, confident of his strength, he sent a menacing message to the patriot leaders on the western waters. This was, for the South, "the time that tried men's souls:" many of the leading patriots captives or exiles, the country subjugated, British and tory cruelty desolating it, hope almost extinct,--Marion alone holding out in his fastnesses. The spirit of the hardy mountaineers was aroused, and hearing that Ferguson was threatening to cross the mountains, a body of men in arms were concentrated by the twenty-fifth on the banks of the Watauga--four hundred from Washington County, Virginia, under Colonel William Campbell; the rest from North Carolina, under Colonels Shelby, Sevier, McDowell, Cleveland, and Winston. Crossing the mountains they advanced toward Ferguson, who began to retreat, and took up a position[699:A] on an eminence of about one hundred and fifty feet, called King's Mountain. It is situated in the northern part of South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, its sides steep and rocky, a brook flowing at its foot,--the surrounding scenery thickly wooded, wild, and picturesque. It was resolved to pursue the enemy with nine hundred picked men. Near the Cowpens, where Ferguson had encamped on the fourth, and about thirty miles from King's Mountain, the mountaineers were re-enforced by four hundred and sixty men, the greater part of them from South Carolina, under Colonel Williams. Here, at about nine o'clock of the evening, Colonel William Campbell was appointed to the chief command. The mountain horsemen rode on in the night through a rain, with their guns under their arms to keep the locks dry; the leader in front, and each colonel at the head of his troops. In the morning they halted for half an hour to eat a frugal breakfast, and at twelve o'clock, when the sky cleared, they found themselves within three miles of the British camp. They halted, and the order passed along the line: "Tie up overcoats, pick touch-holes, fresh prime, and be ready to fight." At three o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh of October an express from Ferguson to Cornwallis was captured, and his despatches, declaring his position on King's Mountain impregnable, were read to the troops. Galloping off they came in twenty minutes within sight of the British camp. They dismounted on the banks of the little stream, tied their horses to the limbs of trees, and left them in charge of a small guard. The force being divided, the mountain was surrounded. As each column moved on to the attack it was driven back a short distance by the charge of the British, who were soon compelled to wheel, in order to face another column advancing on the opposite side. Ferguson, finding his troops hemmed in and huddled together on the summit of the mountain, fought with desperate valor, and fell, charging at the head of his men and cheering them on. The white flag was now raised. Of Ferguson's force, amounting to rather more than eleven hundred men, two hundred and forty were killed and two hundred wounded; upwards of seven hundred were taken prisoners, with all the arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. The loss of the patriots was thirty killed and fifty wounded. The gallant Williams was slain, as also was Major Chronicle, and several other officers. The battle lasted one hour. A number of the tories were hung on the next day. The sword used by Colonel Campbell on this occasion is preserved in possession of William Campbell Preston, of South Carolina, the orator, his grandson; it is more than two centuries old, and was wielded by the ancestors of Colonel Campbell in Scotland in the wars of the Pretenders. One of the rifles employed at King's Mountain is also preserved. This battle was the turning-point of the war in the South.
Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, and removed early to the County of Washington. Fame has awarded him the title of "the hero of King's Mountain." Colonel Ferguson was an excellent marksman, and brought the art of rifle shooting to high perfection. He invented a gun of that kind which was said to surpass anything of the sort before known, and he was said to have outdone even the Indians in firing and loading and hitting the mark, standing or lying, and in no matter what position of the body. It was reported that General Washington owed his life, at the battle of Brandywine, to Ferguson's ignorance of his person, as he was within his reach.[700:A] He afterwards, upon discovering the fact, remarked that he was not sorry that he did not know him.
FOOTNOTES:
[693:A] From verses supposed to have been written about this time by St. George Tucker:--
"Virtue and Washington in vain To glory call this prostrate train."
* * "Each eager votary hugs his reams, And hoards his millions in his dreams. Ruin with giant strides approaches, And quartermasters loll in coaches."
[693:B] The expression is from Smollet's Ode to Independence.
[694:A] Anburey mentions a Dr. Fauchee as resident at Charlottesville--probably Foushee.
[695:A] Colonel Bland, in some verses written during this year, alludes thus to Mr. Jefferson:--
On yonder height I see a lofty dome;[695:B] But, hapless fate, the master's not at home. His high aspiring soul aloft had towered, That like a God he was by men adored. But envy now has placed him in Jove's car To rule the tempest of the mighty war, That he, like Phaëton, may tumble down, And by his fall astonish all the town.
[695:B] Monticello.
[697:A] August eighteenth.
[697:B] October ninth.
[698:A] May twelfth.
[698:B] August sixteenth.
[698:C] September first.
[699:A] October sixth.
[700:A] Dodsley's Annual Register for 1781.
Chapter XCV
1780.
Arthur Lee--Deane--Franklin--Madison.
IN the year 1780 Arthur Lee returned to America after a long absence. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 20th of December, 1740, being the youngest of five brothers, all of whom became eminent. After passing some time at Eton he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine about 1765. The other students from Virginia there at the same time were Field, Blair, Bankhead, and Gilmer--the earliest pioneers in this profession in the colony, at a time when the apothecary, physician, and surgeon were united in the same person, and when quackery enjoyed full license. Arthur Lee's extreme aversion to slavery and to negroes, and the lamentable state of dependence to which he foresaw that his own country would be doomed for many years, made him dread to return; and he even thought of settling in England, which he looked upon as "the Eden of the world, the land of liberty and independence." Yet he was conscious of such a want of confidence in himself as unfitted him for taking up his abode and embarking in a profession in a land of strangers.[701:A] Gladly quitting Scotland, which he disliked extremely, Dr. Lee travelled through Europe, and then returned to Virginia, and commenced the practice of physic at Williamsburg. Here he could not fail to view with interest the stirring events of the day; and although successful in his medical practice, the bent of his genius induced him to return to London for the purpose of studying the law in the Temple, and fitting himself for taking a part in public affairs. At this time he became the intimate friend of Sir William Jones. In London he associated himself with Wilkes, and other opponents of the government, and prevailed on them to favor the cause of the colonies. In 1768 Dr. Lee was appointed political agent of Massachusetts. In 1769 he wrote the Monitor's Letters, and for some years was a frequent writer in the Public Advertiser, over the signature of Junius Americanus; and he held an amicable discussion with Junius on American matters.[702:A] That writer remarked of him: "My American namesake is plainly a man of abilities." His writings procured for him the friendship of Burke, Dr. Price, and other leading men. He became acquainted with the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson. In 1770 Arthur Lee was admitted to the bar, and he enjoyed a lucrative practice for some years. In the spring of 1774 he set out on a tour through France and Italy; and while at Paris published an "Appeal to the People of Great Britain." During the same year he succeeded Dr. Franklin as agent of Massachusetts; and in the following he was agent for Virginia. The secret committee of congress appointed him their London correspondent; and through the French ambassador there he obtained early assurances of aid from France to the colonies. In August he presented the second petition of congress to the king. He was afterwards made commissioner to France in conjunction with Deane and Franklin; and he joined them at Paris in December, 1776, and assisted in making the treaty of alliance. Discord ensuing between Dr. Lee and the other commissioners, involved them, especially Lee and Deane, in a controversy, which engendered an inveterate hostility, and gave rise to factions in congress, in which the French minister, Gerard, became implicated, and which endangered the cause of independence. Deane, who, in the guise of a merchant, conducted the public business, was subtle and unscrupulous. Mr. Lee had exposed the peculations of some of the agents employed in conducting the commercial details of the public business; and this interference gave rise to many aspersions upon him, which were encouraged by the countenance which congress appeared to lend Deane and those associated with him. Deane, at length, recalled by congress in November, 1777, reached America in the following summer, and gave an account of his transactions to congress, making an artful defence against Arthur Lee's accusations. Deane published virulent attacks upon him and Richard Henry Lee, and they retorted with indignant severity.
Congress coming to no determination in the matter, Deane appealed to the public, in December, in an address to the "Free and Virtuous Citizens of America." In 1780 he repaired to Paris to adjust his accounts, but never did so; and after refusing ten thousand dollars offered him by congress to cover his expenses, he fell into pecuniary straits, became alienated from his country, (if he had been true before, which was doubted,) writing home letters representing the American cause as desperate, and favoring immediate accommodation with the enemy. These letters were intercepted by the enemy and published, and his real character was now made manifest. Mr. Jay, who had been his friend and supporter, hearing this at Madrid, took down his portrait and burnt it. Deane appears afterwards to have associated with the traitor Arnold. Deane died in extreme poverty at Deal, England, (1789.) He certainly rendered the colonies great service at one time,[703:A] and found a strong party in congress in his support, including men of both sections and of high character. Mr. Paca, of Maryland, and Mr. Drayton, of South Carolina, protested against the further continuance of Dr. Lee in the place of commissioner in France and Spain. Dr. Lee's dissensions with Dr. Franklin resulted in bitter enmity. Dr. Lee charged Franklin with vanity, inflated by French flattery, with overweening and dictatorial arrogance, with connivance at fraud and corruption, and with being under French influence. William Lee and Richard Henry sympathized warmly with Arthur in these disputes. John Adams sided with the Lees. Arthur Lee, in 1780, resigning his post, returned to America, and prepared to vindicate himself before congress, but that body expressed their full confidence in his patriotism. In 1781 he was elected to the assembly of Virginia, and returned to congress, where he continued to represent the State for several years. He was a pure, earnest, incorruptible patriot, love of country being his ruling passion. Of a jealous disposition, and melancholy, discontented temperament; of polite manners and strong passions. He was well skilled in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. He never married. He meditated writing a history of the American Revolution. In a letter to General Washington, dated at Berlin, in June, 1777, he says: "It is my intention to write a history of this civil contention. The share you have had in it will form an interesting and important part. It will be in your power to preserve a variety of materials, papers, and anecdotes for such a work. May I venture to hope that you may think me so far worthy of your confidence as to preserve them for me? Dubious parts of history can be cleared only by such documents, and we shall want every authentic record to vouch against the forgeries which will be offered to the world."[704:A]
William Lee, brother of Arthur, was born in Virginia, about the year 1737. Sent to London as Virginia's agent before the Revolution, he took up his residence there. Being a zealous whig, he was elected, in 1773, one of the sheriffs of London. At the commencement of the Revolution he retired to France, and afterwards was appointed by congress their commissioner at Vienna and Berlin. An able man, and an ardent and inflexible patriot, by communicating important intelligence, and by his diplomatic agency, he rendered invaluable services to his country. As a writer he was little inferior to Arthur.
During the year 1780 James Madison took his seat in congress. He was born in March, 1751, O. S., in the County of Caroline, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River, near Port Royal, the son of James Madison, of Orange County, and Nelly Conway, his wife. At the age of twelve young Madison was at school under Donald Robertson, a distinguished teacher in the neighborhood, and afterwards under the Rev. Thomas Martin, the parish minister, a private tutor in his father's family. He was next sent to the College of New Jersey, of which Dr. Witherspoon was then president. Here Mr. Madison received the degree of bachelor of arts in the autumn of 1771. He had impaired his health at college by too close application; nevertheless, on his return home he pursued a systematic course of reading. Shortly after his return he signed resolutions of his county approving of Henry's proceedings in the affair of the gunpowder. He became a member of the convention in May, 1776, and it was during this session that the body unanimously instructed the deputies of Virginia in congress to propose a declaration of independence. He did not enter into public debate during this session. At the next election he was defeated, his successful opponent being Colonel Charles Porter, who was subsequently his frequent colleague in the house of delegates. Mr. Madison was at the ensuing session appointed a member of the council of state, and this place he held till 1779, when he was elected to congress. While he was of the council Patrick Henry and Mr. Jefferson were governors. Mr. Madison's knowledge of French, of which Governor Henry was ignorant, rendered him particularly serviceable in the frequent correspondence held with French officers: he wrote so much for Governor Henry that he was called "the governor's secretary." Mr. Madison took his seat in congress in March, 1780, and continued a leading member until the fall of 1783, when his congressional term expired by limitation. Such was the commencement of the career of this man so illustrious for his genius, his learning, and his virtue, and who was destined to pass through every eminent station, and to fill all with honor to himself and benefit to his country and the world. As a writer, a debater, a statesman, and a patriot, he was of the first order, and his name goes down to posterity one of the brightest of those that adorn the annals of the age in which he lived.[705:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[701:A] MS. letter of Arthur Lee, Edinburgh, March 20, 1765.
[702:A] See Woodfall's Junius, i. 102, where Arthur Lee is erroneously called Dr. Charles Lee.
[703:A] Flanders' Lives of Chief Justices, art. JAY.
[704:A] Arthur Lee's Life, i. 88.
[705:A] The Life of Madison, by the Honorable William C. Rives, is a recent important addition to Virginia biography.
Chapter XCVI
1780.
Logan--Leslie's Invasion--Removal of Convention Troops.
IN the fall of 1779 Logan, the Indian chief, had again resumed his onslaughts on the banks of the Holston. In June, 1780, when Captain Bird, of Detroit, long the headquarters of British and Indian barbarity, invaded Kentucky, Logan joined in the bloody raid. He was now about fifty-five years of age. Not long after this inroad, Logan, at an Indian council held at Detroit, while phrenzied by liquor, prostrated his wife by a sudden blow, and she fell apparently dead. Supposing that he had killed her, he fled to escape the penalty of blood. While travelling alone on horseback he was all at once overtaken, in the wilderness between Detroit and Sandusky, by a troop of Indians, with their squaws and children, in the midst of whom he recognized his relative Tod-hah-dohs. Imagining that the avenger was at hand, Logan frantically exclaimed that the whole party should fall by his weapons. Tod-hah-dohs perceiving the danger, and observing that Logan was well armed, felt the necessity of prompt action; and while Logan was leaping from his horse to execute his threat, Tod-hah-dohs levelled a shot-gun within a few feet of him and killed him on the spot. Tod-hah-dohs, or the Searcher, originally from Conestoga, and probably a son of Logan's sister who lived there, was better known as Captain Logan. He left children, (two of whom have been seen by Mr. Lyman C. Draper;) so that in spite of Logan's speech some of his blood, at least collaterally, still runs in human veins. Logan's wife recovered from the blow given her by her husband, and returned to her own people.[706:A]
On the 2d of October, 1780, Major Andre was executed as a spy.
Beverley Robinson, a son of the Honorable John Robinson, of Virginia, president of the colony, removed to New York, and married Susanna, daughter of Frederick Philipse, Esq., who owned a vast landed estate on the Hudson. When the Revolution commenced, Beverley Robinson desired to remain in retirement, being opposed to the measures of the ministry, and to the separation of the colonies from the mother country. The importunity of friends induced him to enter the military service of the crown, and he became colonel of the Loyal American Regiment. He was implicated in Arnold's treason, and accompanied Andre in the Vulture. Andre, when captured, was taken to Colonel Robinson's house, which had been confiscated, and then occupied by Washington. Robinson was sent by Sir Henry Clinton as a witness in behalf of Andre.
Prince William Henry, afterwards William the Fourth, was a guest of Colonel Robinson, in New York, during the revolutionary war. Several of his descendants, and those of Captain Roger Morris, have attained distinction. Among them Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, son of Colonel Beverley Robinson, was an officer of rank under Wellington, and saw hard service in the Peninsular war, and was dangerously wounded at the siege of St. Sebastians. In the war of 1812 he led the British in the attack on Plattsburg, under Prevost.[707:A]
On the twentieth of October, a British fleet, in accordance with intelligence which had been communicated by spies and deserters, made its appearance in the Chesapeake. General Leslie was at the head of the troops aboard. Having landed, they began to fortify Portsmouth. Their highest post was Suffolk, and they occupied the line between Nansemond River and the Dismal Swamp. A person of suspicious appearance, endeavoring to pass through the country from Portsmouth toward North Carolina, was apprehended; and upon its being proposed to search him he readily consented, but at the same time he was observed to put his hand into his pocket and carry something toward his mouth, as if it were a quid of tobacco. Upon examination it proved to be a letter, written on silk-paper, and rolled up in gold-beaters' skin, and nicely tied at each end, so as to be no larger than a goose-quill. The letter was as follows:--
"To LORD CORNWALLIS:--
"MY LORD,--I have been here near a week, establishing a post. I wrote to you to Charleston, and by another messenger by land. I cannot hear with certainty where you are. I wait your orders. The bearer is to be handsomely rewarded if he brings me any note or mark from your lordship.
A. L.
"Portsmouth, Virginia, November 4, 1780."
It was a source of mortification to Governor Jefferson and other patriots that the State was unable to defend herself for want of arms. In compliance with the call of the executive, General Nelson made an effort to collect the militia of the lower counties, and to secure at least the pass at the Great Bridge; but his exertions were ineffectual, as the alarmed inhabitants made it their first business to secure their families and property from danger. General Lawson, who had at this time raised a corps of five hundred volunteers to march to the aid of South Carolina, was called on to aid in defending his own State, and General Stevens was preparing to march with a detachment of the Southern army to her aid when[708:A] Leslie sailed for South Carolina to re-enforce Cornwallis. Leslie during his stay had abstained entirely from depredation and violence. Many negroes who had gone over to him were left behind, either from choice or from want of ship-room. The chief injury resulting from this invasion was the loss of cattle collected for the use of the Southern army. Another consequence of it was the removal of the troops of convention from the neighborhood of Charlottesville. They marched early in October, and crossing the Blue Ridge proceeded along the valley to Winchester, where they were quartered in barracks. Some of the men occupied a church, and about sixty were confined in jail, probably to prevent desertion. The troops were thence removed to Fredericktown, Maryland, and afterwards to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The German troops of convention remained longer in Albemarle: they were removed early in 1781, and quartered at Winchester, and the Warm Springs, in Berkley.
The assembly of Virginia was preparing, in the winter of this year, to weather, as well as possible, the storm which was gathering against her; but without Northern assistance she was hardly able to cope with the enemy. She wanted clothes, arms, ammunition, tents, and other warlike stores. Ten millions of paper dollars were issued from necessity, but it was evident that it would be as transient, as a dream at the present, and pernicious in its consequences; yet without it no resistance could be made to the enemy.
FOOTNOTES:
[706:A] Brantz Mayer's Discourse on Logan and Cresap, 66.
[707:A] Sabine's Loyalists, 562.
[708:A] November fifteenth.
Chapter XCVII
1780-1781.
Arnold's Invasion.
TOWARD the close of December, 1780, a fleet appeared within the capes of the Chesapeake, with a force detached by Sir Henry Clinton from New York, under command of the traitor Arnold. A frigate in advance having captured some small vessels, Arnold, with the aid of them, pushed on at once up the James. Attempting to land at Burwell's Ferry, (the Grove Landing,) his boats were beaten off by one hundred and fifty militia of Williamsburg and James City, under Colonel Innes and General Nelson. Nelson, on this occasion, retorted a verbal defiance in answer to a letter with which Arnold had ushered in his invasion.[710:A]
Leaving a frigate and some transports at Burwell's Ferry, Arnold proceeded[710:B] up the river to Westover. Here landing a force of less than eight hundred men, including a small party of badly mounted cavalry, he marched for Richmond at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. Nelson, in the mean while, with a handful of militia, badly supplied with ammunition, had marched up the right bank of the James River, but arrived too late to offer any opposition to the landing of the enemy. Arnold, at one o'clock of the next day after he marched from Westover, entered the infant capital without having encountered any resistance, although his route was very favorable for it. The energetic Simcoe, with a detachment, proceeded a few miles beyond Richmond and destroyed the foundry, emptied the contents of the powder magazine, struck off the trunnions of the cannon, and set fire to the warehouses and mills, the effect of the conflagration being heightened by occasional explosions of gunpowder. Many small arms and a stock of military supplies were destroyed, and five tons of gunpowder thrown into the river. At Richmond the public stores fell a prey; private property was plundered and destroyed; the soldiers broke into houses and procured rum; and several buildings were burnt. Part of the records of the auditor's office, and the books and papers of the council office shared the same fate.
Governor Jefferson used every effort in his power to remove the public stores, and part were rescued by being removed across the river at Westham. Late on the night of the fourth he went to Tuckahoe, and on the next day went down to Manchester, opposite Richmond, where the busy movements of the enemy were in full view. When they advanced upon that place only two hundred militia were embodied--too small a number to make any resistance. The governor, having repaired to Colonel Fleming's, in Chesterfield, to meet Steuben, received there a message from Arnold, offering not to burn Richmond, on condition that British vessels should be permitted to come to it unmolested and take away the tobacco. The proposition was rejected.
The inhabitants of Richmond were, for the most part, Scotch factors, who lived in small tenements scattered here and there between the river and the hill, some on the declivities, a few on the summit. Arnold withdrew from Richmond about mid-day on the sixth, encamped that night, as he had on the march up, at Four-mile Creek, and on the next day at Berkley and Westover.
Arthur Lee wrote, on the twenty-first of March, from Greenspring to Colonel Bland, as follows: "Most certainly you would have heard from me could I have found any conveyance but the tory-post the wisdom of our people has established, or could I have given you a pleasing account of the situation of our affairs here. But in truth, it is impossible to conceive a more hopeless state than what we are in. Laws without wisdom or justice, governments without system or order, complex and heavy taxes to raise money which is squandered away no one knows how, or wherefore, not half the troops being raised, or those which are raided being provided neither with arms, clothes, nor provisions. Twelve millions were spent in two months, and when the enemy came, there was neither man, horse, musket, cannon, wagon, boat, or any one thing in the world that could be found for our defence. In this situation it need not surprise you that Arnold, with a handful of bad troops, should march about the country, take and destroy what he pleased, feast with his tory friends, settle a regular correspondence with them, which he carried on for some time in vessels sent up the river and unnoticed, till one happening to run aground discovered Mrs. Byrd's correspondence, which, however, will produce neither good to us nor injury to her. I have reason to think she will not be tried at all, means having been taken to keep the witnesses out of the way."[712:A]
Mrs. Maria Byrd, of Westover, was a sister of Thomas Willing, Esq., director of the Bank of North America, and partner of Robert Morris, and a strenuous opponent of American independence. A sister of Mrs. Byrd married Captain Walter Sterling, of the British navy. Samuel Inglis, Esq., some time resident in Virginia as factor of the house of Willing & Morris, under the firm of Inglis & Willing, was a decided opponent of independence. He married the daughter of William Aitcheson, Esq., of Norfolk, a Scotch tory, and was brother of Captain Inglis, of the British navy.[712:B]
Simcoe, patroling in the night, surprised a party of militia at Charles City Court-house, where, after some confused firing, the militia fled with small loss; some few attempting to escape, were drowned in a mill-pond. Sergeant Adams, of Simcoe's Regiment, was mortally wounded, and dying shortly afterwards, was buried at Westover, wrapped in some American colors taken a few days before at Hoods. Nelson, re-enforced at Holt's Forge by a party of Gloucester militia under Colonel John Page, finding his force not exceeding four hundred men, retreated. On that night[712:C] the British embarked at Westover, and dropped down the James to Flower-de-Hundred. Here Simcoe was detached with a force to dislodge some militia at Bland's Mills, and after advancing about two miles, the advance guard, in a dense wood, were fired on by some Americans posted at the forks of the road in front. The British lost twenty men killed and wounded; but, charging, put the militia to flight.
Arnold sending a detachment ashore at Fort Hoods, a skirmish ensued with two hundred and forty men in ambuscade, under Colonel George Rogers Clarke. The enemy lost seventeen killed and thirteen wounded at the first fire, when Clarke being charged, found it necessary to retreat. John Marshall was present at this affair. The enemy dismantled the fort and carried off the heavy artillery. Nelson, in the mean time, by a forced march, reached Williamsburg just before the fleet came to off Jamestown. Arnold, however, landed part of his forces at Cobham, on the opposite side of the river, and marched down, his ships keeping pace with and occasionally re-enforcing him. On the next day Nelson paraded about four hundred militia at Burwell's Ferry to oppose the landing of the enemy. Re-enforcements arriving, augmented his force to twelve hundred; but the enemy was now beyond their reach. Colonel Griffin and Colonel Temple, with a party of light horse, had hovered near the enemy's lines at Westover, and followed the fleet as it went down the river. In this party were Colonels William Nelson, Gregory Smith, Holt Richardson, Major Buller Claiborne, General Lincoln's aid, and Majors Burwell, Ragsdale, and others, together with a number of young gentlemen. Arnold returned to Portsmouth on the twentieth of January without having encountered any serious interruption.
Thus it happened that while the regular troops of Virginia were serving at a distance in other States, the militia, after a five years' war, was still so unarmed and undisciplined that no effective resistance was made to this daring invasion.
About the time when Arnold reached Portsmouth, some of his artillery-men, foraging on the road toward the Great Bridge, were attacked, their wagons captured and their officer wounded. Simcoe, with a handful of yagers and Queen's Rangers, was detached for the purpose of recovering the wagons. Ferrying across to Herbert's Point they advanced about a mile, when "an artillery-man, who had escaped and lay in the bushes, came out and informed him that Lieutenant Rynd lay not far off. Simcoe found him shockingly mangled and mortally wounded; he sent to a neighboring farm for an ox-cart, on which the unfortunate young gentleman was placed. The rain continued in a violent manner, which precluded all pursuit of the enemy; it now grew more tempestuous, and ended in a perfect hurricane, accompanied with incessant lightning. This small party slowly moved back toward Herbert's Ferry; it was with difficulty that the drivers and attendants on the cart could find their way; the soldiers marched on with bayonets fixed, linked in ranks together, covering the road. The creaking of the wagon and the groans of the youth added to the horror of the night; the road was no longer to be traced when it quitted the woods, and it was a great satisfaction that a flash of lightning, which glared among the ruins of Norfolk, disclosed Herbert's house. Here a boat was procured, in which the unhappy youth was conveyed to the hospital-ship, where he died the next day."[714:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[710:A] In a series of replies made by Mr. Jefferson to strictures thrown out upon his conduct of affairs at this juncture, the following occurs: "Query--Why publish Arnold's letter without General Nelson's answer? Answer--Ask the printer. He got neither from the executive."
[710:B] January 4th, 1781.
[712:A] MS. letter of Arthur Lee in my possession.
[712:B] MS. of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. Arnold's visits to Westover are referred to in Edgehill, a novel, by James E. Heath. Esq.
[712:C] January tenth.
[714:A] Simcoe, 171.
Chapter XCVIII
1781.
Greene, Commander of Southern Army--Morgan's Victory at Cowpens--Arnold at Portsmouth--Battle of Guilford--Re-enforced by Phillips--The Enemy at Petersburg--Devastations--Phillips proceeds down James River--Returns to Petersburg--His Death-- Succeeded by Arnold--Simcoe--Virginia Navy--John Tyler--John Banister.
IN accordance with a resolution of congress, passed in November, 1780, General Gates was superseded, and Washington, who was required to appoint an officer to fill the vacant post, selected General Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island. He reached Charlotte, the headquarters of the Southern army, early in December. About this time Lee's legion was ordered into South Carolina, to a point west of the Catawba. Cornwallis, whose headquarters were at Winnsborough, detached Tarleton in pursuit of Morgan, who retreated to the Cowpens, and resolved to risk a battle there. Tarleton leaving his baggage behind him well guarded, started, with his accustomed celerity, at three o'clock in the morning,[715:A] in pursuit. Before day Morgan received intelligence of his approach, and prepared for action. He drew up his regulars and Triplett's corps, reckoned not inferior to them, and about four or five hundred men, under Howard, on an eminence in an open wood. In their rear, on the declivity of the hill, Lieutenant-Colonel Washington was posted with his cavalry and some mounted Georgia militia as a reserve; and with these two corps Morgan remained in person. The front line was composed of militia, under Pickens. Major McDowell, with a battalion of North Carolina volunteers, and Major Cunningham, with a battalion of Georgia volunteers, were advanced about one hundred and fifty yards in front of this line. Morgan's whole force amounted to eight hundred men. Soon after the troops were disposed, the British van appeared in sight, and Tarleton forming his line of battle, his troops rushed forward to the attack, shouting. Morgan's first line soon retreated into the rear of the second. The British advanced in spite of a firm resistance; Tarleton ordered up his reserve, and Howard's infantry being outflanked, Morgan rode up and directed that corps to retreat over the summit of the hill, about one hundred yards, to the cavalry. The British, now confident of victory, pressed on, in some disorder, and when the Americans halted, were within thirty yards of them. At Howard's order, his men turning, faced the enemy, and poured in, unexpectedly, a deadly fire. Howard, perceiving that the enemy's ranks were thrown into some confusion, ordered a charge with the bayonet, and the British line was broken. The cavalry on their right was at the same time routed by Washington. Howard and Washington pressed their advantage until the artillery and greater part of the infantry surrendered; but Washington pursuing too eagerly, received a temporary check, and sustained a heavier loss in this part of the action than in any other. However, the infantry advancing to support him, Tarleton resumed his retreat.[716:A]
In this battle one hundred British, including ten commissioned officers, were killed; twenty-nine commissioned officers and five hundred privates made prisoners. A large quantity of arms and baggage and one hundred dragoon horses fell into the hands of the victors. Morgan lost less than eighty men in killed and wounded.
Tarleton retreated toward Cornwallis, whose headquarters were now twenty-five miles distant. In this action Cornwallis had lost one-fifth of his number and the flower of his army. But Greene was not strong enough to press the advantage; and Morgan, apprehensive of being intercepted by Cornwallis, abandoned the captured baggage, interring the arms, and leaving his wounded under the protection of a flag, hastened to the Catawba, which he recrossed on the twenty-third. The prisoners were sent by General Greene, under escort of Stevens' brigade of Virginia militia to Charlottesville.
In the mean while Arnold, ensconced, like a vulture, was prevented from planning new schemes of devastation by apprehensions that he now began to entertain for his own safety.[717:A] Richard Henry Lee wrote: "But surely, if secrecy and despatch were used, one ship-of-the-line and two frigates would be the means of delivering Arnold and his people into our hands; since the strongest ship here is a forty-four, which covers all their operations. If I am rightly informed, the militia now in arms are strong enough to smother these invaders in a moment if a marine force was here to second the land operations."
February the ninth a French sixty-four gun-ship, with two frigates, under Monsieur De Tilley, sailed for the Chesapeake, and arriving by the thirteenth threatened Portsmouth. But the ship-of-the-line proving too large to operate against the post, De Tilley, in a few days, sailed back for Rhode Island. It was a great disappointment to the Virginians that the French admiral could not be persuaded to send a force competent to capture the traitor. Governor Jefferson, in a letter to General Muhlenburg, offered five thousand guineas for his capture; and suggested that men might be employed to effect this by entering his quarters in the garb of friends--a measure not to be justified even toward Benedict Arnold.
After the battle of the Cowpens, Greene, closely pursued by Cornwallis, retreated across the Dan into Virginia. His lordship then proceeded to Hillsborough, then the capital of North Carolina, where he invited the inhabitants to repair to the royal standard. Greene, re-enforced by a body of Virginia militia under General Stevens, soon re-entered North Carolina, where numerous tories were embodying themselves to join Cornwallis. On the twenty-fifth of February, Lee, with his cavalry, by stratagem surprising a body of royalists under Colonel Pyle, cut them to pieces. On the fifteenth of March occurred the battle of Guilford. Greene's army was much superior in numbers, but consisted mainly of militia and new levies. The cavalry of Lee and Washington was excellent, but the ground was unfavorable for their action. The officers under Greene were mostly veteran. The Virginia militia were commanded by Generals Stevens and Lawson, and by Colonels Preston, Campbell, and Lynch; those of North Carolina by Generals Butler and Eaton. Of the continentals one Maryland regiment alone was veteran. Guilford court-house, near the great Salisbury road, stood on a hill which descends eastward, gradually, with an undulating slope for half a mile, terminating in a little vale intersected by a rivulet. On the right of the road the ground was open, with some copses of wood; on the left a forest. Greene, with not quite two thousand regulars, was posted at the court-house; in the field to the right of the road, the two regiments of Virginia under Huger, the two of Maryland under Williams. Three hundred yards in advance of the regulars were stationed the Virginia militia, crossing at right angles the great road; and as far in front of them and across the same road the North Carolina militia were formed: the Virginia line in the woods; the Carolinians partly in the forest and partly on its edge, behind a strong rail-fence, in front of which lay an open field. Two pieces of artillery, under Captain Singleton, were placed in the road a few yards in advance of the first line. The right flank was guarded by Washington's cavalry, a veteran Delaware company under Kirkwood, and Colonel Lynch with a battalion of Virginia militia. The left was guarded by Lee's legion and Campbell's riflemen. At about ten o'clock in the forenoon, after some firing of artillery, the British, reaching the rivulet, deployed into line of battle, the right commanded by Leslie, the left by Webster. The North Carolina militia, unable to stand the shock, a few excepted, broke, threw away their arms, and fled precipitately through the woods. The Virginia line received the enemy with more firmness, but the greater part of them were compelled to retreat, which was accelerated by the fall of General Stevens, who was wounded in the thigh. The struggle between the enemy and the continentals was stoutly contested, but the second Maryland regiment unexpectedly giving way, Greene was compelled to retreat. Cornwallis pursued but a short distance. The American loss in killed and wounded amounted to thirty officers and four hundred privates. The British loss amounted to five hundred and thirty-two, including several valuable officers. Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart of the guards was killed; Colonel Webster mortally wounded. The total number of Greene's army was forty-five hundred, of whom thirty hundred were actually engaged. Cornwallis' force, according to American accounts, numbered two thousand; according to his statement, to only fourteen hundred and forty-five. After this disastrous victory Lord Cornwallis found it necessary to retire toward Wilmington.
In the mean while Arnold's anxiety for his safety at Portsmouth was relieved by the arrival[719:A] of a re-enforcement under General Phillips. This accomplished and able but proud and passionate officer, exasperated by a tedious captivity, upon his exchange had been indulged by Sir Henry Clinton in a desire to invade Virginia, and wreak his vengeance on a State where he had been so long detained (unjustly as he, not without some reason, believed) a prisoner of war. Having united Arnold's force with his own, Phillips left Portsmouth,[719:B] and on the following day the army landed at Burwell's Ferry, from which the militia fled. Phillips, with the main body, marched upon Williamsburg, and entered it without serious opposition. Simcoe, with a small party of cavalry, early next morning surprised a few artillery-men at Yorktown, (the rest escaping across the river in a boat,) and burnt "a range of the rebel barracks." The British sloop, Bonetta, anchored off the town. How little did the parties engaged in this little episode anticipate the great event which was destined soon to make that ground classic! The Bonetta, too, was destined to return to that picturesque place to play her part in the closing scene. Phillips, embarking at Barret's Ferry, near the mouth of the Chickahominy, issued "the strictest orders to prevent privateers, the bane and disgrace of the country which employs them;" but these orders were disregarded. When off Westover, he issued further orders, saying:
"A third object of the present expedition is to gain Petersburg, for the purpose of destroying the enemy's stores at that place, and it is public stores alone that are intended to be seized." A body of two thousand five hundred men under Phillips landed at City Point,[720:A] and passed the night there; and on the next morning (Wednesday) marched upon Petersburg, by way of Colonel Banister's Whitehall plantation, where they halted in the heat of the day and refreshed themselves. Steuben, with a thousand men, disputed the entry of the town. At about two o'clock the British advanced in two columns by the old road leading by the Blandford Church, and were opposed by a party of militia posted on the heights, just beyond Blandford, under Captain House, of Brunswick, and Colonel Dick. The enemy were twice broken, and ran like sheep, and during two hours advanced only one mile. At length the battalion of Americans posted at the Bollingbrook warehouses, near the Blandford Bridge, being flanked by four pieces of artillery, were compelled to retire over the Appomattox, taking up Pocahontas Bridge as soon as they had crossed it, ten men being killed in ascending the hill. On this hill Steuben had placed some troops and cannon to cover his retreat. The American loss, killed, wounded, and taken, in this affair was estimated at sixty; that of the British probably not less, there having been, according to Colonel Banister, not less than fourteen killed; their wounded were sent down the river in gun-boats. Abercrombie, who commanded the British infantry on this occasion, was the same who afterwards fell in Egypt. Phillips, taking possession of Petersburg, made his headquarters at Bollingbrook, a private residence, on an eminence overlooking the river. He destroyed, next day, a large quantity of tobacco, the people removing it from the warehouses to save it from the flames. One of them was set fire to by a soldier and burnt. The enemy also destroyed several vessels. The bridge over the Appomattox being readily repaired, Abercrombie, with a detachment, passed over on the twenty-sixth, and took possession of the heights opposite the town, known as Archer's Hill. Phillips, with his whole army, crossing on the same day, burnt the bridge, and proceeded to commit devastations at Chesterfield Court-house, Osbornes, and at Warwick, destroying the American vessels, and shipping off the tobacco. This being private property, its destruction was in violation of his recent order. At Manchester a detachment destroyed the warehouses and tobacco, and several dwelling-houses, the militia and inhabitants of Richmond being quiet spectators of the scene. Proceeding from Osbornes to Bermuda Hundred, the British embarked there and sailed down the river as far as Hog Island, where Phillips, receiving orders by an advice-boat, returned up the river, as far as Brandon, the seat of Benjamin Harrison, where the troops landed in a gale of wind. Colonel Theodorick Bland, Sr., received the following protection: "It is Major-General Phillips' positive orders that no part of the property of Colonel Theodorick Bland receive any injury from his majesty's troops.
"April 25th, 1781.
"J. W. NOBLE, aide-de-camp Major-General Phillips.
"Major-General Phillips is very happy to show this favor on account of Colonel Bland Junior's many civilities to the troops of convention at Charlottesville."
Notwithstanding this, Colonel Bland's place of residence, Farmingdell, in Prince George County, was plundered by the British troops: his furniture broken to pieces; china-ware pounded up; tobacco, corn, and stock destroyed, and negroes taken off. General Phillips being taken ill, found it necessary to travel in a carriage, which was procured for him by Simcoe.
Part of the troops were sent[721:A] to City Point in boats; the rest marched upon Petersburg, arrived there late in the night, and surprised a party of American officers engaged in collecting boats for La Fayette to cross his army.[721:B] La Fayette, with a strong escort, appeared on the heights opposite Petersburg, and the artillery, under Colonel Gimat, cannonaded the enemy's quarters. Bollingbrook, where General Phillips lay ill of a bilious fever, being exposed to the fire, it was found necessary to remove him into the cellar, and it is commonly reported that he died while the firing was going on. This mistake appears to have originated with Anburey, who, in his Travels, mentions that during the cannonade, the British general, then at the point of death, exclaimed, "My God, 'tis cruel: they will not let me die in peace!" Anburey, being himself a prisoner of war, was not in favorable circumstances for obtaining accurate information on this subject. It appears that the cannonading took place three days before the death of General Phillips. He died on the thirteenth. La Fayette, aware that Bollingbrook was headquarters, directed some shot particularly at that house, which, from its elevated site, afforded a conspicuous mark. This proceeding was provoked by the horrid series of devastations which Phillips had just perpetrated in company of the traitor Arnold. Two balls struck the house, it is said, one passing through it. General Phillips lies buried in the old Blandford Churchyard. Miller,[722:A] a historian of his own country, observes that it would have been a fortunate circumstance for his fame "had he died three weeks sooner than he did."[722:B]
Upon the death of General Phillips the command devolved on Arnold, and he sent an officer with a flag and a letter to La Fayette. As soon as he saw Arnold's name subscribed to the letter he refused to read it, and told the officer that he would hold no intercourse whatever with Arnold; but with any other officer he should be ever ready to interchange the civilities which the circumstances of the two armies might render desirable. Washington highly approved of this proceeding.
Already before the death of General Phillips, Simcoe had been detached from Petersburg to meet Cornwallis, who was advancing from North Carolina. Simcoe, on his route to the Roanoke, captured, some miles to the south of the Nottoway River, a Colonel Gee, at his residence, "a rebel militia officer," who, refusing to give his parole, was sent prisoner to Major Armstrong. Another "rebel," Colonel Hicks, mistaking Simcoe's party for an advanced guard of La Fayette's army, was also made prisoner. At Hicks' Ford, a captain and thirty militia-men were taken by a ruse de guerre, and compelled to give their paroles. Here Simcoe, on his return toward Petersburg, met with Tarleton and his "legion clothed in white."
During this year (1781) Captain Harris, with the little brig Mosquito, after taking two prizes, in a voyage to the West Indies was captured by the British frigate Ariadne, and carried into Barbadoes. The men were confined there in jail and prison-ships: the officers taken to England and incarcerated in Fortune Jail, at Gosport. Driven by cruel usage to make a desperate attempt at escape, they succeeded, and returned to America, and again bore arms against the enemy. Among them were Lieutenant Chamberlayne, Midshipman Alexander Moore, Alexander Dick, captain of marines, and George Catlett, lieutenant of marines. Shortly after the capture of the Mosquito, the Raleigh fell into the enemy's hands, and her crew were no less maltreated. The brig Jefferson, under command of Captain Markham, captured several prizes.
Among those distinguished for their gallantry in the little navy of Virginia was Captain Samuel Barron, (son of Commodore James Barron,) afterwards of the United States navy. Captain John Cowper, of Nansemond County, was in command of the Dolphin brig, with a crew of seventy-five men. Embarking on a cruise, he nailed his flag to the mast-head, and declared that he would never strike it to an enemy. Engaging shortly after with two British vessels, she was seen no more, and it is supposed that she sunk during the action.
John Tyler was born at his father's residence, near Williamsburg, in James City County, in 1748. His father, whose name he bore, was marshal for the colony, and his mother was the daughter of Doctor Contesse, one of the Protestants driven from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and who found a home in Virginia. John Tyler, the younger of the two sons of this union, (the elder of whom died young,) enjoyed frequent opportunities of hearing the debates in the house of burgesses, and heard Patrick Henry in the stormy discussion on his resolutions in 1765, and in the decline of life still related with animation his recollections of that debate. He became so decided an opponent of the tyrannical pretensions of the mother country that his father often predicted that, sooner or later, he would be executed for high treason. Mr. Tyler studied the law under Mr. Robert Carter Nicholas, and while thus engaged formed an acquaintance with Thomas Jefferson which ripened into a friendship terminated only by death. The society of the ardent Jefferson fanned the flame of young Tyler's patriotism, and he became at an early day the advocate of independence. About the year 1774, having obtained his license, he removed to Charles City, where he took up his permanent abode. Successful in the practice of the law, he was after a brief interval elected a delegate from that county. He was re-elected for several years, his colleague for the greater part of that time being Benjamin Harrison, Jr., of Berkley, whom Mr. Tyler succeeded as speaker of the house of burgesses. After the lapse of many years Mr. Tyler's son, of the same name, succeeded General William Henry Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison, Jr., in the Presidency of the Union. Mr. Tyler, the revolutionary patriot, while a member of the assembly, contracted an intimate friendship with Patrick Henry, for whom he entertained an almost idolizing veneration. They corresponded for many years. Mr. Tyler participated largely in the debates, and on all occasions exhibited himself a devoted patriot, and thoroughbred republican. In subsequent years he was governor of Virginia and judge of the United States district court. In private life his virtues won regard, in public his integrity and talents commanded the confidence of his country.
John Banister was the son of an eminent botanist, of the same name, who settled in Virginia toward the close of the seventeenth century, and devoted himself to the study of plants. In one of his botanical excursions, near the falls of the Roanoke, he fell from a rock and was killed. As a naturalist he was esteemed not inferior to Bartram. John Banister, the son, was educated in England, and bred to the law at the Temple. He was a burgess of the assembly, and afterwards a distinguished member of the convention of 1776. In the following year he was an active member of the assembly. He visited the headquarters of the American army about the time of the battle of Germantown. In 1778-9 he was a member of congress at York, and at Philadelphia, and in September visited headquarters as member of the committee of arrangement. He was one of the framers of the articles of confederation. In 1781 he was lieutenant-colonel of cavalry under General Lawson. The two other colonels in the brigade were John Mercer, afterwards governor of Maryland, and James Monroe, subsequently President of the United States. Lawson's corps was dissolved when Leslie retired from Virginia, and thus the horse commanded by Colonel Banister was lost to the State, at a time when cavalry was so pressingly required. During the invasions which Virginia was subjected to, Colonel Banister was actively engaged in the efforts made to repel the enemy. Proprietor of a large estate, he suffered repeated and heavy losses from the depredations of the British. At one time, it is said, he supplied a body of troops, on their way to the South, with blankets at his own expense.
A miniature likeness of him is said to be preserved by his descendants in Amelia County. Of an excellent and well cultivated mind, and refined manners, he was in private life amiable and upright, in public generous, patriotic, and enlightened. As a writer he may be ranked with the first of his day. A number of his letters have been published in the Bland Papers, and several, addressed to Washington, in Sparks' Revolutionary Correspondence.
Colonel Banister resided near Petersburg, at Battersea, which house he built. Chastellux visited it in 1781. Colonel Banister married, first, Mary, daughter of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Sr. Of this union there were three children; but this whole branch is extinct. Colonel Banister's second wife was Anne, sister of Judge Blair, of the federal court. There were two sons of this marriage: Theodorick Blair, and John Monro. Theodorick Blair Banister married Signora Tabb. Children surviving, (1856:) Monro, Tudor, Yelverton, and two daughters. John Monro Banister married Mary B. Bolling. Children surviving: William C. Banister, the Rev. John Monro Banister, and three daughters.
FOOTNOTES:
[715:A] February 17th, 1781.
[716:A] In the pursuit, Washington advanced near thirty yards in front of his men. Three British officers observing this charged upon him. The officer on his right aimed a blow to cut him down, when an American sergeant intercepted it by disabling his sword arm. The officer on his left was about to make a stroke at him, when a waiter saved him by wounding the assailant with a ball from a pistol. The officer in the centre, believed to be Tarleton, now made a thrust at him, which he parried, upon which the officer retreated a few paces and then discharged a pistol at him, which wounded his horse.
[717:A] January 26th, 1781.
[719:A] March twenty-seventh.
[719:B] April eighteenth.
[720:A] April twenty-third.
[721:A] May ninth.
[721:B] Tenth.
[722:A] Hist. of England.
[722:B] Bollingbrook, deriving its name from the family of Bolling, who owned much of the land on which the town of Petersburg was built, consisted of two frame buildings, or wings, standing apart, it having been designed to connect them by a main building, which, however, was never done. The eastern tenement was burned down some years ago, and thus was lost an interesting memento of the Revolution. A representation of it may be seen in Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution."
Chapter XCIX
1781.
Cornwallis at Petersburg--La Fayette retreats--Simcoe's Expedition--Tarleton's Expedition--Cornwallis marches toward Point of Fork--Devastations of the Enemy--Peter Francisco--La Fayette re-enforced by Wayne--Cornwallis retires--Followed by La Fayette--Skirmish at Spencer's Plantation--Action near Jamestown--La Fayette.
CORNWALLIS marched[726:A] from Wilmington for Petersburg. To facilitate the passage of the rivers, two boats, mounted on carriages, accompanied the army. Tarleton led the advance. While the army was yet on the left bank of the Roanoke, Cornwallis, who had passed it, upon overtaking Tarleton's detachment, ordered them to be dismounted and formed in line for the inspection of the inhabitants, to enable them to discover the men who had committed certain horrid outrages on the preceding evening. A sergeant and a dragoon being pointed out as the offenders, were remanded to Halifax, condemned by a court-martial, and executed. His lordship was prompted to such acts of discipline not only by his moderation and humanity, but also by a desire to avoid any new exasperation of the people, and by a hope of alluring the loyalists to his standard. On the 19th of May, 1781, he reached Petersburg, and with the remnant of his Carolina army he now united the troops under Arnold, consisting of a detachment of royal artillery, two battalions of light infantry, the 76th and 80th British regiments, the Hessian regiment of the Prince Hereditaire, Simcoe's corps of cavalry and infantry, called the "Queen's Rangers," chiefly tories, one hundred yagers, and Arnold's American legion, likewise tories, the whole amounting to about two thousand five hundred men, which, together with the Carolina army, made his lordship's aggregate force at Petersburg about four thousand five hundred. The entire field force now under his command in Virginia was not less than seven thousand three hundred, including four hundred dragoons and seven or eight hundred mounted infantry. He received intelligence from Lord Rawdon of his having defeated Greene, at Hobkirk's Hill. Cornwallis remained three or four days at Petersburg. Light troops and spies being despatched to discover La Fayette's position, he was found posted near Wilton, on the James River, a few miles below Richmond, with a thousand regulars and three thousand militia, the main body of them under command of General Nelson. La Fayette was expecting re-enforcements of militia and Wayne's Pennsylvania Brigade. In compliance with the orders of Governor Jefferson, continental officers were substituted in the higher commands of the militia. Three corps of light infantry, of two hundred and fifty each, of select militia marksmen, were placed under command of Majors Call, Willis, and Dick of the continental line. La Fayette's cavalry comprised only the remnant of Armand's corps, sixty in number, and a troop of volunteer dragoons under Captain Carter Page, late of Baylor's Regiment. General Weedon, not now in service, owing to a diminution in the number of officers, was requested to collect a corps of militia to protect a manufactory of arms at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg. Tarleton patroled from Petersburg as far as Warwick, and, surprising a body of militia, captured fifty of them. In the mean while General Leslie arrived at the mouth of the James with a re-enforcement sent by Clinton from New York. Cornwallis, upon receiving intelligence of it, ordered Leslie to repair to Portsmouth with the 17th British Regiment, two battalions of Anspach, and the 43d, to join the main army. His lordship now proceeded with his forces to Macocks, on the James, opposite to Westover, where, being joined by the 43d, he crossed over, the passage occupying nearly three days, the horses swimming by aid of boats, the river there being two miles wide.
Arnold obtained leave to return to New York, "where business of consequence demanded his attendance." The British officers had found it irksome to serve under him. Cornwallis afterwards told La Fayette that as soon as he joined the army in Virginia, he took the first occasion to send Arnold down to Portsmouth, and expressed disgust at associating with a person of his character.
The force concentrated by Cornwallis amounted to eight thousand. La Fayette, hearing of this movement of the enemy, crossed the Chickahominy and retreated toward Fredericksburg, with a view of protecting the arsenal at Falmouth and of meeting Wayne. Cornwallis pursued with celerity, but finding La Fayette beyond his reach, gave out the chase, and encamped on the banks of the North Anna, in Hanover. La Fayette, who had been hotly pursued by Tarleton, retreated precipitately beyond Fredericksburg; and it was on this occasion that Cornwallis, in a letter, said of La Fayette: "The boy cannot escape me." The Marquis de Chastellux says: "All I learnt by a conversation with Mr. Bird[728:A] was that he had been pillaged by the English when they passed his house in their march from Westover in pursuit of Monsieur de la Fayette, and in returning to Williamsburg, after endeavoring in vain to come up with him. It was comparatively nothing to see their fruits, fowls, and cattle carried away by the light troops, which formed the van-guard; the army collected what the van-guard had left; even the officers seized the rum and all kinds of provisions without paying a farthing for them; this hurricane, which destroyed everything in its passage, was followed by a scourge yet more terrible: a numerous rabble, under the title of Refugees and Loyalists, followed the army, not to assist in the field, but to partake of the plunder. The furniture and clothes of the inhabitants were in general the sole booty left to satisfy their avidity; after they had emptied the houses, they stript the proprietors, and Mr. Bird repeated with indignation that they had taken from him by force the very boots from off his legs." "Mr. Tilghman, our landlord,[728:B] though he lamented his misfortune in having lodged and boarded Lord Cornwallis and his retinue without his lordship's having made him the least recompense, could not yet help laughing at the fright which the unexpected arrival of Tarleton spread among a considerable number of gentlemen who had come to hear the news, and were assembled at the court-house. A negro on horseback came full gallop to let them know that Tarleton was not above three miles off. The resolution of retreating was soon taken; but the alarm was so sudden and the confusion so great that every one mounted the first horse he could find, so that few of those curious gentlemen returned upon their own horses."
From his army encamped in Hanover, Cornwallis detached Simcoe with five hundred men, Queen's Rangers and yagers, with a three-pounder, the cavalry amounting to one hundred. The object of this expedition was to destroy the arsenal lately erected at the Point of Fork, and the military stores there. The Point of Fork is contained between the Rivanna and the James, in the County of Fluvanna. At the same time his lordship detached Tarleton with his legion, and one company of the 23d Regiment, with the design of capturing Governor Jefferson, and the members of the assembly, then convened at Charlottesville, and also of destroying military stores.
During the recent incursions of Phillips and Arnold a state arsenal had been established at the Point of Fork, and military stores collected there with a view to the prosecution of the war in the Carolinas. The protection of this post had been entrusted to Baron Steuben, who had acquired a knowledge of the military art under Frederick the Great. Steuben's force consisted of between five and six hundred new levies, (originally intended for the Southern army,) and a few militia under General Lawson. Cornwallis informed Simcoe that the baron's force was only three or four hundred; but Simcoe held the earl's military intelligence in slight respect. Thus he says:[729:A] "He had received no advices from Lord Cornwallis, whose general intelligence he knew to be very bad." "The slightest reliance was not to be placed on any patroles from his lordship's army."
Lieutenant Spencer, with twenty hussars, formed Simcoe's advanced guard of chosen men mounted on fleet horses. Simcoe crossing the South Anna, pushed on with his usual rapidity by Bird's Ordinary toward Napier's Ford on the Rivanna. Cornwallis, with the main body, followed in Simcoe's route. No inhabitant of the country coming within view escaped capture. From some of the prisoners intelligence was obtained that Steuben was at the Point of Fork and in the act of crossing to the south side of the James. The baron adopted this measure in consequence of intelligence of Tarleton's incursion. Within two miles of Steuben's camp a patrol of dragoons appeared, was chased and taken; it consisted of a French officer and four of Armand's corps. The advanced men of Spencer's guard changed clothes with the prisoners for the purpose of attempting to surprise the baron at the only house at the Point of Fork. Just as Simcoe was about to give the order to his men to lay down their knapsacks in preparation for an engagement, the advanced guard brought in a prisoner, Mr. Farley, Steuben's aid, who had mistaken them for the patrol which had just been captured. He assured Simcoe that he had seen every man over the James before he left the Point of Fork, and this was confirmed by some captured wagoners. Simcoe's cavalry advancing, plainly saw the baron's force on the opposite side. About thirty of Steuben's people, collected on the bank where the embarcation had taken place, were captured. Simcoe, thus disappointed, employed stratagem to persuade the baron that the party was Earl Cornwallis' whole army, so as to cause the arms and stores that covered the opposite banks to be abandoned. Captain Hutchinson, with the 71st Regiment clothed in red, was directed to approach the banks of the James, while the baggage and women halted in the woods on the summit of a hill, where they made the appearance of a numerous corps, the woods mystifying their numbers, and numerous camp-fires aiding the deception. The three-pounder was carried down and one shot fired, by which was killed the horse of one of Steuben's orderly dragoons. The baron was encamped on the heights on the opposite shore, about three-quarters of a mile back from the river. He had passed the river in consequence of intelligence of Tarleton's incursion, which he apprehended was aimed at him. The river was broad and unfordable, and Steuben was in possession of all the boats. Simcoe himself was now in an exposed position; but his anxiety was relieved when the baron's people were heard at night destroying their boats with great noise. At midnight they made up their camp fires. Soon after a deserter and a little drummer-boy passed over in a canoe, and gave information that Steuben had marched off on the road by Cumberland Court-house toward North Carolina. The drummer-boy belonged to the 71st Regiment; he had been taken prisoner at the Cowpens, had enlisted in Morgan's army, and now making his escape happened to be received by a picket-guard which his own father commanded. On the following day, by aid of some canoes, Simcoe sent across the river Captain Stevenson with twenty light infantry, and Cornet Wolsey with four hussars, who carried their saddles with them. The infantry detachment were ordered to bring off such supplies as Simcoe might need, and to destroy the remainder. The hussars were directed to mount upon such straggling horses as they could find, and patrol in Steuben's wake. Both orders were executed; the stores were destroyed and Steuben's retreat accelerated. Simcoe in the mean while employed his men in constructing a raft by which he might pass the Rivanna. There was destroyed here a large quantity of arms, the greater part of them, however, out of repair, together with ammunition and military stores. The quantity and value of property destroyed were exaggerated by the enemy; as also was Steuben's force. Simcoe took away a mortar, five brass howitzers, and four long brass nine-pounders, all French, mounted afterwards at Yorktown. According to his opinion a small guard left by Steuben would have protected these stores. The disaster was probably owing to a want of accurate military intelligence. Simcoe held Steuben's military qualifications in high estimation; but his opinion of La Fayette was the reverse.
Mean while Tarleton, passing rapidly along the road by Louisa Court-house, met with some wagons laden with clothing for the Southern army, and burnt them. Learning that a number of gentlemen, who had escaped from the lower country, were assembled, some at Dr. Walker's, the others at Mr. John Walker's,[731:A] Tarleton, instead of advancing at once upon Charlottesville, despatched Captain Kinloch with a party to Mr. John Walker's, while he proceeded with the rest to the doctor's mansion, where he surprised Colonel John Syme, half-brother to Patrick Henry, Judge Lyons, and some other gentlemen who were found asleep, it being early in the morning.[732:A] Captain Kinloch captured Francis Kinloch, his relative, a delegate to congress from South Carolina, together with William and Robert Nelson, brothers to General Thomas Nelson. There is a family tradition that when this Captain Kinloch was about to leave England, the ladies of his family begged him not to kill his cousin in America, and that he replied, "No, but I will be sure to take him prisoner," which playful prediction was now fulfilled.[732:B] A Mr. Jouitte, mounted on a fleet horse, conveyed intelligence of Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville, so that the greater part of the members of the assembly escaped.[732:C] Tarleton, after a delay of some hours, entered Charlottesville; seven of the delegates fell into his hands, and the public stores were destroyed. Captain McCleod, with a troop of horse, visited Monticello with a view of capturing Mr. Jefferson; but he had about sunrise received information of Tarleton's approach. Some members of the assembly, and the speakers of both houses, who were his guests, hastened to Charlottesville; Mrs. Jefferson and her children hurried off in a carriage, and Mr. Jefferson followed afterwards on horseback, a few minutes before McCleod reached the house. The magnificent panorama of mountain scenery visible there must have afforded him and his dragoons some compensation for the disappointment. While Tarleton was in the neighborhood of Charlottesville, some British and Hessian prisoners of the convention troops cantoned with the planters, joined him. The prisoners of distinction, whom he had captured, were treated with lenity, being detained only a few days on their parole not to escape; "the lower class were secured as prisoners of war." The prisoners of note were released at Elkhill, a plantation of Mr. Jefferson's, where Cornwallis for ten days made his headquarters. This plantation was laid waste by the enemy. Wherever his lordship's army went, plantations were despoiled, and private houses plundered. During the six months of his stay in Virginia she lost thirty thousand slaves, of whom the greater part died of small-pox and camp fever; and the rest were shipped to the West Indies, Nova Scotia, etc. The devastations committed during these six months were estimated at upwards of thirteen millions of dollars.[733:A]
Peter Francisco, a soldier of the Revolution, celebrated for his physical strength and personal prowess, lived long in the County of Buckingham, Virginia, and died there. His origin is obscure: he supposed that he was a Portuguese by birth, and that he was kidnapped when an infant, and carried to Ireland. He had no recollection of his parents, and the first knowledge that he retained of himself was of being in that country when a small boy. Resolving to come to America, he indented himself to a sea-captain for seven years, in payment of his passage. On arriving in Virginia he was indented to Anthony Winston, Esq., of Buckingham, and labored on his estate until the breaking out of the Revolution. Being then at the age of sixteen he obtained permission to enlist in the army. At the storming of Stony Point he was the next, after Major Gibbon, to enter the fortress, and he received a bayonet wound in the thigh. He was present in the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth, the Cowpens, Camden, and Guilford Court-house. In the last-mentioned action, where he belonged to Colonel Washington's dragoons, his strong arm levelled eleven of the enemy. His bravery was equal to his strength.
During the year 1781, while reconnoitring alone, and stopping at a house in Amelia, now Nottoway, he was made prisoner by a detachment of Tarleton's dragoons. But availing himself of a favorable opportunity, when one of the British was stooping to take off his silver shoe-buckles, Francisco wounded him with his own sword, and another, and by a ruse frightened off the rest of the party, who fled, leaving their horses, although Tarleton's corps was in full view. This exploit was illustrated by an engraving, published in 1814, a favorite ornament of the drawing-room. Peter Francisco was in height six feet and one inch: his weight was two hundred and sixty pounds: his strength Herculean. He used a sword of extraordinary size. His complexion was that of a native of the south of Europe, his eye dark, his whole appearance massive, unique, and remarkable. An excellent portrait of him was made by Harding. John Randolph, of Roanoke, brought the attention of congress to Peter Francisco's military services in an interesting memoir, and applied for a pension for him. He was in old age made sergeant-at-arms to the house of delegates.[734:A]
The condition of affairs in Virginia in the summer of 1781 was gloomy, humiliating, apparently almost desperate. After a war of five years the State was still unfortified, unarmed, unprepared. But it was asked, did not every Virginian possess a gun of some kind, and was it not with such arms that the battles of Bunker Hill and of the Cowpens were fought? Virginia had entered upon the war when she was already loaded with debt, and exhausted by her Indian war, and by her non-importation policy, before the war began. Intersected by rivers, she was everywhere exposed to the inroads of the enemy; and a dense slave population obstructed the prompt movement of the militia. The darkness of the future was relieved by a single ray of hope derived from the uncertain rumors of the sailing of a French fleet for America; but frequent disappointment rendered hope of help from that quarter precarious. The bulk of the people were staunch whigs and well affected to the French alliance; but they were growing despondent, and some were even beginning to fear that France was prolonging the war so as to weaken America as well as Great Britain, and to render the new confederation dependent upon its allies. With the aid of a superior French fleet there could be no doubt of the successful issue of the war; without that aid, there was too much reason to fear that the people could not be kept much longer firm, in so unequal a contest.
La Fayette, joined by Wayne's brigade, eight or nine hundred strong, marched toward Albemarle old court-house, where some magazines remained uninjured by the British, and he succeeded in saving them from Tarleton's grasp. La Fayette at this place was joined by Colonel Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, with his riflemen. Cornwallis, in accordance with advices from Clinton, retired to the lower country, and was followed by La Fayette, who had, in the mean time, above Richmond been re-enforced by Steuben with his new levies and some militia. Cornwallis halted for a few days at Richmond; Simcoe being posted at Westham; Tarleton at the Meadow Bridge. La Fayette's army amounted to four thousand five hundred, of whom one-half were regular; and of these, fifteen hundred were veterans; he was still inferior to his lordship in numbers, by one-third, and very deficient in cavalry. Cornwallis, leaving the picturesque hills of Richmond on the 20th of June, 1781, reached Williamsburg on the twenty-fifth. La Fayette followed, and passing Richmond arrived at New Kent Court-house on the day after the British general had left it. La Fayette took up a position on Tyre's plantation, twenty miles from Williamsburg. Cornwallis having detached Simcoe to destroy some boats and stores on the Chickahominy, he performed the service with his accustomed promptness. La Fayette discovering Simcoe's movement, detached Colonel Butler, of the Pennsylvania line, in quest of him. Butler's van consisted of the rifle corps under Majors Call and Willis and the cavalry; the whole detachment, not exceeding one hundred and twenty effectives, was led by Major McPherson, of Pennsylvania. Having mounted some infantry behind the remnant of Armand's dragoons, he overtook Simcoe, on his return, near Spencer's plantation, about six miles above Williamsburg, at the forks of the roads leading to that place and to Jamestown. The ground there, in Simcoe's phrase, was "admirably adapted to the chicanery of action." The suddenness of McPherson's attack threw the yagers into confusion, but they were firmly supported by the Queen's Rangers, to whom the alarm was given by trumpeter Barney, exclaiming: "Draw your swords, Rangers; the rebels are coming!" Barney himself captured a French officer. Call and Willis having now joined McPherson, a warm conflict ensued; and Simcoe found occasion for all his resources. The advanced party of Butler's corps was repulsed, and fell back in confusion upon the continentals, and Simcoe, satisfied with this advantage, retired. Both parties claimed the advantage in this rencontre, the loss of the British being eleven killed and twenty-six wounded; that of the Americans was not reported, except that three officers and twenty-eight privates were made prisoners; the number of their killed and wounded probably exceeded that of the British.[736:A] Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe considered this action as "the climax of a campaign of five years." Major McPherson was unhorsed, but crept into a swamp, and so escaped. Simcoe, after retreating two miles toward Williamsburg, met Cornwallis with the advance of his army coming to his relief. Colonel Butler, the American commander in this affair, was the same who afterwards fell at St. Clair's defeat.
Late in June, Cornwallis, with an escort of cavalry under Simcoe, visited Yorktown for the purpose of examining the capabilities of that post; and his lordship formed an unfavorable opinion of it. The party was ineffectually fired at from Gloucester Point, and returned on the same day to Williamsburg. After halting here nine days, Cornwallis[736:B] marched, and encamped near Jamestown Island, for the purpose of crossing the James and proceeding to Portsmouth. The Queen's Rangers passed over the river in the evening of the same day to cover the baggage which was now transported. La Fayette, as Cornwallis had predicted, now advanced with the hope of striking at the rear-guard only, of the enemy, supposing, upon imperfect intelligence, that the main body had already crossed. Accordingly, about sunset[736:C] La Fayette attacked Cornwallis near Greenspring, and after a warm conflict was compelled to retreat, having discovered that he was engaged by the main body of the British. Of the continentals one hundred and eighteen were killed, wounded, or taken. Some cannon also fell into the hands of the enemy. The British state their loss at five officers and seventy privates killed and wounded. Cornwallis now crossed the James unmolested and marched[737:A] for Portsmouth.
La Fayette, re-enforced by some dragoons from Baltimore, retired to a strong position near the head of York River. The militia had already been discharged.
FOOTNOTES:
[726:A] April twenty-fifth.
[728:A] Landlord of the Ordinary in New Kent.
[728:B] At Hanover Court-house.
[729:A] Simcoe's Journal, 226.
[731:A] Belvoir, about seven miles from Charlottesville, and the residence of the late Judge Hugh Nelson. The house has been burnt down.
[732:A] It is said that as one of the gentlemen, who was rather embonpoint, and who in this emergency had found time to put on nothing but his breeches, ran across the yard in full view of the British dragoons, they burst into a fit of laughter at so extraordinary a phenomenon.
[732:B] Francis Kinloch, of Kensington, South Carolina, meeting, in passing, with Eliza, only daughter of Mr. John Walker, who was also at Philadelphia attending congress, is said to have fallen in love with her at first sight, she having at the moment just come from her hair-dresser, and he afterwards married her: and Eliza, only daughter of that union, became the wife of the late Judge Hugh Nelson, United States Minister at Madrid.
[732:C] The general assembly presented him with a horse fully caparisoned and a pair of pistols for his vigilance and activity.
[733:A] Burk, iv.
[734:A] Howe's Hist. Coll. of Va., 207.
[736:A] Simcoe, 227. Plan of the skirmish opposite 236.
[736:B] Fourth of July.
[736:C] July 6th, 1781.
[737:A] July ninth.
Chapter C
1781.
Capture of the Patriot--The Barrons and Captain Starlins-- Battle of the Barges.
WHILE the British men-of-war and transports were assembled in Hampton Roads, in co-operation with Cornwallis, in the spring and summer of 1781, the small craft were engaged in frequent depredations, going up the James as far as Jamestown, and looking into the smaller streams for plunder. To afford some little relief to the distressed inhabitants, for the most part women, the men being at sea, or in the army, or prisoners, it was determined to employ the only vessel then afloat belonging to the State--the schooner Patriot. She was small, and mounted only eight two-pounders; but she had more than once captured vessels of twice her calibre. Captain Watkins having received his orders, proceeded at once down the James River upon this service. For some weeks a sloop, supposed to be a privateer, had been committing depredations, and Watkins determined to overhaul her. Two young Virginians were on the north side of the James, in the County of Elizabeth City, endeavoring day after day to cross the river and find a safer refuge on the south side of it. Daily emerging from a small house, "in the great gust-wood," where they found temporary shelter, they repaired to the river side, distant about three miles, looking out for some craft to convey them across. In company of the two brothers was a negro, a native of Africa, who had been brought to Virginia in his youth, and had soon evinced an ardent attachment to it. He was an expert pilot, and a devoted "patriot." On a Sunday morning, as the trio stood on the river bank, at a point in Warwick County, they espied the schooner Patriot in chase of the plundering sloop, and apparently gaining fast upon her. The negro, known as Captain Starlins, at this spectacle, gave noisy utterance to his extravagant joy, hopping about and clapping together his uplifted hands. The three hoped soon to witness the capture of the sloop; but it turned out that she was purposely retarded in her course by a drag thrown out over her starboard bow, and the Patriot coming alongside of her, there suddenly up jumped fifty marines, and in a moment the Patriot was captured.[739:A] The three spectators beheld the catastrophe with intense disappointment. From the zenith of hope Captain Starlins had been suddenly plunged souse down to the nadir of despair. He and the younger of the brothers burst into tears, while the older brother, fifteen years of age, although no less grieved, had more command over his sensibilities. Giving a parting look to the unfortunate schooner as she disappeared in the hazy distance, they retraced their steps. Watkins and those under him were sent off to Charleston, and confined in the provost prison, where he died. The Patriot was taken round to Yorktown. Captain Mark Starlins died a slave a few years after, and just before the passage of a law giving freedom to those men of color who had served the patriotic cause. His slavery, however, appears to have been merely nominal; for his master fully appreciated his noble character, and which was held in high estimation by all worthy citizens, especially by all the navy officers of Virginia. The two brothers were the Barrons, afterwards distinguished in the United States naval service.[739:B]
In 1782 Maryland sent out Commodore Whaley, with some barges, to protect the Eastern Shore of that State against bucaneering crafts manned by British sailors, and tories, and negroes. Receiving information of the appearance of a flotilla of such barges in the Chesapeake Bay, under command of a Commodore Kid, a Scotchman, Whaley, deeming them too strong for him, solicited aid from Colonel John Cropper, commander of Accomac County, who, with a party of volunteers, re-enforced him. Colonel Cropper, with several Accomac gentlemen, went on board the Protector, the commodore's barge. Whaley having requested those in the other barges to support him in case the enemy should make a push at him, they promised to do so, "or all sink together." The enemy's barges were descried in the morning of the thirtieth of November, in Cagey's Straits: they soon hove to, and formed in line. The action commenced at half-past nine o'clock, and lasted twenty-five minutes. The foremost of Whaley's barges having fired a few shot at long distance, retreated. He, nevertheless, with the Protector advanced to within fifty yards of the enemy, exposed to their fire, and returning it warmly. A gunner, in handing an eighteen-pounder cartridge out of the chest, happened to break it, and the spilt powder, although water had been poured upon it, caught fire from the flash of the small arms, and the chest exploded, producing great confusion on board, killing two or three, and causing a number of men, some with their clothes on fire, to jump overboard. The enemy, encouraged by this, pushed on with redoubled fury, and Whaley was deserted by his other five barges, who fled ingloriously, leaving their commander to his fate. Three of Kid's barges were already alongside of him, when a second ammunition chest exploded, renewing the scene of disaster and confusion. Lieutenant Handy enquired of Whaley whether it would not be better to strike: he replied that he should not strike. Colonel Cropper describes the action at this time as "a continual shower of musket bullets, pikes, cold shot, cutlasses, and iron stantials, for eight or ten minutes." The Protector being overpowered by numbers, most of the men being driven from their quarters, she was surrendered, the general cry being for quarter, which, however, the enemy refused. The barge was now boarded by the blacks with brutal cruelty. In this action all the Protector's officers were either killed or wounded. Whaley fell, killed by a musket ball; Captain Handy fell fighting with one arm, after the other had been broken. Lieutenant Handy was severely wounded. Of the sixty-five men that went into action in the Protector twenty-five were killed or drowned, and twenty-nine wounded, some mortally. Of the Accomac volunteers Captain Christian was killed with a musket ball. Captain William Snead, Mr. John Reville, and Colonel Cropper, were wounded. Among those thrown into the water by the explosion was William Gibb, a Scotchman, for many years deputy clerk of Accomac. He could not swim, and was sinking when his friend, Captain Parker, seized him by the hair, and kept him afloat until they both were picked up by the enemy. As long as Gibb lived, which was forty-five years thereafter, he had an annual feast at his house on the thirtieth of November, the anniversary of the Battle of the Barges.[741:A]
Colonel Cropper at the age of nineteen was captain of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the continental line: and in 1776 was made major in the 5th Regiment.[741:B] He was with Washington in the Jerseys, and present at the battles of Monmouth and Brandywine. For his good conduct in the latter he was promoted.
FOOTNOTES:
[739:A] Such is the account given by Commodore Barron from his early recollections. It appears, however, that he and his companions were misled by appearances, and that the Patriot was engaged with the British sloop for two hours, and twice attempted to board her, but ineffectually. At length the sloop cut away the Patriot's main halliards, and her main-sail fell to the deck; when, receiving a broadside, and being no longer manageable, the Patriot struck her colors.--[Va. Navy of Revolution, S. Lit. Messr., 1857, p. 147.]
[739:B] Va. Hist. Register, i. 127.
[741:A] I am indebted to Dr. Levin S. Joynes for some MSS. relative to the Battle of the Barges.
[741:B] Levin Joynes, of Accomac, became at the same time major in the 9th, and Thomas Snead, of the same county, major in the 7th Regiment.