regiments paraded under arms, announcing their determination to obtain subsistence by force. The mutiny was quelled by the activity of the officers, and the ringleaders secured. All that Congress could do for relief, was to renew their resolutions, promising compensation for all past services, and engaging to make good the losses caused by the depreciation of continental money.

Operations in the field were suspended in the North during this season, in consequence of the transfer of the scene of action to the Carolinas. Sir Henry Clinton had

June 6th.

sailed with the bulk of his army to the South, and left General Knyphausen, with a strong garrison, to maintain the posts in New York. The rumours of disaffection among the Americans induced General Knyphausen to believe them ripe for a revolt, and he accordingly moved over into New Jersey, with five thousand men, on the 6th of June. After advancing to Springfield, he found himself disappointed in his expectations; and if, as is thought, he designed attacking the camp of Washington, he nevertheless gave up the enterprise precipitately. The mili tia turned out in considerable numbers, and contested the way with the royal forces with obstinacy and courage. ter committing characteristic enormities, burning houses, ravaging private property, and slaughtering the defenceless, the army retired to Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, opposite to Staten Island, where they remained until the return of Clinton from his successful Southern campaign. On his arrival no expedition of importance followed. Another incursion was made into New Jersey, in which Springfield was burnt.

In May the Marquis La Fayette returned from France, the bearer of the welcome tidings that a French fleet and army was about to follow him. His presence, and the cheering intelligence he brought, reanimated the feelings of the people, and stimulated Congress and the American general to fresh exertions, to be prepared to co-operate vigorously with their allies. Congress had pledged themselves to the French minister to bring a large force into the field, and the animating prospect of efficient succor, seconded by the reviving zeal of the people, encouraged the Commander-in-chief to believe that the pledge might be fulfilled. The disasters of the Southern campaign seemed not to have depressed the hopes of the Americans; and notwithstanding the fall of Charleston, and the subjugation of the Carolinas,

they took the arrival of the French fleet as a certain omen of victory. Contributions and subscriptions for the common cause were freely made, and the ladies of Philadelphia, associated themselves for the purpose of ministering to the necessities of the army, and, after subscribing with generous profusion from their own means, personally solicited the aid of others with much success.

On the tenth of July the French succors arrived July 10th. at Newport, Rhode Island. The fleet, under the command of the Chevalier de Ternay, consisted of two ships of eighty guns, one of seventy-four, four of sixty-four, two frigates of forty, and a cutter of twenty, with bombs, and a large number of transports. The land forces were commanded by the Count de Rochambeau, and amounted to 6,000 men. The public congratulations to the foreign officers were warm; the town was illuminated on the occasion, and every demonstration of joy and welcome paid them by the American functionaries, civil and military. Washington took immediate measures for forming a joint plan of operations, the object of which was New York.

But before recounting the further events in the North, it will be proper to revert to the more active scene of military operations in the South. The order of time has not been strictly observed, in order to enable us to throw together in a connected series the history of the campaign in the Southern States.

Jan. 1780.

Sir Henry Clinton, with 7,000 troops, convoyed by Admiral Arbuthnot, who had been sent out with a considerable fleet to America, in the summer of 1779, sailed from New York in December, and arrived, after a tedious and tempestuous passage, in the Tybee river, about the middle of January. The success of General Prevost in Georgia, and the general opinion entertained of the loyalty of a large portion of the Carolinians, induced him to believe the re-establishment of the royal authority would be less difficult in these provinces than it had been proved to be in the Northern and Middle States. Collecting his forces at Savannah, Clinton sailed on the 10th of February for Charleston, the first object of his expedition. He ordered twelve hundred of the troops of General Prevost, at Savannah, to follow him by land, and despatched orders to Knyphausen, at New York, to forward him supplies and reinforcements.

He took possession of John and James Islands and Stono Ferry, and in a short time was within a few miles of Charleston, with only the waters of the Ashley river between him and the city. Having received his reinforcements, his army amounted to 9,000 men, and on the 1st of April he commenced the siege in regular form.

Lincoln, with the remnants of the American army of 1779, had wintered at Sheldon. On the approach of Clinton's army, he retired into the city, and undertook its defence. The legislature was in session, and again, as in a previous emergency, invested Governor Rutledge with dictatorial powers; authorizing him "to do every thing necessary for the public good," except taking away the life of a citizen without legal trial. Armed with this authority, he made energetic calls upon the militia, but with little success. Notwithstanding the capital was in such imminent danger, scarcely two hundred obeyed the call. He next issued a proclamation, requiring every enrolled inhabitant of the town to repair to the garrison to do military duty, under a penalty of having his property confiscated. This had no better effect than solicitation. With all the exertions of Lincoln and Rutledge, the whole strength of the town, when Clinton crossed the Ashley, was less than three thousand, of whom, a thousand were North Carolina militia, and the rest continental regulars. Lincoln was indefatigable in strengthening the works. Several armed vessels that had been sent by Congress to aid them, under the command of Commodore Whipple, finding the passage of the bar indefensible, took their position at Fort Moultrie, but finally retired up the river, and the sailors were landed to aid in working the land batteries. The ships were sunk to obstruct the navigation. The lines were extended, and every possible preparation made for a vigorous and determined, though not a hopeful, resistance. The British Admiral, taking advantage of a favorable wind and tide, passed Fort Moultrie without receiving much damage from the fire, and anchored within the harbor, in the month of April. The next day, Sir Henry Clinton, having completed the first parallel, in his regular approaches to the city, summoned the garrison to surrender. Lee, who yet anticipated relief, answered resolutely, that it was his intention to defend himself to the last. The British batteries were accordingly opened upon the city, and a continued bombardment was kept up, under

cover of which the works were pushed forward. The communication with the country, by which troops and succor might reach them, or as would perhaps have been the safer policy, through which a retreat could have been made, was still practicable by the Cooper river. At a place called Monk's Corner, a small corps of Americans, under General Huger, had collected, and promised to form a rallying point for the militia, to keep the British in check, and possibly succor the city. Clinton despatched a detachment of fourteen hundred men, commanded by Webster, Tarleton, and Fergusson, the last two celebrated partizan officers, against the position. Their superiority in number, aided by the negligence of the Americans, enabled them to put the whole party to flight, and capture a large store of arms, clothing, and ammunition. Fort Moultrie surrendered on the 7th of May; and thus the city was beleagured on every side, and no avenue of escape left open. The British on the 8th of May completed the third parallel, which brought them to the very edge of the city, and made an immediate assault by storm inevitable. He again summoned the garrison to surrender; Lincoln accepted the conditions offered his troops, but, at the entreaty of the citizens, desired to make better terms for non-combatants and the militia. These were refused by Clinton, and hostilities were carried on with such an incessant firing from the British batteries, that, on the eleventh, the citizens themselves petitioned Lincoln to accept of the terms offered on the eighth, and the British general acquiescing, the capitulation was immediately signed. The next day the enemy took possession. The May 12th. terms granted were favorable. The British commanders had strong expectations of reconciling the province to their royal master, and did not exercise their strength harshly. The American loss during the siege was 102 killed and 157 wounded; that of the enemy, 70 killed and 189 wounded. The number of prisoners, including adult citizens and militia, was about 5,000, but the regular force did not exceed 2,500. The proportion of officers was unusually large-men who came to the defence of the city, without being able to bring their troops with them. There were included in the capitulation, one major-general, six brigadiers, twenty-three colonels and lieutenant-colonels, and one hundred and sixty-eight captains and lieutenants, besides ensigns. No less than four hundred pieces of artillery, of

which three hundred and eleven were in the city, fell into the hands of the British.

Clinton followed up the reduction of the capital by sending out expeditions against the American posts in the interior, to secure the submission of the whole State. Ninety-Six and Augusta were the objects of two of them; the third, a large force, under Cornwallis, was destined to scour the country, between the Cooper and the Santee rivers, rouse the loyalists, and intercept the retreat of the American militia, who had marched from North Carolina towards Charleston, but failed to reach, there before the surrender. These were commanded by Colonel Buford. On the intelligence of the fall of Charleston, they retreated by forced marches towards North Carolina, with a rapidity which made it apparently impossible to overtake them. Colonel Tarleton was detached by Cornwallis, with a strong corps of cavalry and mounted infantry in pursuit. By pushing on with unexampled celerity, Tarleton overtook the Americans at Waxsaw, and after a short encounter, routed the party, and captured their artillery, baggage, colors, indeed every thing. The carnage was terrible. The Americans, inferior in number, made but a feeble and brief resistance, and cried for quarter. This was refused, and the infuriated enemy continued to cut down and massacre without mercy, until tired with slaughter. One hundred and eight were killed, one hundred and fifty wounded, and fifty-three prisoners; the loss of the victors were only seven killed and twelve wounded. "Tarleton's quarter" became afterwards a byword, to express deliberate cruelty. The other detachment, on hearing of the slaughter at Waxsaw, retired into North Carolina, and Tarleton rejoined Cornwallis, who had ad vanced to Camden.

May 28th.

South Carolina was now fully in the power of the British The capital and principal posts were garrisoned with British. soldiers, and no American force remained within her bor ders. Clinton, thinking the subjugation complete, and trustng to the promises of the loyalists, who were really numercs, and the professions of the greater multitudes, who, through dissimulation or fear, professed acquiescence in the king's government and a return to allegiance, wrote home that South Carolina was English again, and that there were few of the inhabitants who were not prisoners to, or in arm with, the British forces. He prepared to return to New