American Revolutionary War In the South Part II. - 1778-1780

To trace events intelligibly in their connection, the war of Great Britain on the Netherlands has been carried forward to the ruin of their commerce in the West Indies. The plan for the Southern Campaign of 1778 was prepared by Btitish Lord George GERMAIN with great minuteness of detail. Georgia and South Carolina were to be reduced by detachments from the army of New York and be held by the employment of their own militia; the "Upland settlements" were to be separated from the planters of the low country; the one to be reduced by the terror of savage warfare, the other by the fear of their slaves; the city of Charleston (Charleston Co., SC) was in due time to be taken, and, on the appearance of a small corps at Cape Fear, "large numbers of the inhabitants," it was thought, "would doubtless flock to the standard of the king," whose government would be restored in North Carolina. But, for want of troops, the summer at the South passed away in idleness. When in autumn two expeditions of regulars and vindictive refugees were sent by the British Brigadier- General Augustine PREVOST from east Florida into Georgia, one Army was stopped at Sunbury, the other at the Ogeechee. The latter on its return burned the church, almost every dwelling-house in Midway, and all rice and other cereals within their reach; and they brought off negroes, horses, cattle, and plate. SCREVEN, an American officer, beloved for his virtues, was killed after he became a prisoner.

American Army General Robert HOWE, the Commander in the southern district, returned from an expedition against St. Augustine after the loss of one quarter of his men.

In December 1778, with 3,000 men, despatched from New York under British Lieutenant-Colonel Archbald CAMPBELL, approached Savannah, GA. Relying on the difficulties of the ground, American Army General Robert HOWE offered resistance to a disciplined corps, ably commanded, and more than three times as numerous as his own; but, on the 29th December 1778, a British party, guided by a negro through a swamp, made a simultaneous attack on the Americans in front and rear, and drove them into a precipitate retreat. With a loss of but twenty-four in killed and wounded, the British gained the capital of Georgia and more than four hundred prisoners. British Lt.-Col. Archabald CAMPBELL promised protection to the inhabitants, but only on condition that "they would support the royal government with their arms." The captive soldiers, refusing to enlist in the British service, were crowded on board prison-ships, to be swept away by infection. Many civilians submitted; determined republicans found an asylum in the western parts of the state.

At the request of the delegates from South Carolina, American General Robert HOWE was superseded in the southern command by American Major-General Benjamin LINCOLN. In private life this officer was most estimable; as a soldier he was brave, but slow in perception and in will. Toward the end of 1776 he had repaired to George WASHINGTON's camp as a Major-general of militia; in the following February he was transferred to the continental service, and passed the winter at Morristown. In the spring of 1777 he was surprised by the British, and narrowly escaped. In the summer he was sent to the North, but never took part in any battle. Wounded by a British party whom he mistook for Americans, he left the camp, having been in active service less than a year. He had not fully recovered when, on the fourth of December 1778, he entered upon the command in Charleston, SC.

Early in January 1779, British Brig.-Gen. Augustine PREVOST (British Commander in Florida) marched north on the "Old Post Road" to Savannah, GA. reducing Sunbury on the way to support British Lt. Col. Archabald CAMPBELL subsequently took possession of Augusta, GA. on 29 Jan. 1779, a strategically important town situated on the Savannah River. The province of Georgia appearing to be restored to the crown, plunder became the chief thought of the British army.

American Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN took post near Perrysburg, with at first scarcely more than 1,100 men. The British detached 200 men to Beaufort. American General MOULTRIE, sent almost alone to counteract the movement, rallied under his standard about an equal number of militia, and nine continentals. Their enemy had the advantage of position; but, under a leader whom they trusted, on the 3rd of February 1779, they drove the invaders with great loss to their ships.

The continental regiments of North Carolina were with George WASHINGTON in the North; its legislature promptly sent, under ASHE and RUTHERFORD, two thousand men, though without arms, to serve for five months in the South. The scanty stores of South Carolina were exhausted in arming them. In the last days of January 1779 they joined the camp of Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN based at Charleston.

The assembly of South Carolina, superseding Rawlins LOWNDES by an almost unanimous vote, recalled John RUTLEDGE to be their governor, ordered a Regiment of light dragoons to be raised, offered a bounty of five hundred dollars to every one who would enlist for sixteen months, and gave power to the governor and council to draft the militia of the state and "do everything necessary for the public good."

The British, having carried their arms into the upper country of Georgia, sent emissaries to encourage a rising in South Carolina. A party of men, whose chief object was rapine, put themselves in motion to join the British, gathering booty on the way. They were pursued across Savannah, GA. by Continental Colonel Andrew PICKINS, with about 300 of the citizens of Ninety- Six Dist., SC.; and, on the 14th of February, 1779 were overtaken, surprised, and routed. About two hundred escaped to the British lines. Their commander and forty others fell in battle, and many prisoners were taken. The republican government, which since 1776 had maintained its jurisdiction without dispute in every part of the commonwealth, arraigned some of them in the civil court; and, by a jury of their fellow citizens, seventy of them were convicted of treason and rebellion against the state of South Carolina. Of these, five were executed.

The army of Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN was greatly inferior to the British in number, and far more so in quality; yet he detached ASHE, with 1,500 of the North Carolina militia, on separate service. This inexperienced general crossed the Savannah at Augusta, GA. which the British had abandoned, descended the river with the view to confine the enemy within narrower limits, and, following his orders, encamped his party at Brier creek, on the Savannah, beyond supporting distance. The post seemed to him strong, as it had but one approach. The British amused Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN by a feint, while Lieutenant-Colonel PREVOST turned the position of ASHE, and on the 3rd day of March 1779 fell upon his party. The few continentals, about sixty in number, alone made a brave defence. By wading through swamps and swimming the Savannah, four hundred and fifty of the militia rejoined the American camp; the rest perished, or were captured, or returned to their homes. So quickly was one fourth of the troops of Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN lost. After this success General PREVOST proclaimed a sort of civil government in Georgia.

Reinforced from the South Carolina militia, of whom Gov. John RUTLEDGE had assembled great numbers at Orangeburg, (Orangeburge Co., SC) Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN undertook to lead his troops against Savannah by way of Augusta, GA. leaving only a thousand militia under Gen. MOULTRIE at Perrysburg. British Commander Augustine PREVOST had the choice between awaiting an attack or invading the richest part of Carolina. His decision was for the side which promised booty. On the 28th of April, 1779 supported by Indians, he crossed the river with three thousand men and drove General MOULTRIE before him. It was represented to him that Charleston, SC. was defenceless. After two or three days of doubt, the hope of seizing the city lured him on; and upon the 11th of May 1779 MULTRIE appeared before the town. He came two days too late. While he hesitated, the men of Charleston, SC. had protected the neck by sudden but well-planned works; on the ninth and tenth, Gov. John RUTLEDGE arrived with militia, as well as a detachment of three hundred men from the army of Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN. While the British crossed the Ashley river, PULASKI and a corps were ferried over the Cooper River into Charleston, SC.

In the Northern camp of George WASHINGTON young LAURENS became impatient to fly to his native state and levy and command a regiment of blacks. ALEXANDER HAMILTON recommended the project to the president of congress in these words: "The negroes will make very excellent soldiers. This project will have to combat prejudice and self-interest. Contempt for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience. Their natural faculties are as good as ours. Give them their freedom with their muskets: this will secure their fidelity, animate their courage, and have a good influence upon those who remain, by opening the door for their emancipation. Humanity and true policy equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men." Two days later the elder LAURENS wrote to George WASHINGTON: "Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of driving the British out of Georgia and subduing east Florida before the end of July." To this George WASHINGTON answered: "Should we begin to form battalions of them, I have not the smallest doubt "the British would" follow us in it and justify the measure upon our own ground. The contest then must be, who can arm fastest. And where are our arms?"

Congress listened to HUGER, the agent from South Carolina, as he explained that his state was weak, because many of its citizens must remain at home to prevent revolts among the negroes, or their desertion to the enemy; and it recommended as a remedy that the two southernmost of the thirteen states should arm three thousand of the most vigorous and enterprising of the negroes under command of white officers.

A few days before the British came near Charleston, SC. young LAURENS arrived, bringing this advice of congress. It was heard in anger and rejected. The state felt itself cast off and alone. Georgia had fallen; the country between Savannah, GA. and Charleston, SC. was overrun; the British confiscated all negroes whom they could seize; their emissaries were urging the rest to rise against their owners or to run away. Many began to regret the struggle for independence. Moved by their dread of exposing Charleston, SC. to be taken by storm, and sure at least of gaining time by protracted parleys, the executive government sent a flag to ask of the invaders their terms for a capitulation. In answer, the British general offered peace to the inhabitants who would accept protection; to all others, the condition of prisoners of war. The council, at its next meeting, debated giving up the town; MOULTRIE, LAURENS, and PULASKI, who were called in, declared that they had men enough to beat the invaders; and yet, against the voice of GADSDEN, of FERGUSON, of JOHN EDWARDS, and of others, the majority, irritated by the advice of congress to emancipate and arm slaves, "proposed a neutrality during the war, the question whether the state shall belong to Great Britain or remain one of the United States to be determined by the treaty of peace between the two powers." LAURENS, being called upon to bear this message, scornfully refused, and another was selected. The British general declined to treat with the civil government of South Carolina, but made answer to MOULTRIE that the garrison must surrender as prisoners of war. "Then we will fight it out," said MOULTRIE to the governor and council, and left their tent. GADSDEN and FERGUSON followed him, to say: "Act according to your own judgment, and we will support you;" and MOULTRIE waved the flag from the gate as a signal that the conference was at an end.

The enemy had intercepted a letter from Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN in which he charged MOULTRIE "not to give up the city, nor suffer the people to despair," for he was hastening to their relief. At daylight the next morning the British were gone. They had escaped an encounter by retreating to the islands. The Americans, for want of boats, could not prevent their embarkation, nor their establishing a post at Beaufort. (Beaufort Co., SC.) The militia returned home; Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN, who was left with but about eight hundred men, passed the great heats of summer at Sheldon. (Beaufort Co., SC.)

The invasion of South Carolina by the army of British General Augustine PREVOST proved nothing more than a raid through the richest plantations of the state. The British pillaged almost every house in a wide extent of country, sparing in some measure those who professed loyalty to the king. Objects of value not transportable were destroyed. Porcelain, mirrors, windows, were dashed in pieces; gardens, carefully planted with exotics, laid waste. Domestic animals were wantonly shot. About three thousand fugitive slaves passed with the army into Georgia.

The southernmost states looked for relief to the French fleet in America, but ill fortune clung to it. In September 1779 the MARQUIS de BOUILLE, the gallant governor-general of the French Windward islands, in a single day wrested from Great Britain the strongly fortified island of Dominica; but d'ESTAING, with a greatly increased fleet and a land-force of nine thousand men, came in sight of the island of St. Lucia just as its last French flag had been struck to a corps of fifteen hundred British troops. A landing for its recovery was repulsed, with a loss to d'ESTAING of nearly fifteen hundred men.

Early in January 1779, reinforcements under Admiral BYRON transferred maritime superiority to the British; and d'ESTAING for six months sheltered his fleet within the bay of Port Royal. At the end of June, BYRON having left St. Lucia to convoy a company of British merchant ships through the passages, d'ESTAING detached a force against St. Vincent, which, with the aid of the oppressed and enslaved Caribs, its native inhabitants, was easily taken. This is the only instance in the war where insurgent slaves acted efficiently. On the fourth of July, GRENADA surrendered at discretion to the French admiral. Two days later the fleet of BYRON arrived within sight of the French, and, though reduced in number, sought a general action, which the French knew how to avoid. In the running fight that ensued, the British ships suffered so much in their masts and rigging that the French recovered the superiority.

To a direct co-operation with the United States, d'ESTAING was drawn by the wish of congress, the entreaties of South Carolina, and his own never-failing good-will. On the first day of September he approached Georgia so suddenly that he took by surprise four British ships-of-war. To the government of South Carolina he announced his readiness to assist in reducing Savannah; but he made it a condition that his fleet, which consisted of thirty-three sail, should not be detained long off so dangerous a coast. In ten days the French troops, though unassisted, effected their landing. Meantime, the British commander worked day and night with relays of hundreds of negroes to strengthen his defences.

On the 16th d'ESTAING summoned General PREVOST to surrender. While PREVOST gained time by a triple interchange of notes, Maitland, regardless of malaria, pressed through the swamps of the low country, and, flushed with a mortal fever caught on the march, brought to his aid eight hundred men from Beaufort. When they all had arrived, the British gave their answer of defiance.

It was the 23rd of September when the Americans under Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN joined the French in the siege of the city. On the 8th of October the reduction of Savannah seemed still so far distant that the naval officers insisted on the rashness of leaving the fleet longer exposed to autumnal gales or to an attack, with so much of its strength on land. An assault was therefore resolved on for the next day, an hour before sunrise, by two feigned and two real attacks.

The only chance of success lay in the precise execution of the plan. The column under Count DILLON, which was to have attacked the rear of the British lines, missed its way in a swamp, of which it should only have skirted the edge, was helplessly exposed to the British batteries, and could not even be formed. It was broad day when the party with d'ESTAING, accompanied by a part of the Carolinians, advanced fearlessly, but only to become huddled together near the parapet under a destructive fire from musketry and cannon. The American standard was planted on the ramparts by HUME and by BUSH, lieutenants of the second South Carolina regiment, but both of them fell; at their side Sergeant JASPER was mortally wounded, but he used the last moments of his life to bring off the colors which he supported. A French standard was planted with no better result.

After an obstinate struggle of fifty-five minutes to carry the redoubt, the assailants retreated before a charge of grenadiers and marines, led gallantly by MAITLAND. The injury sustained by the British was trifling; the loss of the Americans was about two hundred; of the French, thrice as many. d'ESTAING was twice wounded; PULASKI once, and mortally. "The cries of the dying," so wrote the severely wounded Baron de STEDINGK to his king, GUSTAVUS III of Sweden, "pierced me to the heart. I desired death, and might have found it, but for the necessity of thinking how to save four hundred men whose retreat was stopped by a broken bridge." The patriots of Georgia who had joined in the siege fled to the backwoods or across the river; the French sailed for France. At Paris, STEDINGK, as he moved about on crutches, became the delight of the highest social circle; and at one of the theatres was personated on the stage, leading a storming party.

Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN repaired to Charleston, SC. and was followed by what remained of his army; the militia of South Carolina returned home; its continental regiments were melting away; and its paper money became so nearly worthless that a bounty of twenty-five hundred dollars for twenty-one months' service had no attraction. The dwellers near the sea between Charleston and Savannah knew not where to find protection. Throughout the state the people were disheartened, and foreboded its desolation.

Now that the British held Georgia and Beaufort in South Carolina, they might have gained an enduring mastery by emancipating and arming the blacks. But the idea that slavery was a sin against humanity was unknown to parliament and to the ministry, and would have been hooted at by the army. The thought of universal emancipation had not yet conquered the convictions of the ruling class in England. The English of that day rioted in the lucrative slave-trade, and the zeal of the government in upholding it had been one of the causes that provoked the American war. The advice to organize an army of liberated negroes, though persisted in by the royal governor of Virginia, was crushed by the eagerness of the British officers and soldiers in America for plunder. In this they were encouraged by the cordial approbation of the king and his ministers. The instructions from GERMAIN authorized the confiscation and sale, not only of negroes employed in the American army, but of those who voluntarily followed the British troops and took sanctuary under British jurisdiction. They continued to be shipped to the slave-markets of the West Indies.

Before the end of three months after the capture of Savannah, all the property, real and personal, of the rebels in Georgia was disposed of. For further gains, Indians were encouraged to bring in slaves wherever they could find them. All families in South Carolina were subjected to the visits of successive sets of banditti, who received commissions as volunteers with no pay or emolument but that derived from rapine, and who, roaming about at pleasure, robbed the plantations, alike of patriots and loyalists. Negroes were the spoil most coveted; on the average, they were valued at two hundred and fifty silver dollars each. When Sir JAMES WRIGHT returned to the government of Georgia he found several thousands of them awaiting distribution among claimants. Every hope of the slave for enfranchisement was crushed.

The property of the greatest part of the inhabitants of South Carolina was confiscated. Families were divided; patriots outlawed and savagely assassinated; houses burned, and women and children driven shelterless into the forests; districts so desolated that they seemed the abode only of orphans and widows. Left mainly to her own resources, it was through the depths of wretchedness that her sons were to bring her back to her place in the republic, after suffering more, and daring more, and achieving more than the men of any other state.

Sir HENRY CLINTON, who had so completely failed before Charleston in 1776, resolved in person to carry out the order for a second try of taking Charleston. In August 1779 an English fleet, commanded by ARBUTHNOT, an old and inefficient admiral, brought him reinforcements and stores; in September 1779 fifteen hundred men arrived from Ireland; in October the troops which had so long been stationed in Rhode Island joined his army. He still waited till he became assured that the superior fleet of d'ESTAING had sailed for Europe.

Leaving the command in New York to the veteran Hessian General von KNYPHAUSEN, Sir HENRY CLINTON, and taken with him his second-in-Command, Lord CORNWALLIS, along with 8,500 officers and men, of his New York Garrison, left the day after Christmas 26 Dec. 1779, and set sail for the conquest of South Carolina. British Rear- Admiral MARRIOT ARBUTHNOT, fleet led the van over a nightmare voyage that laseted over a month into the adverse current of the gulf-stream; glacial storms scattered the fleet; an ordnance vessel foundered; American privateers captured some of the transports; a bark, carrying Hessian troops, lost its masts, was driven by gales across the ocean, and broke in pieces just after its famished passengers landed near St. Ives in England. Some of the Artillery horses and all of the cavalry horses perished. Few of the transports arrived at Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia, the place of rendezvous, before the end of January 1780. Sir HENRY CLINTON immediately ordered from New York Lord RAWDON's brigade of about 3,000 more, and in February 1780, a landing was made at "John's Island", near Charleston, SC., and the Redcoats began to work their way toward the city just 30 miles away, but seperated from them by an impeding maze of rivults, malarial swamps and salt marshes.

Charleston SC. was an opulent town of 15,000 inhabitants, free and slave. Among them were traders and others, who were the representatives of British interests. The city, which was not deserted by its private families, had no great store of provisions. The paper money of the province was worth but five per cent of its nominal value. The town, like the country around it, was flat and low. On three sides it lay upon the water; and, for its complete investment, an enemy who commanded the sea needed only to occupy the neck between the Cooper and the Ashley rivers. It had neither citadel, nor fort, nor ramparts, nor materials for building anything more than field-works of loose sand, kept together by boards and logs. The ground to be defended within the limits of the city was very extensive.

The Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN commanded less than two thousand effective men. On the 3rd of February 1780 the general assembly of South Carolina intrusted the executive of the state with power "to do all things necessary to secure its liberty, safety, and happiness, except taking the life of a citizen without legal trial." But the defeat before Savannah had disheartened the people. The southern part of the state needed all its men for its own protection; the middle part was disaffected; the frontiers were menaced by savage tribes. Yet, without taking counsel of his officers, Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN, reluctant to abandon public property which he had not means to transport, remained in the city.

On the 26th Feb. 1780 the British forces from the eastern side of St. John's Island gained a view of the town, its harbor, the sea, and carefully cultivated plantations, which, after their fatigues, seemed to them a paradise. The best defence of the harbor was the bar at its outlet; and already, on the 27th, the officers of the Continental squadron, which carried a hundred and fifty guns, reported their inability to guard it. "Then," in the opinion of George WASHINGTON, "the attempt to defend the town ought to have been relinquished." But Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN, intent only on strengthening its fortifications, was the first to go to work on them in the morning, and would not return till late in the evening. With the guns of the squadron and its seamen, he manned batteries on shore; and ships were sunk to close the entrance to the Ashley river.

Sir HENRY CLINTON, trusting nothing to hazard, moved slowly along a coast intersected by creeks and checkered with islands. Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN used the time to draw into Charleston all the force in the southern department of which he could dispose. By 12th March CLINTONS'S army had crossed the Sonno and Ashley rivers and had taken a position on "Charleston Neck" blocking landward approaches to the city. On the 7th of April the remains of the Virginia line, some 700 veterans, entered Charleston, having in 28 days marched 500 miles to certain captivity.

On the 9th April, 1780, British Admiral ARBUTHNOT'S, fleet taking advantage of a gentle east wind, brought his ships into the harbor, without suffering from the American Fort Moultrie or returning its fire. The next day, the first parallel being completed, Sir HENRY CLINTON and Admiral ARBUTHNOT summoned the town to surrender. Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN answered: "From duty and inclination, I shall support the town to the last extremity."

On the 12th April, 1780 when the British were ready to assault the town by land and water, Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN signed a capitulation, the city of Charleston fell. The continental troops and sailors became prisoners of war until exchanged; the militia from the country were to return home as prisoners of war on parole, and to be secure in their property so long as their parole should be observed. All free male adults in Charleston, including the aged, the infirm, and even the loyalists, were counted and paroled as prisoners, of whom British Sir HENRY CLINTON, in this vain glorious way, raised the number to five thousand.

On the 13th April, 1780 the American officers insisted that Governor RUTLEDGE should withdraw from Charleston, leaving GADSDEN, the lieutenant-governor, with five of the council. On the same morning Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN for the first time called a council of war and suggested an evacuation. "We should not lose an hour," said MACKINTOSH, "in attempting to get the continental troops over the Cooper river; for on their safety depends the salvation of the state." But Continental Gen. Benjamin LINCOLN only invited them to consider the measure maturely till he should send for them again. Before he called a second council, the American cavalry, which kept up some connection between the town and the country, had been surprised and dispersed; CORNWALLIS had arrived with nearly 3,000 men from New York; and the British had occupied the peninsula from the Cooper to the Wando; so that an evacuation was no longer possible.

The value of the spoil, which was distributed by English and Hessian commissaries of captures, amounted to about three hundred thousand pounds sterling; the dividend of a major-general exceeded four thousand guineas. There was no restraint on private rapine; the silver plate of the planters was carried off; all negroes that had belonged to rebels were seized, even though they had themselves sought an asylum within the British lines; and at one embarkation two thousand of them were shipped to the West Indies for sale. British and German officers thought more of amassing fortunes than of reuniting the empire. The patriots were not allowed to appoint attorneys to manage or to sell their estates. A sentence of confiscation hung over the land, and British protection was granted only on the unconditional promise of loyalty.

On the 22nd of May, 1780 confiscation of property and other punishments were denounced against all who should thereafter oppose the "King in Arms", or hinder any one from joining his forces. On the 1st of June a proclamation by the commissioners, Sir HENRY CLINTON and Admiral ARBUTHNOT, offered pardon to the penitent, on their immediate return to allegiance; to the loyal, the promise of their former political immunities, including freedom from taxation except by their own legislature.

For six weeks all opposition ceased in South Carolina. One expedition was sent by the British Sir HENRY CLINTON up the Savannah to encourage the "Loyal" and reduce the disaffected in the neighborhood of Augusta. GA.; another proceeded for the like purpose to the district of Ninety-Six, SC. where WILLIAMSON surrendered his post and accepted British protection; PICKENS was reduced to inactivity; alone of the leaders of the patriot militia, Colonel JAMES WILLIAMS escaped pursuit and preserved his freedom of action. A third and larger party under Lord CORNWALLIS moved across the Santee River toward Camden, (Kershaw Co., SC.).

On 29 May 1780, just 17 days after the surrender of Charleston British Lieutenant-Colonnel BANASTRE TARLETON, an enterprising young officer of CLINTON's command suprised and slaughtered at the "Waxhaws" near the NC. with 700 cavalry and mounted infantry, the old 11th Virginia line, commanded by Colonel Abraham BUFORD, arriving too late to reinforce the garrison of Charleston, had retreated toward the north-east of the state, they were the last "Continental" unit in South Carolina. Colonel Abrham BUFORD himself, and a few who were mounted, about a 100 of the infantry, saved themselves by flight. The rest, making no resistance, vainly sued for quarter. None was granted. A 113 were killed on the spot; a 150 were too badly hacked to be moved; 53 only could be brought into Camden, SC. as prisoners. The tidings of this massacre, borne through the southern forests, excited horror and anger; but Lieut-Col. Banastre TARLETON received from Lord CORNWALLIS the highest encomiums.

The capture of Charleston, SC. suspended all resistance to the British army. The men of Beaufort, of Ninety-Six, and of Camden capitulated under the promise of security, believing that they were to be treated as neutrals or as prisoners on parole. The attempt was now made to force the men of Carolina into active service in the British army, and so to become the instruments of their own subjection.

On the 3rd. of June, 1780 Sir HENRY CLINTON, by a proclamation which he alone signed, cut up British authority in Carolina by the roots. He required all the inhabitants of the province, even those outside of Charleston "who were now prisoners on parole," to take an active part in securing the royal government. "Should they neglect to return to their allegiance," so ran the proclamation, "they will be treated as rebels to the government of the king." He never reflected that many who accepted protection from fear or convenience did so in the expectation of living in a state of neutrality, and that they might say: "If we must fight, let us fight on the side of our friends, of our countrymen, of America." On the eve of his departure for New York he reported to GERMAIN: "The inhabitants from every quarter declare their allegiance to the king, and offer their services in arms. There are few men in South Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us."

End of Part II.

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