240

MUTINY IN THE AMERICAN CAMP.

that mercy which the magnanimous Washington would have rejoiced to extend, if the safety of his country would have permitted it.

The treason of Arnold received the stipulated reward. He was immediately appointed brigadier-general in the service of the king of Great Britain; and, on his promotion he had the folly and presumption to publish an address, in which he avowed, that, being dissatisfied with the alliance between the United States and France, he had retained his arms and command for an opportunity to surrender them to Great Britain.' This address was exceeded in meanness and insolence by another, in which he invited his late companions in arms to follow his example. The American soldiers read these manifestoes with scorn; and so odious did the character of a traitor, as exemplified in the conduct of Arnold, become in their estimation, that desertion wholly ceased amongst them at this remarkable period of the war.'

- Circumstances, however, took place soon after the discovery of Arnold's treason, which led that renegade to entertain delusive hopes that the army of Washington would disband itself. The Pennsylvania troops, then stationed on the Hudson, had been enlisted on the ambiguous terms of 'serving three years, or during the continuance of the war.' As the three years from the date of their enrolment were expired, they claimed their discharge, which was refused by the officers, who maintained that the option of the two abovementioned conditions rested with the state.

Wearied out with privations, and indignant at what they deemed an attempt to impose upon them, the soldiers flew to arms, deposed their officers, and under the guidance of others whom they elected in their place, they quitted Morristown and marched to Princeton. Here they were solicited by the most tempting offers on the part of some emissaries sent by Sir Henry Clinton, to put themselves under the protection of the British government. But they were so far from listening to these overtures, that they arrested Sir Henry's agents, and, their grievances having been redressed by the interposition of a committee of congress, they returned to their duty, and the British spies, having been tried by a board of officers, were condemned to death and executed.

A similar revolt of a small body of the Jersey line was quelled by the capital punishment of two of the ringleaders of the mutineers. The distresses, which were the chief cause

of this misconduct of the American soldiery, were principally occasioned by the depreciation of the continental currency; which evil at this period effected its own cure, as the depreciated paper was by common consent, and without any act of the legislature, put out of use; and by a seasonable loan from France, and by the revival of trade with the French and Spanish West Indies, its place was speedily supplied by hard

money.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CAMPAIGN OF 1781.

Its

THIS was the last campaign of the revolutionary war. events decided the contest in favour of American independence.

Though the Spaniards and the Dutch had united with France in hostility against Great Britain, she still with unconquered spirit everywhere made head against her foreign enemies; and the king's ministers were now, more than ever, de-termined by an extension of combined measures, to reduce the North American provinces to submission. The plan of the campaign of 1781, accordingly, comprehended active operations in the state of New York, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The invasion of the last-mentioned state was intrusted to Arnold, who, taking with him a force of 1,600 men, and a number of armed vessels, sailed up the Chesapeake, spreading terror and devastation wherever he came. An attempt to intercept him was made by the French fleet, which sailed from Rhode Island for that purpose; but after an indecisive engagement with the fleet of Admiral Arbuthnot, off the capes of Virginia, was obliged to return to Newport, leaving the invaded state open to the incursions of the British, who, making occasional advances into the country, destroyed an immense quantity of public stores, and enriched themselves with an extensive plunder of private property, at the same time burning all the shipping in the Chesapeake and its tributary streams, which they could not conveniently carry away as prizes.

Y

242

GENERAL GREENE IN THE SOUTH.

The Carolinas also suffered severely by the scourge of war. When Gates was removed from the command of the American forces in that district, he was succeeded by General Greene, to whose charge he transferred the poor remains of his army, which were collected at Charlotte, in North Carolina, and which amounted to 2,000 men. These troops were imperfectly armed and badly clothed; and such was the poverty of the military chest, that they were obliged to supply themselves with provisions by forced requisitions made upon the inhabitants of the adjacent country.

In these circumstances, to encounter the superior forces of the enemy in pitched battle, would have been madness. Greene, therefore, resolved to carry on the war as a partisan officer, and to avail himself of every opportunity of harassing the British in detail.

The first enterprise which he undertook in prosecution of this system, was eminently successful. Understanding that the inhabitants of the district of Ninety-Six, who had submitted to the royal authority, were severely harassed by the licensed acts of plunder committed by the king's troops and the royalists, he sent General Morgan into that quarter with a small detachment, which was, on it arrival speedily increased by the oppressed countrymen, who were burning for revenge. Lord Cornwallis, who was at this moment on the point of invading North Carolina, no sooner heard of this movement, than he sent Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, with 1,100 men, to drive Morgan out of the district. Tarleton was an active partisan officer, and had been as successful in his various encounters with the republican troops, as he had been cruel and sanguinary in the use of his victories. His former success, however, and the superiority of his numbers to those of Morgan's forces, caused him too much to despise his enemy.

In pursuance of Lord Cornwallis's orders he marched in quest of his antagonist, and on the evening of the 16th of January, 1781, he arrived at the ground which General Morgan had quitted a few hours before. At two o'clock in the morning, he recommenced his pursuit of the Americans, marching with extraordinary rapidity through a very difficult country, and at daylight he discovered the detachment of Morgan in his front. From the intelligence obtained from the prisoners who were taken by his scouting parties, he learned that Morgan waited his attack at a place called the Cowpens, near Pacolet river.

BATTLE OF COWPENS.

243

Here the American commander had drawn up his little army, two-thirds of which consisted of militia, in two lines, the first of which was advanced about 200 yards before the second, with orders to form on the right of the second, in case the onset of the enemy should oblige them to retire. The rear was closed by a small body of regular cavalry, and about forty-five mounted militia men.

On the sight of this array, Tarleton ordered his troops to form in line. But before this arrangement was effected, that officer, obeying the dictates of rash valour rather than those of prudence, commenced the attack, heading his squadron in person. The British advanced with a shout, and assailed their adversaries with a well-directed discharge of musketry. The Americans reserved their fire till the British were within forty or fifty yards of their ranks, and then poured among them a volley which did considerable execution. The British, however, pushed on, and obliged the militia to retire from the field. They then assailed the second line, and compelled it to fall back on the cavalry.

Here the Americans rallied, and renewed the fight with desperate valour: charging the enemy with fixed bayonets, they drove back the advance, and, following up their success, overthrew the masses of their opponents, as they presented themselves in succession, and finally won a complete and decisive victory. Tarleton fled from the bloody field, leaving his artillery and baggage in possession of the Americans. His loss amounted to 300 killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners, whilst that of the Americans was only 12 killed and 60 wounded.

Immediately after the action, General Greene sent off the prisoners, under a proper guard, in the direction of Virginia; and as soon as he had made the requisite arrangements, he followed them with his little army, leaving Morgan on the Catawba, watching the motions of the enemy.

On receiving intelligence of Tarleton's defeat, Lord Cornwallis hastened in pursuit of the victors, and forced his marches with such effect, that he reached the Catawba river on the evening of the day on which Morgan had crossed it; but here his progress was for a short time impeded, as a heavy fall of rain had rendered the stream impassable. When the waters subsided, he hurried on, hoping to overtake the Americans before they crossed the Yadkin; but when he arrived at that river he found, to his mortification, that they had

crossed it, and had secured the craft and boats, which they had used for that purpose, on the eastern bank. He, therefore, marched higher up the stream till he found the river fordable.

Whilst he was employed in this circuitous movement, General Greene had united his forces with those of Morgan, at Guildford Court-house. Still, however, the forces of the American commander were so far inferior to those of the enemy, that, not choosing to risk an engagement, he hastened straight onwards to the river Dan, whilst Lord Cornwallis, traversing the upper country, where the streams are fordable, proceeded, in the hope that he might gain upon the Americans, so as to overtake them, in consequence of their being obstructed in their progress by the deep water below.

But so active was General Greene, and so fortunate in finding the means of conveyance, that he crossed the Dan, in Virginia, with his whole army, artillery and baggage. So narrow, however, was his escape, that the van of Cornwallis's army arrived in time to witness the ferrying over of his rear.

Mortified as Lord Cornwallis was, by being thus disappointed of the fruits of his toilsome march, he consoled himself by the reflection that the American army being thus driven out of North Carolina, he was master of that state, and was in a condition to recruit his forces by the accession of the loyalists, with whom he had been led to believe that it abounded. He, therefore, summoned all true subjects of his majesty to repair to the royal standard, which he had erected at Hillsborough. That experiment had little success. The friends of the British government were in general timid, and diffident of his lordship's power ultimately to protect them. Their terrors were confirmed when they learned that the indefatigable Greene had recrossed the Dan, and had cut off a body of royalists who were on their march to join the royal forces, and that he had compelled Tarleton to retreat from the frontier of the province to Hillsborough. For seven days the American commander manoeuvred within ten miles of the British camp; and at the end of that time, having received reinforcements from Virginia, he resolved to give Lord Cornwallis battle.

The engagement took place on the 15th of March, near Guildford Court-house. The American army consisted of 4,400 men, of which, more than one-half were militia; and the British of 2,400 veterans; after a brisk cannonade in front the militia in advance were thrown into some confusion by the