stances, he was led to an end of which he was wholly unworthy. Sir Henry Clinton made every effort to save him, but the Americans were inexorable. Even Arnold had the effrontery to write to General Washington on the occasion, attesting such facts as he believed favorable to André. But what reliance could be placed on the testimony of a man capable of such foul treason? He also threatened the general, and reminded him that many of the inhabitants of South Carolina had rendered themselves liable to military execution. Arnold endeavored to vindicate his conduct by pleading hostility to the alliance with France; and he attempted to induce others to imitate his example; but no plea can justify his attempt to employ the power committed to him for the ruin of those who had trusted him; some of whom, perhaps, had been encouraged by his example and excitement to take up arms against the British authority. The name of Arnold must go down to posterity loaded with all the infamy of a traitor and it were for the honor of human nature, and the common advantage of nations, if all governments would unite in manifesting their detestation of such villanies. After the melancholy event now related, no military transactions of much importance were carried on in the north during the remainder of the campaign. On the 21st of November, indeed, Major Talmadge performed a brilliant exploit of desultory warfare. Being informed that the British had a large magazine of forage at Coram, on Long Island, protected by a small garrison at Fort St. George on South Haven in its vicinity, he crossed the sound where it was upward of 20 miles broad; and, with nearly 100 men, surprised the fort; made the garrison, upward of 50 in number, prisoners; burnt the magazines at Coram; and, escaping the British cruisers, recrossed the sound without losing a man. On the other hand, Major Carleton, at the head of a thousand men, Europeans, Indians, and loyalists, made a sudden irruption into the northern parts of the state of New York, took the forts Anne and George, and made the garrisons prisoners. At the same time, Sir John Johnston, at the head of a body of a similar description, appeared on the Mohawk. Several smart skirmishes were fought. But both of those parties were obliged to retire, laying waste the country through which they passed. On the approach of winter both armies went into winter quarters. General Washington stationed the Pennsylvania line near Morristown; the Jersey line, about Pompton, on the confines of New York and New Jersey; the troops of New England, in West Point and its vicinity, on both sides of the North river; and the troops of New York remained at Albany, whither they had been sent to oppose the invasion of Carleton and Johnston. Toward the close of the year, an agreement for an exchange of prisoners was entered into between General Philips and General Lincoln. The former had been an American prisoner since the convention of Saratoga, and the latter in the power of the British since the surrender of Charleston. Hitherto congress had shown no forwardness to enter into arrangements for a general exchange of prisoners. That body was aware of the great expense of recruiting the British army from Europe; and of the slender accession of strength which, owing to short enlistments, their own military force would derive from a release of prisoners. They considered a general exchange unfavorable to their cause; but many of their regular troops had fallen into the hands of the British, by the capitulation of Charleston, and the defeat of Gates at Camden. The complaints of the prisoners and of their friends were loud; and congress agreed to a general exchange but the convention troops of Saratoga were detained prisoners till the end of the war. Let us now return to the southern states. After the battle of Camden, Cornwallis was unable to follow up the victory with his usual activity. His little army was diminished by the sword and by disease. He had not brought with him from Charleston the stores necessary for an immediate pursuit of the enemy; and he did not deem it expedient to leave South Carolina till he had suppressed that spirit of resistance to his authority which had extensively manifested itself in the province. In order to consummate, as he thought, the subjugation of the state, he resorted to measures of great severity. He seemed to forget that many of the inhabitants had been received as prisoners-of-war on parole; that, without their consent, their parole had been discharged; and that, merely by a proclamation, they had been declared British subjects, instead of prisoners-of-war. In a few days after the battle of Camden, when Cornwallis thought the country was lying prostrate at his feet, he addressed the following letter to the commandant of the British garrison at Ninety-Six: "I have given orders that all the inhabitants of this province who have subscribed, and taken part in the revolt, should be punished with the utmost rigor; and also those who will not turn out, that they may be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them or destroyed. I have also ordered that compensation should be made out of these estates to the persons who have been injured or oppressed by them. I have ordered, in the most positive manner, that every militiaman who has borne arms with us, and afterward joined the enemy, shall be immediately hanged. I desire you will take the most vigorous measures to punish the rebels in the district you command, and that you obey, in the strictest manner, the directions I have given in this letter relative to the inhabitants of the country." Similar orders were given to the commanders of other posts. In any circumstances, such orders given to officers, often possessing little knowledge, and as little prudence or humanity, could not fail to produce calamitous effects. In the case under consideration, where all the worst passions of the heart were irritated and inflamed, the consequences were lamentable. The orders were executed in the spirit in which they were given. Numbers of persons were put to death: many were imprisoned, and their property was destroyed or confiscated. The country was covered with blood and desolation, rancor and grief. Women and children were turned out of doors, and often slaughtered, and their houses and substance consumed. The prisoners on parole thought they had a clear right to take arms; for from their parole they had been released by the proclamation of the 20th of June, which, indeed, called them to the duty of subjects, a condition to which they had never consented; and therefore they reckoned that they had as good a right to resume their arms as the British commander had to enjoin their allegiance. The case of those who had taken British protections, in the full persuasion that they were to be allowed to live peaceably on their estates, but who, on finding that they must fight on one side or other, had repaired to the standards of their country, was equally hard. Deception and violence were practised against both. So long as the struggle appeared doubtful, the colonists met with fair promises and kind treatment; but at the moment when resistance seemed hopeless, and obedience necessary, they were addressed in the tone of authority, heard stern commands and bloody threatenings, and received harsh usage. Hence the province, which for some time presented the stillness of peace, again put on the ruthless aspect of war. A number of persons of much respectability remained prisoners-of-war in Charleston, since the capitulation of that town; but, after the battle of Camden, Cornwallis ordered them to be carried out of the province. Accordingly, early in the morning of the 27th of August, some of the principal citizens of Charleston were taken out of bed, put on board a guard-ship, and soon afterward transported to St. Augustine. They remonstrated with Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour, the commandant of Charleston, but experienced only the insolence of authority from that officer. While Cornwallis endeavored, by severe measures, to break the spirits of the people, and to establish the royal authority in South Carolina, he did not lose sight of his ulterior projects. He sent emissaries into North Carolina to excite the loyalists there, and to assure them of the speedy march of the British army into that province. On the 8th of September he left Camden, and toward the end of the month arrived at Charlotte town, in North Carolina; of which place he took possession after a slight resistance from some volunteer cavalry under Colonel Davie. Though symptoms of opposition manifested themselves at Charlotte, yet he advanced toward Salisbury, and ordered his militia to cross the Yadkin. But Cornwallis was suddenly arrested in his victorious career by an unexpected disaster. He made every exertion to imbody the well-affected inhabitants of the country, and to form them into a British militia. For that purpose he employed Major Ferguson, of the 71st regiment, an officer of much merit, with a small detachment, in the district of Ninety-Six, to train the loyalists, and to attach them to his own party. From the operations of that officer he expected the most important services. Ferguson executed his commission with activity and zeal; collected a large number of loyalists, and committed great depredations on the friends of independence in the back settlements. When about to return to the main army in triumph, he was detained by one of those incidents which occasionally occur in war, and influence the course of events and the destiny of nations. A Colonel Clarke of Georgia, who had fled from that province on its reduction by Campbell in 1779, had retired to the northward; and, having collected a number of followers in the Carolinas, he returned to his native province, at the head of about 700 men; and, while Cornwallis was marching from Camden to Charlotte town, attacked the British post at Augusta. Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, who commanded at that place with a garrison of about 150 provincials, aided by some friendly Indians, finding the town untenable, retired toward an eminence on the banks of the Savannah, named Garden Hill. But the enemy occupied it before his arrival by bringing his artillery, however, to bear upon them, after a desperate conflict, he succeeded in dislodging them and in gaining possession of the hill, but with the loss of his cannon. There Clarke besieged him, till informed of the near approach of a British detachment from Ninety-Six, under Colonel Cruger. He then retreated, abandoning the cannon which he had taken; and, though pursued, effected his escape. Notice was instantly sent to Ferguson of Clarke's retreat, and of his route; and high hopes of intercepting him were entertained. For that purpose Ferguson remained longer in those parts, and approached nearer the mountains, than he would otherwise have done. As he had collected about 1,500 men, he had no apprehension of any force assembling in that quarter able to embarrass him. : Meanwhile the depredations committed by Ferguson exasperated many of the inhabitants of the country, some of whom, fleeing across the Allegany mountains, gave their western brethren an alarming account of the evils with which they were threatened. Those men, living in the full enjoyment of that independence for which the Atlantic states were struggling, resolved to keep the war at a distance from their settlements. The hardy mountaineers of the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina assembled under Colonels Campbell, Shelby, Cleveland, and Sevier. Other parties, under their several leaders, hastened to join them. They were all mounted, and unencumbered with baggage. Each man had his blanket, knapsack, and rifle; and set out in quest of Ferguson, equipped in the same manner as when they hunted the wild beasts of the forest. At night the earth afforded them a bed, and the heavens a covering; the flowing stream quenched their thirst; their guns, their knapsacks, or a few cattle driven in their rear, supplied them with food. Their numbers made them formidable, and the rapidity of their movements rendered it difficult to escape them. They aniounted to nearly 3,000 men. On hearing of their approach, Ferguson began to retreat toward Charlotte, and sent messengers to Cornwallis to apprize him of his danger. But the messengers were intercepted; and the earl remained ignorant of the perilous situation of his detachment. In the vicinity of Gilbert town, the Americans, apprehensive of Ferguson's escape, selected 1,000 of their best riflemen, mounted them on their fleetest horses, and sent them in pursuit. Their rapid movements rendered his retreat impracticable; and Ferguson, sensible that he would inevitably be overtaken, chose his ground on King's mountain, on the confines of North and South Carolina, and waited the attack. On the 7th of October the Americans came up with him. Campbell had the command; but his authority was merely nominal, for there was little military order or subordination in the attack. They agreed to divide their forces, in order to assail Ferguson from different quarters; and the divisions were led on by Colonels Cleveland, Shelby, Sevier, and Williams. Cleveland, who conducted the party which began the attack, addressed his men as follows: 66 'My brave fellows! we have beaten the tories, and we can beat them. When engaged, you are not to wait for the word of command from me. I will show you by my example how to fight; I can undertake no more. Every man must consider himself an officer, and act on his own judgment. Though repulsed, do not run off; return, and renew the combat. If any of you are afraid, you have not only leave to withdraw, but are requested to do so.' Cleveland instantly began the attack; but was soon compelled to retire before the bayonet. But Ferguson had no time to continue the pursuit: for Shelby came forward from an unexpected quarter, and poured in a destructive fire. Ferguson again resorted to the bayonet, and was again successful. But at that moment, Campbell's division advanced on another side, and a new battle began. Campbell, like his comrades, was obliged to retreat. But Cleveland had now rallied his division, and advanced anew to the combat. The royalists wheeled, and met this returning assailant. In this way there was an unremitting succession of attacks for about fifty minutes. Ferguson obstinately defended himself, and repulsed every assailant; but at last he fell mortally wounded; and the second in command, seeing the contest hopeless, surrendered. Ferguson and 150 of his men lay dead on the field; as many were wounded; nearly 700 laid down their arms; and upward of 400 escaped. Among the prisoners the number of regular British soldiers did not amount to 100. The Americans lost about twenty men, who were killed on the field, and they had many wounded. They took 1,500 stand of arms. Major Ferguson's position was good; but the hill abounded with wood, and afforded the Americans, who were all riflemen, an opportunity of fighting in their own way, and of firing from behind trees. The Americans hanged ten of their prisoners on the spot, pleading the guilt of the individuals who suffered, and the example of the British, who had executed a greater number of Americans. Those rude warriors, whose enterprise was the spontaneous impulse of their patriotism or revenge, who acknowledged no superior authority, and who were guided by no superior counsels, having achieved their victory and attained their object, dispersed and returned home Most of the prisoners were soon after released. The ruin of Ferguson's detachment, from which so much had been expected, was a severe blow to Cornwallis: it disconcerted his plans, and prevented his progress northward. On the 14th of October, as soon after obtaining certain information of the fall of Major Ferguson as the army could be put in motion, he |