LIII. 1776. sionate feelings. He had no especial love or care CHAP for the North American cause; indeed it is scarcely mentioned in his most familiar letters, unless for a sorry jest on the name of General Howe.* Yet even Frederick expressed in strong terms his contempt for the scandalous man-traffic of his neighbours. It is said that whenever any of the newly hired Brunswickers or Hessians had to pass through any portion of his territory he claimed to levy on them the usual toll as for so many head of cattle, since he said they had been sold as such!† were Nor can the British Ministry in this transaction be considered free from blame. If men needed was there any lack of them in England? Was it wise to inform foreign states that we deemed ourselves thus dependent on foreign aid? Was it wise to hold forth to America the first example of obtaining assistance from abroad? Above all, if conciliation was to be the object full as much as conquest, how signal the imprudence thus, in the midst of a civil strife, to thrust forward aliens to both parties, in blood, in language, and in manners! What else could be expected than that these aliens should feel themselves restrained by no ties of affinity, by no feelings of affection, from wreaking on their opponents the utmost miseries of war? Considerations such as these "Nous entendons parler du General Howe dont chaque "chien en aboyant prononce le nom." (A Voltaire, le 17 Juin 1777.) + Den üblichen vieh-zoll. See Preuss, Lebens-Geschichte, vol. iii. p. 472. 1776. CHAP. were warmly urged in both Houses of Parliament, LIII. but only by small minorities. In America, on the contrary, such considerations appear to have pervaded the great body of the people. Certain it is that among the various causes which at this period wrought upon our trans-Atlantic brethren to renounce their connection with us, there was none more cogent in their minds than the news that German mercenaries had been hired and were coming to fight against them. The reinforcements from England were impatiently expected by General Howe, who felt all the danger of delay at such a juncture; but during many weeks they were expected in vain. Besides the main object of New York, Howe had in contemplation two smaller enterprises, one to the south for the reduction of the Carolinas, another to the north for the relief of Quebec. To the command of the first was appointed General Clinton, to the command of the second, at a later period, General Burgoyne. With respect to North Carolina, Mr. Martin, the late Governor of that province, had endeavoured to raise a counter-revolution, through the means of the Highland emigrants and of certain unruly men known by the name of REGULATORS * ; but his levies were quickly routed and dispersed. In * "The Regulators had acquired this name from their attempt❝ing to regulate the administration of justice in the remote "settlements in a summary manner subversive of the public "peace." (Ramsay's History of the Revolution, vol. i. p. 253.) LIII. South Carolina it was hoped that the Royal cause CHAP. might be better supported.-General Clinton arriving off Cape Fear there met a squadron of ships 1776. from England under Sir Peter Parker, having on board a detachment of troops under Earl Cornwallis. Early in June this combined force came to anchor off Charleston Bar. The first object was to reduce Sullivan's Island, which guarded the entrance of the river, and on which the Americans had constructed a new fort. A brave officer, Colonel Moultrie, commanded at this post, while General Charles Lee was near at hand with a large body of militia, having been despatched by Congress to this district on the first rumours of its danger. Clinton disembarked his men upon a sand-bank called Long Island, from which he expected to pass over into Sullivan's by a ford. But he had been grossly deceived by erroneous soundings, and found to his great mortification the channel, which was reported to be only eighteen inches, upwards of seven feet in depth. Thus the King's forces were arrested by an impervious gulf at the very time of action, and at the very place where they had expected to pass almost dry-shod. The fort on Sullivan's Island (since from its defender called Moultrie's) was meanwhile cannonaded by the ships, but their fire was far more effectually returned, and finally, notwithstanding most signal gallantry in the conduct of Parker and his captains, one of them named Morris conspicuous K 3 CHAP. above all, the attack, and indeed the whole expeLIII. dition, had to be relinquished, with much damage to several of the vessels, and two hundred men killed or wounded. 1776 arms. In Canada, better success attended the British Towards the close of winter Arnold, still before Quebec, had been superseded by the arrival of General Wooster, and had retired in disgust to Montreal. His absence was in itself a grievous loss to the Americans. Great irregularities moreover became rife among them. The Adjutant General of their own army complains, not merely of "provincial jealousies" and " quarrelling Gene rals," but still more of "a most incredible waste " or embezzlement of all stores and provisions." * -On the other side reinforcements had been promised to Carleton, as soon as the season might allow; and even before the navigation of the St. Lawrence was fully cleared, three ships, forcing their way through the ice, joined him at Quebec Hereupon it was the 6th of May-Carleton sallied forth against the enemy at his gates; they were already retreating, but he put them to the rout with the loss of all their baggage and artillery. The campaign thus auspiciously begun was no less auspiciously pursued. One division of the Americans was captured at the Cedars; another was defeated at the Three Rivers; the rest were driven in confusion beyond Lake Champlain; and * Life of President Reed, vol. i. p. 210. thus before midsummer the entire province had CHAP. been recovered for the King. In several of these actions, and above all at the Cedars, the British allowed themselves to be joined by some parties of the Indians-a most cruel and, as it deserved to be, a most precarious resource in such a war. To whichever side the savages attached themselves-for both at various times invited their co-operation,-they brought with them far more discredit than support. Trained in habits of bloodshed, and little awed by the authority of American or European officers, these Red Men might be useful as foragers or as spies and scouts, but were chiefly known by the terrors which they spread among the undefended, and the barbarities which they sought to wreak upon the prisoners and the wounded.-Unhappily upon this subject it was found much easier to blame than to forbear. An American of the present day observes: "Writers of all parties have united in condemning "a practice, so unjustifiable in itself and so hostile "to the principles of civilization, while at the 66 same time belligerents of all parties have con"tinued to follow it, even down to the late war "between England and the United States." * *Note of Mr. Sparks to Washington's Writings, vol. iii. p. 495. It appears from the Secret Journals of Congress, as Mr. Sparks proceeds to state, that on May 25. 1776, they resolved, "That it is highly expedient to engage the Indians in "the service of the United Colonies." They also authorized Washington to employ the Indians of Penobscot and St. John's who had proffered their services. LIII. 1776. |