The Reign of George III. - (Continued.) page 8

The American congress, which had imagined Gates a greater officer even than Washington, because he had captured Burgoyne through the ability of Arnold, though Washington - from envy, as they supposed - had always held a more correct opinion, now saw their error. No sooner was this victory at Camden achieved, than Cornwallis dispatched Tarleton after general Sumpter, who was marching on the other side of the Wateree on his way into South Carolina. Tarleton started after him with a couple of hundred of cavalry, and rode so sharply that he had left half his little force behind him, when he came up with him near Catawba Ford, and fell upon his far superior force without a moment's hesitation, killing and wounding one hundred, and taking captive upwards of two hundred, with all Sumpter's baggage, artillery, and one thousand stand of arms.

Cornwallis now announced to the royalists of North Carolina that he would soon send a force for their defence, and advanced to Charlotte. He next took measures for punishing those who, like Lisle, had pretended to re-accept the allegiance of England only to relapse into a double treachery. He declared that all such being taken should be treated as traitors, and hanged. These severe measures were carried into execution on some of the prisoners taken at Camden and Augusta, and others were shipped off to St. Augustine. This system was as impolitic as it was cruel, for the Americans were certain to adopt it in retaliation, as they did, with a frightful ferocity, when the royalists were overthrown in South Carolina, and avowedly on this ground. Lord Rawdon, following the example, wrote to his officers that he would give ten guineas for the head of any deserter from the volunteers of Ireland, and five only if brought in alive. One of these atrocious letters was intercepted, and published by the Americans, who were only too ready to plead it as a justification of worse brutalities. Lord Rawdon declared that such threats were only made to intimidate soldiers plotting to desert; but this is one of those threats which no civilised men ought under any circumstances to utter.

Scarcely had lord Cornwallis commenced his march into the interior of North Carolina, and scarcely had he dispatched major Ferguson with a corps of American royalists, to advance through the country towards the frontiers of Virginia, when this corps received another proof of the wisdom of lord Barrington's theory of keeping out of the woods and hills. Major Ferguson was attacked near the pass of King's Mountain by swarms of wild, rude riflemen, many of them mounted, from Virginia, Kentucky, and the Alleghanies, who shot down and exterminated major Ferguson's troops almost to a man, the major falling amongst the rest. The victors gave a prompt proof of their apt adoption of lord Cornwallis's teaching, by hanging ten of the prisoners. Lord Cornwallis was harassed by similar hordes of flying and creeping skirmishers, who, on being pursued, fled into the depths of the woods, and returned at fresh places like swarms of tropical flies. Hearing the news of the slaughter of Ferguson's force, he returned to Charlotte, retracing his march through most rainy weather, terrible roads, and almost totally destitute of provisions. Cornwallis fell ill on the road, and lord Rawdon had to assume the command. It was not till the 29th of October that the army resumed its original position near Camden; and general Leslie, who had been also dispatched to co-operate with Cornwallis in Virginia, was recalled, but was obliged to return by sea. The only successes in this unfortunate expedition were obtained by the indefatigable Tarleton, who again defeated Sumpter, nearly killing that general. In the meantime, Gates had been superseded by Greene, who was ordered to march against Cornwallis; but the season now checked the movements of both armies, and further proceedings were deferred to the next year.

At New York there had been much suffering in both the British army and the population. The fleet of admiral Arbuthnot had not long sailed with the troops of Sir Henry Clinton to Charlestown, when the winter set in with a severity which had not been experienced in the memory of man. The rivers and estuaries of the sea were soon frozen up, and by January the North River was covered with ice so thick, that the greatest army and the most ponderous artillery might have crossed to New York with perfect safety. This occasioned great alarm to the inhabitants, lest Washington should seize on this opportunity, during the absence of the main army and the commander-in-chief, and attack it with all his force. Knyphausen made all possible preparations for defence, landed the seamen from the ships of war, and enrolled the inhabitants in bodies to support the regulars and the militia.

But Washington was in no condition for such an enterprise; he was himself in the most deplorable plight. The congress, who had little money and less credit, left him and his army to the mercy of famine and the elements in his head-quarters at Morristown. The British had well scoured and exhausted the surrounding country in the preceding year; and Washington found himself, after urgent but vain appeals to congress, compelled to make fresh levies of provisions wherever he could find them. In one of these marauding raids on their own countrymen, the so-called lord Stirling was driven from Staten Island, with the loss of a considerable number of his men. In the following month, February, the English made a more successful march across the ice to White Plains, where they surprised a fort, and took the commandant of the district and his garrison prisoners. The distresses of Washington's army increasing fearfully, neither men nor officers having either much food or decent clothing in such inclement weather, numbers walked away, so that his army, nominally thirty-five thousand men, did not, in reality, amount to twelve thousand. Whole brigades now began to declare that they would return home, unless speedy relief arrived. The officers presented a memorial to Washington, declaring that they had lost all confidence in the legislature! " Reason and experience," they said," forbid we should have any. Few of us have private fortunes; many have families, already suffering everything that can be received from an ungrateful country." They protested their wives and children were starving, and that they would retire from the service. This roused the congress sufficiently to induce them to send commissioners to examine the state of Washington's camp. These fully confirmed the reports of Washington and the complaints of the army. They stated that the soldiers had received no pay for five months; that they were penniless, and destitute of all credit; but the congress, though it promised relief, did not or could not send any; and on the 25th of May two Connecticut regiments paraded under arms, declaring that they would abandon the camp, and seek subsistence at the point of the bayonet. Washington found it difficult to suppress this state of mutiny; and, in fact, nothing but the high esteem in which he was held enabled him to keep any portion of the army together. He entertained the most gloomy forebodings, and his published letters fully demonstrated that he felt it impossible for the states to continue the contest without the aid promised by France.

Encouraged by this miserable state of the American army, general Knyphausen dispatched brigadiers Matthews and Stirling into New Jersey. They landed at Elizabethtown Point on the 7th of June, and the next day marched towards Springfield. They expected that the people, weary of the miseries of the war, would join them, but they did not do so, and they found themselves attacked by bodies of regulars and of militia which Washington sent against them, and who kept up so harassing, though irregular, a species of warfare, that they again retreated to Elizabeth- town Point. At this crisis Sir Henry Clinton arrived from Charlestown and joined Knyphausen, and Washington descended from his hills to defend Springfield. Sir Henry, to divide his attention, ordered some evolutions in the direction of West Point, and Washington, deceived by the feint, marched towards Pompton to defend West Point, leaving general Greene at Springfield. Clinton, having gained his object, moved in full force on Springfield, defeated Greene before Washington could return to his assistance, and laid the place in ashes. This done, Sir Henry, who was in daily expectation of the arrival of the French fleet and armament, returned to New York on the 25th of June.

The news of the approach of the French succours was brought by La Fayette, who, much to the joy of Washington, and of America generally, again reached the States, landing at Boston in April. He announced that the fleet, commanded by the Chevalier de Ternay, consisted of seven sail of the line, with numerous smaller vessels, and brought over six thousand troops, under the Compte de Rochambeau. But this was only the first division; another was soon to follow, which, however, never reached America. The news spread a wild joy through the now despairing country, every one being sufficiently convinced that without foreign aid the contest was hopeless. Congress exerted itself to raise money in order to put the army into a more respectable condition before these quick-sighted allies, on their arrival, should spy out the nakedness of the land. Bills were drawn on Franklin and Jay in Paris, and ten millions of dollars were demanded from the states of the union within thirty days. Vain, however, were the struggles to this end. The French squadron reached Rhode Island on the 13th of July, and Washington's army was still nearly shoeless and shirtless.

The Comte de Rochambeau had seen considerable service in the wars in Germany, but, although a man of experience, he was still without any particular military talent; talking, indeed, of nothing but martial affairs, and ready to display to you his strategy on his table or his snuff-box; yet, if we are to believe the acute Mirabeau, he was a man thoroughly incapable. He had fought against prince Ferdinand, and in the battle of Minden, but these things had not made him a Turenne or a Luxemburg. The French government, however, had most judiciously sent out the fleet and army with instructions calculated to prevent the mischiefs otherwise likely to arise from rivalry betwixt the officers of the two nations so lately enemies, and which had so disastrously shown themselves on the former arrival of the French under Suffrien and D'Estaing. Rochambeau and his officers were to serve under Washington as the commander-in-chief, who was now made a lieutenant-general in the French army. American officers were to command French officers of equal rank, and, in all military transactions, American generals were to sign before French ones.

Still, the Americans and the French did not agree very well. The Americans complained that the French had arrived too late in the season to be of use in that campaign, and the French complained that the Americans, even then, were unprepared to co-operate with them. Washington, however, declared himself ready for an attack on New York; but then Rochambeau replied that it would be better to wait for the expected and much larger fleet of De Guichen. Before De Guichen appeared, the English admiral, Graves, arrived, with six ships of war, thus increasing the English superiority at sea, and De Ternay found himself blockaded in the harbour of Newport, and Rochambeau was glad to entrench himself on Rhode Island, and abandon all idea of attacking New York. Sir Henry Clinton, on his part, planned an attack on Rochambeau with the army, while the French fleet blockaded in Newport harbour should be attacked by admiral Arbuthnot. But Clinton and Arbuthnot were at variance, and the admiral did not promptly and cordially second the views of Clinton. He went slowly round Long Island, to place himself in conjunction with the general; whilst Clinton embarked eight thousand troops, and approached the position of Rochambeau. But Arbuthnot strongly contended against the attempt, declaring Rochambeau too formidably fortified, and Washington, at the same time, advancing from his position with a large force, suddenly passed the North River and approached King's Bridge, as if meditating an attack on New York. These circumstances induced Clinton reluctantly to return to New York. Washington retreated to his old ground at Morristown, and Arbuthnot remained blockading De Ternay before Newport. Neither party, therefore, could do more than be still for the remainder of the season. Clinton was completely crippled for any decisive action by the miserable modicum of troops which the English government had furnished him, and the enemy now knew that the fleet of De Guichen was not likely to arrive this season.

This fleet had found enough to do to cope with admiral Rodney in the West Indian waters. Rodney, with twenty sail of the line, came up with De Guichen's fleet of twenty- three sail of the line, besides smaller vessels, on the evening of the 16th of April, off St. Lucia. He came into action with it on the 17th, and succeeded in breaking its line, and might have obtained a most complete victory, but several of his captains behaved in the worst possible manner, paying no attention to his signals. The Sandwich, the admiral's ship, was greatly damaged in the action, and the French sailed away. Rodney wrote most indignantly home concerning the conduct of the captains, and one of them was tried and broken, and some of the others sharply censured; but they were protected by the spirit of faction, and escaped their due punishment. Rodney, finding he could not bring the French again to engage, put into St. Lucia to refit, and land his wounded men, of whom he had three hundred and fifty; besides one hundred an d twenty killed. D e Guichen had suffered far more severely. Rodney again got sight of the French fleet on the 10th of May, between St. Lucia and Martinique; but they avoided him, and made their escape into the harbour of Fort Royal. Hearing of the approach of a Spanish fleet of twelve sail of the line, and a great number of lesser vessels and transports, bringing from ten thousand to twelve thousand men, Rodney went in quest of it, to prevent its junction with the French; but Solano, the Spanish admiral, took care not to go near Rodney, but, reaching Guadaloupe, sent word of his arrival there to De Guichen, who managed to sail thither and join him. This now most overwhelming united fleet of France and Spain left Rodney no alternative but to avoid an engagement on his part. He felt that not only our West India Islands, but the coasts of North America, were, so far as human agency was concerned, at its mercy; but Providence had decreed otherwise. The Spaniards had so crowded their transports with soldiers, and made such wretched provisions for their accommodation, that the most destructive and contagious fever was raging amongst them. This was quickly communicated to the French vessels; the mortality was more than that of a great battle, and the combined fleet hastened to Martinique, where they landed their soldiers and part of their seamen to recruit. They remained at Fort Royal till the 5th of July, only to disagree and quarrel more and more. Proceeding thence to St. Domingo, they parted, De Guichen returning to Europe, as convoy of the French home-bound merchantmen; and Solano sailing to Havannah, to co-operate with his countrymen in their designs on Florida. Thus this mighty armada was dispersed; Rodney, sending part of his fleet to Jamaica, was enabled to proceed to join Arbuthnot at New York, with eleven ships of the line and four frigates. The news of his approach reached the French and Americans there, at the same time as that of the return of De Guichen to Europe, and spread the greatest consternation. To consider what was best to do under the circumstances, a meeting was proposed at Hartford, in Connecticut, betwixt Washington and Rochambeau, which took place on the 21st September. During his absence, Washington left the army under the command of general Greene, and he directed all the continental troops to adopt the black and white cockade - a mingling of the cockades of France and America - as a sign of amity. But when the American and French commanders- in-chief met, they knew not what measures to propose; and Clinton, on his part, was, at the same moment, equally embarrassed by his situation. He had already written home desiring his recall; and he now sent one of his most confidential officers, brigadier-general Dalrymple, with a secret letter to the secretary of state, urging more strongly the utter impossibility of his effecting anything with the mere handful of men under his command, and with a total want of confidence between himself and admiral Arbuthnot.