was already in sight and the whole army but a few miles distant. Never was a retreat more skillfully conducted. Cornwallis, mortified at his repeated failures, abandoned the pursuit and retired with his army to Hillsborough.

Once in Virginia, Greene was rapidly reinforced. After a few days of recruiting and rest he felt himself strong enough to begin offensive movements. On the 22d of February he recrossed the Dan into North Carolina. Meanwhile, Cornwallis had despatched Tarleton with a body of cavalry into the region between the Haw and Deep Rivers to encourage the tories. Being informed of this movement, Greene sent Colonel Lee into the same district. Three hundred loyalists, already under arms, were marching to join Tarleton. On the route they were intercepted by the American cavalry, whom, supposing them to be British, they saluted with a shout of" Long live the king!" Colonel Lee and his men quietly surrounded the unsuspecting tories, fell upon them as a band of traitors, and killed or captured the entire company.

By the addition of the Virginia militia Greene's army now numbered four thousand four hundred men. Determining to avoid battle no longer, he marched to Guilford Court-House, took a strong position and awaited his antagonist. Cornwallis, accepting the challenge, at once moved forward to the attack. On the 15th of March the two armies met on Greene's chosen ground, and a severe but indecisive battle was fought. The forces of Greene were superior in numbers, and those of Cornwallis in discipline. If the American militia had stood firm, the result would not have been doubtful; but the raw recruits behaved badly, broke line and fled. Confusion ensued; the Americans fought hard, but were eventually driven from the field and forced to retreat for several miles. In killed and wounded the British loss was greatest; but large bodies of the militia returned to their homes, reducing Greene's army to less than three thousand. Nevertheless, to the British the result was equivalent to a defeat.

Cornwallis now boasted, made big proclamations, and then retreated. On the 7th of April he reached the sea-coast at Wilmington, and immediately thereafter proceeded to Virginia. How he arrived at Petersburg, superseded Arnold and sent him out of the State has already been narrated. The British forces in the Carolinas remained under command of Lord Rawdon, who was posted with a strong division at Camden. With him General Greene, after the departure of Cornwallis, was left to contend. The American army was accordingly advanced into South Carolina. A detachment was sent against Fort Watson, on the east bank of the Santee, and the place was obliged to surrender. Greene marched with the main body to Hobkirk's Hill, a short distance north of

Camden, posted his men in a strong position and awaited the movements of Rawdon. What that officer would do was not long a question of doubt. On the 25th of April he moved from Camden with his entire force and attacked the American camp. For once General Greene came near being surprised; but his men were swiftly formed for battle; Rawdon's column was badly arranged; and for a while it seemed that the entire British force would be slain or captured. Just at the critical moment, however, some valuable American officers who commanded in the centre were killed; their regiments, becoming confused, fell back; Rawdon saw his advantage, pressed forward, broke the centre, captured the hill, and won the day. The Americans retired from the field, but saved their artillery and bore away the wounded. Again the genius of Greene made defeat seem little less than victory.

On the 10th of May Lord Rawdon evacuated Camden and retired to Eutaw Springs, sixty-five miles above the mouth of the Santee. The British posts at Granby, Orangeburg, Fort Mott and Augusta fell successively into the hands of the patriots. By the 5th of June only Eutaw Springs, Charleston and Ninety-Six remained in possession of the enemy. The latter place was already besieged by General Greene, who, after the battle of Hobkirk's Hill, advanced to Fort Granby, and thence to NinetySix. For twenty-seven days the siege was pressed with vigor. The supply of water was cut off from the fort, and the garrison could not have held out more than two days longer; but Lord Rawdon was rapidly approaching with a force of two thousand men; and the Americans, after an unsuccessful assault, were obliged, on the 18th of June, to raise the siege and retreat. Rawdon pursued, but Greene escaped, as usual, and the British, abandoning Ninety-Six, fell back to Orangeburg. Greene, with ceaseless activity, followed the retreating enemy, and would, but for their strength, have assaulted Rawdon's works. Deeming the position impregnable, the American general recrossed the Santee and took his station on the highlands in Sumter district. Here, in the healthful air of the hill-country, he passed the sickly months of summer.

Sumter, Lee and Marion were constantly abroad, traversing the country in all directions, cutting off supplies from the enemy, breaking his lines of communication and smiting the tories right and left. Lord Rawdon now resigned the command of the British forces to Colonel Stuart and went to Charleston. While there he became a principal actor in one of the most shameful scenes of the Revolution. Colonel Isaac Hayne, an eminent patriot who had formerly taken an oath of allegiance to the king, was caught in command of a troop of American cavalry. He was at once taken to Charleston, arraigned before Colonel Balfour, the commandant,

hurried through the mockery of a trial and condemned to death. Rawdon gave his sanction, and on the 31st of July Colonel Hayne was hanged. Just men in Europe joined with the patriots of America in denouncing the act as worthy of barbarism.

On the 22d of August General Greene left the heights of the Santee and marched toward Orangeburg. The British decamped at his approach and took post at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below. The Americans pressed after them and overtook them on the 8th of September. One of the fiercest battles

of the war ensued; and General Greene was denied a decisive victory only by the bad conduct of some of his men, who, before the field was fairly won, abandoned themselves to eating and drinking in the enemy's camp. Stuart rallied his troops, returned to the charge and regained his position. Greene, after losing five hundred and fiftyfive men, gave over the struggle. The British lost in killed and wounded nearly seven hundred, and more than five hun

dred prisoners. On

GENERAL GREENE.

the day after the battle Stuart hastily retreated to Monk's Corner; Greene followed with his army, and after two months of manoeuvring and desultory warfare the British were driven into Charleston. In the mean time, General St. Clair had cleared North Carolina by forcing the enemy to evacuate Wilmington. In the whole country south of Virginia onlyCharleston and Savannah remained under dominion of the king's army; the latter city was evacuated by the British on the 11th of July, and the former on the 14th of December, 1782. Such was the close of the RevoJution in the Carolinas and Georgia.

But the final scene was to be enacted in Virginia. There, in the last days of April, 1781, Cornwallis took command of the British army and began to ravage the country on both banks of the James. In the course of the following two months property, public and private, was destroyed to the value of fifteen million dollars. La Fayette, to whom the defence of the State had been entrusted, was unable to meet Cornwallis in the field, but watched his movements with sleepless vigilance. While the British were in the vicinity of Richmond a detachment under Tarleton proceeded as far west as Charlottesville, where the Virginia legislature was in session. The town was taken, the country devastated, and seven members of the assembly made prisoners. Governor Jefferson escaped only by riding into the mountains.

When there was little left to destroy, Cornwallis marched down the north bank of the James to Green Springs, eight miles above the site of Jamestown. He had received orders from Sir Henry Clinton to descend the river and take such a position on the coast as would keep the army within supporting distance of New York; for Clinton was very apprehensive that Washington and the French would attack him. La Fayette hovered upon the rear of Cornwallis; and on the 6th of July, when it was supposed that the main body of the enemy had crossed the James, General Wayne, who led the American advance, suddenly attacked the whole British army. Cornwallis was so surprised by the audacious onset that when Wayne, seeing his mistake, made a hasty retreat, no pursuit was attempted. The loss of the two armies was equal, being a hundred and twenty on each side. After the passage of James River, the British marched to Portsmouth, where Arnold had had his headquarters in the previous spring. There Cornwallis would have fortified himself; K but the orders of Clinton were otherwise; and in the first days of August 、 the army was again embarked and conveyed to Yorktown, on the southern bank of York River, a few miles above the mouth.

La Fayette quickly advanced into the peninsula and took post but eight miles distant from the British. From this position he sent urgent despatches to Washington, beseeching him to come to Virginia and aid in striking the enemy a fatal blow. A powerful French armament, commanded by Count de Grasse, was hourly expected in the Chesapeake, and La Fayette saw at a glance that if a fleet could be anchored in the mouth of York River, cutting off retreat, the doom of Cornwallis would be sealed. During the months of July and August, Washington, from his camp on the Hudson, looked wistfully to the South. But all the while Clinton was kept in feverish alarm by false despatches, written for the purpose of falling into his hands. These intercepted messages indicated

1791

.

that the Americans and French would immediately begin the siege of New York; and for that Clinton made ready. When, in the last days of August, he was informed that Washington had broken up his camp and was already marching with his whole army toward Virginia, the British general would not believe it, but went on preparing for a siege. Washington pressed rapidly forward, paused two days at Mount Vernon, where he had not been for six years, and met La Fayette at Williamsburg. Meanwhile, on the 30th of August, the French fleet, numbering. twenty-eight ships of the line, with nearly four thousand troops on board, had reached the Chesapeake and safely anchored in the mouth of York River. Cornwallis, with the British army, was blockaded both by sea and land.

1751

To add still further to the strength of the allies, Count de Barras, who commanded the French flotilla at Newport, sailed into the Chesa

peake with eight ships of the line and ten transports, bear

ing cannon for the siege. On the 5th of September the English admiral Graves appeared in the bay, and a naval battle ensued, in which the British ships were so roughly handled that they returned to New York. On the 28th of September the allied armies, superior in numbers and confident of success, encamped around Yorktown. The story of the siege is brief. Tarleton, who occupied Gloucester Point, on the other side

of the river, made one spirited sally, but was driven back with severe loss. On the night of the 6th of October the trenches were opened at the distance of six hundred yards from the British works. The cannonade was constant and effective. On the 11th of the month the allies drew their second parallel within three hundred yards of Cornwallis's redoubts. On the night of the 14th the enemy's outer works were carried by storm. At daydawn of the 16th the British made a sortie, only to be hurled back into their entrenchments. On the next day/Cornwallis proposed a surrender; on the 18th terms of capitulation were drawn up and signed: and at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th Major-General O'Hara—