The Story of American History Part 19

=220. The Bitter and Cruel Warfare in the South.=--The patriots did not now have a body of soldiers in the south large enough to call an army.

The entire region was open to British plunder.

Bands of soldiers roamed through the country, plundering, burning, and killing without restraint. No mercy was shown to patriots. A squad of soldier bandits once came to the home of Thomas Sumter, the famous patriot officer, turned his wife and children out of doors and burned the house.

Sumter was a bold and energetic fighter in the wild warfare of the south. He was a tall and powerful man and of a very stern make-up. He lived to be ninety-nine years of age--the last surviving general of the Revolution. "But for Sumter and Marion," said Cornwallis, "South Carolina would be at peace."

There now remained in South Carolina but one battalion of patriot soldiers. These were about four hundred in number under Colonel Buford, then in the northwestern part of the state. Clinton sent against him a force of seven hundred regulars and Tories under Colonel Tarleton, an active but base and cruel man.

Tarleton surrounded the patriots and demanded their surrender. While Buford was quietly discussing the matter, his soldiers resting at ease under the protection of a flag of truce, Tarleton treacherously arranged his men for an attack. Suddenly the flag of truce was taken down, and instantly the British cavalry rushed from all sides upon Buford's men and killed one hundred and thirteen and wounded one hundred and fifty.

Even the boys were nerved to deeds of valor. A schoolboy named Andrew Jackson, thirteen years old, who had seen the dead of the Buford ma.s.sacre, and helped care for the wounded, and whose own brother had been killed by the British, was himself captured. While under guard, a pompous British officer came up to him and cried out:--

"Here, boy! clean my boots!"

"No, sir! clean your own boots. I am a prisoner of war and ent.i.tled to better treatment."

Down came the officer's sword, aiming at the boy's head. Warding off the blow with his arm, he received a wound, the marks of which he carried to his grave. This boy grew up to become the seventh president of the United States!

=221. General Gates meets with Disaster.=--When General Was.h.i.+ngton learned of the disasters in the south, the loss of Savannah and Charleston and of Lincoln's army, he was anxious to send down General Greene, his right-hand man. But Congress unwisely interfered, and sent General Gates, who had contrived to get the credit of Burgoyne's capture at Saratoga.

In August, Gates moved to Camden, S. C., to meet Cornwallis. A strange battle ensued. Each general had planned to surprise the other by a night attack; the armies met in the dark. Both waited till daylight, and then the battle began. It was a disastrous defeat for the patriots. Gates's army was destroyed. This was perhaps the worst catastrophe of the war.

Now the patriot prospect was wretched enough. Where could there be any hope? The Tories all through the state were delighted, and thronged to the British side.

=222. Marion proves a Source of Terror to the British.=--The patriots felt now that they must defend themselves singly or in small groups; there was no army to help them. So they a.s.sembled, a few dozen here and there, and used their utmost endeavors on every opportunity to cripple the enemy. The British had small stations through the state, from which murderous raids could be made. They would plunder, burn, slay, and then return to their posts. To attack these posts, or to do any military work successfully, the patriots needed a leader. One soon came, Francis Marion, who combined a few groups of patriots and did most effective work with them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARION'S TROOPERS ATTACKING A BRITISH CAMP.]

This gallant and intrepid partisan chieftain was rather below the middle stature, lean, and swarthy. His forehead was large and high, and his eyes black and piercing. He was at this time about forty-eight years of age, with a body capable of enduring great fatigue and every privation.

He never tarnished his fame with acts of cruelty.

"Never shall a house be burned by one of my men," said he; "to distress helpless women and children is what I detest."

Marion used to wear a close-fitting red jacket and a leather cap. His body was so slight that he never did personal deeds of valor. His sword was so rarely used that once he could not draw it from the scabbard on account of the rust.

Never was Napoleon's guard more attached to their general than were Marion's men to the partisan chief who so often led them to victory.

=223. How the "Swamp Fox" did his Fighting.=--Marion was familiar with the country, and in many of the numerous swamps he occupied, with his troopers, secret haunts approached by devious paths not easily followed.

The British, smarting under his attacks, called him the "swamp fox"; but he proved to them rather a wolf or a tiger. These patriots who sprang to his side to defend their homes were patriots indeed. They had no pay, no uniforms, and but scanty clothing. They were a shabby-looking band of soldiers; but their arms were strong and their hearts were true.

Many had no guns, until they supplied themselves from the enemy. They melted their pewter dishes for bullets. They often made their breakfast on blackberries, dined on potatoes and green corn, and not infrequently supped on the memory of their dinner.

Much of the time Marion himself did not have even a blanket. One night his bed of brush caught fire, and it not only burnt his blanket but singed his hair and spoilt his leather cap!

Marion always kept his plans secret, even from his own officers, until the moment for action came. There was an air of mystery in what he undertook, and a bustle of hearty enterprise about his movements, which gave a charm to life in his famous brigade. Marion enjoyed fully the confidence of his men, shared all their privations, and braved more than his share of their dangers.

=224. One of Marion's First Exploits.=--One of Marion's first exploits was against a large force of Tories under Major Gainey. Marion and his men fell on his camp at daybreak as suddenly as if they had dropped from the clouds. Gainey fled on horseback, closely pursued by Major James, who followed so fast and so far that he suddenly found himself alone and getting surrounded by Tories. His quick wits saved him.

Turning in his saddle and waving his sword, he shouted back as if to a large body of followers, "Come on, boys! Here they are!" The Tories scattered and fled! In this little brush Marion did not lose a man.

Marion was always on the alert--quick, dash, fire, away!--that was his way of fighting. No wonder he carried terror to the enemy. And yet he never used exactly the same tactics twice. Once he planned to fall suddenly on a force twice as large as his own. It had a watchful leader who could not be caught napping. Dangerous business, we say. Yes, but see how the "swamp fox" did it! He carefully hid a body of his best sharpshooters in ambush along the road about a mile from the British.

Then he made a lively attack on the enemy and soon retreated along this road. Of course the enemy followed briskly, when up sprang Marion's troopers in ambush and soon defeated them. "All's fair in war," says the proverb.

These furious and almost incessant attacks kept the British in terror.

They never knew when they were safe.

=225. Some of Marion's Famous Exploits.=--Many a story of this daring chieftain's exploits used to be told by the evening fireside. In October, 1780, Marion brought hope to the patriots by one of his brilliant attacks. Colonel Tynes was gathering a large body of Tories to a.s.sist the British, and he held stores of guns, ammunition, and clothing for their use. Marion's scouts learned all the facts. These were just the articles he wanted for his half-clothed, half-fed, and poorly armed men.

For him to resolve was to act. He came cautiously at midnight. The camp-fires were burning; some soldiers were singing, some playing cards, some eating stolen chickens; but n.o.body was on guard. Marion's troopers rushed in with a wild shout, and the attack went all one way. A large number were killed, twenty-three were taken prisoners, and the supplies of the Tory camp were enjoyed by Marion's men for a long time.

Not one of his force was lost.

Soon after Gates's defeat, Marion learned by his scouts that the British were not far off with a large body of American prisoners. He sent at midnight a squad to hold the road to their camp, and before dawn he approached it silently with his own force. Just at daylight he made a sudden attack upon them. The surprise and the a.s.sault were an amazing success. Twenty-four of the enemy were killed or captured, and one hundred and fifty captives were set free, while not one of his men was lost.

=226. Marion invites a British Officer to Dinner.=--One day a young British officer came to Marion under a flag of truce, to plan an exchange of some prisoners. The business finished, Marion asked the officer to dine with him. The dinner consisted entirely of baked sweet potatoes brought by a negro on a piece of bark for a plate, with a log for a table.

"But this can't be your usual fare?" asked the Britisher.

"Yes, indeed," said Marion, "and we are lucky to-day to have enough for company."

This was no idle talk to affect the young officer, but it did impress him; for the story is that on returning to his own camp he said, "It's no use trying; I've seen Marion, and I tell you that men who work for no pay and live on potatoes while fighting for their liberties, are not going to be beaten, and I am not going to fight any longer against them.

I shall resign to-day."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARION INVITES A BRITISH OFFICER TO DINE WITH HIM.]

=227. A Great Victory at King's Mountain.=--After the Camden disaster the deep gloom continued till October, when Colonel Ferguson was sent with a force of British and Tories to the northwest to subdue the patriots in that region. Instantly there was a general uprising of the hunters and farmers of this wild and romantic region to defend their homes from the brutal enemy. These hardy mountaineers, ready to move at a moment's warning, came from every direction to a common meeting-place.

At King's Mountain, in North Carolina, where the British were entrenched, these American riflemen charged up the steep sides, surrounded the enemy, and cut them down till about half were killed and the rest fled in dismay. It was a brilliant victory, won by sheer hard fighting, and it brought supreme joy to the long-suffering patriots; for it proved to be decisive. It turned the tide of British rule in the south.

=228. General Greene takes Command in the South.=--A new Continental army was now to be sent from the north, and this time Was.h.i.+ngton had his choice of commanders. He sent one of his best and most trusted officers, General Greene, who had been a Rhode Island blacksmith. He knew how to fight; for he had served under the eye of Was.h.i.+ngton in many battles, and so had been well trained in military matters.

It was in December, 1780, that Greene took command of the so-called "southern army" at Charlotte, a little town in North Carolina. He had in all about two thousand men, but only eight hundred were fit for duty.

On the day Greene took command there were not three days' provisions in camp. He had no money. The people would not touch the Continental paper money. Ably, patiently, and brilliantly, this sagacious general at once set to work to effect his great purpose of driving the British armies from the south.

With Greene came another famous officer, General Daniel Morgan, the man who had marched with Arnold to Canada, and who commanded the infantry at Stillwater and Saratoga.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL GREENE TAKING COMMAND OF THE SOUTHERN ARMY.]

This was the man who, when he heard of Lexington, led his riflemen six hundred miles in twenty-one days, from Virginia, to join Was.h.i.+ngton in Cambridge.

Morgan was of gigantic stature, vast physical strength, and wonderful powers of endurance. In his youth he was a teamster. One day by order of a tyrannical British officer he was given five hundred lashes for some slight offense. He walked away saucy and defiant as before.

Of a gentle and unselfish nature, resolute, fearless in battle, a born fighter, Morgan was the ideal leader of the riflemen of the frontier.

His force was smaller than Greene's, who had detached him to occupy a post in South Carolina.

=229. How General Morgan defeated the British at Cowpens.=--Cornwallis in January, 1781, sent Tarleton with eleven hundred troops to meet Morgan and dispose of him. They met at Cowpens, but Morgan, with a smaller army, reversed the order and disposed of Tarleton! He killed a large number, ten officers and more than one hundred men, took over five hundred prisoners, with all the artillery and stores.

It was at Cowpens that Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, a distant relative of the Commander-in-Chief, wounded Tarleton in a hand-to-hand combat. Shortly afterwards this hated British officer said to a lady:--