A Brief History of the United States Part 21

9. In 1777 the cruisers were sent to British waters and under Wilkes and others harried British coasts.

10. In 1778 Paul Jones sailed around Ireland and in 1779 he won his great victory in the _Bonhomme Richard_.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Admiral Howe now wrote to Was.h.i.+ngton, offering pardon to all persons who should desist from rebellion; he addressed the letter to "George Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq.," and sent it under flag of truce. The messenger was told there was no one in the army with that t.i.tle. A week later another messenger came with a paper addressed "George Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq. etc. etc."

This time he was received; and when Was.h.i.+ngton declined to receive the letter, explained that "etc. etc." meant everything. "Indeed," said Was.h.i.+ngton, "they might mean anything." He was determined that Howe should recognize him as commander in chief of the Continental army, and not treat him as the leader of rebels.

[2] Many of the prisoners taken in this and other battles were put on board s.h.i.+ps anch.o.r.ed near Brooklyn. Their sufferings in these "Jersey prison s.h.i.+ps" were terrible, and many died and were buried on the beach.

From these rude graves their bones from time to time were washed out. At last in 1808 they were taken up and decently buried near the Brooklyn navy yard, and in 1873 were put in a vault in Was.h.i.+ngton Park, Brooklyn.

[3] While Was.h.i.+ngton was near New York, a young man named Nathan Hale volunteered to enter the British lines on Long Island to procure information greatly needed. As he was returning he was recognized by a Tory kinsman, was captured, tried as a spy, and hanged. His last words were: "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

[4] When Howe, marching across Manhattan Island, reached Murray Hill, Mrs.

Lindley Murray sent a servant to invite him to luncheon. The army was halted, and Mrs. Murray entertained Howe and his officers for two hours.

It was this delay that enabled Putnam to escape.

[5] Charles Lee was in general command at Charleston during the attack on Fort Moultrie, and when he joined Was.h.i.+ngton at New York, was thought a great officer. Lee was jealous, hoped to be made commander in chief, and purposely left Was.h.i.+ngton to his fate. Later Lee crossed to New Jersey and took up his quarters at Basking Ridge, not far from Morristown, where the British captured him (December 13, 1776).

[6] Robert Morris was born at Liverpool, England, but came to Philadelphia as a lad and entered on a business career, and when the Revolution opened, was a man of means and influence. He signed the non-importation agreement of 1765, and signed the Declaration of Independence, and at this time (December, 1776) was a leading member of Congress. A year later, when the army was at Valley Forge, he sent it as a gift a large quant.i.ty of food and clothing. In 1781 Morris was made Superintendent of Finance, and in order to supply the army in the movement against Yorktown, lent his notes to the amount of $1,400,000. In 1781 he founded the Bank of North America, which is now the oldest bank in our country. After the war Morris was a senator from Pennsylvania. He speculated largely in Western lands, lost his fortune, and from 1798 to 1802 was a prisoner for debt. He died in 1806.

[7] Read the story of Jane McCrea in Fiske's _American Revolution_, Vol.

I, pp. 277-279.

[8] These flags were hoisted on the fort and over them was raised the first flag of stars and stripes ever flung to the breeze. Congress on June 14, 1777, had adopted our national flag. The flag at Fort Stanwix was made of pieces of a white s.h.i.+rt, a blue jacket, and strips of red flannel. The day was August 6.

[9] The story runs that several Tory spies were captured and condemned to death, but one named Cuyler was spared by Arnold on condition that he should go to the camp of St. Leger and say that Burgoyne was captured and a great American army was coming to relieve Fort Stanwix. Cuyler agreed, and having cut what seemed bullet holes in his clothes, rushed into the British camp, crying out that a large American army was at hand, and that he had barely escaped with life. The Indians at once began to desert, the panic spread to the British, and the next day St. Leger was fleeing toward Lake Ontario.

[10] The second battle is often called the battle of Stillwater. Shortly before this Congress removed Schuyler from command and gave it to Gates, who thus reaped the glory of the whole campaign. In both battles Arnold greatly distinguished himself. He won the first fight and was wounded in the second.

[11] Lafayette was a young French n.o.bleman who, fired by accounts of the war in America, fitted out a vessel, and despite the orders of the French king escaped and came to Philadelphia, and offered his services to Congress. With him were De Kalb and eleven other officers. Two gallant Polish officers, Pulaski and Kosciusko, had come over before this time.

Kosciusko had been recommended to Was.h.i.+ngton by Franklin, then in France; he was made a colonel in the engineer corps and superintended the building of the American fortifications at Bemis Heights. After the war he returned to Poland, and long afterward led the Poles in their struggle for liberty.

[12] An interesting novel on this period of the war is Dr. S. W.

Mitch.e.l.l's _Hugh Wynne_.

[13] At Valley Forge Baron Steuben joined the army. He was an able German officer who had seen service under Frederick the Great of Prussia, and had been persuaded by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to America and help to organize and discipline the army. He landed in New Hamps.h.i.+re late in 1777, and spent the dreadful winter at Valley Forge in drilling the troops, teaching them the use of the bayonet, and organizing the army on the European plan. After the war New York presented Steuben with a farm of 16,000 acres not far from Fort Stanwix. There he died in 1794.

[14] Certain officers and members of Congress plotted during 1777 to have Was.h.i.+ngton removed from the command of the army. For an account of this Conway Cabal read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 34-43.

[15] Great Britain now sent over commissioners to offer liberal terms of peace,--no taxes by Parliament, no restrictions on trade, no troops in America without consent of the colonial a.s.semblies, even representation in Parliament,--but the offer was rejected. Why did the commissioners fail?

Read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 4-17, 22-24.

[16] Lee had been exchanged for a captured British general, and came to Valley Forge in May. From papers found after his death we know that while a prisoner he advised Howe as to the best means of conquering the states.

For his conduct in the battle and insolence to Was.h.i.+ngton after it, Lee was suspended from the army for one year, but when he wrote an insolent letter to Congress, he was dismissed from the army.

[17] A French fleet of twelve s.h.i.+ps, under Count d'Estaing, soon arrived near New York. It might perhaps have captured the British fleet in the harbor; but without making the attempt D'Estaing went on to Newport to attempt the capture of a British force which had held that place since December, 1776. Was.h.i.+ngton sent Greene and Lafayette with troops to a.s.sist him, the New England militia turned out by thousands, and all seemed ready for the attack, when a British fleet appeared and D'Estaing went out to meet it. A storm scattered the vessels of the two squadrons, and D'Estaing went to Boston for repairs, and then to the West Indies.

[18] Six of the thirty never got to sea, but were captured or destroyed when the British took New York and Philadelphia. Our navy, therefore, may be considered at the outset to have consisted of 24 vessels, mounting 422 guns. Great Britain at that time had 112 war vessels, carrying 3714 guns, and 78 of these vessels were stationed on or near our coast.

[19] John Barry was a native of Ireland. He came to America at thirteen, and at twenty-five was captain of a s.h.i.+p. At the opening of the war he offered his services to Congress, and in February, 1776, was given command of the _Lexington_. After his victory Barry was transferred to the 28-gun frigate _Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware), with 27 men in four boats captured and destroyed a 10-gun schooner and four transports. For this he was thanked by Was.h.i.+ngton. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took the _Effingham_ up the river to save her; but she was burned by the British. At different times Barry commanded several other s.h.i.+ps, and in 1782, in the _Alliance_, fought the last action of the war. In 1794 he was senior captain of the navy, with the t.i.tle of commodore. He died in 1803.

[20] When these s.h.i.+ps returned to France with the prizes, the British government protested so vigorously that the _Reprisal_ and the _Lexington_ were seized and held till security was given that they would leave France.

The prizes were ordered out of port, were taken into the offing, and then quietly sold to French merchants. The _Reprisal_ on her way home was lost at sea. The _Lexington_ was captured and her men thrown into prison. They escaped by digging a hole under the wall, and were on board a vessel in London bound for France, when they were discovered and sent back to prison. A year later one of them, Richard Dale, escaped by walking past the guards in daylight, dressed in a British uniform. He never would tell how he got the uniform.

[21] John Paul, Jr., was born in Scotland in 1747. He began a seafaring life when twelve years old and followed it till 1773, when he fell heir to a plantation in Virginia on condition that he should take the name of Jones. Thereafter he was known as John Paul Jones. In 1775 Jones offered his services to Congress, a.s.sisted in founding our navy, and in December, 1775, was commissioned lieutenant. He died in Paris in 1792, but the whereabouts of his grave was long unknown. In 1905, however, the United States amba.s.sador to France (Horace Porter) discovered the body of Jones, which was brought with due honors to the United States and deposited at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Porter's account of how the body was found may be read in the _Century Magazine_ for October, 1905. Jones is the hero of Cooper's novel called _The Pilot_.

[22] The wording on the medal may be translated as follows: "The American Congress to John Paul Jones, fleet commander--for the capture or defeat of the enemy's s.h.i.+ps off the coast of Scotland, Sept. 23, 1779."

CHAPTER XV

THE WAR IN THE WEST AND IN THE SOUTH

THE WEST.--After Great Britain obtained from France the country between the mountains and the Mississippi, the British king, as we have seen (p.

143), forbade settlement west of the mountains. But the westward movement of population was not to be stopped by a proclamation. The hardy frontiersmen gave it no heed, and, pa.s.sing over the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, they hunted, trapped, and made settlements in the forbidden land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WEST DURING THE REVOLUTION.]

TENNESSEE.--Thus, in 1769, William Bean of North Carolina built a cabin on the banks of the Watauga Creek and began the settlement of what is now Tennessee. The next year James Robertson and many others followed and dotted the valleys of the Holston and the Clinch with clearings and log cabins. These men at first were without government of any sort, so they formed an a.s.sociation and for some years governed themselves; but in 1776 their delegates were seated in the legislature of North Carolina, and next year their settlements were organized as Was.h.i.+ngton county in that state.

Robertson soon (1779) led a colony further west and on the banks of the c.u.mberland founded Nashboro, now called Nashville.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN ATTACKING A FRONTIERSMAN.]

KENTUCKY.--The year (1769) that Bean went into Tennessee, Daniel Boone, one of the great men of frontier history, entered what is now Kentucky.

Others followed, and despite Indian wars and ma.s.sacres, Boonesboro, Harrodsburg, and Lexington were founded before 1777. These backwoodsmen also were for a time without any government; but in December, 1776, Virginia organized the region as a county with the present boundaries of Kentucky. [1]

GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.--In the country north of the Ohio were a few old French towns,--Detroit, Kaskaskia, Vincennes,--and a few forts built by the French and garrisoned by the British, from whom the Indians obtained guns and powder to attack the frontier. Against these forts and villages George Rogers Clark, a young Virginian, planned an expedition which was approved by Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. Henry could give him little aid, but Clark was determined to go; and in 1778, with one hundred and eighty men, left Pittsburg in boats, floated down the Ohio to its mouth, marched across the swamps and prairies of south-western Illinois, and took Kaskaskia.

Vincennes [2] thereupon surrendered; but was soon recaptured by the British general at Detroit with a band of Indians. But Clark, after a dreadful march across country in midwinter, attacked the fort in the dead of night, captured it, and then conquered the country near the Wabash and Illinois rivers, and held it for Virginia. [3]

SPAIN IN THE WEST.--The conquest was most timely; for in 1779 Spain joined in the war against Great Britain, seized towns and British forts in Florida, and in January, 1781, sent out from St. Louis a band of Spaniards and Indians who marched across Illinois and took possession of Fort St.

Joseph in what is now southwestern Michigan, occupied it, and claimed the Northwest for Spain.

THE SOUTH INVADED.--Near the end of 1778, the British armies held strong positions at New York and Newport, and the French fleet under D'Estaing was in the West Indies. The British therefore felt free to strike a blow at the South. A fleet and army accordingly sailed from New York and (December 29, 1778) captured Savannah. Georgia was then overrun, was declared conquered, and the royal governor was reestablished in office.

[4]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SOUTHERN COLONIES DURING THE REVOLUTION]

THE AMERICANS REPULSED AT SAVANNAH.--Governor Rutledge of South Carolina now appealed to D'Estaing, who at once brought his fleet from the West Indies; and Savannah was besieged by the American forces under Lincoln and the French under D'Estaing. After a long siege, an a.s.sault was made on the British defenses (October, 1779), in which the brave Pulaski was slain and D'Estaing was wounded. The French then sailed away, and Lincoln fell back into South Carolina.

BRITISH CAPTURE CHARLESTON.--Hearing of this, Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis sailed with British troops from New York (December, 1779) to Savannah. Thence the British marched overland to Charleston. Lincoln did all he could to defend the city, but in May, 1780, was compelled to surrender. South Carolina was then overrun by the British, and Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis in command.

PARTISAN LEADERS.--South Carolina now became the seat of a bitter partisan war. The Tories there clamored for revenge. That no man should be neutral, Cornwallis ordered everyone to declare for or against the king, and sent officers with troops about the state to enroll the royalists in the militia. The whole population was thus arrayed in two hostile parties. The patriots could not offer organized opposition; but little bands of them found refuge in the woods, swamps, and mountain valleys, whence they issued to attack the British troops and the Tories. Led by Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, and Francis Marion whom the British called the Swamp Fox, they won many desperate fights. [5]