A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
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]
CAMDEN.--Congress, however, had not abandoned the South. Two thousand men
under De Kalb were marching south before the surrender of Charleston.
After it, a call for troops was made on all the states south of
Pennsylvania, and General Gates, then called "the Hero of Saratoga," was
sent to join De Kalb and take command. The most important point in the
interior of South Carolina was Camden, and against this Gates marched his
troops. But he managed matters so badly that near Camden the American army
was beaten, routed, and cut to pieces by the British under Cornwallis
(August 16, 1780). [6]
[Illustration: WAYNE'S CAMP KETTLE. Now in possession of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society.]
THE WAR IN THE NORTH.--What meantime had happened in the North? The main
armies near New York had done little fighting; but the British had made a
number of sudden raids on the coast. In 1779 Norfolk and Portsmouth in
Virginia, and New Haven and several other towns in Connecticut had been
attacked, and ships and houses burned. In New York, Clinton captured Stony
Point; but Anthony Wayne led a force of Americans against the fort, and at
dead of night, by one of the most brilliant assaults in the world's
military history, recaptured it (July, 1779). [7]
[Illustration: AT WEST POINT: LOOKING UP THE HUDSON.]
TREASON OF ARNOLD.--Stony Point was one of several forts built by order of
Washington to defend the Hudson. The chief fort was at West Point, the
command of which, in July, 1780, was given to Arnold. When the British
left Philadelphia in 1778, Arnold was made military commander there, and
so conducted himself that he was sentenced by court-martial to be
reprimanded by Washington. This censure, added to previous unfair
treatment by Congress, led him to seek revenge in the ruin of his country.
To bring this about he asked for the command of West Point, and having
received it, offered to surrender the fort to the British.
Clinton's agent in the matter was Major John André (an'dra), who one day
in September, 1780, came up the river in the British ship _Vulture_, went
ashore, and at night met Arnold near Stony Point. Morning came before the
terms [8] of surrender were arranged, and the _Vulture_ having been fired
on dropped down the river out of range.
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