A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
[4] Congress now put Lincoln in command in the South; but when he marched
into Georgia, the British set off to attack Charleston, sacking houses and
slaughtering cattle as they went. This move forced Lincoln to follow them,
and having been joined by Pulaski, he compelled the British to retreat.
[5] Four novels by Simms,--_The Partisan_, _Mellichampe_, _Katharine
Walton_, and _The Scout_,--and _Horseshoe Robinson_, by Kennedy, are
famous stories relating to the Revolution in the South. Read Bryant's
_Song of Marion's Men_.
[6] A large number of men were killed, and a thousand taken prisoners.
Among the dead was De Kalb. Among the living was Gates, who fled among the
first and made such haste to escape that he covered two hundred miles in
four days.
[7] The purpose of the attack on Stony Point was to draw the British from
Connecticut. The capture had the desired result, and Stony Point was then
abandoned. The fort stood on a rocky promontory with the water of the
Hudson River on three sides. On the fourth was a morass crossed by a
narrow road which at high tide was under water. The country between the
British forces in New York and the American army on the highlands of the
Hudson was known as the neutral ground, and is the scene of Cooper's great
novel _The Spy_.
[8] The British were to come up the river and attack West Point. Arnold
was to man the defenses in such a way that they could easily be taken, one
at a time, and so afford an excuse for surrendering them, with the three
thousand men under Arnold's command.
[9] The names of André's captors were John Paulding, David Williams, and
Isaac Van Wart. Congress gave each a medal and a pension for life.
[10] To accomplish this Greene sent the greater part of his army northward
under General Huger, while he with a small guard hurried across country,
and took command of Morgan's army. And now a most exciting chase began.
Cornwallis destroyed his heavy baggage that he might move as rapidly as
possible, and vainly strove to get near enough to Greene to make him
fight. Greene with great skill kept just out of reach and for ten days
lured the British farther and farther north. At Guilford Court House
Greene and Morgan were joined by the main army. Cornwallis then proclaimed
North Carolina conquered, and called on all Loyalists to join him.
[11] Two good works relating to these events are _The Forayers_ and
_Eutaw_, by Simms.
[12] While these things were happening in the South, a French army of 6000
men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport (1780), from which the British had
withdrawn in 1779. There, for a while, the French fleet was blockaded by
the British, and the troops remained to aid the fleet in case of
necessity. The next year, however, this army marched across Connecticut
and joined Washington's forces (July, 1781), and preparations were begun
for an attack on New York.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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