American wit and humor; Caricatures and cartoons -- United States; United States -- History -- Humor
Paul Jones had a method of running his vessel alongside the enemy's,
lashing the two together, and then having it out with the crew,
generally winning in a canter. His idea in lashing the two ships
together was to have one good ship to ride home on. Generally it was the
one he captured, while his own, which was rotten, was allowed to go
down. This was especially the case in the fight between the Richard and
the Serapis, September 23, 1779.
In 1780 the war was renewed in South Carolina. Charleston, after a forty
days' siege, was forced to surrender. Gates now took charge of the
South, and also gave a sprinting exhibition at Camden, where he was
almost wiped off the face of the earth. He had only two troops left at
the close of the battle, and they could not keep up with Gates in the
retreat. This battle and the retreat overheated Gates and sowed the
seeds of heart-disease, from which he never recovered. He should have
chosen a more peaceful life, such as the hen-traffic, or the growth of
asparagus for the market.
Benedict Arnold has been severely reproached in history, but he was a
brave soldier, and possibly serving under Gates, who jealously kept him
in the background, had a good deal to do with the little European dicker
which so darkened his brilliant career as a soldier.
[Illustration: ARNOLD'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND.]
Unhappy man! He was not well received in England, and, though a
brilliant man, was forced to sit in a corner evening after evening and
hear the English tell his humorous stories as their own.
The Carolinas were full of Tories, and opposition to English rule was
practically abandoned in the South for the time, with the exception of
that made in a desultory swamp-warfare by the partisan bands with such
leaders as Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.
Two hundred thousand dollars of Continental money was the sum now out.
Forty dollars of it would buy one dollar's worth of groceries; but the
grocer had to know the customer pretty well, and even then it was more
to accommodate than anything else that he sold at that price.
The British flooded the country with a counterfeit that was rather
better-looking than the genuine: so that by the time a man had paid six
hundred dollars for a pair of boots, and the crooked bills had been
picked out and others substituted, it made him feel that starting a
republic was a mighty unpopular job.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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