Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, with Illustrations and Speeches
History
Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, with Illustrations and Speeches
North Carolina -- Biography
the young man was made of and the handle by which he was to be
worked. That material was patriotism, that handle a sense of duty;
and laying hold of this handle, he quickly worked the young soldier
into a different conclusion from the one that he had arrived at. He
told him he could do more good as a member of the General Assembly
than as a soldier; that in the army he was but one man, and in
the General Assembly he might obtain many, with the supplies they
needed, by showing the destitution and suffering which he had seen
in the camp; and that it was his duty to go. This view of duty and
usefulness was decisive. Mr. Macon obeyed the Governor's summons,
and by his representations contributed to obtain the supplier which
enabled Greene to turn back and face Cornwallis--fight him, cripple
him, drive him further back than he had advanced (for Wilmington is
south of Camden), disable him from remaining in the South (of which,
up to the battle of Guilford, he believed himself to be master),
and sending him to Yorktown, where he was captured and the war ended.
The philosophy of history has not yet laid hold of the battle of
Guilford, its consequences and effects. That battle made the capture
of Yorktown. The events are told in every history: their connection
and dependence in none. It broke up the plan of Cornwallis in the
South, and changed the plan of Washington in the North. Cornwallis
was to subdue the Southern States, and was doing it until Greene
turned upon him at Guilford. Washington was occupied with Sir Henry
Clinton, then in New York with twelve thousand British troops.
He had formed the heroic design to capture Clinton and his army
(the French fleet cooperating) in that city, and thereby putting
an end to the war. All his preparations were going on for that
grand consummation when he got news of the battle of Guilford, the
retreat of Cornwallis to Wilmington, his inability to keep the
field in the South, and his return northward through the lower
part of Virginia. He saw his advantage--an easier prey--and the
same result, if successful. Cornwallis or Clinton, either of them
captured, would put an end to the war. Washington changed his plan,
deceived Clinton, moved rapidly upon the weaker general, captured
him and his seven thousand men, and ended the Revolutionary war. The
battle of Guilford put that capture into Washington's hands; and
thus Guilford and Yorktown became connected; and the philosophy of
history shows their dependence, and that the lesser event was father
to the greater. The State of North Carolina gave General Greene
twenty-five thousand acres of western land for that day's work, now
worth a million of dollars; but the day itself has not yet obtained
its proper place in American history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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