General Lincoln, of the American army—who had reached Charleston on the last day of December, 1778—attempted to thwart the operations of the British General Sir Augustine Prevost; but without substantial, permanent results. The British, from Detroit, operated as far south as the valley of the Wabash River, in the Illinois country; but Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, with troops raised in Virginia and North Carolina, strengthened the western frontier and placed it in a condition of defence, unaided by Congress. The Middle States, however, had some experience of the desultory kind of warfare which characterized the greater part of the military operations of 1779. General Matthews sailed from New York late in April, with two thousand troops and five hundred marines, laid waste Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, destroyed over one hundred vessels, and returned to New York with seventeen prizes and three thousand hogsheads of tobacco, without serious loss to his command. As if keen to watch for the slightest opportunity of resuming active operations from New York, and constantly dreading the nearness and alertness of the American headquarters in New Jersey, Clinton, on the thirteenth of May, under convoy of the fleet of Sir George Collier, surprised the small garrisons at Verplanck’s and Stony Point, re-garrisoned them with British troops, and retired to Yonkers, leaving several small frigates and sloops-of-war to cover each post. The American army was removed from Middlebrook to Smith’s Clove, on the ninth. On the twenty-third, Washington removed his headquarters to New Windsor, leaving General Putnam in command. General Heath was ordered to Boston, and General Wayne was stationed between the Clove and Fort Montgomery, near Dunderburg Mountain. Such were the modified positions of the two armies of the north, at the close of June, 1779. [Illustration: Outline Map of Hudson River. Highlands.] CHAPTER XXV. MINOR OPERATIONS OF 1779 CONTINUED.—STONY POINT TAKEN.—NEW ENGLAND RELIEVED.