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much to his honour, declared that he would be well satisfied to serve under him. But whether merely unfortunate, or blameably negligent, Gates had lost the confidence of the south, and his removal from the command became a matter of necessity.

The Chevalier Charles Louis de Ternay, knight of St. John of Jerusalem, &c. and commander of the French fleet in America, died at Newport, on the 18th of December. His polite and gentlemanly deportment had endeared him to the Americans, and his premature death was sincerely regretted. He was interred on the following day with all the honours due to his private worth and publick station.

CHAPTER XV.

Events of 1780 continued.—Sanguinary conduct of Lord Cornwallis.-State of Gates's army.-Colonel Morgan arrives at Hillsborough-The British army move from Cambden.—Colonel Davie defeats a foraging party of the enemy.-Destruction of Wahab's house.-Unsuccessful attempt of Colonel Clarke against Augusta.—Battle of King's Mountain, and defeat of Ferguson-Cornwallis retreats towards Cambden.-General Sumpter forces Tarleton to retreat from Blackstock Hill.-The American army move from Hillsborough.-General Greene arrives to take command of the southern army.—General Gates is kindly received by the Virginia legislature, and retires to his farm-Colonel Washington with his cavalry effects the surrender of a garrison at Rudgely's Farm by stratagem.-General Greene takes a position on the Pedee.-Morgan advances to the Pacolet and Broad Rivers.-Leslie arrives at Charleston with reinforcements for Cornwallis, and marches to Cambden.-Half pay for life voted by Congress to their officers.-Major Lee promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel-is ordered to the south.-The Baron de Steuben ordered to Virginia.-Massachusetts establishes an Academy of Arts and Sciences.-Pennsylvania abolishes slavery The torture abolished in France.—The inquisition abolished by the Duke of Modena.

THE extreme heat of the weather in South Caroli na, the unhealthiness of the season, and the want of stores which were daily expected from New-York, prevented Lord Cornwallis from being immediately able to pursue the advantages he had gained by the defeat of General Gates. He remained, therefore, at Cambden, for some time after the battle, engaged in the civil duties of his government. In the execution of these, he was even more rigorous than Sir Henry Clinton himself had been. Having despatched his

orders to North Carolina for the immediate assembling and arming of the loyalists, and issued a second proclamation, denouncing death against all who should be found in arms against his Majesty after receiving protections; he proceeded to appoint a commissioner to confiscate and sell the estates of all who adhered to the cause of their country. His orders to Lieutenant Colonel Cruger, who commanded the the British garrison of Ninety-Six, will show the sanguinary policy which Lord Cornwallis had now determined to adopt. "I have given orders that all the inhabitants of this province who have submitted, and who have taken a part in this revolt, should be punished with the greatest rigour, that they should be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them, or destroyed. I have likewise directed, that confiscations should be made out of their effects, to the persons who have been plundered and oppressed by them. I have ordered in the most positive manner, that every militia man who had borne arms with us, and had afterwards joined the enemy, should be immediately hanged. I have now, sir, only to desire, that you will take the most rigorous measures, to extinguish the rebellion in the district in which you command; and that you will obey, in the strictest manner, the directions I have given in this letter, relative to the treatment of this country."

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Several of the militia men, taken in the late defeat, were actually hanged under this order; nor was the rigour of Lord Cornwallis confined to men of this description: some of the most respectable persons in the state, who had never sought or accepted the protection of the British commander, but who remained prisoners on parole, were confined on board of prison ships,

and afterwards sent to St. Augustine. And now it was, that Congress began to feel the impropriety of their conduct with regard to the convention troops of Burgoyne; they dared not complain of Cornwallis's sending his prisoners wherever he pleased; he had as much right to be influenced by motives of policy, as they had, and was quite as excuseable for giving that name to his own whims and caprices. The only difference in the two cases, was, that the prisoners in Charleston were sent away from their homes, their wives and children, whereas the troops of Burgoyne had already left all these endearments and consolations before they became prisoners. Thus does injustice punish itself.

We left General Gates with the wretched remnant of his army at Hillsborough. They were so reduced in numbers, that the whole were arranged in two battalions, the first under the command of Major Anderson; the second under Major Hardeman-thus forming one regiment, the command of which was given to Colonel Otho H. Williams, with Lieutenant Colonel John E. Howard, both of whom had distinguished themselves in the hard fought battle of Cambden. They were destitute of every thing necessary for of fensive or active operations, being without provision, clothing or pay: but their spirits remained unsubdued, and their fidelity to the cause unshaken by a thousand temptations daily offered to seduce them to the ranks of their enemies. On the 16th of September, this little army was augmented by the arrival of about 300 men from Virginia, consisting of the remains of Colonel Buford's regiment, and a small body of Porterfield's light infantry. These were formed into a second regiment under Colonel Buford, and 46

VOL. II.

the command of the two was given to General Smallwood. By the beginning of October, the army was further reinforced by the arrival of Colonel Morgan, who was in himself a host, and the cavalry under Washington and White. The arrival of Morgan made some change in the disposition of the troops necessary. Four companies of infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Howard, the cavalry, and a small body of Virginia riflemen, were formed into a separate corps, and placed under Morgan, who was ordered to march with them towards Salisbury, to cooperate with the North Carolina militia, the command of which had been given by the legislature to General Smallwood.

Lord Cornwallis, having at length received the necessary supplies, prepared to enter upon active operations for the conquest of North Carolina. He despatched Colonel Ferguson with his corps of light infantry and militia to the frontiers of North Carolina, and Tarleton with his legion to scour the country west of the Wateree, while his lordship moved on the 8th of September to the Waxhaws, where he halted until Tarleton joined him. Colonel Davie who was stationed in this settlement with his partizan corps, was compelled to move off on the approach of Cornwallis, and establish himself at Providence. From this place he conducted a successful enterprise against a foraging party of the enemy, consisting of light troops and loyalists, on the southern banks of the Catawba. He came upon them unperceived on the morning of 21st of September, at a plantation which belonged to Wahab, one of his captains, and compelled them to fly in great confusion, with the loss of 60 of their number killed and wounded, 96 horses,

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