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160

CANADA EVACUATED.

[CHAP. II.

A surprise of General Frazer was attempted by General Thomas, at Trois Rivieres, but it was repulsed, with the loss of about thirty killed, and two hundred prisoners, among whom were General Thomas and Colonel Irwin.

These discouragements, together with the large number in the hospitals, afflicted with the small-pox and other diseases, and the total insubordination of those who were fit for duty, while the British force, already superior to theirs, was about to receive new accessions, compelled General Sullivan, who succeeded Thomas, to abandon all thought of further offensive operations; and the whole province was evacuated with as much rapidity as it had been invaded.

The death of General Montgomery was regretted throughout all America. Congress directed a funeral oration to be prepared in honor of him and his fellowsoldiers who had fallen in the assault of Quebec, and a monument to be erected to the General.

While the American arms were thus unsuccessful in Canada, those of Great Britain experienced a similar for tune in the South.

After the British ministry decided on reducing the refractory colonies to submission, their plan of operation was to send an adequate force against each of three great divisions—that is, New England, the Middle, and the Southern colonies. The last, being the weakest, were the first attempted.

In the western counties of North Carolina the Regulators, who had first taken up arms against the authorities of the regal government, had now become loyalists. To these were joined a large body of Scotch Highlanders, who had recently immigrated to North Carolina; and Governor Martin hoped, by their aid and influence, to

1776.]

BATTLE OF MOORE'S CREEK.

161

prevent the defection of that province. To co-operate with these forces, he appointed M'Donald, one of the Highlanders, their general. Martin further looked to the support of Sir Henry Clinton, who was expected from England with a moderate force, and in the following year he also expected Sir Peter Parker with a fleet, and Lord Cornwallis with seven regiments.

M'Donald, without waiting for the reinforcements from England, erected the royal standard; and when he had mustered fifteen hundred men, set out to relieve Governor Martin, who had taken refuge on board an English manof-war, then at the mouth of the Cape Fear. While on this march he was met by General Moore, at the head of about a thousand militia, suddenly raised, by whom the loyalists were routed and defeated. The merit of the victory is mainly ascribed to Colonels Caswell and Dillington, who were posted at a bridge on Moore's Creek, which the loyalists attempted to pass. After this the royal cause became hopeless in North Carolina.

Sir Peter Parker, delayed first in Ireland and then by a long voyage, did not reach the coast of Carolina until May. He thence proceeded to Charleston, against which an expedition had been previously planned. Sir Henry Clinton, who was at Cape Fear, soon followed with the force under his command.

This enterprise having been fortunately learnt through an intercepted letter' from one of the ministry to Governor Eden of Maryland, no time was lost in preparing for the defence by John Rutledge, now Governor of the State of South Carolina.

All classes of men, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, united to construct Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, about six miles below Charleston. Those efforts had 1 II. Marshall, page 382.

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162

BRITISH REPULSED AT CHARLESTON. [CHAP. II.

greater merit, as General Lee, who had been sent on by Congress to take charge of the Southern army, thought that the works, being open to attack on one side, were indefensible.

The expedition had been committed to General Clinton with two thousand eight hundred land troops, and Sir Peter Parker with a fleet of two fifty gun ships, three of twenty-eight guns, and several inferior vessels.

On General Lee, whose destination had been suddenly changed from the command in Canada to that of South Carolina, devolved the defence.

The attack was begun by a brisk cannonade, but ere long, three of the sloops-of-war sent to cut off all communication between the island and main land, got aground, and the largest of them, unable to extricate herself, was burnt by the crew. The bombardment was, however, continued throughout the day, during which great bravery and skill was exhibited on both sides; and at night the British, finding that no serious impression had been made on the fort, and their ships having suffered from its guns, abandoned their purpose, and re-embarking their troops, which had been landed on Long Island, departed for New York.

Besides the injury sustained by the ships, the British lost more than two hundred men in killed and wounded. The Americans lost only thirty-five men.

The failure of the British was attributed partly to the grounding of their fleet, and partly to the peculiar character of the American fortification. The palmetto, of which it was constructed, is of a loose, spongy texture, that readily receives a ball and gradually resists it. For this good service the tree has ever since been a favorite in South Carolina.

The thanks of Congress were voted to. Major-general

1776.]

INDEPENDENCE PROPOSED.

163

Lee, Colonel William Moultrie, and Colonel William Campbell, for their defence of Charleston.

The principal measures of Congress in the first months of 1776 were, permission to Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina to export produce to any part of the world, except to the British dominions in Europe and the West Indies, to import so much salt from any place not prohibited by the Association as the Councils of Safety, &c., should deem necessary.

They authorized further emissions of paper-money; prepared instructions to three Commissioners sent to Canada-Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll-who were required to represent to the Canadians the wishes and intentions of the Congress respecting them.1

They issued also a declaration of the causes which led them to make reprisals, and to capture private as well as public ships belonging to Great Britain.

2

The Convention of Virginia, on the fifteenth of May, 1776, instructed their delegates in Congress to declare the colonies independent of Great Britain; and they appointed a committee to prepare a declaration of rights and plan of government for themselves.

The State of North Carolina has the honor of being still earlier in proposing a separation. A number of her citizens in the County of Mecklenburg had, indeed, as

II. Journals of Congress, page 97.

The honor of having drawn this resolution is due to Edmund Pendleton, who took a leading part in the measures of Virginia during the Revolution.

* The authenticity of the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," on the twentieth of May, 1775, as published in North Carolina, on the recollection of witnesses, many years after its date, has been long questioned; and the controversy, lately revived, may be considered as yet pending. The point in dispute is not whether the people of Mecklen

164

MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

[CHAP. II.

early as 1775, shown themselves ready for the separation; but a resolution of their Legislature, on the twentysecond of April, 1776, empowered their delegates in Congress to concur with the other delegates in declaring their independency.

On the twentieth of May the General Assembly of Massachusetts directed that the people of that colony, at the approaching election of representatives, should give them instructions on the subject of independence.

The Assembly of Rhode Island went substantially to the same length.

It had been a favorite object with Congress and with the people of New England generally, to make an attack burg County did, as early as May, 1775, pass resolutions defying the authority of the mother country, for that fact is now put beyond all question; but whether there was, besides the Resolutions of the thirtieth of May, of which we have a well authenticated copy, published at the time, another set of resolutions adopted ten days previously, but not published; and if so, what was their precise import. The Rev. Dr. Hawks has, in a lecture before the Historical Society of New York, ingeniously and ably defended the North Carolina version of the Resolution of the twentieth of May; and Hugh B. Grigsby, Esq., has, in his Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1776, urged objections to Dr. Hawks's argument, which, to many, seem unanswerable. He insists that the only resolutions passed by the people of Mecklenburg were those of the thirtieth of May, which do not look to independence.

While I admit the force, I may almost say, the conclusiveness of Mr. Grigsby's views as to the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," I do not agree with him respecting the resolution of North Carolina of twelfth of April, 1776. That resolution, in indicating not only the wish for independence, but the readiness to declare it, went further than any other colony had previously gone. It is true that the Virginia resolation, a month later, in giving positive instructions to its deputies to declare independence, was still greatly in advance of North Carolina; but as the resolution of the latter had the advantage of priority, the merit of first proposing a separation from Great Britain may be regarded. ag a divided honor between the two States.

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