against that post. But the British general set out on his return to Georgia transporting a large part of his troops, by means of the shipping, from island to island along the coast. Colonel Prevost, also, with part of the garrison of Stono ferry, was ordered to Savannah; and he left the remainder, amounting to about 700 men, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Maitland. A number of troops still remained on St. John's island, but almost all the boats were removed. and consequently the communication between the island and the main land was not nearly so open as before.

General Lincoln plainly perceived that it was the intention of the British general to evacuate that part of the country without delay; and he resolved not to allow the troops to depart unmolested. He determined to attack the post at Stono ferry; and in order to prevent it from being reinforced by the troops on the island, General Moultrie, who commanded in Charleston, was to pass over to St. James's island with a number of militia, and engage the attention of the force on St. John's island, while a real attack was made on the post at the ferry. On the 20th of June, before seven in the morning, General Lincoln, with about 1,200 men, advanced to the attack. His right wing was composed of the militia of South and North Carolina, and his continental soldiers formed the left, to encounter the Scottish highlanders, reckoned the best troops in the British service. Colonel Maitland's advanced guards were stationed a good way in front of his works, and a smart firing between them and the Americans gave him the first warning of the approach of the enemy. He instantly put his garrison under arms, and sent out two companies of highlanders from his right, under Captain Campbell, to ascertain the force of the assailants. The highlanders had proceeded only a quarter of a mile when they met the continental troops of the American army. A fierce conflict ensued; and the highlanders persisted

:

in the combat till all their officers were either killed or wounded. Of the two companies, eleven men only returned to the garrison. The whole American line now advanced within 300 yards of the works, and a general engagement with cannon and musketry began, and was maintained with much courage and steadiness on both sides. At length a regiment of Hessians on the British left gave way, and the Americans were on the point of entering the works; but, by a rapid movement of the remainder of the 71st regiment, their progress was checked and as General Moultrie, from want of boats, had been unable to execute in due time his part of the enterprise, General Lincoln, apprehensive of he arrival of reinforcements to the British from the island, drew off his men, and retired in good order, carrying his wounded along with him. The battle .asted upward of an hour. The British had three officers and twenty-three privates killed, and ten officers and ninety-three privates wounded. The Americans lost five officers who died of their wounds, and thirty-five privates who were killed on the field of battle, besides nineteen officers and 120 privates 'wounded.

Three days after the battle the British troops evacuated the post at Stono ferry, and also the island of St. John, passing along the coast from island to islland, till they reached Beaufort in the island of Port Royal, where General Prevost left a garrison under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Maitland.

The heat, which in the southern provinces as effectually puts a stop to military operations during summer as the cold of the north in winter, was now become too intense for active service. The care of the officers, in both armies, was employed in preserving their men from the fevers of the season, and keeping them in a condition for service next campaign, which was expected to open in October. The American militia dispersed, leaving General Lincoln with about 800 men, whom he marched to Shelden, not far from Beaufort.

The alarm for the safety of the southern states was so great, that General

Washington, weak as his army was, weakened it still farther by sending a de tachment, consisting of Bland's regiment of cavalry, and the remnant of that lately under Baylor, but now commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, with some new levies, to reinforce General Lincoln.

The irruption of General Prevost into South Carolina did no credit to the British army, nor did it in any degree serve the royal cause, although it occasioned great loss to the inhabitants of the province. The British army marked its course by plunder and devastation. It spread over the country to a considerable extent: small parties entered every house; seized the plate, money, jewels, and personal ornaments of the people; and often destroyed what they could not carry away. The slaves, allured by the hope of freedom, repaired to the royal army; and, in order to ingratiate themselves with their new friends, disclosed where their masters had concealed their most valuable effects. Many of those slaves were afterward shipped off and sold in the West Indies. Some hundreds of them died of the camp fever; and numbers of them, overtaken by disease, and afraid to return to their masters, perished miserably in the woods. It has been calculated that South Carolina lost four thousand slaves. The rapine and devastation were great; and many of the inhabitants, in order to save themselves from those ravages, made professions of attachment to the royal cause; while the means which induced them to make a show of loyalty alienated all their affections from their former rulers.

While the events now related were passing in the south, several desultory operations, the object of which was devastation and plunder, rather than conquest, were projected by the British in the middle and southern states.

Admiral Gambier, who had succeeded Lord Howe in the command of the fleet on the American station, was recalled; and, in the month of April, Sir George Collier succeeded him. Between Sir George and Sir Henry Clinton, a plan was concerted for interrupting the commerce of the Chesapeake, and destroying the magazines on its shores, For those purposes, the commander-inchief detached 1,800 men under General Matthews; and the transports in which they sailed were convoyed by the admiral himself. The fleet sailed from Sandy Hook on the 5th of May, and entered the capes of Virginia on the 8th. The lower part of Virginia is so intersected by deep creeks and rivers, as to afford those who have the command of the waters an easy passage from one place to another, and to give them a decided advantage over those who are destitute of such facili ies of communication.

The fleet anchored in Hampton Road, a large basin of water formed by the confluence of the rivers James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth. On the morning of the 10th it entered Elizabeth river; and the weak American detachment in that quarter, wholly unable to resist such a formidable force, saved itself by flight. The British troops landed without opposition. General Matthews established his headquarters at Portsmouth, whence he sent small parties to Norfolk, Gosport, Kemp's landing, and Suffolk; where they took and carried off or destroyed a large quantity of naval and military stores, and a number of ships, some of them richly laden. The loss to the public and to individuals was great. Having accomplished the object of the expedition, General Matthews returned to New York before the end of the month.

At the opening of the campaign of 1779, the British army at New York and Rhode Island, including the detachment under General Matthews, amounted to upward of sixteen thousand men, assisted by a powerful fleet. The complete command of the ocean and of the navigable rivers enabled the royal army to make sudden attacks on distant parts of the country, and to keep the Americans in perpetual alarm, as they knew not at what point they were to be assailed. In numerical force the northern army of congress was nearly equal to that under Sir Henry Clinton. Upward of seven thousand men were stationed at Middlebrook, under the immediate command of General Washington; the rest of the army was posted in the highlands on the Hudson, under General M‘Dougall, and on the east side of the river, under General Putnam.

On the part of the Americans the plan of the campaign was necessarily defensive; for they had no probability of making any successful attack on the British army at New York or Rhode Island. That army interrupted the communication by sea, and by the lower parts of the Hudson, between the middle and northern states. To preserve that communication as far down the Hudson as possible, was a matter of much importance to the Americans; and to guard the passes of the highlands, and command the communication between New York and Albany, was always an object of anxious attention to General Washington. With a view to secure those points, the Americans began to construct fortifications on Stony point, a rocky and commanding eminence on the west bank of the river, about sixty miles above New York, and on Verplanck's point, a flat peninsula projecting a good way into the river on the opposite side. The fort at the last place, named La Fayette, was in a state of greater forwardness than the works on Stony point.

Before the return of General Matthews from his incursion into Virginia, Sir Henry Clinton had planned an attack upon those places, and the troops were embarked for that purpose. On the return of Matthews, his detachment, without being permitted to land, was joined to the expedition; and on the 30th of May the whole armament, convoyed by Sir George Collier and accompanied by the commander-in-chief, sailed up the North river. Next morning the largest division of the troops, under General Vaughan, landed on the east bank, seven miles below Fort La Fayette; the remainder, accompanied by Sir Henry Clinton, continued their course up the river, and landed on the west side, three miles below Stony point.

The position of the Americans at Stony point was strong, but the works were unfinished; and the feeble garrison, after setting fire to a blockhouse on the top of the eminence, abandoned the place. The British took possession of it in the afternoon, and, in the course of the night, with great labor, dragged some heavy cannon and mortars to the top of the hill. At five next morning a battery was ready to open on Fort La Fayette. The distance across the river was about a thousand yards; and during the day the fire from the commanding summit of Stony point, and from the armed vessels and gun-boats in the river, made a sen

sible impression on the works of Fort La Fayette. During the following night two galleys passed up the river, and anchored above the fort, so as to prevent the escape of the garrison by water. General Vaughan, having made a long circuit, completely invested the place by land. Therefore the garrison, unable to maintain the post against such a superior force, and finding themselves enclosed on every side, surrendered the place, and became prisoners of war. Sir Henry Clinton gave immediate directions for completing the fortifications of both posts, and putting them in a strong state of defence.

General Washington obtained early notice of preparations at New York for this expedition; and, suspecting that it was intended either against his own army at Middlebrook or the passes in the highlands, he put his troops in motion, and ordered General Putnam to be ready to make a rapid movement up the river. He strengthened the garrison of West Point, an important post on the Hudson, some miles above Verplanck's; and took a strong position, with his army, in Smith's close, so as to secure West Point on that side. But Sir Henry Clinton, perceiving that no further progress could be made up the river, and being informed that Staten Island was threatened in his absence, after garrisoning the posts which he had taken, returned with his fleet and army to New York.

The states of New England were the most populous in the Union. With them the quarrel originated; and they had given congress an active and zealous support. The activity and courage which they had displayed at the commencement of the struggle had hitherto, in a great measure, saved that part of the country from being made the theatre of war. But now Sir Henry Clinton determined to ravage the coast of Connecticut; partly with the view of drawing General Washington from his strong position in the highlands to protect the towns near the shore, and partly in order to punish the inhabitants for their active hostility to the British government. For those purposes 2,600 men, under the command of Tryon, formerly governor of the province of New York, but now a major-general in the British army, convoyed by Sir George Collier with several vessels of war, sailed from Throg's Neck in the sound, on the 4th of July, and next morning reached the vicinity of New Haven, the capital of Connecticut.

On the appearance of the armament, the militia assembled with alacrity and in considerable numbers. But the troops effected a landing several miles below the town; and, notwithstanding a continued opposition, made themselves masters of it, and took or destroyed all the artillery, ammunition, public stores, and the vessels in the harbor, but, in a great measure, spared private property. Next day they reimbarked, and sailed along the coast to the village of Fairfield. The alarm was now widely spread; the militia assembled in greater numbers; and the opposition to the troops was more obstinate than at New HaBut they forced their way into Fairfield; and General Tryon, determined if possible to ruin those whom he was unable to subdue, not only destroyed all the public property, but laid the flourishing village in ashes, and treated many unarmed persons with severity. Such conduct disgraced the British arms, and injured the cause which it was intended to serve. At all times war is a fearful scourge, and ought to be carried on with as much humanity as is consistent with the attainment of the main object in view. To intrust a military force to the orders of an infuriated zealot can seldom serve any good purpose.

ven.

The opposition increased as the troops advanced; and the towns of Norwalk and Greenfield, at which they successively landed, shared the same unhappy fate with Fairfield. An attack on New London, a noted place of resort for the privateers which preyed on the British trade, was the ultimate object of the expedition; but, as the resistance still increased, a formidable opposition was there anticipated, and it was therefore thought advisable to procure a reinforce