General Jackson appointed major-general in the army; De- feat of the enemy before Fort Bowyer; Invasion of Louisi- The loss of the frigate President; Capture of the Penguin, Extract from the Instructions to Thomas Foster, their repre- sentative, by the Freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Plymouth, in opposition to the Stamp Act, in Oct. 1765. The proceedings of Congress, rejecting Lord North's propo sition, of the 20th of February, 1775, designed, indirectly, An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the An act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes. An act supplementary to an act, entitled "An act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and British Orders in Council of the 7th January, 1807. British Orders in Council of the 11th November, 1807. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER XXV. Campaign of 1782-Foreign Events and Negociations-Peace. BEFORE the civil history of the United States, reserved as the subject matter of this volume, shall be commenced, it becomes necessary, as introductory thereto, to treat miscellaneously several events, that happened, both in Europe and America, consequently on the capture of lord Cornwallis. After that event, Washington with the greater part of his forces, returned to the vicinity of New York. He was in no condition to attempt the reduction of that post; and the royal army had good reasons for not urging hostilities beyond their lines. An obstruction of the communication between town and country, some indecisive skirmishes, and predatory excursions, were the principal evidences of an existing state of war. This, in a great measure, was also the case in South Carolina. From December 1781, general Greene had possession of all the state, except Charleston and the vicinity. The British sometimes sallied out of their lines, for the acquisition of property and provisions; but never for the purposes of conquest. In opposing one of these, near Combahee, lieutenant-colonel John Laurens, an accomplished officer, of uncommon merit, was mortally wounded. Nature had adorned him with a large proportion of her choicest gifts; and these were highly cultivated by an elegant, useful, and practical education. His patriotism was of the most ardent kind. The moment he was of age, he broke off from the amusements of London, and, on VOL. III. [1] bis arrival in America, instantly joined the army. Wherever the war raged most, there was he to be found. A dauntless bravery was the least of his virtues, and an excess of it his greatest foible. His various talents fitted him to shine in courts, or camps, or popular assemblies. He had a heart to conceive, a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute schemes of the most extensive utility to his country, or rather to mankind; for his enlarged philanthropy, knowing no bounds, embraced the whole human race. This excellent young man, who was the pride of his country, the idol of the army, and an ornament of human nature, lost his life, in the twenty-seventh year of his age, in an unimportant skirmish with a foraging party, in the very last moments of the war. At the commencement of the year 1782, the British had more extensive range in Georgia, than in any other of the United States; but of this they were soon abridged. From the unsuccessful issue of the assault on Savannah, in 1779, that state had eminently suffered the desolations of war. Political hatred raged to such a degree, that the blood of its citizens was daily shed, by the hands of each other, contending under the names of whigs and tories. A few of the friends of the revolution kept together, in the western settlements, and exercised the powers of independent government. The whole extent, between these and the capital, was subject to the alternate ravages of both parties. After the surrender of lord Cornwallis, general Greene, being reinforced by the Pennsylvania line, was enabled to detach general Wayne, with a part of the southern army, to Georgia. General Clarke, who commanded in Savannah, on hearing of their advance, sent orders to his officers in the out-posts, to burn, as far as they could, all the provisions in the country, and then to retire within the lines at the capital. The country being evacuated by the British, the governor came with his council from Augusta to Ebenezer, and re-established government in the vicinity of the sea-coast. Colonel Brown at the head of a considerable force marched out of the garrison of Savannah, with the apparent inten tion of attacking the Americans. General Wayne, by a bold manœuvre, got in his rear, attacked him at twelve o'clock at night, and routed his whole party. A large number of Creek Indians, headed by a number of their chiefs and a British officer, made a furious attack on Wayne's infantry in the night. For a few minutes, they possessed themselves of his field pieces; but they were soon recovered. In the mean time, colonel White, with a party of the cavalry, came up, and pressed hard upon them. Both sides engaged in close quarters. The Indians displayed uncommon bravery; but were at length completely routed. Shortly after this affair, a period was put to the calamities of war, in that ravaged state. In about three months after the capture of lord Cornwallis was known in Great Britain, the parliament resolved to abandon all offensive operations in America. In consequence thereof, every idea of conquest being given up, arrangements were made for withdrawing the royal forces from Georgia and South Carolina. Peace was restored to Georgia, after it had been, upwards of three years, in possession of the British, and had been ravaged nearly from one extreme to the other. It is computed, that the state lost, by the war, one thousand of its citizens, besides four thousand slaves. In about five months after the British left Georgia, they, in like manner, withdrew their forces from South Carolina. The inhabitants of Charleston, who had remained therein, while it was possessed by the British, felt themselves happy in being delivered from the severities of a garrison life. The exiled citizens assembled, from all quarters, and took possession of their estates. Thus, in less than three years from the landing of the British, in South Carolina, they withdrew all their forces from it. In that time the citizens had suffered an accumulation of evils. There was scarcely an inhabitant, however obscure in character, or remote in situation, whether he remained firm to one party, or changed with the times, who did not partake of the general distress. In modern Europe, the revolutions of public affairs seldom disturb the humble obscurity of private life; but the American revolution involved the interest of every family, and deeply affected the fortunes and happiness of almost every individual in the United States. South Carolina lost a great number of its citizens, and upwards of 20,000 of its slaves. Property was sported with by both parties. Besides those who fell in battle, or died of diseases brought on by the war, many were inhumanly murdered by private assassinations. The country abounded with widows and orphans. The severities of a military life, co-operating with the climate, destroyed the health and lives of many hundreds of the invading army. Excepting those who enriched themselves by plunder, and a few successful speculators, no private advantage was gained by individuals on either side, but an experimental conviction of the folly and madness of war. Though, in the year 1782, the United States afforded few great events, the reverse was the case with the other powers involved in the consequences of the American war. Minorca, after a tedious siege, surrendered to the duke de Crillon, in the service of his most Catholic Majesty. About the same time, the settlements of Demarara and Essequibo, which, in the preceding year, had been taken by the British, were taken from them by the French. The gallant marquis de Bouille added to the splendor of his former fame, by reducing St. Eustatia and St. Kitts; the former at the close of the year 1781, and the latter early in the year 1782. The islands of Nevis and Monserrat followed the fortune of St. Kitts. The French, at this period, seemed to be established in the West Indies, on a firin foundation. Their islands were full of excellent troops, and their marine force was truly respectable. The exertions of Spain were also uncommonly great. The strength of these two monarchies had never before been so conspicuously displayed, in that quarter of the globe. Their combined navies amounted to threescore ships of the line; and these were attended with a prodigious multitude of frigates and armed vessels. With this immense force, they entertained hopes of wresting from his Britannic Majesty, a great part of his West India islands. In the mean time, the British ministry prepared a strong squadron, for the protection of their possessions in that quar |