on the island. A joint attack by land and sea was planned for the following day. On that morning, however, the fleet of Lord Howe, who had left New York in pursuit of the French, came in sight; and D'Estaing, instead of beginning the bombardment of Newport, sailed out to give battle to Howe. Just as the two squadrons were about to begin an engagement a violent storm arose by which the fleets were parted and greatly damaged. D'Estaing repaired to Boston, and Howe returned to New York.

Sullivan laid siege to Newport; but when the French squadron sailed away, he found it necessary to retreat. The British pursued the Americans, and overtook them in the northern part of the island; a battle ensued, and Pigot was repulsed with a loss of two hundred and sixty men. On the following night Sullivan succeeded in reaching the mainland; and it was well that he did so; for on the next day General Clinton arrived at Newport with a division of four thousand regulars. The Americans saved themselves by hastily retiring from the neighborhood. Clinton, having sent out a detachment under Colonel Grey to burn the American shipping in Buzzard's Bay, destroy the stores in New Bedford and ravage Martha's Vineyard, returned to New York.

The command of the British naval forces in America was now transferred from Lord Howe to Admiral Byron. Sir Henry Clinton, unable to accomplish anything in honorable warfare, descended to marauding and robbery. Early in October a band of incendiaries, led by Ferguson, burned the American ships at Little Egg Harbor. For several miles inland the country was devastated, houses pillaged, barns burned, patriots murdered. To the preceding July belongs the sad story of the Wyoming massacre. Major John Butler, a tory of Niagara, raised a company of sixteen hundred loyalists, Canadians and Indians, and marched into the valley of Wyoming, county of Luzerne, Pennsylvania. The settlement was defenceless. The fathers and brothers were away in the patriot army. There were some feeble forts on the Susquehanna in the neighborhood of Wilkesbarre, but they were useless without defenders. On the approach of the tories and savages the few militia remaining in the valley, together with the old men and boys, rallied for the defence of their homes. A battle was fought, and the poor patriots were utterly routed. The fugitives fled to the principal fort, which was crowded with women and children. On came the murderous horde, and demanded a surrender. Honorable terms were promised by Butler, and the garrison capitulated. On the 5th of July the gates were opened, and the barbarians entered. Immediately they began to plunder, then to burn, and then to use the hatchet and the scalping-knife. There is no authentic

record of the horrible atrocities that followed. The savages divided into parties, scattered through the valley, plundered, robbed, burned, and drove almost every surviving family into the swamps or mountains. In this way George III. would subdue the American colonies.

November witnessed a similar massacre at the village of Cherry Valley, Otsego county, New York. This time the invaders were led by Joseph Brant, the Mohawk sachem, and Walter Butler, a son of Major John Butler. The people of Cherry Valley were driven from their homes; every house in the village was burned; women and children were tomahawked and scalped; and forty miserable sufferers dragged into captivity. To avenge these outrages an expedition was sent against the savages on the Upper Susquehanna; and they in turn were made to feel the terrors of war. In the preceding December the famous Major Clarke had received from Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, a commission to proceed against the Indians west of the Alleghanies. The expedition left Pittsburg in the spring of 1778; descended to the mouth of the Ohio; and on the 4th of the following July captured Kaskaskia. Other important posts were taken; and in August Vincennes was forced to capitulate.

On the 3d of November Count d'Estaing's fleet sailed from Boston for the West Indies. In December Admiral Byron, in command of the British squadron, left New York to try the fortunes of war on the ocean. A few days previously, Colonel Campbell, with a force of two thousand men, was sent by General Clinton for the conquest of Georgia. On the 29th of December the expedition reached Savannah. The place was defended by General Robert Howe with a regiment of five hundred and fifty regulars, and three hundred militia. Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the British, Howe determined to risk a battle; but the result was disastrous. The Americans were routed and driven out of the city. Escaping up the river, the defeated patriots crossed into South Carolina and found refuge at Charleston. Such was the only real conquest made by the British during the year 1778. It was now nearly four years since the battle of Concord, and Great Britain had lost vastly more than she had gained in her struggle with the colonies. The city of New York was held by Clinton; Newport was garrisoned by a division under Pigot; the feeble capital of Georgia was conquered; all the rest remained to the patriots.

THE

CHAPTER XLII.

MOVEMENTS OF '79.

HE winter of 1778-79 was passed by the American army at Middlebrook, New Jersey. With the opening of spring there was much discouragement among the soldiers; for they were neither paid nor fed. Only the personal influence of Washington and the patriotism of the camp prevented a mutiny. Clinton opened the campaign with a number of predatory incursions into the surrounding country. In February, Tryon, the old tory governor of New York, a man so savage in his nature that the Indians called him the Big Wolf, marched from Kingsbridge with a body of fifteen hundred regulars and tories to destroy the saltworks at Horse Neck, Connecticut. General Putnam, who chanced to be in that neighborhood, rallied the militia and made a brave defence. The Americans planted some cannon on the brow of a hill and fought with much spirit until they were outflanked by the British and obliged to fly. It was here that General Putnam, pursued and about to be overtaken by a party of dragoons, turned out of the road, spurred his horse down a precipice and escaped.* Tryon destroyed the salt-works, plundered and burned the village of West Greenwich and returned to Kingsbridge.

In the latter part of May Clinton himself sailed with an armament up the Hudson to Stony Point. This strong position, commanding the river, had been chosen by Washington as the site of a fort; the Americans were engaged upon the unfinished works when Clinton's squadron came in sight. The feeble garrison, unable to resist the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, escaped from the fortifications. On the 1st of June the British entered, mounted cannon and began to bombard Verplanck's Point, on the other side of the river. Here the patriots made a brave resistance; but the British landed a strong force, surrounded the fort and compelled a surrender. Both Verplanck's and Stony Point were strongly fortified and garrisoned by the enemy. About the same time Virginia suffered from an incursion of the tories. A vast amount of public and private property was destroyed; and several towns, including Norfolk and Portsmouth, were laid in ashes.

*After all, Putnam's exploit was not so marvelous. In 1825 some of General La Fayette's dragoons rode down the same hill for sport.

In July the ferocious Tryon again distinguished himself. With a force of twenty-six hundred Hessians and tories he sailed to New Haven, captured the city and would have burned it but for fear of the gathering militia. Having set East Haven on fire, the destroyers sailed down the Sound to the beautiful town of Fairfield, which was given to the flames. At Norwalk, while the village was burning and the terrified people flying from their homes, Tryon, on a neighboring hill, sat in a rocking-chair and laughed heartily at the scene. It was not long until these dastardly outrages were made to appear more dastardly by contrast with a heroic exploit of the patriots.

Early in July General Wayne received orders to attempt the recapture of Stony Point. On the 15th of the month he mustered a force of light infantry at a convenient point on the Hudson and marched against the seemingly impregnable fortress. The movement was not discovered by the enemy. At eight o'clock in the evening Wayne halted a mile from the fort and gave orders for the assault. A negro who had learned the countersign went with the advance; the British pickets were deceived, caught and gagged. The Americans advanced in two columns, the first led by Wayne, and the second by the gallant Frenchman, Colonel De Fleury. Everything was done in silence. Muskets were unloaded and bayonets fixed; not a gun was to be fired. The two divisions, attacking from opposite sides, were to meet in the middle of the fort. The assault was made a little after midnight. Within pistol-shot of the sentinels on the height, the Americans were discovered. There was the cry, To arms! the rattle of drums, and then the roar of musketry and cannon. The patriots never wavered. The ramparts were scaled; and the British, finding themselves between two closing lines of bayonets, cried out for quarter. Sixty-three of the enemy fell in the struggle; the remaining five hundred and forty-three were made prisoners. Of the Americans only fifteen were killed and eighty-three wounded. In the days that followed the assault Wayne secured the ordnance and stores, valued at more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, then destroyed the fort and marched away. On the 20th a division of the British army, arriving at Stony Point, found nothing but a desolated hill. In honor of his brave deed General Wayne received a gold medal from Congress.

Three days after the taking of Stony Point, Major Lee with a company of militia attacked the British garrison at Jersey City. Again the assault was successful, the enemy losing nearly two hundred men. On the 25th of the same month a fleet of thirty-seven vessels, which had been equipped by Massachusetts, was sent against a British post recently established at the mouth of the Penobscot. The enterprise, however, was

managed with little skill and less success. On the 13th of August, while the American ships were still besieging the post, they were suddenly attacked and destroyed by a British fleet. In the summer of this year an army of four thousand six hundred men, commanded by Generals Sullivan and James Clinton, was sent against the Indians of the Upper Susquehanna. The atrocities of Wyoming were now fully avenged, and the savages driven to destruction. At Elmira, on the Tioga River, the Indians and tories had fortified themselves; but on the 29th of August they were forced from their stronghold and utterly routed. The whole country between the Susquehanna and the Genesee was wasted by the patriots, who, in the course of the campaign, destroyed forty Indian villages. In the latter part of October Sir Henry Clinton, alarmed by the rumored approach of the French fleet, withdrew the British forces from Rhode Island. The retirement from Newport was made with so much haste that the heavy guns and large quantities of stores were left behind. Such were the leading military movements in the North.

Meanwhile, the war had continued in Georgia and South Carolina; and the patriots had met with many reverses. At the beginning of the year Fort Sunbury, on St. Catherine's Sound, was the only post held by the Americans south of the Savannah. On the 9th of January this fort was captured by a body of British troops from Florida, led by General Prevost. This officer then joined his forces with those of Colonel Campbell, who had just effected the conquest of Savannah, and assumed command of the British army in the South. A force of two thousand regulars and loyalists, commanded by Campbell, was at once despatched against Augusta; for there the republican legislature had assembled after the fall of Savannah. On the 29th of January the British reached their destination, and Augusta fell a prey to the invaders. For a while the whole of Georgia was prostrated before the king's soldiery.

In the mean time, the tories of Western Carolina had risen in arms and were advancing to join the forces of Campbell at Augusta. While marching thither they were attacked and defeated in a canebrake by the patriots under Captain Anderson. On the 14th of February the tories were again overtaken in the country west of Broad River. Colonel Pickens, at the head of the Carolina militia, fell upon them with such fury that the whole force was annihilated. Colonel Boyd, the tory leader, and seventy of his men were killed. Seventy-five others were captured, tried for treason and condemned to death; but only five of the ringleaders were hanged. On receiving intelligence of what had happened, Campbell hastily evacuated Augusta and retreated toward Savannah. The western half of Georgia was recovered more quickly than it had been lost.