CHAPTER XV. WHILE the allied army was engaged before Savannah, colonel John White of the Georgia line, conceived and executed an extraordinary enterprise. Captain French, with a small party of the British regulars, was stationed on the Ogeechee river, about twentyfive miles from Savannah. At the same place lay five British vessels, of which four were armed, the largest mounting fourteen guns. White, having with him only captain Etholm and three soldiers, kindled many fires, the illumination of which was discernible at the British station, exhibiting, by the manner of ranging them, the plan of a camp. To this stratagem he added another: he and his four comrades, imitating the manner of the staff, rode with haste in various directions, giving orders in a loud voice. French became satisfied that a large body of the enemy were upon him; and, on being summoned by White, he surrendered (1st of October) his detachment, the crews of the five vessels, forty in number, with the vessels, and one hundred and thirty stand of arms. Colonel White having succeeded, pretended that he must keep back his troops, lest their animosity, already stifled by his great exertions, should break out, and indiscriminate slaughter take place in defiance of his VOL. I P authority; and that therefore he would commit his prisoners to three guides who would conduct them safely to good quarters. This humane attention on the part of White was thankfully received. He immediately ordered three of his attendants to proceed with the prisoners, who moved off with celerity, anxious to get. away lest the fury of White's corps, believed to be near at hand, might break out, much disposed as he himself was to restrain it. White, with the soldier retained by him, repaired, as he announced to his guides and prisoners, to his troops for the purpose of proceeding in their rear. He now employed himself in collecting the neighborhood militia, with whom he overtook his guides, their charge safe and happy in the good treatment experienced. The extraordinary address of White was contrasted by the extraordinary folly of French; and both were necessary to produce this wonderful issue. The affair approaches too near the marvellous to have been admitted into these Memoirs, had it not been uniformly asserted, as uniformly accredited, and never contradicted. Congress, undismayed by the gloom which the unexpected issue to the siege of Savannah had spread over the south, took immediate measures to reinforce Lincoln; and sir Henry Clinton, encouraged by his success, determined to press to completion its subjugation. In pursuance of a resolution of Congress, the North Carolina line was ordered to South Carolina; and solemn assurances were given of effectual support to the languishing resistance in the south. Sir Henry Clinton having withdrawn the British garrison from Newport, thereby restoring the elastic patriotism of the state of Rhode Island to its wonted energy and freedom, and being reinforced from England, prepared a respectable detachment of chosen troops to be led by himself for the reduction of South Carolina. Waiting for the departure from the American coast of the French fleet, he was no sooner apprised of this event than he began the embarkation of his army; which being completed, admiral Arbuthnot, the British naval commander on the American station, took upon himself the direction of the escorting fleet, and sailed from Sandy Hook on the 26th of December. The voyage was tempestuous and tardy; some of the transports were lost, and others taken; all the horses for the cavalry and artillery perished; and the fleet, being much crippled in its stormy passage, never reached the Tybee, its destined point, until the end of January. Here the damaged ships were repaired with all practicable haste; and the admiral put to sea, steering his course for North Edisto sound in South Carolina. The armament arrived there on the 10th of February; and the next day was employed in disembarking the army on John's Island. Sir Henry Clinton was now on terra firma, within thirty miles of Charleston. He took immediate measures for advancing, but with the utmost circumspec tion, sacrificing much time in fortifying intermediate posts to hold safe his communication with the fleet. There are occasions and situations when such conduct is entitled to commendation, indeed when the omission would be highly reprehensible. But this was not the case now; no possible interruption was practicable on the part of Lincoln, whose regular force consisted of about two thousand men, including the North Carolina regulars, and four hundred Virginians, who had lately joined him under lieutenant colonel Heth. To these the militia of the town only is to be added; for that of the country was much indisposed to shut themselves up in a besieged fortress. The recollection of the repulse which himself and admiral Parker had sustained at this spot, in 1776, must have inspired sir Henry Clinton with more respectful considerations of the power of his enemy, and the strength of his defences, than accurate information would warrant. Determined to avoid a second rebuff, the general pursued, with unvarying pertinacity, the most cautious system.* *In the whole course of the American war, there seems to have been a systematic sacrifice of time by the British generals, excepting where lord Cornwallis commanded. I do not recollect any operations wherein the British resorted to forced marches. Washington, in 1776, was hurried through the Jerseys. Upon this occasion lord Cornwallis was the operating general; and we all remember how he pushed Morgan, and afterwards Greene, in the Carolinas. The delay of sir Henry Clinton in this short march of thirty miles is inexplicable, unless from habit, or from a wish to induce the American general to shut himself up in Charleston. The necessary boats for the transportation of the army, passing along the interior navigation to Waapoocut, entered into Ashley river under the command of captain Elphinston. On the 29th of March the van of the British reached the banks of the river, having marched thirty miles since the 11th of February, and never meeting, during the whole period, with the smallest resistance, except in the solitary instance of a rencontre between lieutenant colonel Washington, commanding Baylor's diminished regiment of cavalry, and lieutenant colonel Tarleton; whose dragoons, having been remounted on horses procured by sir Henry Clinton since his landing, covered the left flank of a division advancing from Savannah. This first meeting terminated favorably for lieutenant colonel Washington, who in the sequel took a few prisoners; among whom was lieutenant colonel Hamilton of the royal regiment of North Carolina.. On the 30th sir Henry Clinton passed Ashley river before Charleston, and on the following day sat down in front of our works. On his march the van of the leading column was gallantly attacked by lieutenant colonel Laurens with a corps of light infantry; in which skirmish the earl of Caithness, aid-de-camp to sir Henry Clinton, was wounded. It is possible that the extraordinary delay, with which the movements of the British general were made, might have been intended with the double view of excluding the possibility of failure, and of seducing his enemy to continue in Charleston. If so, he succeeded completely in both |