Part 22 (1/2)

10. What river was next crossed?

11. Describe the retreat further.

12. What did General Greene find it necessary to do to cover his retreat? Who commanded this detachment?

13. What river was crossed on February 13th, 1781? How many miles had Greene been pursued by Cornwallis? Can you go to the map and trace the course of this famous retreat?

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURT HOUSE.

A. D. 1781.

When the British commander found that General Greene was completely beyond his reach, he marched to Hillsboro and there erected the Royal standard. In consequence of his proclamations and the retreat of General Greene across Dan River, several hundred Tories collected under Colonel John Pyle and started to join Lord Cornwallis. General Greene sent Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee across Dan River to observe them.

2. Pyle and his Tories supposing Lee's force to be British troops, drew near, uttering cheers for King George. Suddenly the bugles of the lighthorse sounded a charge, and Pyle and his men were furiously a.s.sailed. In five minutes ninety lay dead upon the ground, and nearly all the others were prisoners of war.

This b.l.o.o.d.y affair has been called ”Pyle's Hacking Match.”

3. Major Joseph Graham, with his mounted force, had just before captured a picket of twenty-five men a mile and a half away from Hillsboro. General Polk's militia were also in the same vicinity, and soon General Greene, having received reinforcements, recrossed the Dan and a.s.sumed a position on the Reedy Fork, a confluent of Haw River.

4. Cornwallis hearing of Pyle's disaster, left Hillsboro and moved westward to protect any Tories that might seek to reach him. The first time the two armies again saw anything of each other was at Whitsell's Mill. At that place Colonel Otho H.

Williams was posted with a body of light troops, which Lord Cornwallis attempted to cut off from the main body. He failed in so doing, but both armies were filled with admiration at a display of personal gallantry.

5. Colonel Williams had posted sharpshooters in and around the millhouse. These discovered a British officer approaching a ford below them, and saw that he was leading men and trying to cross the stream. Many deadly rifles were soon hurling their missiles around him, but slowly, and as if unconscious of being under fire, he crossed in safety. This intrepid man was Lieutenant- Colonel William Webster, then a brigade commander under Cornwallis.

6. On March 15th, 1781, General Greene being at the courthouse of Guilford county, learned that the British army was approaching on the Salisbury road. He hosted his men in three lines and awaited the enemy's arrival, who came on in fine style, but the first American line, composed of militia, giving ground, only the men of the gallant Captain Forbis, of the Hawfields, gained credit for their conduct. The British found stubborn resistance in the second and third lines, where the Continentals were posted.

7. It was a furious and b.l.o.o.d.y conflict, and such havoc was wrought in the British ranks by a charge of Colonels Howard and Was.h.i.+ngton, that Lord Cornwallis opened fire with his artillery upon his friends and foes alike, and thus checked this dangerous American movement. General Greene at length gave orders for retreat, and the field was left in the possession of the British.

8. British valor was never more splendidly exhibited than upon this hard-fought field. With less than half of Greene's force, they won the field, but the victory was too costly. At least one- fourth of the British force was dead and disabled, including the gallant Webster, the hero of Whitsell's Mill. General Greene, having halted close by the scene of conflict, returned three days later to again offer battle, but Lord Cornwallis was flying towards Wilmington for safety. He who had so long sought to bring on an engagement was now the fugitive.

9. General Greene followed in pursuit, but failing to overtake his foe, he turned his course and marched against Lord Rawdon, in South Carolina. He had redeemed North Carolina from the grasp of her foes, and went to confer upon the two other Southern commonwealths a similar blessing. No more British armies were to bring ruin and terror to any portion of North Carolina.

10. Lord Cornwallis hurried to Wilmington. His stay was short there, for turning north in the month of April, 1781, he marched his army, by way of Halifax, to Virginia. There, ere long, this great soldier was to close his career in America. He had, with a small portion of the British force under the command of Sir Henry Clinton accomplished more than all compatriots.

11. On September the 8th a brilliant battle took place at Eutaw Springs, in South Carolina, between General Greene's army and the British under Colonel Stewart. It was the hardest fought and best conducted action of the war. The three North Carolina Continental regiments, led by General Sumner, bore the brunt of the conflict, and were greatly praised for their gallantry.

About two thousand men each was the strength of the armies, and they lost twelve hundred in killed and wounded. This battle resulted in the retreat of the British to Charleston.

12. Governor Nash's term of office having expired, Thomas Burke, of Orange, became his successor. Burke was an Irishman by birth, of good family, well educated, and with fine abilities. He had been conspicuous in public affairs and had shown a warm devotion to the American cause. His home was in Hillsboro, which was then the capital of the State.

QUESTIONS.

1. Where did Cornwallis next go? What recruits were raised, and who was put in command? Whom had General Greene appointed to watch the enemy?

2. Describe the surprise and defeat of Colonel Pyle and his men.