Part 19 (2/2)

Then he made a lively attack on the enemy and soon retreated along this road. Of course the enemy followed briskly, when up sprang Marion's troopers in ambush and soon defeated them. ”All's fair in war,” says the proverb.

These furious and almost incessant attacks kept the British in terror.

They never knew when they were safe.

=225. Some of Marion's Famous Exploits.=--Many a story of this daring chieftain's exploits used to be told by the evening fireside. In October, 1780, Marion brought hope to the patriots by one of his brilliant attacks. Colonel Tynes was gathering a large body of Tories to a.s.sist the British, and he held stores of guns, ammunition, and clothing for their use. Marion's scouts learned all the facts. These were just the articles he wanted for his half-clothed, half-fed, and poorly armed men.

For him to resolve was to act. He came cautiously at midnight. The camp-fires were burning; some soldiers were singing, some playing cards, some eating stolen chickens; but n.o.body was on guard. Marion's troopers rushed in with a wild shout, and the attack went all one way. A large number were killed, twenty-three were taken prisoners, and the supplies of the Tory camp were enjoyed by Marion's men for a long time.

Not one of his force was lost.

Soon after Gates's defeat, Marion learned by his scouts that the British were not far off with a large body of American prisoners. He sent at midnight a squad to hold the road to their camp, and before dawn he approached it silently with his own force. Just at daylight he made a sudden attack upon them. The surprise and the a.s.sault were an amazing success. Twenty-four of the enemy were killed or captured, and one hundred and fifty captives were set free, while not one of his men was lost.

=226. Marion invites a British Officer to Dinner.=--One day a young British officer came to Marion under a flag of truce, to plan an exchange of some prisoners. The business finished, Marion asked the officer to dine with him. The dinner consisted entirely of baked sweet potatoes brought by a negro on a piece of bark for a plate, with a log for a table.

”But this can't be your usual fare?” asked the Britisher.

”Yes, indeed,” said Marion, ”and we are lucky to-day to have enough for company.”

This was no idle talk to affect the young officer, but it did impress him; for the story is that on returning to his own camp he said, ”It's no use trying; I've seen Marion, and I tell you that men who work for no pay and live on potatoes while fighting for their liberties, are not going to be beaten, and I am not going to fight any longer against them.

I shall resign to-day.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARION INVITES A BRITISH OFFICER TO DINE WITH HIM.]

=227. A Great Victory at King's Mountain.=--After the Camden disaster the deep gloom continued till October, when Colonel Ferguson was sent with a force of British and Tories to the northwest to subdue the patriots in that region. Instantly there was a general uprising of the hunters and farmers of this wild and romantic region to defend their homes from the brutal enemy. These hardy mountaineers, ready to move at a moment's warning, came from every direction to a common meeting-place.

At King's Mountain, in North Carolina, where the British were entrenched, these American riflemen charged up the steep sides, surrounded the enemy, and cut them down till about half were killed and the rest fled in dismay. It was a brilliant victory, won by sheer hard fighting, and it brought supreme joy to the long-suffering patriots; for it proved to be decisive. It turned the tide of British rule in the south.

=228. General Greene takes Command in the South.=--A new Continental army was now to be sent from the north, and this time Was.h.i.+ngton had his choice of commanders. He sent one of his best and most trusted officers, General Greene, who had been a Rhode Island blacksmith. He knew how to fight; for he had served under the eye of Was.h.i.+ngton in many battles, and so had been well trained in military matters.

It was in December, 1780, that Greene took command of the so-called ”southern army” at Charlotte, a little town in North Carolina. He had in all about two thousand men, but only eight hundred were fit for duty.

On the day Greene took command there were not three days' provisions in camp. He had no money. The people would not touch the Continental paper money. Ably, patiently, and brilliantly, this sagacious general at once set to work to effect his great purpose of driving the British armies from the south.

With Greene came another famous officer, General Daniel Morgan, the man who had marched with Arnold to Canada, and who commanded the infantry at Stillwater and Saratoga.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL GREENE TAKING COMMAND OF THE SOUTHERN ARMY.]

This was the man who, when he heard of Lexington, led his riflemen six hundred miles in twenty-one days, from Virginia, to join Was.h.i.+ngton in Cambridge.

Morgan was of gigantic stature, vast physical strength, and wonderful powers of endurance. In his youth he was a teamster. One day by order of a tyrannical British officer he was given five hundred lashes for some slight offense. He walked away saucy and defiant as before.

Of a gentle and unselfish nature, resolute, fearless in battle, a born fighter, Morgan was the ideal leader of the riflemen of the frontier.

His force was smaller than Greene's, who had detached him to occupy a post in South Carolina.

=229. How General Morgan defeated the British at Cowpens.=--Cornwallis in January, 1781, sent Tarleton with eleven hundred troops to meet Morgan and dispose of him. They met at Cowpens, but Morgan, with a smaller army, reversed the order and disposed of Tarleton! He killed a large number, ten officers and more than one hundred men, took over five hundred prisoners, with all the artillery and stores.

It was at Cowpens that Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, a distant relative of the Commander-in-Chief, wounded Tarleton in a hand-to-hand combat. Shortly afterwards this hated British officer said to a lady:--

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