Part 42 (1/2)
Depredations of the Iroquois and Tories.--On the New York frontier Burgoyne's invasion had aroused the Iroquois and even after his defeat the Six Nations, except the Tuscaroras, Oneidas, and part of the Mohawks, adhered to the British. Many Tory refugees settled among the Indians and incited them to go on the warpath. In July, 1778, a force of Tories and Iroquois, mainly Senecas, descended into the Wyoming Valley and laid it waste, killing and capturing many of the inhabitants.
Continental troops presently reoccupied the valley and in October the Indian town of Unadilla. The Indians and Tories retaliated by a descent on Cherry Valley. The depredations continued in 1779. Troops sent out from Ft. Stanwix destroyed the Onondaga villages. The Indians then a.s.sailed the Schoharie Valley and the western settlements in Ulster County, and spread destruction about Pittsburg.
Expeditions sent into the Iroquois country.--So extensive were the depredations that Congress decided to send an overwhelming force into the Iroquois country. Three brigades from Was.h.i.+ngton's army were a.s.sembled at Wyoming under Sullivan. While he was waiting for a New York brigade to join him, Chief Brant and his warriors burned Minisink and ambushed the militia who went in pursuit. Sullivan at the head of five thousand men pa.s.sed up the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna, defeated a strong force of Indians and Tories on the site of modern Elmira, and then burned eighteen Indian villages and destroyed the crops. Sullivan, however, failed to attack Niagara which was a British stronghold.
Another expedition from Pittsburg ascended the Alleghany and destroyed the Indian villages along the river. These operations scattered the Indians and Tories but did not destroy them, and frequent depredations occurred on the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers during the remainder of the war.
SPAIN IN THE WAR[1]
Spain enters the war.--When Spain became a factor in the war in 1779, a new element entered the contest in the West. During 1778 Vergennes did not relax his efforts to induce Spain to become a belligerent. But Carlos III and Florida Blanca had no intention of risking a war with Great Britain unless they were well paid for their a.s.sistance. Not until they were certain that France would a.s.sist in the recovery of Gibraltar and the Floridas did they consent to make war. On another point the king was insistent; he refused to recognize the independence of the United States. The secret convention of Aranjuez between France and Spain was signed on April 12, 1779, and in June Spain definitely entered the war.
Galvez on the lower Mississippi.--Orders were given at once to seize the British posts on the Mississippi. With a hastily built fleet, Bernardo de Galvez, the Governor of Louisiana, ascended the Mississippi at the head of fifteen hundred men. On September 7 he took Fort Bute at Manchac, and then proceeded to Baton Rouge which he captured, the capitulation including Fort Panmure at Natchez. Meanwhile Grandpre had taken two small British outposts and a fleet had captured eight British vessels on Lake Pontchartrain.
[1] See map on page 400.
British attack on St. Louis.--As soon as war was declared, the British planned to capture New Orleans. An expedition from the north was to descend the Mississippi, attack St. Louis, reconquer the Illinois country, and meet General Campbell at Natchez with a force from Pensacola. The campaign against St. Louis was directed by Sinclair, commander at Mackinac. Emmanuel Hesse, a trader, was sent to a.s.semble a force of Indians at the Fox-Wisconsin portage. In March, 1780, seven hundred and fifty men left Mackinac and joined Hesse at Prairie du Chien. To cooperate Charles Langlade was sent with Indians via Chicago, while Captain Bird, despatched from Detroit, was to raid Kentucky. None of the plans succeeded. Leyba, the commander at St. Louis, was forewarned and was aided by George Rogers Clark. On May 26 the British attacked St. Louis but were repulsed and forced to withdraw. Bird's expedition also miscarried, and Campbell's movement was frustrated by Galvez.
The Spanish expedition against St. Joseph.--Sinclair at once planned a second expedition for the spring of 1781. Learning of the project, Cruzat, the new commander at St. Louis, prepared a counter stroke. He despatched parties up the Mississippi and to Peoria, and sent sixty-five men under Puree to destroy the stores at St. Joseph. On February 12 the post was taken in a surprise attack and the stores destroyed.
Capture of Mobile and Pensacola.--Meanwhile more important events had been taking place on the Gulf of Mexico. In February, 1780, Galvez sailed from New Orleans with two thousand men to capture Fort Charlotte at Mobile, and on March 14 the place capitulated. Going to Cuba for reinforcements, after losing one fleet in a hurricane, in February, 1781, he sailed with fourteen hundred men to attack Pensacola. After a siege of nearly two months, General Campbell with more than eight hundred men surrendered. A simultaneous French and Spanish attack on Jamaica was next planned, and Galvez sailed for Santo Domingo to command the Spanish forces, but the campaign was made unnecessary by the ending of the war. Spain had played an important part. She had defeated the British attempt to gain control of the Mississippi, had enabled Clark to maintain his hold on the Northwest, and had recovered Mobile and Pensacola.
THE WAR ON THE SEA AND THE DUTCH ALLIANCE
Was.h.i.+ngton's fleets.--From the beginning of the war American vessels were an important factor. They captured supply s.h.i.+ps and transports, hara.s.sed commerce, captured many small war vessels, and protected trading vessels. At the opening of hostilities Was.h.i.+ngton turned to New England to supply him with vessels, and during the siege of Boston he sent out ten armed craft which made several important captures of arms and supplies. When operations were transferred to New York, he also engaged several vessels which rendered good service.
Congress provides a navy.--Largely through the influence of the Rhode Island delegates, Congress was convinced that a navy should be provided, and by January, 1776, ten vessels had been purchased and the building of thirteen others authorized. Before the end of the war over forty vessels were added to the high seas fleet in addition to minor craft on Lake Champlain.
First cruise of the fleet.--In February, 1776, Esek Hopkins, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the navy, put to sea with a fleet of eight vessels. He cruised to the West Indies, captured New Providence, and sailed away with eighty-eight cannon, fifteen mortars, and a large quant.i.ty of stores. The fleet sailed to Long Island and off the eastern end it captured two small vessels, but on April 6 it allowed the _Glasgow_ to escape.
Nature of the operations during 1776-1777.--By the end of 1776 the navy had been increased to twenty-five vessels. During the year it was constantly engaged in commerce destroying, and in capturing transports and small war craft. The operations were confined mainly to American and West Indian waters, although before the end of the year the _Reprisal_, which carried Franklin to France, had captured several vessels in European waters. During 1777 the congressional vessels, privateers, and state cruisers captured four hundred and sixty-seven vessels, many being taken near the British Isles. The depredations caused great alarm in England and the West Indies; merchants were often deterred from s.h.i.+pping goods, insurance rates and prices rose, and the demands for escorts became insistent.
Privateers.--The swift sailing craft of the Yankee skippers made ideal blockade runners and commerce destroyers, and hundreds of them put to sea. During the war Ma.s.sachusetts commissioned nine hundred and ninety-eight. While the greater number of these vessels put out from New England, other states gave many commissions, Maryland alone commissioning two hundred and fifty. It is estimated that during the war the privateers captured or destroyed six hundred vessels with cargoes valued at $18,000,000, besides making several important captures of troops and supplies.
State navies.--With the exception of New Jersey and Delaware, the states had navies, the largest being those of Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. At times these operated independently, sometimes in conjunction with privateers, and at other times as adjuncts of the regular navy. They were used chiefly to protect the trade in home waters and for coast defence.
The Pen.o.bscot expedition.--The most pretentious operation undertaken by a state navy was the attempt to capture Pen.o.bscot in 1779. The British had established a naval base near the mouth of the Pen.o.bscot River and Ma.s.sachusetts determined to break it up. Fifteen hundred men were loaded on privateers and transports, and were convoyed by the _Warren_, the _Diligent_, and the _Providence_. The expedition arrived off the Pen.o.bscot late in July, but before it could take the fort, a larger British fleet appeared (August 13). The privateers and transports scattered, but the three war vessels were forced to run up the river where their crews destroyed them.
The navy during 1778-1779.--During 1778 the British navy succeeded in greatly decreasing the depredations of American vessels. By the close of the year the national navy was reduced to fourteen. But in 1779 the fleet was somewhat rehabilitated by the securing of several French vessels.
The Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis.--In 1779 the most famous sea-fight of the Revolution occurred. John Paul Jones was given command of an old French East Indiaman which was refitted with forty-two guns and renamed the _Bonhomme Richard_. In August the French frigate _Alliance_ and three small vessels accompanied the _Bonhomme Richard_ on a cruise along the west coast of Ireland, northern Scotland, and the eastern coast of England, several prizes being taken. On September 23 off Flamborough Head Jones sighted a large merchant fleet convoyed by the forty-four gun frigate Serapis and the smaller _Countess of Scarborough_. The _Bonhomme Richard_ engaged the _Serapis_ in one of the most thrilling of naval battles. For three and a half hours the frigates fought at close range, much of the time being lashed together. Although Jones's vessel was in a sinking condition, he refused to surrender. When the English captain had lost more than a third of his crew, he pulled down his flag. The _Pallas_ captured the _Countess of Scarborough_. Jones placed his crew on board the _Serapis_, and the squadron soon after arrived at the Dutch port of Texel.
Decline of the navy.--When Charleston surrendered in 1780, four s.h.i.+ps fell into British hands and only six vessels were left in the American navy. At the same time parliament voted to increase the naval service.
The American coast was closely blockaded, and though cruisers occasionally got through, the navy ceased to be an important factor in the war.
The league of armed neutrals.--As the war progressed England's exercise of the right of search on the high seas provoked the neutral powers. At that time international law recognized a belligerent's right to seize enemy's goods, but not the vessel in which they were being carried.
England acted within the law, but her seizures worked great hards.h.i.+p upon neutrals. Largely through the influence of Frederick the Great, who had not forgiven England for abandoning him in the Seven Years' War, Catherine II of Russia was induced to champion the cause of the neutral states. On February 26, 1780, she addressed a message to the neutral courts which a.s.serted, (1) that neutral vessels should be allowed to navigate freely even upon the coasts of powers at war; (2) that, with the exception of contraband, goods belonging to the subjects of belligerents should be free in neutral s.h.i.+ps; (3) that naval stores and provisions of neutrals should not be considered contraband; (4) that a port must be effectively guarded to const.i.tute a blockade; and (5) that the above principles should be considered as rules in determining the legality of prizes. Denmark and Sweden promptly entered into an agreement with Russia mutually to protect their commerce, by force if necessary, the arrangement being known as the League of Armed Neutrality. The principles proclaimed by the Czarina were approved by France and Spain. The Netherlands joined the league in November, 1780; Prussia came in in May, 1781, and the Empire in October. Even Portugal, the ancient ally of England, and Turkey became parties to the league.
Att.i.tude of the Netherlands.--At the opening of the American Revolution there were two parties in The Netherlands; the English party headed by the stadtholder, William V, and the Anti-Orange party which had strong French leanings. The strength of the Anti-Orange party lay chiefly in Holland and in the large cities, especially in Amsterdam where the great merchants were powerful. The Dutch people watched the contest between the United States and Great Britain with a filial interest, looking upon it as a counterpart of their own struggle for independence, but policy forced the government to remain neutral.