Part 5 (2/2)

[5] ”The British loss, in this battle, exceeded five hundred in killed and wounded, among whom were several of the most distinguished officers.

The American loss was about four hundred, in killed and wounded, of which more than three-fourths fell upon the Continentals. Though the numerical force of Gen. Greene nearly doubled that of Cornwallis, yet, when we consider the difference between these forces; the shameful conduct of the North Carolina militia, who fled at the first fire; the desertion of the second Maryland regiment, and that a body of reserve was not brought into action, it will appear that our numbers, actually engaged, but little exceeded that of the enemy.”--_Grimshaw's U. S.

History._

[6] The Burlington _Gazette_, in an issue of some time ago, gives the following account of an aged negro Revolutionary patriot: ”The attention of many of our citizens has doubtless been arrested by the appearance of an old colored man, who might have been seen, sitting in front of his residence, in east Union street, respectfully raising his hat to those who might be pa.s.sing by. His attenuated frame, his silvered head, his feeble movements, combine to prove that he is very aged: and yet, comparatively few are aware that he is among the survivors of the gallant army who fought for the liberties of our country.

”On Monday last, we stopped to speak to him, and asked how old he was.

He asked the day of the month, and upon being told that it was the 24th of May, replied, with trembling lips, 'I am very old--I am a hundred years old to-day.'

”His name is Oliver Cromwell, and he says that he was born at the Black Horse, (now Columbus), in this county, in the family of John Hutchins.

He enlisted in a company commanded by Capt. Lowry, attached to the Second New Jersey Regiment, under the command of Col. Israel Shreve. He was at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Princetown, Monmouth, and Yorktown, at which latter place, he told us, he saw the last man killed.

Although his faculties are failing, yet he relates many interesting reminiscences of the Revolution. He was with the army at the retreat of the Delaware, on the memorable crossing of the 25th of December, 1776, and relates the story of the battle on the succeeding day, with enthusiasm. He gives the details of the march from Trenton to Princetown, and told us, with much humor, that they 'knocked the British around lively,' at the latter place. He was also at the battle of Springfield, and says that he saw the house burning in which Mrs.

Caldwell was shot, at Connecticut Farms.”

”I further learn, (says the author of the 'Colored Patriots of the Revolution'), that Cromwell was brought up a farmer, having served his time with Thomas Hutchins, Esq., his maternal uncle. He was, for six years and nine months under the immediate command of Was.h.i.+ngton, whom he loved affectionately.”

”His discharge,” says Dr. M'Cune Smith, ”at the close of the war, was in Was.h.i.+ngton's own handwriting, of which he was very proud, often speaking of it. He received annually, ninety-six dollars pension. He lived a long and honorable life. Had he been of a little lighter complexion, (he was just half white), every newspaper in the land would have been eloquent in praise of his many virtues.”

[7] Simon Lee, the grandfather of William Wells Brown, on his mother's side, was a slave in Virginia, and served in the war of the Revolution.

Although honorably discharged, with the other Virginia troops, at the close of the war, he was sent back to his master, where he spent the remainder of his life toiling on a tobacco plantation.--_Patriotism of Colored Americans._

CHAPTER II.

THE WAR OF 1812.

While there is no intention of entering into an examination of the causes of the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1812, yet in order to carry out the design of the author to show that in this war,--like all others in which the government of the United States has been engaged,--the negro, as a soldier, took part, it is deemed necessary to cite at least one of the incidents, perhaps _the_ incident, which most fired the national heart of America, and hastened the beginning of hostilities.

The war between England and France gave to the American merchant marine interest an impetus that increased the number of vessels three-fold in a few years; it also gave command of the carrying trade of the West Indies, from which Napoleon's frigates debarred the English merchantmen.

In consequence England sought and used every opportunity to cripple American commerce and s.h.i.+pping. One plan was to deprive American s.h.i.+ps of the service of English seamen. Her war vessels claimed and exercised the right of searching for English seamen on board American vessels.

During the year 1807, the English Admiral Berkeley, in command of the North American Station, issued instructions to commanders of vessels in his fleet to look out for the American frigate Chesapeake, and if they fell in with her at sea, to board her and search for deserters, as all English seamen in the American service were regarded by England. With the instructions, were the descriptions of four sailors, three negroes and one white man, who were missing.

The persons who deserted from the Melampus, then lying in Hampton Roads, were William Ware, Daniel Martin, John Strachan, John Little and Ambrose Watts. Within a month from their escape from the Melampus, the first three of these deserters offered themselves for enlistment, and were received on board the Chesapeake, then at Norfolk, Va., preparing for sea. The British consul at Norfolk, being apprized of the circ.u.mstance, wrote a letter to the American naval officer, requesting the men to be returned. With this request, the officer refused to comply, and the British lost no time in endeavoring to procure an order from the American government for their surrender. On receipt of the application, the Secretary of the Navy ordered an examination into the characters and claims of the men in question. The examination resulted in proof that the three negroes, Ware, Martin and Strachan were natives of America.

The two former had ”_protections_,” or notarial certificates of their citizens.h.i.+p;[8] Strachan had no ”_protection_,” but a.s.serted that he lost it previous to his escape. Such being the circ.u.mstances, the government refused to give the men up, insisting that they were American citizens, and though, they had served in the British navy, they were pressed into the service and had a right to desert it.

The Chesapeake was one of the finest of the frigates in the American Navy, and after receiving an outfit requiring six months to complete at the Gosport Navy Yard, at Norfolk, Va., started for the Mediterranean.

The English frigate Leopard, which lay in the harbor at Norfolk when the Chesapeake sailed, followed her out to sea, hailed her and sent a letter to her commander, Commodore James Barron, demanding the surrender of the deserters. Barron sent a note refusing to comply with the demand, whereupon the Leopard fired several broadsides into the Chesapeake.

Barron struck his colors without firing a shot, and permitted the officers of the Leopard to board his vessel and search her. The British captain refused to accept the surrender of the Chesapeake, but took from her crew the three men who had been demanded as deserters; also a fourth, John Wilson, a white man, claimed as a runaway from a merchant s.h.i.+p.

The white sailor, it was admitted by the American government, was a British subject, and his release was not demanded; he was executed for deserting the British Navy. Of the negroes, two only were returned by the British government, the other one having died in England. Says an American historian:

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