Part 6 (2/2)

Simultaneously with this, by Clinton's orders, General Prevost moved from Florida, then a British colony, with all the men he could spare from the defence of St. Augustine. Upon his arrival in Savannah he took command of the whole force thus a.s.sembled.

These operations, which during 1779 extended as far as the neighbourhood of Charleston, depended upon the control of the water, and are a conspicuous example of misapplication of power to the point of ultimate self-destruction. They were in 1778-79 essentially of a minor character, especially the maritime part, and will therefore be dismissed with the remark that the Navy, by small vessels, accompanied every movement in a country cut up in all directions by watercourses, big and little. ”The defence of this province,” wrote Parker, ”must greatly depend on the naval force upon the different inland creeks.

I am therefore forming some galleys covered from musketry, which I believe will have a good effect.” These were precursors of the ”tin-clads” of the American War of Secession, a century later. Not even an armored s.h.i.+p is a new thing under the sun.

In the southern States, from Georgia to Virginia, the part of the Navy from first to last was subsidiary, though important. It is therefore unnecessary to go into details, but most necessary to note that here, by misdirection of effort and abuse of means, was initiated the fatal movement which henceforth divided the small British army in North America into two sections, wholly out of mutual support. Here Sir William Howe's error of 1777 was reproduced on a larger scale and was therefore more fatal. This led directly, by the inevitable logic of a false position, to Cornwallis's march through North Carolina into Virginia, to Yorktown in 1781, and to the signal demonstration of sea power off Chesapeake Bay, which at a blow accomplished the independence of the United States. No hostile strategist could have severed the British army more hopelessly than did the British government; no fate could have been more inexorable than was its own perverse will. The personal alienation and official quarrel between Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis, their divided counsels and divergent action, were but the natural result, and the reflection, of a situation essentially self-contradictory and exasperating.

As the hurricane season of 1779 advanced, d'Estaing, who had orders to bring back to France the s.h.i.+ps of the line with which he had sailed from Toulon in 1778, resolved to go first upon the American coast, off South Carolina or Georgia. Arriving with his whole fleet at the mouth of the Savannah, August 31st, he decided to attempt to wrest the city of Savannah from the British. This would have been of real service to the latter, had it nipped in the bud their ex-centric undertaking; but, after three weeks of opening trenches, an a.s.sault upon the place failed. D'Estaing then sailed for Europe with the s.h.i.+ps designated to accompany him, the others returning to the West Indies in two squadrons, under de Gra.s.se and La Motte-Picquet. Though fruitless in its main object, this enterprise of d'Estaing had the important indirect effect of causing the British to abandon Narragansett Bay.

Upon the news of his appearance, Sir Henry Clinton had felt that, with his greatly diminished army, he could not hold both Rhode Island and New York. He therefore ordered the evacuation of the former, thus surrendering, to use again Rodney's words, ”the best and n.o.blest harbour in America.” The following summer it was occupied in force by the French.

D'Estaing was succeeded in the chief command, in the West Indies and North America, by Rear-Admiral de Guichen,[69] who arrived on the station in March, 1780, almost at the same moment as Rodney.

[Footnote 54: The French accounts say three.]

[Footnote 55: Beatson, ”Military and Naval Memoirs,” iv. 390.]

[Footnote 56: Santa Lucia being in the region of the north-east trade winds, north and east are always windwardly relatively to south and west.]

[Footnote 57: To the westward. These islands lie in the trade-winds, which are constant in _general_ direction from north-east.]

[Footnote 58: Admiral Keppel, in his evidence before the Palliser Court, gave an interesting description of a similar scene, although the present writer is persuaded that he was narrating things as they seemed, rather than as they were--as at Grenada. ”The French were forming their line exactly in the manner M. Conflans did when attacked by Admiral Hawke.” (Keppel had been in that action.) ”It is a manner peculiar to themselves; and to those who do not understand it, it appears like confusion. They draw out s.h.i.+p by s.h.i.+p from a cl.u.s.ter.”]

[Footnote 59: That is, towards the s.h.i.+ps at anchor,--the enemy's rear as matters then were.]

[Footnote 60: Byron's Report. The italics are the author's.]

[Footnote 61: Byron's Report.]

[Footnote 62: Ibid. Author's italics.]

[Footnote 63: ”Naval Researches.” London, 1830, p. 22.]

[Footnote 64: Byron's Report.]

[Footnote 65: Pierre A. de Suffren de Saint Tropez, a Bailli of the Order of Knights of Malta. Born, 1726. Present at two naval actions before he was twenty. Partic.i.p.ated in 1756 in the attack on Port Mahon, and in 1759 in the action off Lagos. Chef d'escadre in 1779.

Dispatched to the East Indies in 1781. Fought a British squadron in the Bay of Praya, and a succession of brilliant actions with Sir Edward Hughes, 1782-83. Vice-Admiral, 1783. Killed in a duel, 1788.

One of the greatest of French naval officers.--W.L.C.]

[Footnote 66: Troude says that one French seventy-four, having touched in leaving port, was not in the engagement.]

[Footnote 67: First of the name. Born 1714. In 1780, he fell under Rodney's censure, and went home. In 1781, he commanded in the general action with the Dutch, known as the Dogger Bank. In 1782, he sailed for the East Indies in the _Cato_, 64; which s.h.i.+p was never again heard from.]

[Footnote 68: Sir Hyde Parker, Kt. Second of the name, son of the first. Born, 1739. Captain, 1763. Rear-Admiral, 1793. Vice-Admiral, 1794. Admiral, 1799. Died, 1807. Nelson's chief at Copenhagen, in 1801.]

[Footnote 69: Louis Urbain de Bouenic, Comte de Guichen. Born, 1712.

Entered the navy, 1730. Commanded the _Ill.u.s.tre_ with success in North America in 1756. Second in command in the action off Ushant in 1778.

Thrice fought Rodney in the West Indies in 1780. Fought Kempenfelt off the Azores in 1781. Died, 1790.--W.L.C.]

CHAPTER VII

THE NAVAL WAR IN EUROPEAN WATERS, 1779. ALLIED FLEETS INVADE THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. RODNEY DESTROYS TWO SPANISH SQUADRONS AND RELIEVES GIBRALTAR

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