In December, three thousand men, despatched from New York under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, approached Savannah. Relying on the difficulties of the ground, Howe offered resistance to a disciplined corps, ably commanded, and more than three times as numerous as his own; but, on the twentyninth of December, a British party, guided by a negro through a swamp, made a simultaneous attack on the Americans in front and rear, and drove them into a precipitate retreat. With a loss of but twenty-four in killed and wounded, the British gained the capital of Georgia and more than four hundred prisoners. Campbell promised protection to the inhabitants, but only on condition that "they would support the royal government with their arms." The captive soldiers, refusing to enlist in the British service, were crowded on board prison-ships, to be swept away by infection. Many civilians submitted; determined republicans found an asylum in the western parts of the state.

At the request of the delegates from South Carolina, Robert Howe was superseded in the southern command by MajorGeneral Benjamin Lincoln. In private life this officer was most estimable; as a soldier he was brave, but slow in percep tion and in will. Toward the end of 1776 he had repaired to Washington's camp as a major-general of militia; in the fol lowing February he was transferred to the continental service, and passed the winter at Morristown. In the spring of 1777 he was surprised by the British, and narrowly escaped. In the summer he was sent to the North, but never took part in any battle. Wounded by a British party whom he mistook for Americans, he left the camp, having been in active service less than a year. He had not fully recovered when, on the fourth of December 1778, he entered upon the command in Charleston.

Early in January 1779, Prevost marched to Savannah, reducing Sunbury on the way; and Campbell took possession of Augusta. The province of Georgia appearing to be restored to the crown, plunder became the chief thought of the British army. Lincoln took post near Perrysburg, with at first scarcely more than eleven hundred men. The British detached two hundred men to Beaufort. Moultrie, sent almost

alone to counteract the movement, rallied under his standard about an equal number of militia, and nine continentals. Their enemy had the advantage of position; but, under a leader whom they trusted, on the third of February they drove the invaders with great loss to their ships.

The continental regiments of North Carolina were with Washington; its legislature promptly sent, under Ashe and Rutherford, two thousand men, though without arms, to serve for five months. The scanty stores of South Carolina were exhausted in arming thein. In the last days of January 1779 they joined the camp of Lincoln. The assembly of South Carolina, superseding Rawlins Lowndes by an almost unanimous vote, recalled John Rutledge to be their governor, ordered a regiment of light dragoons to be raised, offered a bounty of five hundred dollars to every one who would enlist for sixteen months, and gave power to the governor and council to draft the militia of the state and "do everything necessary for the public good."

The British, having carried their arms into the upper country of Georgia, sent emissaries to encourage a rising in South Carolina. A party of men, whose chief object was rapine, put themselves in motion to join the British, gathering booty on the way. They were pursued across the Savannah by Colonel Andrew Pickens, with about three hundred of the citizens of Ninety-Six; and, on the fourteenth of February, were overtaken, surprised, and routed. About two hundred escaped to the British lines. Their commander and forty others fell in battle, and many prisoners were taken. The republican government, which since 1776 had maintained its jurisdiction without dispute in every part of the commonwealth, arraigned some of them in the civil court; and, by a jury of their fellowcitizens, seventy of them were convicted of treason and rebellion against the state of South Carolina. Of these, five were executed.

The army of Lincoln was greatly inferior to the British in number, and far more so in quality; yet he detached Ashe, with fifteen hundred of the North Carolina militia, on separate service. This inexperienced general crossed the Savannah at Augusta, which the British had abandoned, descended the river

with the view to confine the enemy within narrower limits, and, following his orders, encamped his party at Brier creek, on the Savannah, beyond supporting distance. The post

seemed to him strong, as it had but one approach. The British amused Lincoln by a feint, while Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost turned the position of Ashe, and on the third day of March fell upon his party. The few continentals, about sixty in number, alone made a brave defence. By wading through swamps and swimming the Savannah, four hundred and fifty of the militia rejoined the American camp; the rest perished, or were captured, or returned to their homes. So quickly was one fourth of the troops of Lincoln lost. After this success General Prevost proclaimed a sort of civil government in Georgia.

Reinforced from the South Carolina militia, of whom Rutledge had assembled great numbers at Orangeburg, Lincoln undertook to lead his troops against Savannah by way of Augusta, leaving only a thousand militia under Moultrie at Perrysburg. Prevost had the choice between awaiting an attack or invading the richest part of Carolina. His decision was for the side which promised booty. On the twenty-eighth of April, supported by Indians, he crossed the river with three thousand men and drove Moultrie before him. It was represented to him that Charleston was defenceless. After two or three days of doubt, the hope of seizing the city lured him on; and upon the eleventh of May he appeared before the town. He came two days too late. While he hesitated, the men of Charleston had protected the neck by sudden but well-planned works; on the ninth and tenth, Rutledge arrived with militia, and Moultrie with all of his party that remained true to him, as well as a detachment of three hundred men from the army of Lincoln. While the British crossed the Ashley river, Pulaski and a corps were ferried over the Cooper into Charleston.

In the camp of Washington young Laurens became impatient to fly to his native state and levy and command a regiment of blacks. Alexander Hamilton recommended the project to the president of congress in these words: "The negroes will make very excellent soldiers. This project will have to combat

prejudice and self-interest. Contempt for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience. Their natural faculties are as good as ours. Give them their freedom with their muskets: this will secure their fidelity, animate their courage, and have a good influence upon those who remain, by opening the door for their emancipation. Humanity and true policy equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men." Two days later the elder Laurens wrote to Washington: "Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of driving the British out of Georgia and subduing east Florida before the end of July." To this Washington answered: "Should we begin to form battalions of them, I have not the smallest doubt" the British would "follow us in it and justify the measure upon our own ground. The contest then must be, who can arm fastest. And where are our arms?"

Congress listened to Huger, the agent from South Carolina, as he explained that his state was weak, because many of its . citizens must remain at home to prevent revolts among the negroes, or their desertion to the enemy; and it recommended as a remedy that the two southernmost of the thirteen states should arm three thousand of the most vigorous and enterprising of the negroes under command of white officers.

A few days before the British came near Charleston young Laurens arrived, bringing this advice of congress. It was heard in anger and rejected. The state felt itself cast off and alone. Georgia had fallen; the country between Savannah and Charleston was overrun; the British confiscated all negroes whom they could seize; their emissaries were urging the rest to rise against their owners or to run away. Many began to regret the struggle for independence. Moved by their dread of exposing Charleston to be taken by storm, and sure at least of gaining time by protracted parleys, the executive government sent a flag to ask of the invaders their terms for a capitulation. In answer, the British general offered peace to the inhabitants who would accept protection; to all others, the condition of prisoners of war. The council, at its next meeting, debated giving up the town; Moultrie, Laurens, and Pulaski, who were called in, declared that they had men

enough to beat the invaders; and yet, against the voice of Gadsden, of Ferguson, of John Edwards, and of others, the majority, irritated by the advice of congress to emancipate and arm slaves, "proposed a neutrality during the war, the question whether the state shall belong to Great Britain or remain one of the United States to be determined by the treaty of peace between the two powers." Laurens, being

called upon to bear this message, scornfully refused, and another was selected. The British general declined to treat with the civil government of South Carolina, but made answer to Moultrie that the garrison must surrender as prisoners of war. "Then we will fight it out," said Moultrie to the governor and council, and left their tent. Gadsden and Ferguson followed him, to say: "Act according to your own judgment, and we will support you;" and Moultrie waved the flag from the gate as a signal that the conference was at an end.

The enemy had intercepted a letter from Lincoln in which he charged Moultrie "not to give up the city, nor suffer the people to despair," for he was hastening to their relief. At daylight the next morning the British were gone. They had escaped an encounter by retreating to the islands. The Americans, for want of boats, could not prevent their embarkation, nor their establishing a post at Beaufort. The Carolina militia. returned home; Lincoln, who was left with but about eight hundred men, passed the great heats of summer at Sheldon.

The invasion of South Carolina by the army of General Prevost proved nothing more than a raid through the richest plantations of the state. The British pillaged almost every house in a wide extent of country, sparing in some measure those who professed loyalty to the king. Objects of value not transportable were destroyed. Porcelain, mirrors, windows, were dashed in pieces; gardens, carefully planted with exotics, laid waste. Domestic animals were wantonly shot. About three thousand fugitive slaves passed with the army into Georgia.

The southernmost states looked for relief to the French fleet in America, but ill fortune clung to it. In September 1778 the Marquis de Bouillé, the gallant governor-general of the French Windward islands, in a single day wrested from Great