Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-05-17
A Hundred Years Ago.

can history. Late in 1878 the English
had carried war into the South, and
for more than year their operations
had been so far successful as to war;
rant their belief that much could be
done there. Accordingly, Sir Henry
Clinton, who assumed that Washington
would not be able to attack New York,
resolved to take a large force to the
South, and endeavor fully to re-estab-
lish the royal authority in that quar-
ter. In the last days of December,
1879, he sailed, with several thousand
troops, the feet of transports being pro-
tected by Admiral Arbuthnot's feet.
The voyage was one of the worst men
toned in the history of war. The
weather was cold and tempestuous, and
the ships were scattered. One founder
ed, and several were captured . and 1t
is said that one was blown across the
Atlantic. and brought up somewhere on
the coast of Cornwall. All the cavalry
horses persisted, and most of those be-
longing to the artillery shared the same
fate. 1t was not till month after the
sailing of the fleet that it began to ar
rive in Tybee Bay. Partly from the
necessity for rest, repairs, and rehabili-
tation, and partly from constitutional
slowness, Sir Henry was not able to
proceed against Charleston for some
weeks; and it was as late as the 18th
of March, 1880, that he took up his
position on Charleston Neck, thus al
most cutting the communication be-
tween the gallant Southern city and the
country and isolating it. 1t had been
hoped that on the water-side the inva-
ders would be kept at bay, and fare no
better than they had Jared in l776,
when Sir Henry had been batfied and
beaten by the skill and bravery of Col
onel Moultrie but this hope proved to
be utterly ill-founded, and on the wa
ter-side entire success fell to the Eng
lish. On the Landslide they were also
successful and Clinton summoned Gen
eral Lincoln to surrender, and met with
a prompt refusal Lincoln. againt his
own judgment, had been induced by the
inhabitants to shut himself up in the
place, instead of keeping the field. The
siege went on, and Lincoln thought of
leaving the place but again he gave
up his purpose, at the request of the
people. Washington agreed with Lin
coins original view, that of abandoning
the city. Had Lincoln been firm, the
enemy would have got fine town, and
good base of operations; but they
| would not have got the American army,
which, in the field, would have given
them enough to do, aided as it would
have been by the great body of the Car
olinians. At length the arrival of re-
enforcement from New York enabled
Sir Henry to complete the investment
of the place, and to carry on operations
that rendered further defence impossl-
BILE; while operations outside of the
city had been unfavorable to the Ameri-
cans. On the 9Th of May,-exactly an
hundred years ago, to-day,-the English
commander again demanded surrender,
Offering terms that earlier had been re-
jected. This brought about negotia'
tions that led to surrender on the 18th
of May. This was the greatest disaster
that befel the American arms in the
Revolutionary War; nor have they evel
since met with greater defeat. Wha
happened in the late civil war We dt
not include in this remark, because
whatever of valor or ability was dis
played in that affair belongs to the com
mon American stock of our nationa
military glory, just as what was don
at Towton and Long Marston Moor
by both sides, goes to the common stool
of English military glory. The victor
at Charleston claimed to have takel
2300 Continental troops, and larg
number of seamen; and the citizens AM
the militia, all the former being count
ed as prisoners, swelled to the total O
almost 1000 men. Rivington's ROyC
Gazette spoke of 1.-The z Rebel General
and 5000 Ragymufins taken in Arms,
the same journalist speaking of tn
affair as ''the Lincolnade," and put
fishing something under that title i
his Gazette, ON the 18th of June, th
fifth anniversary of Bunker Hill. Th
number of cannon, howitzers, and MOI
tars taken was 31l and the Othe
spoils of war-small arms, ammunitio
and so forth-were extensive, various
and valuable. Altogether, the priz
Was great one. Then the cost of
was not large. The British loss in kill
cd and wounded, during the seige, wa
275; and that of the Americans nc
qaite so large. News of the surrende
of Charleston reached England on tn
10th of June, which was only FIVE week
after 1t took place,-not bad work fc
those days. As usual with the Ene
iish, they overrated their victory. Hol