Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-10-12

certain Pickering, and then to lend not ont
faintest ray to relieve the darkness of it:
evening.
The British now determined to capture
Philadelphia from another direction, and with
drew their forces from New Jersey. Wash
ington in attempting to prevent this, mel
with severe defeats at Brandywine and Ger
mantown and the whole country, from Phlla
delphia to New York was in the undiSpute(
possession of the British.
About this time, the invasion full of danger
from Canada, under Burgoyne, upon New
York, ended in the glorious surrender at Sar
atoga, and frightened the gloom of depression
that was resting upon the army in Pe:lnsylva
MIA, and lent warmth to the dreary winter
quarters of Valley Forge to the camp of the
cold, destitute suffering patriots patiently
waiting for the funeral steps of winter t(
finish their course.
The new wear opened, and helphas at last come
from beyond the waters. France, the land OF
LAFAYETTE, had heard the echoes that rolled
from Saratoga had espoused the cause of the
struggling Republic, and sent her fleet to it:
aid. Clinton, the new British commander
fearing to be cut off from escape by this fleet
withdrew through the Jerseys, followed by
Washington, and once again was recovered
the land through which he had so orslvelJ
retreated.
Four years of war had now dragged slowly
on, and the British retained foOthold only
in the city of New York and few ports.
Their eyes were now turned to the rich col
onies of the South, hoping by their arms, and
with the assistance of the many tories there
to reduce them to allegiance and obtain basis
for future operations against the other colo
nies. Georgia was their first object, and fol
lowing up the capture of Savannah, the whole
colony was soon in their complete possession.
While Lincoln, the defender Of Charleston,
was making vain attempt to regain Angus
ia, Provost, the British commander, took the
opportunity to attempt the capture of Charles
ton, but retired without storming the city,
which, three years before, by her Fort Moul'
trie, had so gallantly and successfully resisted
the fleet of Clinton and Parker. A combined
attempt of D'Estraing by sea, and Lincoln by
land to recover Savannah failed and Lincoln
returned to Charleston. Early in the follow
ing year, Clinton feeling that New York was
safe, sailed with his troops for Charleston,
which noble city, after a long and gallant de-
tiance, finally surrendered. With it as base
of operations, the conquest of the State was
now undertaken. Threats of vengeance and
offers of protection and reward were made to
the people British squadrons were sent in
every direction to complete her subjugaton,
and to make the mountains echo to the vlcto-
rious tocsin that had sounded on the seabOard.
A soldery with unlimited license to destroy
and plunder Tarleton to deal wanton cru
city to the defencelesS; ban OF confiscatlon
threatening their property with lowering de-
structiOn, were to subdue the spirit of the peo-
pie of South Carolina, and make her silent
spectator of the mighty struggle in which she
had enlisted. Tyranny reused the proud
hearts of the people, and, led by those master
spirits that sprang from the bosom of their
mother State in her defence, they gathered ell
ergy from oppression, and Ant3us-like, rose
with renewed vigor to devote their lives and
their all to her cause.
NV Carolina None of all the great roll of
thy chivalric sons have given brighter lustre
to the martial glory of thy name, than did
those simple, stubborn hearts of steel who,
driven from their humble, thatch-roofed homes
with the blood hounds of war upon their
heels, begged not that the mailed hand
of the conqueror be stayed, but retreating to
the pathless thicket, and taking their abode
with The swamp fox by day, watched theirtime
and with the hOOting of the niglt-owl emerg-
ing from their recesses, burst upon the British
and Tory squadrons like wakeners from their
graves. Like phantoms, ever ready to strike
when they could, and ever vanishing, they
their tried tlint-locks, till, completing the
victories at Kings Mountain and Cowpens,
they had delivered their State from the last
vestige of the oppressors. Carolinians Your
m0therland was oyerrun but never did she
bow to the name of a conqueror. Proudly
tell your children of it let them gather glorl-
Gus patriotism from the pages that tell OF
Sumter, of PickenS, and Of Marion.
At the head of the squadron sent to subdue
the western part Of the State, was Ferguson,
the young fearless veteran, schooled in war,
with a warriors soul. The Tories aOcked to
his standard and were prepared for the field by
their skilled drill-master. Detachments were
sent throughout the country and the grain
and cattle seized. There seemed nothing to
check the wild havoc they were dealing. Not
SO an army of defence was rising among the
hills from which Ferguson should have heard
the first low mutterings of the thunder an
nouncing that storm which was to fell him
with its fury and seal his young fame in his
own bloody shroud.
The Wings of the country had congregated
on the western border of North and South
Carolina under Col. Charles Mcdowell. In the
summer they were joined by men Of the noun
tains that came from what is now Tennessee,
under Shelby and Robertson, and moving
ans under Clarke, at Cherokee Ford on Broad
River. Shelby, with six hundred men, routed
a detachment of Tories at Wofford's Iron
Works, in Spartauburg county; and soon
after, completely defeated another band of
two hundred at Musgrove's Mill, in Laurens
county, He now determined to push on to
Ninety-siX and capture that Fort; but his
victorious steps were halted by the news that
came from Camden telling him that Gates,
coming from the North, and eager to place
a twin name beside Saratoga, had been disas-
trously defeated and was retreatng with the
remnant of his army to North Carolina. Only
two DAYS later, Sumter, while retiring into
North Carolina with his prisoners of sever
al daring and successful exploits, was over
taken and defeated by Tarleton at the mouth
Of Fishing Creek.
CORVALLIS now issued his order that all
those inhabitants of the colony who had sub
mitted and had joined in the revolt, should be
imprisoned and their property taken from
them and that all militia-men who had borne
arms with the Brits!! and afterwards joined
the enemy, should be hanged Nor were these
idle threats. Resistance to the British arms
again vanished. The Wing detaclments re-
Gently so active in the Spartanburg region,
scattered.
Shelby and Mcdowell, fearing to be cut off,
returned to North Carolina and were soon fol-
lowed by Ferguson, who was preparing to join
CORVALLIS in the advance upon that State for
her rsubjugation. Stern were the faces and firm
the steps of the retiring band of patriots. No
fear sat upon their brows Determined still
was their purpose. Glance near six centuries
back to the banks of one of Switzerland's
lagoons calmly nesting in the bosom of the
Alps, where a few brave, earnest hearts regis
tered their vow in heaven that their country
should be free lighted her mountains with