Cornwallis at Hillsborough. Greene's Plans. Expedition under Lieutenant Colonel Lee. His Public Life When Cornwallis was certified that Greene had escaped across the Dan with all his force, baggage, and stores, he ordered a halt,a and, after refreshing his wearied troops, a Feb. 14, moved slowly back to Hillsborough, and there established his head-quarters.' His 1781. object was partially accomplished; he had not captured the "rebel army," but he had driven it from the Carolinas, and he now anticipated a general rising of the Tories, to assist him in crushing effectually the remaining Republicanism at the South. Although driven across the Dan, Greene had no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession of the enemy. In the fertile and friendly county of Halifax, in Virginia, his troops reposed for a few days, and then they were called again to the field of active exertion. He resolved to recruit his thinned battalions, and as soon as possible recross the Dan and confront Cornwallis. Among the most active and efficient officers engaged in the Southern campaigns was Henry Lee, at this time lieutenant col- This Lieutenant-colonel Lee crossed the Dan on the eighteenth, and was followed 1 Cornwallis remained in Hillsborough about ten days. While a detachment of his army lay at the Red House, a short distance from the town, they occupied the Church of Hugh M‘Aden, the first located missionary in North Carolina. Supposing M'Aden (then a short time in his grave) to have been a rebel, because he was a Presbyterian, the British burned his library and papers. His early journal escaped the flames.- Foote, 273. 2 Henry Lee was born at the family seat, in Stratford (see page 423), on the twenty-ninth of January, 1756. He was educated at Princeton College, where he graduated in 1773. Fond of active life, and imbued with a military spirit, he sought and obtained the command of a company, in Colonel Bland's regiment of Virginia volunteers, in 1776. He joined the Continental army in September, 1777, where he soon attracted the favorable notice of Washington. He was promoted to the rank of major, in command of a separate corps of cavalry. On the sixth of November, 1780, Congress promoted him to lieutenant colonel, and ordered him to join the Southern army under General Greene, where his career was marked by great skill and bravery. His military exploits and the honors conferred upon him by Congress, are noticed in various places in this volume. In 1786, he was appointed a delegate to Congress, which position he held until the adoption of the Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph as governor of Virginia, and remained in office three years. He commanded the forces, by appointment of Washington, which were Pursuit of Tarleton. Approach of Tories under Colonel Pyle. Conception of a Plan to Ensnare them. by Pickens and Oldham. He sent out his scouts, and early on the morning of the nineteenth he was informed by them that Tarleton and his legion were out toward the Haw reconnoitering, and offering protection to the Loyalists who were desirous of marching to Cornwal lis's camp. Lee and Pickens pushed on to gain the great road leading from Hillsborough to the Haw. They ascertained that Tarleton had passed there the day before, and was probably then on the western side of the Haw. The next daya the Americans crossa Feb. 21. ed the Haw, and were informed that the Loyalists between that and the Deep River were certainly assembling to join the earl. They also learned from a countryman (a sort of passive Tory named Ephraim Cooke) that Tarleton's force consisted of most of his cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two light field pieces; and that he was encamped about four miles distant with all the carelessness of confident security. Lee determined to surprise him, and placed his little army in battle order for a quick march. They reached the designated spot too late, for Tarleton had left and proceeded a few miles further, to the plantation of Colonel William O'Neil, whose memory, if common report speaks true, deserves a greater share of the odium of his countrymen than the most bitter Tory, for by his avaricious acts while claiming to be a Whig, he drove many of his neighbors to join the ranks of the Loyalists. Two of Tarleton's officers, who were left behind, were captured. b Feb. 25, 1781. a scout. were " 1 Lee now resolved to employ stratagem. His legion greatly resembled that of Tarleton, and he made the country people believe that his was a detachment sent by Cornwallis to re-enforce that officer. The two prisoners were commanded to favor the deception, under the penalty of instant death.. The legion took the van in the march,b with Lieutenant-colonel Lee at the head, preceded, at the distance of a few hundred yards, by The officer of the van soon met two well-mounted young men, who, believing him to belong to a British re-enforcement, promptly answered an inquiry by saying that they rejoiced to fall in with him, they having been sent forward by Colonel Pyle, the commander of quite a large body of Loyalists, to find out Tarleton's camp, whither he was marching with his followers." A dragoon was immediately sent to Lee with this information, and was speedily followed by the young men, who mistook "Legion Harry" for Tarleton, and, with the greatest deference, informed him of the advance of Colonel Pyle. Lee dispatched his adjutant to General Pickens to request him to place his riflemen (among whom were those of Captain Graham, who had just joined him) on the left flank, in a place of concealment in the woods, while he himself should make an attempt to capture the deceived Loyalists. Lee also sent one of the duped young men, with the dragoon who escorted them, to proceed to Colonel Pyle with his compliments, and his request "that the colonel would be so good as to draw out his forces on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his (Lee's) much wearied troops to pass by without delay to their right position." The other young countryman was detained to accompany Lee himself, whom he supposed to be Tarleton. The van officer was ordered to halt as soon as he should perceive the Loyalists. This order was obeyed; and presently the young man who had been sent. to Colonel Pyle, returned with that officer's assurance that he was "happy to comply with the request of Colonel Tarleton." It was the intention of Lee, when his force should obtain the requisite position to have the complete advantage of Colonel Pyle, to reveal his real name and character, demand the immediate surrender of the Tories, and give them their 2 sent to quell the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. He was a member of Congress in 1799, and was chosen to pronounce a funeral oration at Washington, on the occasion of the death of the first president. He wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States, in 1808. He was active in quelling a mob in Baltimore in 1814, and from wounds received at that time he never fairly recovered. Toward the close of 1817, he repaired to the West Indies for the benefit of his health, but without success. Returning, he stopped at Cumberland Island, near St. Mary's, in Georgia, to visit Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene, where he died on the twenty-fifth of March, 1818, at the age of sixtytwo years. The names of Lee, Marion, Morgan, Sumter, and Pickens form a brilliant galaxy in the Southern firmament of our Revolutionary history. 1 See Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 213. 2 The father of the present Secretary of the Navy. Destruction of the Loyalists. Escape of Colonel Pyle. The Battle-ground. Escape of Tarleton. choice, to return quietly to their homes, after being disarmed, or to join the patriot army. Thus far every thing had worked favorably to Lee's humane design. Lee's cavalry first approached the Loyalists, who, happily for the furtherance of the plan, were on the right side of the road; consequently, the horsemen following Lee were obliged to countermarch and confront the Loyalists. As Lee approached Colonel Pyle, the Loyalists raised the shout, "God save the king!" God save the king!" He rode along the Tory column (who were also mounted, with their rifles on their backs), and, with gracious smiles, complimented them on their fine appearance and loyal conduct. As he approached Pyle and grasped his hand (the signal for his cavalry to draw when he should summon the Tories to surrender), the Loyalists on the left discovered Pickens's militia, and perceived that they were betrayed. They immediately commenced firing upon the rear-guard of the American cavalry, commanded by Captain Eggleston.' That officer, as a matter of necessity, instantly turned. upon the foe, and this movement was speedily followed by the whole column. A scene of dreadful slaughter followed, for the Loyalists, taken by surprise, could not bring their rifles to bear before Lee had struck the fatal blow. Colonel Pyle commanded four hundred Loyalists; ninety of them were killed in that brief moment, and a large portion of the remainder were wounded. A cry for mercy arose from the discomfited Tories, but the hand of mercy was stayed until the red arm of war had a Jan. 2. half a mile northwest from the Salisbury road. PYLE'S POND.3 Its dense fringe is gone, and nothing indi cates its former concealment but numerous stumps of the ancient forest. Lee and Pickens did not pursue the retreating Loyalists; but, anxious to overtake Tarleton, who was at Colonel O'Neil's, upon the Greensborough road, three miles northward, he resumed his march, notwithstanding it was almost sunset. He halted within a mile of O'Neil's, and encamped for the night, where they were joined by Colonel Preston and three hundred hardy mountaineers from Virginia, who had hastened to the support of Greene. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack, when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received, and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. Fortune, the capricious goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton.' 1 Captain Eggleston was one of the most efficient cavalry officers in Lee's legion, during the campaigns further south the same year. We shall meet him hereafter. 66 2 In this action the Americans did not lose a single man, and only one horse. The generally accurate and impartial Stedman, influenced, doubtless, by wrong information, called the event a massacre;" says that " no quarter was granted" when asked; and that "between two and three hundred of them were inhumanly butchered while in the act of begging for mercy."-History of the American War, ii., 334. 3 About a quarter of a mile northwest from this pond, is the spot where the battle occurred. It was then heavily wooded; now it is a cleared field, on the plantation of Colonel Michael Holt. an apple-tree upon the spot where fourteen of the slain were buried in one grave. tree indicates the place of burial of several others. Mr. Holt planted Near by, a persimmon4 Memoirs, page 160. The Allamance. Factory Labor. Regulator Battle-ground. Greensborough. 2 LEFT the place of Pyle's defeat toward noon, and, following a sinuous and seldom-traveled road through a forest of wild crab-apple trees and black jacks, crossed the Allamance at the cotton-factory of Holt and Carrigan, two miles distant. Around this mill quite a village of neat log-houses, occupied by the operatives, were collected, and every thing had the ap pearance of thrift. I went in, and was pleased to see the hands of intelligent white females employed in a useful occupation. Manual labor by white people is a rare sight at the South, where an abundance of slave labor appears to render such occupation unnecessary; and it can seldom be said of one of our fair sisters there, She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.": This cotton-mill, like the few others which I saw in the Carolinas, is a real blessing, present and prospective, for it gives employment and comfort to many poor girls who might otherwise be wretched; and it is a seed of industry planted in a generous soil, which may hereafter germinate and bear abundant fruit of its kind in the midst of cotton plantations, thereby augmenting immensely the true wealth of the nation. At a distance of two miles and a half beyond the Allamance, on the Salisbury road, I reached the Regulator battle-ground; and, in company with a young man residing in the vicinity, visited the points of particular interest, and made the sketch printed on page 577. The rock and the ravine from whence James Pugh and his companions (see page 576) did. such execution with their rifles, are now hardly visible. The place is a few rods north of the road. The ravine is almost filled by the washing down of earth from the slopes during eighty years; and the rock projects only a few ells above the surface. The whole of the natural scenery is changed, and nothing but tradition can identify the spot. While viewing the battle-ground, the wind, which had been a gentle and pleasant breeze. from the south all the morning, veered to the northeast, and brought omens of a cold storm. I left the borders of the Allamance, and its associations, at one o'clock, and traversing a very hilly country for eighteen miles, arrived, a little after dark, at Greensborough, a thriving, compact village, situated about five miles southeast from the site of old Guilford Court House. It is the capitol of Guilford county, and successor of old Martinsburg, where the I These lines form a part of a song which was very popular at the close of the war, and was sung to the air of "Yankee Doodle.' 2 This factory, in the midst of a cotton-growing country, and upon a never-failing stream, can not be otherwise than a source of great profit to the owners. The machinery is chiefly employed in the manufacture of cotton yarn. Thirteen hundred and fifty spindles were in operation. Twelve looms were employed in the manufacture of coarse cotton goods suitable for the use of the negroes. Proverbs, xxxi., 19. Fire in Greensborough. The Guilford Battle-ground. Gates superseded by Greene court-house was formerly situated. Very few of the villages in the interior of the state appeared to me more like a Northern town than Greensborough. The houses are generally good, and the stores gave evidences of active trade. Within an hour after my arrival, the town was thrown into commotion by the bursting out of flames from a large frame dwelling, a short distance from the court-house. There being no fire-engine in the place, the flames spread rapidly, and at one time menaced the safety of the whole town. A small keg of powder was used, without effect, to demolish a tailor's shop, standing in the path of the conflagration toward a large tavern. The flames passed on, until confronted by one of those broad chimneys, on the outside of the house, so universally prevalent at the South, when it was subdued, after four buildings were destroyed. I never saw a population more thoroughly frightened; and when I returned to my lodgings, far away from the fire, every bed in the house was packed ready for flight. It was past midnight when the town became quiet, and a consequently late breakfast delayed my departure for the battle-field at Guilford Court House, until nine o'clock the next morning. A cloudy sky, a biting north wind, and the dropping of a few snow-flakes when I left Greensborough, betokened an unpleasant day for my researches. It was ten o'clock when I reached Martinsville, once a pleasant hamlet, now a desolation. There are only a few dilapidated and deserted dwellings left; and nothing remains of the old Guilford Court House but the ruins of a chimney, depicted on the plan of the battle, printed on page 608 Only one house was inhabited, and that by the tiller of the soil around it. Descending into a narrow, broken valley, from Martinsville, and ascending the opposite slope to still higher ground on the road to Salem, I passed among the fields consecrated by the events of the battle at Guilford, in March, a 1781, to the house of Mr. Hotchkiss, a Quaker, who, I was informed could point out every locality of interest in his neighborhood. Mr. Hotchkiss was absent, and I was obliged to wait a March 14. scene printed on page 611, the whole country was covered with a white mantle. Here, by this hospitable fireside, let us consider the battle, and those wonderful antecedent events which distinguished General Greene's celebrated RETREAT. After the unlucky battle near Camden, where General Gates lost the laurels he had obtained at Saratoga, Congress perceived the necessity of appointing a more efficient commander for the army in the Southern Department, NathGruess and directed General Washington to make the selection. The commander-in-chief appointed General Nathaniel Greene,b late the quarter-master general, who immediately proceeded to his field of labor. Passing through Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- 1780. b Oct. 30, His father was 1 Nathaniel Greene was born of Quaker parents, at Warwick, in Rhode Island, in 1746. an anchor smith, and in that business Nathaniel was trained. While yet a boy, he learned the Latin language, and by prudence and perseverance he collected a small library while a minor. The perusal of military history occupied much of his attention. He had just attained his majority, when his abilities were so highly estimated, that he was chosen a representative in the Legislature of Rhode Island. Fired with |