ARNOLD'S DEFECTION 201 to cooperate in the attack. As the British had but 6000 men in Newport, a great success seemed certain. Misunderstandings occurred from the first between the Count and Sullivan, the American commander, but the French troops were landed, and the initial stages of the siege were entered. Then Howe's British fleet appeared and offered battle, and the Frenchman, embarking his soldiers, sailed out to meet him. As the ships maneuvered for position a storm broke and both fleets must look to their safety. D'Estaing went to Boston for repairs, and his attempt against Newport was not renewed. Meanwhile Sullivan had invested the place and carried most of its outworks. He and his officers protested against the departure of the French; and when they heard that Clinton was sending a fleet and army to raise the siege, they withdrew from Rhode Island lest they be surrounded. An irritating controversy arose over the conduct of d'Estaing, and Washington, as well as the continental congress, interfered to make peace. In November the French fleet went to the West Indies, where its operations, though not brilliant, served to draw off part of the British forces from New York and left the Americans for a time in comparative peace. In 1779 the British army at Newport was withdrawn for the campaign against the Carolinas. Tryon's Raid. Reduced to inactivity, Clinton was fain to resort to the destruction of the towns he could reach by water. In May, 1779, Norfolk and Portsmouth, in Virginia, were destroyed, a hundred vessels were taken, and 3000 hogsheads of tobacco were carried back to New York. In July following, Tryon, commanding a body of tories, raided New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk, all in Connecticut, leaving smoking ruins behind him. Such operations did not promote the conquest of the Americans, and only served to increase the horrors of war. In the same year Clinton moved up the Hudson and took Stony Point and Verplanck's Point in Stony Point. the Highlands. Two months later the former was retaken by General Anthony Wayne in a well-planned night attack, which greatly enhanced Wayne's reputation. But the Americans could not hold the place, and it was reduced to ruins. Disappoint West Point, several miles higher up the river, was the chief reliance for keeping back the enemy, and its command was given to Benedict Arnold. This pathetic figure now approaches the end of a thorny path whose exit was complete calamity. No Arnold's man in the army had better reason to complain of his ment. treatment. After the death of Montgomery he was the life of the stout resistance in Canada, but he was passed over by congress when it promoted four less deserving brigadiers to the rank of major-general. At the time he was being investigated by a court martial on charges which were plainly the result of spite and of which he was completely exonerated. After that he was made a majorgeneral, but was not given the rank to which his former rating entitled him. In the Saratoga campaign he was the soul of the American army, and his leg was shivered as he charged recklessly in the second battle of Freeman's Farm. Gates hated him cordially, and Washington, too just to ignore his merit, made him commander in Philadelphia, after the withdrawal of Howe. Arnold was tactless, and soon quarreled with congress, whose former treatment he openly resented. Charges were brought against him, but an acquittal was had on all but two, and these were so trivial that they should have been ignored. But his enemies triumphed, and it was ordered that he be reprimanded. Washington, in executing the judgment, made the reprimand a eulogy: but Arnold was not pacified. During his residence in Philadelphia he had married Margaret Shippen, a noted wit and beauty in tory circles; and an extravagant manner of living had run him into debt. In disgust at his treatment by congress he decided to betray the cause he served. He applied to Washington for the command of West Point, the request was granted, and a bargain was made by which the post was to be given up for 10,000 guineas and a brigadier-general's commission. Arnold. Major John André was Clinton's adjutant. He was young, intelligent, and socially popular; but he did not mind playing spider to Arnold. While the British army was in Philadelphia André and he was a friend of Margaret Shippen, and he conducted the correspondence by which Arnold was led into mischief. September 21, 1780, the two men met near Haverstraw to complete the treason. Arnold handed over plans of West Point, with a description of its garrison, and gave André a pass to return to New York. As the latter approached "Sleepy Hollow," near Tarrytown, he was stopped and searched by three "skinners," American marauders, who found his papers and carried him to the nearest American post. A report was sent to Arnold, who fled quickly to the British. André was tried as a spy. He urged that he was a soldier on regular service and demanded to be treated as a prisoner of war; but the court martial held that wearing a disguise and carrying concealed papers fixed his status as a spy, and he was executed. Washington would have exchanged him for Arnold, but Clinton felt obliged to protect the traitor whom he had led into his present plight. West Point was saved to the Americans, but the price promised was paid. Arnold's foolish error blasted a brilliant career. Had he retired from the army as a protest against his wrongs, the justice of the future would soon have brought him vindication. In the British army his position was not pleasant, and it was said that just before he died he called for his old American uniform, saying, "May God forgive me for ever putting on any other." GEORGE ROGERS CLARK THE WAR IN THE WEST 66 'Lord 203 Before the revolution began, hardy settlers had crossed the Alleghanies from both Virginia and North Carolina. The Indians saw their advent with alarm, and in 1774 the settlements of Kentucky were ravaged. Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, Dunmore's marched against them and forced them to make peace war." after a sharp defeat, the Indians relinquishing their claims to Kentucky. This outbreak was known as "Lord Dunmore's War." When the colonists began to resist England, both sides sought to conciliate the savages of the West. The Indians, however, leaned toward the stronger side, and with British aid the Cherokees in 1776 began hostilities. The most exposed part of the frontier was the Watauga valley, in North Carolina. The in- The habitants had warning, and retired safely into stockades. Conquered. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia sent out bodies of militia which ravaged the Indian towns, and the Cherokees made peace. For a time the Watauga settlements had relief, but Kentucky continued to suffer from the Indians north of the Ohio. Cherokees The Wyo ming Valley. The British also had influence with the Iroquois, who aided Carleton in 1776 and Burgoyne in 1777. After Saratoga, the savages were not needed for large military operations on the Canadian border, but they were incited to raid the western settlements of New York and Pennsylvania. The most important action was a raid into the latter state by Colonel John Butler with a force of tories and Seneca Indians. They fought and defeated an American force near Wilkesbarre, and then devastated the Wyoming valley at leisure. Women and children were slain, and the rich valley was left desolate. In the same year, 1779, a band similarly composed inflicted ruin nearly as complete on Cherry valley, in central New York. A retaliatory expedition under General Sullivan laid waste. the Seneca country and reduced the population to a crowd Valley. of starving fugitives; but their chieftain, Joseph Brant, gathered them into a fort at Niagara and continued the raids against the settlements. The employment of Indians by the British was strongly condemned by the Americans. The practice of paying them for scalps only added to the horrors of the war and did not hasten its end. Hamilton, British governor of the Northwest, who paid for many scalps, was called the "Hair Buyer." Cherry Clark's After 1776 the Kentuckians were not left free from molestation, and this led to an act of retaliation which had a vast significance for the "Hair Buyer." The stroke was nothing less than the conquest of the Northwest, and George Rogers Clark was the author of the scheme. In January, 1778, he secured from Governor Patrick Henry, of Virginia, a commission as lieutenantcolonel with authority to raise 350 men for a secret expedition against Expedition. |