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In this position Gen. Greene thus expressed himself to the secretary at war.-" Since we have been in the lower country, through the difficulty of transportation, we were four weeks without ammunition, though there was a plenty at Charlotte. We lay within a few miles of the enemy when we had not six rounds to a man; had they got knowledge of our situation, they might have ruined us. Let it suffice to say that this part of the United States has had a very narrow escape. I have been seven months in the field without taking off my clothes one night. Our difficulties are so numerous, and our wants so pressing, that I have not a moment's relief from the most painful anxieties.”

"February 18th. Lt. Col. Lee retires for a time for the recovery of his health. I am more indebted to this officer than any other for the advantages gained over the enemy in the operations of the last campaign, and should be wanting in gratitude not to acknowledge the importance of his services, a detail of which is his best panegyric."

"March 11th. A great part of our troops are in a deplorable situation for want of clothing; we have 300 men without arms, and more than 1000 are so naked that they can only be put on duty in cases of a desperate nature. We have been all the winter in want of arms and clothing; and yet both upon the road, though neither could reach us, from the want of means to transport them by land, through an extensive and exhausted country."

"April 13th. The want of pay, clothing and better subsistence, and being altogether without spirits, has given a murmuring discontented tone to the army, and the face of mutiny discovers itself; I feel much for this department. No part of Saxony during the last war, I believe, ever felt the ravaging hand of war with greater severity than it has been felt here.* Our number is greatly inferior to that of

* Fourteen hundred widows were made by the ravaging hand of war, in the single district of Ninety-Six.

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the enemy; soon, most of the North-Carolina brigade leaves us."

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April 22d. Discontent is daily increasing, and the spirit of mutiny very prevalent. I have been able to prove the fact upon but one man, and he a sergeant in the Pennsylvania line, whom I ordered to be shot this day. I hope this example will deter them from executing the conspiracy, (of betraying the army into the power of the enemy,) which we have dreaded every night."

Tranquillity was so far restored to South-Carolina at this time, that Gov. Rutledge issued writs of election, and called an assembly on the 18th of January, at Jacksonsborough. The governor opened the assembly with an address, and received their thanks in their answer; but the laws of the state required a rotine in office, and the Hon. John Mathews was chosen governor; the civil goverment was now restored, in all its branches. The legislature next proceeded to confiscate by law all the estates of the refugees, which excited some warmth of feeling, and some remonstrances from Gen. Leslie, commander of the British forces at Charleston; but to no effect; Gen. Greene answered these remonstrances by a reference to Gov. Mathews, who replied to the remonstrance with firmness, and proposed an adjustment by a mutual reference to commissioners, and here the affair ended.

Gen. Greene, on being reinforced by a part of the Pennsylvania line, after the fall of Lord Cornwallis, detached Lt. Col. Posey with 300 men into Georgia, to join Gen. Wayne. This junction caused the British commander at Savannah to lay waste the country, by setting fire to all the provisions within their reach, and thus the extensive borders of the river were soon seen smoking with the ruins of the last year's crops, and presented to the eye the awful destruction of the necessary supplies of both man and beast.

At this time the state of the army under Gen. Washingington may be seen by the following letter, dated Fishkill, May 28th, 1782-"Yesterday was the third day our army have been without provisions. Every department is without, money and without credit. The army could not make a march of one day, as they are without every necessary, as well as provisions. Officers and soldiers are exceedingly discontented. You doubtless have heard of the premeditated revolt of the Connecticut line, happily discovered the day previous to that on which it was to have been put in execution. The ring-leader was punished with death. Wherever I go I hear complaints which make me dread the most fatal consequences. The distresses of our army have arrived to the greatest possible degree.

"STEUBEN."

"May 28th. I am under anxiety from the want of necessary deposits of provisions in the garrison at West-Point; this is an alarming circumstance. Were the enemy to know our situation, and make a sudden attempt, what is there to save these important posts.

"G. WASHINGTON."

A sketch of Gen. Greene's troubles may serve to complete the picture.—" August 13th. For upwards of three months, more than one third of our men (of the southern army) were entirely naked, with nothing but a breechcloth about them, and never came out of their tents; and the rest were as ragged as wolves. Our condition was little better in the article of provisions. Our beef was perfect carrion; and even bad as it was, we were frequently without any. An army thus clothed and thus fed, may be considered in a desperate situation; however we have struggled through it. Our supplies of provision are better,

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but scanty, and uncertain. Some clothing is arrived; this, added to what the governor procured, renders the troops pretty comfortable, and the army very contented and easy, especially as we have it now in our power to issue rum eight times in a month. North-Carolina hath had few other soldiers than non-jurors, and disaffected, and those for different terms of service.

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"N. GREENE."

September 22d. When I found the supplies of money from the United States would prove so inadequate, 1 determined to check all other expenses, and to think only of feeding the army. We have lately had an arrival of linens, which the clothier says are sufficient to make thirty-thousand shirts; but he is so indebted to the poor people who have worked for him, and who are starving for the want of their wages, that he cannot procure credit to get them made. Money I have none; and could he run in debt still further, it would only increase the mischief, for I see no prospect of payment.

"R. MORRIS."

Quotations of similar purport might be multiplied; but these are sufficient to shew the wretched state of the armies, as well as the deranged state of the finances of the country. Who that views with attention the above stated facts, can fail to see, and acknowledge, the special agency of Divine Providence, in crowning with success the American arms, and thus opening the way for the restoration of peace, at such an eventful moment, when the resources of the country were exhausted, and the hearts of the soldiers ready to sink under the accumulated weight of their sufferings? Let those of us who witnessed these eventful scenes, eye the hand of that God who ruled the destinies of America, and adore that wisdom, power and

goodness, that rescued her from the all devouring grasp of her enemies, and raised her to the summit of national peace, happiness, and glory.

On the 2d of August, Sir Guy Carleton, and Admiral Digby, communicated by letter the following tidings to General Washington.-"We are acquainted Sir, by authority, that negociations for a general peace have commenced at Paris, and that Mr. Grenville is invested with full powers to treat with all the parties at war, and is now at Paris in the execution of his commission. With respect to Mr. Laurens, we are to acquaint you, that he has been enlarged, and discharged from all engagements without any consideraions whatever ;* after which he declared of his own accord, that he considered Lord Cornwallis as free from his parole. We are further acquainted, that transports have been prepared in England, for conveying all the American prisoners to this country, to be exchanged here; and we are directed to urge, by every consideration of humanity, the most speedy exchange."

This news was soon confirmed by the arrival of two cartel ships at Marblehead, with 583 American prisoners. These prisoners stated that their sufferings had been great in England, until the fall of General Burgoyne, and that after that time they had been treated with bumanity, and 'even kindness.

No class of people felt their sufferings increased by the return of peace, except the loyalists, tories, or refugees, as they were termed. This class of people felt themselves neglected by all parties, and had good reason to complain, being outcasts in creation, and outlaws in society.

On the 14th of September, Congress resolved that the sum of four millions of dollars, exclusive of the money

*Mr. Laurens was appointed commissioner to the court of France, and taken on his passage off the Banks of Newfoundland, September, 1780; carried to London and confined in the tower.

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