Elsie and Her Loved Ones Page 10

  CHAPTER X

  “IN June, 1775, Congress called for ten companies of riflemen fromPennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland to join the Continental armybesieging Boston,” continued the captain. “Morgan was chosen captain ofone of the Virginia companies, consisting of ninety-six men, and withit he reached Cambridge about the middle of July.

  “A month later eleven hundred hardy men were detached from the armyfor the service of Arnold in his expedition against Canada, and itsriflemen were commanded by Captain Daniel Morgan. We will not now goover the story of that toilsome, perilous and unfortunate expedition.The journey through the wilderness was a terrible one; but our bravemen persevered and reached Canada. Morgan and his men were the first tocross the St. Lawrence and reconnoitre the approaches to Quebec, whichwas too strongly defended to be attacked with any hope of success.But a great attack was made on New Year’s morning, 1776, in whichMontgomery was killed and Arnold disabled. Morgan stormed the batteryopposed to him, but not being supported, he and his detachment weresurrounded and taken prisoners. But General Carleton, admiring Morganfor his bravery, released him on parole and he went home to Virginia.

  “Washington earnestly recommended him to Congress as worthy ofpromotion, and in November they gave him a colonel’s commission. Hewas duly exchanged and released from parole. He raised a regiment ofriflemen and joined the army at Morristown, New Jersey, late in March.

  “Morgan’s services in reconnoitring were very great in the skilfulcampaign of the following June, in which Washington prevented Howe fromcrossing New Jersey.

  “In the following July Burgoyne’s descent into northern New Yorkmade it desirable to concentrate as large a body of troops there aspossible to oppose him, and on the 16th of August Morgan was sent withhis regiment to join the army near Stillwater, of which Gates hadlately taken command. His force was five hundred picked riflemen, ofwhom Washington said that he expected the most eminent service fromthem; nor was he disappointed. And it is said that when Burgoyne wasintroduced to Morgan after the battle of Saratoga, he seized him bythe hand and exclaimed: ‘My dear sir, you command the finest regimentin the world!’ It was no wonder that Burgoyne thought highly of theirskill; for Morgan and his men had played a principal part in the bloodybattle of Freeman’s farm, in which Arnold frustrated Burgoyne’s attemptto dislodge the American left wing from Bemis Heights, and theirservices were quite as great in the final conflict of October 7th, inwhich the British army was wrecked.”

  “Wasn’t it in the battle of Bemis Heights that General Fraser waskilled, papa?” asked Elsie.

  “Yes,” replied her father. “Morgan’s men were skilful riflemen and oneof them shot Fraser. Morgan, seeing that by directing and cheering onthe British troops Fraser was doing more than any one else to defeatand slay the Americans, perceived that much of the fate of the battlerested upon him, and that to bring victory to the Americans, who werefighting for freedom, it was necessary that Fraser should be takenaway. So, calling a file of his best men around him, he pointed towardthe British right and said: ‘That gallant officer is General Fraser. Iadmire and honor him, but it is necessary that he should die; victoryfor the enemy depends upon him. Take your station in that clump ofbushes and do your duty.’

  “Lossing says, ‘Within five minutes Fraser fell mortally wounded, andwas carried to the camp by two grenadiers. Shortly before that tworifle balls had struck very near him, one cutting the crupper of hishorse, and the other passing through his mane, a little back of hisears. Seeing all that, Fraser’s aid begged him to retire from thatplace. But Fraser replied, ‘My duty forbids me to fly from danger,’ andthe next moment came the shot that killed him.”

  “Oh, papa, it was a sad, sad thing to do; a sad thing to order!”exclaimed Elsie. “I don’t see how Morgan could do it.”

  “It was a sad thing. War is always dreadful and a great and fearfulwrong—often on both sides, sometimes right on one, as I think it was inour War of the Revolution; very wicked on the side of King George andhis ministers, right and praiseworthy on the part of the Americans whowere fighting for freedom for themselves and their posterity. I cannotsee why it should be thought any more sinful to kill Fraser than anyone of the privates under him and whom he was ordering to shoot ourmen; and no doubt his death at that time saved many—probably hundredsof the lives of Americans who were fighting for life, liberty, home,wives and children.

  “And the mortal wounding of Fraser had a good effect—a panic spreadalong the British line. Burgoyne, who now took the command, could notkeep up the sinking courage of his men. The whole line gave way andfled hastily to their camp.

  “But I shall not go farther into the account of that battle at present;in the one which followed on the 7th of October, and in which theBritish army was wrecked, Morgan’s services were equally great andimportant.

  “After the victory Gates was unwilling to send Morgan and his regimentback to Washington at Whitemarsh, and it was only with some difficultyand by sending Colonel Hamilton with a special message that the sorelytried commander-in-chief succeeded in obtaining him.

  “Washington was at Whitemarsh, near Philadelphia, and on the 18th ofNovember, 1777, Morgan joined him there; in time to take part in thefight early in December of that year.

  “On Sunday, the 8th, they advanced, and flanking parties were warmlyattacked by Colonel Morgan and his rifle corps, and Colonel Gist, withthe Maryland militia. The battle was quite severe. Twenty-seven men inMorgan’s corps were killed and wounded, beside Major Morris, a braveand gallant officer, who was badly maimed. Sixteen or seventeen of theMaryland militia were wounded.

  “The enemy’s loss, too, was considerable. The movements of the Britishseemed to indicate an intention to immediately attack the Americans,so that Washington was presently surprised to perceive that instead ofadvancing they were marching precipitately, in two divisions, towardPhiladelphia. As their adjutant remarked to Mrs. Lydia Darrah, whosestory you have all heard before, they had been on a fool’s errand andaccomplished nothing.

  “On the 25th of August, 1777, Washington, with several divisions of histroops, Morgan and his rifle corps among them, left Philadelphia andencamped at Red Clay Creek, a few miles below Wilmington, the nextday. Washington established his headquarters at Wilmington, and atonce made preparations to oppose the march of the enemy, scouts havingbrought him news of their arrival at the head of Elk.

  “In September, Washington broke up his camp and crossed the Brandywineat Chadd’s Ford, at about two o’clock on the morning of the 9th. The11th of September was the day of the battle of Brandywine.”

  “Which was a defeat for us, wasn’t it, uncle?” asked Eric.

  “Yes, though our troops fought very bravely,” replied Captain Raymond.“There were but eleven thousand of them and the British force wasprobably not less than seventeen thousand men. Lossing tells us thathad not conflicting intelligence perplexed and thwarted him in hisplans, it is probable that victory would have attended Washington andthe American army. He was not dispirited.

  “But to go back to Morgan. When in June, 1778, Sir Henry Clintonevacuated Philadelphia and set out for New York by way of New Jersey,the news presently reached Washington, and he at once broke up hisencampment at Valley Forge, and with almost his whole army started inpursuit.

  “Morgan was in that army with six hundred men. This was on June 20. Iwill not go over the whole story. The battle of Monmouth was not foughtuntil the next Sunday, which was the 28th, and an exceedingly hot day.I shall not go into the particulars in regard to it just now, but onlyremark that Morgan was most unaccountably kept out of the conflict—heand his brave riflemen at a distance from the field. For hours he wasat Richmond Mills, three miles from Monmouth Court House, awaitingorders in an agony of desire to engage in the battle, for he was withinsound of its fearful tumult. He strode to and fro, uncertain whatcourse to pursue, and, like a hound on the leash, panting to be awayto action. It is not known why he was not permitted to take part inthat conflict. It seems altoget
her likely that had he fallen upon theBritish rear with his fresh troops at the close of the day, Sir HenryClinton and his army might have shared the fate of Burgoyne and his atSaratoga.

  “After the battle, Morgan joined in the pursuit of the enemy and tookmany prisoners.

  “About a year later, finding his health seriously impaired, and, likemany other officers, feeling much dissatisfaction with the doings ofCongress, especially with regard to promotion, Morgan sent in hisresignation and went home to Winchester.

  “About a year after that, when Gates took command of the southern army,Morgan was urged to return to the service; but he refused to serve as acolonel, because if he did he would be outranked by so many commandersof state militia that his movements would be seriously hampered and hisusefulness impaired. As Congress declined to promote him, he remainedat home; but after the great disaster at Camden he declared that itwas no time to let personal considerations have any weight, and hepromptly joined Gates at Hillsborough.

  “That was in September; in October he received promotion, being madea brigadier-general, and Congress soon had reason to rejoice over thefact that it had done that act of justice, since it had resulted inplacing Morgan where his great powers could be made of the uttermostservice to the country.

  “It was in December that Greene took command of the southern army, andhe then sent Morgan, with nine hundred men, to threaten the importantinland posts of Augusta and Ninety-six, and to co-operate with themountain militia. In order to protect those posts and his communicationwith them, Cornwallis sent the redoubtable Tarleton with eleven hundredmen to dispose of Morgan. As they drew near, Morgan retreated to thegrazing ground known as the Cowpens,[A] where, on a long rising slope,he awaited Tarleton’s attack. His men were drawn up in two lines, themilitia, under Pickens, in front, and the Continentals, under Howard,one hundred and fifty yards behind. Some distance behind these waitedColonel William Washington, with his admirable cavalry.

  “When the British attacked Pickens’ line, after a brief resistance,the militia broke into two parts and retired behind Howard’s line ofContinentals. As the British advanced to attack this line it retreatedslowly, so as to give Pickens time to reform his militia. PresentlyPickens swept forward in a great semicircle around Howard’s right, andattacked the British in their left flank. At the same moment ColonelWashington swept around Howard’s left and charged upon the enemy’sright flank while Howard’s line, after a few deadly volleys at thirtyyards, rushed forward with levelled bayonets.

  “Thus terribly entrapped, most of the British threw down their arms andsurrendered, while the rest scattered and fled. They lost heavily,in killed, wounded and prisoners, besides two field-pieces and onethousand stand of arms. Only two hundred and seventy escaped, amongthem Tarleton, who barely saved himself in a furious single combat withColonel Washington.

  “The loss of the Americans in this astonishing action was twelve killedand sixty-one wounded. It is said that in point of tactics it was themost brilliant battle of the Revolutionary War. And it is brillianteven compared with the work of the greatest masters of the military art.

  “That victory of the Americans was a crippling blow to Cornwallis,because it deprived him of his most effective light infantry.

  “Cornwallis was nearer than Morgan to the fords of the Catawba whichMorgan must cross to rejoin Greene, but by a superb march Morgan gainedthe river first, crossed it and kept on into North Carolina.

  “There was a masterly series of movements there, after Greene’sarrival, which ended in the battle of Guilford and Cornwallis’sretreat into Virginia.

  “But before the campaign was ended Morgan was suffering so severelywith rheumatism that he was compelled to quit active work and go home.

  “That was in February, 1781. By the following June he had so farrecovered that he was able to command troops to suppress a Loyalistinsurrection in the Shenandoah Valley.

  “He then reported to Lafayette at his headquarters near Jamestown, andwas put in command of all the light troops and cavalry in the marquis’sarmy. But in August a return of his rheumatism again obliged him to gohome.

  “For the next thirteen years he had a quiet life upon his estate. Hegrew wealthy, and entertained many eminent and interesting guests.His native qualities of mind were such as to make his conversationinstructive and charming, in spite of the defect of his earlyeducation.

  “In 1795, with the rank of major-general, he held a command in thelarge army that, by its mere presence in Western Pennsylvania, putan end to the whiskey insurrection. The next year he was elected bythe Federalists to Congress. But failing health again called him homebefore the end of his term, and from this time until his death heseldom left his fireside. He died on the 6th of July, 1802, in thesixty-seventh year of his age.”

  “Was he a Christian man, papa?” asked Elsie.

  “I think he was,” her father said in reply. “He had a pious motherand it seems never forgot her teachings. In his later years he becamea member of the Presbyterian church in Winchester. ‘Ah,’ he wouldoften exclaim, when talking of the past, ‘people said old Morgan neverfeared—they thought old Morgan never prayed—they did not know oldMorgan was miserably afraid.’ He said he trembled at Quebec, and in thegloom of early morning, when approaching the battery at Cape Diamond,he knelt in the snow and prayed; and before the battle at the Cowpens,he went into the woods, ascended a tree, and there poured out his soulin prayer for protection.

  “Morgan was large and strong. He was six feet in height and verymuscular, and weighed more than two hundred pounds. His strengthand endurance were remarkable; and he was a very handsome man—saidto be equalled by but few men of his time in beauty of feature andexpression. His manners were quiet and refined, his bearing was nobleand his temper sweet, though his wrath was easily aroused by the sightof injustice.”

  “No wonder, then, that he took up arms against King George,” remarkedLucilla.

  “A natural result of having such a disposition, I think,” returned herfather, and went on with his story.

  “Morgan was noted for truthfulness and candor, and throughout life hisconduct was regulated by the most rigid code of honor. He was also, asI have said, a devout Christian.”

  “Oh, I am so glad of that!” exclaimed little Elsie; “and I hope we willall meet him in heaven—the dear, brave, good man.”

  “I hope we will, daughter,” responded the captain heartily, whileseveral of his other listeners looked as if they shared the feelings oflove and admiration for the brave patriot, Daniel Morgan.

  FOOTNOTE:

  [A] The author’s grandfather, Samuel Finley, had charge of theartillery (one cannon) at the battle of the Cowpens, was afterwardcomplimented at the head of his regiment and called “the brave littlemajor.”