North Carolina Governor Richard Caswell: Founding Father and Revolutionary Hero by Mobley Joe A

Author:Mobley, Joe A. [Mobley, Joe A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2016-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

General Benjamin Lincoln.

Alarmed at the threat posed to North Carolina if its neighbor to the south succumbed to British invasion, Caswell increased his efforts to raise troops for service in South Carolina, but with limited success. He again canceled furloughs for Continentals and called up more militia, a sizable number of whom proved reluctant to muster. Although poorly armed and hindered on the march by persistent rains that swelled rivers and creeks, about February 1, 438 of North Carolina’s Continentals and a large contingent of militia reached Lincoln’s troops “at Purysburg on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River.” 37

From there, Lincoln launched a campaign to reclaim Georgia, but he was daunted when one of his columns, led by General Ashe, was virtually annihilated at Briar Creek on March 3, 1779. Despite that defeat, Lincoln renewed an advance toward Augusta with the ultimate hope of recapturing Savannah. To draw him away, Prevost threatened Charleston in May, which forced Lincoln to rush back there to defend the city. Prevost then withdrew along the coast toward Savannah. In pursuit, the Americans suffered another defeat in a British rearguard action at Stono Ferry, South Carolina, on June 20, 1779. Still in possession of Savannah, the British maintained their foothold in the South. A subsequent joint operation by the Americans and their French allies to take the Georgia port in October 1779 failed decidedly. 38

During the struggle in South Carolina and Georgia, Caswell maintained a relentless effort to provide troops to Lincoln. His task proved difficult, thankless and sometimes dangerous. At one point, he rushed to Charlotte to spur on militia in the southern counties to Lincoln’s side and then hurried to New Bern to urge the assembly to provide further support for the army. His efforts continued to be stymied by legislators reluctant to allocate more funds. Men throughout the state increasingly refused to take up arms in the Continental Line or the militia. Some even threatened to kill Caswell for attempting to draft them into service. One report reached him that a man named Moses Bass, jailed at Kingston for refusing to serve, “watched several days for an opportunity to get a loaded gun and said if he could get one he would be damned to hell if he did not waylay the Road from your house to Kingston and kill you as you passed, for you passed every day that way.” 39

Despite the loss of Savannah, the Americans still held Charleston—but not for long. With the Georgia port securely in British hands, General Henry Clinton moved to win Charleston as his next objective. Assigning command of his headquarters in New York to German general Baron Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Clinton, in late December 1779, embarked for the southern theater with 8,700 soldiers and 5,000 sailors and marines aboard a squadron of ships. Having suffered losses in storms en route, the expedition first landed at Savannah for repairs, reorganization and resupply.

The British armada then sailed to the area surrounding Charleston Harbor, appearing there around February 10, 1780.

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