Cornwallis baffled by La Fayette. His Retreat toward the Coast. Detention of the Convention Troops. Their Parole. cattle, burned the barns with the crops of the previous year, with all the fences on the plantations near, and captured many negroes.' One more prize attracted the attention of Cornwallis. At Albemarle Old Court House, above the Point of Fork, the Virginians had collected a large quantity of valuable stores, most of which had been sent from Richmond. The earl determined to capture or destroy them; La Fayette, who, after his junction with Wayne, had moved cautiously through Orange and the upper part of Louisa to Boswell's tavern, near the Albemarle line, resolved to protect them. Tarleton was sent to force La Fayette either to hazard a battle with the whole British army, or abandon the stores. The marquis did neither. He had discovered a rough, unused road, leading directly to the Court House Early in the evening he set his pioneers at work, and before morning his whole force had traversed the opened way, and, to the astonishment of Cornwallis, were strongly posted upon high ground, between the British forces and the American stores. Again baffled, the earl wheeled his army, and moved toward the eastern coast, closely watched and followed by the vigilant marquis. He entered Richmond on the seventeenth, and evacuated it on the twentieth. Steuben had now joined La Fayette, and Cornwallis, believing the strength of the Americans to be much greater than it really was, hastened to Williamsburg, where, under the protection of his shipping, and re-enforced by troops from Portsmouth, he encamped.' His subsequent movements, until his surrender at Yorktown, have been noticed in preceding chapters. Before leaving Virginia, let us consider that important event in the history of the Revo. lution, the residence of the "Convention Troops" (as Burgoyne's captured army were called), in the vicinity of Charlottesville. In a note on page 82 of the first volume of this work, I have given briefly the principal reasons why the captive army of Burgoyne was not allowed to go to England on parole. The action of Congress on the subject was technically dishonorable, and not in accordance with the letter and spirit of the convention signed by Gates and Burgoyne. So General Washington evidently thought when he wrote to General Heath respecting the detention of that body, and said, "By this step General Burgoyne will, it is more than probable, look upon himself as released from all former ties, and consequently at liberty to make use of any means to effect an escape.' The suspected perfidy of the British commander, the fact that the enemy often acted upon the principle that "faith was not to be kept with rebels," and the consideration that these troops, though they might not again "serve against America,' would supply the places of soldiers at home who would, partially justified the bad faith of Congress. Having resolved to keep them here, the next consideration was their mainteThe difficulty of procuring an ample supply of food in New England, and the facilities of a sea-coast for their escape, induced Congress to order them to be sent into the interior of Virginia. Sir Henry Clinton had been applied toa for passports for Amera Sept., 1778. ican vessels to transport fuel and provisions to Boston for the use of the prisoners, but refused. Congress, therefore, directedb them to be removed to Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, Virginia. Pursuant to this direction, the whole body of captives, English and Germans, after the officers had signed a parole of honor respecting nance. ⚫ Oct. 15. It is estimated that, during the invasion of the state which we have been considering, thirty thousand slaves were carried off, of whom twenty-seven thousand are supposed to have died of small-pox or campfever in the course of six months.-Howison, ii., 270. 2 Gordon, Ramsay, Jefferson's Letters, Tucker's Life of Jefferson, Girardin, Howison, &c. 3 Sparks's Washington, v., 221. 4 The following is the form of the parole: "We whose names are hereunto subscribed being under the 'restrictions of the convention of Saratoga, and ordered, by a resolution of Congress of the fifteenth ultimo, to remove from the State of Massachusetts Bay, to Charlottesville, in the State of Virginia, do severally promise and engage on our word and honor, and on the faith of gentlemen, that on our march from this place to Charlottesville, we, or either of us, will not say or do any thing injurious to the United States of America, or either of them, nor at any time exceed such limits or distances from the troops as may be assigned us by the commanding officer who may have the charge and escort of the troops of convention to Virginia, or on any other part of the route. Given under our hands in the State of Massachusetts Bay, this day of November, A.D. 1778." March of the Convention Troops to Virginia. Their Route to Charlottesville. Sufferings. Riedesel and his Family. their conduct on the way, took up their line of march from Cambridge and Rutland' on the tenth of November. Burgoyne having been permitted to return to England in May, the command of the convention troops devolved upon Major-general Phillips. Colonel Theodorick Bland, of the first regiment of light dragoons, was appointed by Washington to superintend the march of the captives; and Colonel James Wood was appointed to command at Charlottesville. It was a dreary winter's journey of seven hundred miles, and occupied about three months in its accomplishment. The Baroness Riedesel, in her charming Letters and Memoirs, gives graphic pictures of events on the way, and of her residence in and departure from Virginia. Anburey, a captive officer, also records many incidents of interest connected with the journey; and in his Travels, publishes a map of the Eastern and Middle States, on which is denoted, by colored lines, the direction of the march, and the extent of the paroles of the English and German prisoners after their arrival in Virginia.3 8 The troops were, at first, all stationed at Charlottesville. That town then contained only a court-house, one tavern, and about a dozen houses. These were crowded with the English officers, and many sought quarters on neighboring plantations. The soldiers suffered dreadfully. Not expecting the captives before spring, barracks were not erected, and the only shelter that was vouchsafed them, after their fatiguing march through mud and snow, were a few half-finished huts in the woods. These, not half covered, were full of snow, and it was three days before they were made habitable. No provisions had arrived for the troops, and for a week they subsisted upon corn meal made into cakes. The officers, by signing a parole, were allowed to go as far as Richmond for quarters, and in a short time both officers and soldiers were rendered quite comfortable. General Phillips made his quarters at the plantation of Colonel Carter, and General Riedesel and his family resided upon the estate of Mr. Mazzei, an Italian gentleman at Colle, a few miles distant from Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson, who was then at Monticello, did every thing in his power to render Gerlach Destear Mr Gand Arch: Edmonstone Ad-die Camp. 1 I have before me the original parole of the Germans, with the autographs of the ninety-five officers who signed it. It is headed by the names of Baron Riedesel, the commander of the Brunswick forces, and of those of his military family, Ger lach, Edmonstone, and Cleve. The first was deputy quarter-master general; the last two were aids-de-camp. Edmon stone, who was a Scotchman, was General Riedesel's secretary, and wrote all his English letters. During the summer and autumn of 1778, the English captives were quartered at Rutland, in Worcester county, fifty-five miles northwest of Boston. A portion of them were marched thither on the fifteenth of April. Anburey expressed his belief that the chief advantage which the Congress sought to obtain by this jour ney in the winter, was the desertion of troops, believing that the privations on the march would drive hundreds to that step. There were a great many desertions during the march. 3 The principal places through which the troops passed, were as follows: Weston, Marlborough, Worcester, Leicester, and Enfield, in Massachusetts; Suffield, Sunbury, New Hartford, Norfolk, and Sharon, in Connecticut; Nine Partners, Hopewell, Fishkill, Newburgh, Little Britain, and Goshen, in New York; Wallins, Sussex Court House, Hacketstown, and Sherwood's Ferry, in New Jersey; Tinicum, Hilltown, North Wales, Valley Forge, Lancaster, and York, in Pennsylvania; Hanover, Tawneytown, and Frederickstown, in Maryland; Little London, Neville Plantation, Farquier Court House, Carter's Plantation, Orange, Walker's Plantation to Charlottesville, in Virginia. 4 Anburey says, "the house and plantation where General Phillips residęs is called Blenheim. The house was erected shortly after that memorable battle in Germany, by a Mr. Carter, who was secretary to the colony." He mentions the fact that Colonel Carter possessed fifteen hundred slaves.—Travels, ii., 327. 6 Madame Riedesel says, "the house where we were lodged, and indeed the whole estate, belonged to an Italian, who hired it to us, as he was about setting out on a journey. We looked impatiently forward to the time of his departure, and that of his wife and daughter, on account of the smallness of the house and the scarcity of provisions. In respect to the latter, our landlord voluntarily assumed a kind of tutorship over us. Thus, when he killed a calf, he gave us on the first day only the head and the tripe, though we represented that this was not enough for twenty persons. He replied that we could make a very good soup of it. He then added to the meat two cabbages and some stale ham; and this was all we could obtain from him. Jefferson's Hospitality. Erection of Barracks. Extensive Gardening. General Condition of the Troops the situation of the officers and troops as pleasant as possible. To the former, the hospitalities of his mansion and the use of his choice library were freely proffered; and when, in the spring of 1779, it was proposed to remove the troops to some other locality, he pleaded earnestly, and argued forcibly, in a letter to Governor Henrya against the measure, on the grounds of its inhumanity, expense, and general inexpediency. For these attentions, the officers and troops often expressed their warmest gratitude toward Mr. Jefferson. The kindness of Colonel Bland, on their march, also excited their affection, and made him a favorite. a March 27. Early in the spring, comfortable barracks for the troops were erected, under the direction 1 of Colonel Harvey. They were upon the brow and slopes of a high hill, on Colonel Harvey's estate, five miles from Charlottesville. They cost the government about twenty-five thousand dollars. A large portion of the land was laid out into gardens, fenced in and planted. General Riedesel spent more than five hundred dollars for garden seeds for the German troops, and when autumn advanced there was no scarcity of provisions. According to Mr. Jefferson, the location was extremely healthy. It being the universal opinion. that they would remain prisoners there until the close of the war, the officers spent a great deal of money in the erection of more suitable dwellings, and in preparing rough land for cultivation. They settled their families there, built a theatre, a coffee-house, and a cold bath; and in general intercourse with the families of neighboring gentlemen, and the pursuits of music and literature, their captivity was made agreeable to them, and profitable to the province. Notwithstanding this apparent quiet on the surface, there was turbulence below. Captivity under the most favorable circumstances is galling. A large number deserted, and made their way to British posts at the North. On one occasion nearly four hundred eluded the vigilance of their guards, and escaped. When, in October, 1780, Gencral Leslie with a strong force took possession of Portsmouth, great uneasiness was observed 1 "Of four thousand people (the number of the captives) it should be expected, according to ordinary calculations, that one should die every day; yet in the space of near three months there have been but four deaths among them; two infants under three weeks old, and two others by apoplexy. The officers tell me the troops were never before so healthy since they were imbodied."-Letter to Governor Patrick Henry. It can not be wondered at, that Mr. Jefferson and other agriculturists should have been opposed to their removal, when it was estimated that forty-five thousand bushels of grain from the harvest fields of Virginia were consumed by them in a year, and that thirty thousand dollars were circulated weekly in consequence of their presence.-See Jefferson's Letter to Governor Henry. Anburey, noticing their departure from the barracks, says, "I am apt to think that Colonel Harvey, the proprietor of the estate, will reap great advantage, if the province should not, as the army entirely cleared a space of six miles in circumference round the barracks."-Travels, ii., 414. Removal of Troops from Charlottesville. Their Final Dispersion. The Germans. Departure from Petersburg. 1780. among the British troops, and just fears were entertained that they might rise upon and overpower their guard, and join their countrymen on the Elizabeth River. The Germans were less impatient, for they were enjoying life better than at home;' yet it was thought expedient to remove the whole body of prisoners to a place of greater security. Accordingly, the British were marched across the Blue Ridge, a at Wood's Gap, and through the a Nov. 20, Great Valley to Fort Frederick, in Maryland; the Germans followed soon afterward, and were quartered at Winchester (then containing between three and four hundred houses), in the northern part of Virginia. Deaths, desertion, and partial exchanges had now reduced their numbers to about twenty-one hundred. Afterward they were removed to Lancaster, and some to East Windsor, in Connecticut. In the course of 1782, they were all dispersed, either by exchange or desertion. A large number of the Germans, remembering the perfidy of their rulers at home, and pleased with their national brethren who were residents here, remained at the close of the war, and many became useful citizens. Let us resume our journey. b Dec. 26, I arose at daybreak, on the morning after my arrival in Petersburg.b The clouds were broken, and a keen breeze from the north reminded me of the pres- 1848. ence of winter. Accompanied by one of the early risers of the town, I crossed the fine bridge over the Appomattox, anu strolled over Archer's Hill, whereon the Americans planted their cannon and disturbed the inmates of Bollingbrook. The little village on that side retains its original name,of Pocahunta or Pocahontas, and presents a natural curiosity which tradition has connected with the memory of that princess. It is a large stone, hollowed like a bowl by the hand of Nature, and is never without water in it, except in times of extreme drought. It is called Pocahontas's Wash-basin; and the vulgar believe that the "dearest daughter" of Powhatan actually laved her limbs in its concavity. It was formerly several rods from its present position at the northwest corner of the bridge, and was broken in its removal. Strong cement keeps it whole, and it is regarded with considerable interest by the curious visitor. Returning to Petersburg, we ascended to Bollingbrook, and just as the sun came up from the distant hills, I sketched the view on page 339. At nine o'clock, after receiving minute directions respecting my futute route for a hundred miles, I took the reins and started for the Roanoke. For the first sixteen miles, to the banks of Stony Brook, the country is sandy and quite level, and the roads were fine. I crossed that stream at Dinwiddie Court House, the capitol of the county of that name, where, a few days before, Society, by the use of a sheriff and strong cord, had strangled William Dandridge Eppes, for the murder of a 1 I have mentioned, on page 589, vol. i., the bargain entered into by the British ministry and some German princes for the furnishing of troops by the latter to fight the Americans. That bargain was rendered more heinous by the methods used to obtain the requisite number of men. Laborers were seized in the fields and work-shops, and large numbers were taken from the churches while engaged in their devotions, and hurried to the barracks without being allowed a parting embrace with their families. That this was the method to be employed was evidently known to the British government several months before the bargain was consummated; for on the fourteenth of November, 1775, the honest-hearted king wrote as follows to Lord North: The giving commissions to German officers to get men I can by no means consent to, for it in plain English amounts to making me a kidnapper, which I can not think a very honorable occupation."* Throughout Europe the whole transaction was viewed with horror as a great crime against humanity. Frederick the Great took every occasion to express his contempt for the "scandalous man-traffic of his neighbors." It is said that whenever any of those hired Brunswickers and Hessians had to pass through any portion of his territory, he claimed to levy on them the usual toll for so many head of cattle, since, he said, they had been sold as such !† 2 Fort Frederick is yet a well-preserved relic of colonial times. It is upon the north bank of the Potomac, in Washington county, Maryland, about fifty miles below Cumberland. It was built in 1755-6, under the direction of Governor Sharpe. The material is stone, and cost about thirty thousand dollars. The fort is quadrangular, and contained barracks sufficient for seven hundred men. This was one of the six forts built as frontier defenses against the encroachments of the French and Indians. * Lord Mahon's History of England, Appendix, vol. vi., page xxxi. London, 1851 † Mahon, vi, 131. Capital Punishment. Husbandry in Lower Virginia. Fruits of the Social System. young man. The first murder was sufficiently horrid; the second was doubly so, because Christian men and women and innocent children saw it done in cool blood, and uttered not a word of remonstrance or reprobation! It had evidently been a holiday for the people; and all the way from Petersburg to the Meherrin, it was a stock subject for conversation. A dozen times I was asked if I saw "the hanging ;" and a dozen times I shuddered at the evidence of the prevailing savagism in the nineteenth century, even in the heart of our republic. But the gallows is toppling, and another generation will be amazed at the cruelty of their fathers. From Stony Brook to the Nottaway River, a distance of fifteen miles, the country is broken, and patches of sandy soil with pine forests, alternated with red clay, bearing oaks, chestnuts, and gum-trees., Worse roads I never expect to travel, for they would be impassable. Oftentimes Charley would sink to his knees in the soft earth, which was almost as adhesive as tar. The country is sparsely populated, and the plantations generally bore evidences of unskillful culture. Although most of the soil is fertile, and might be made very productive, yet so wretchedly is it frequently managed that twenty bushels of wheat is considered a good yield for an acre, and corn in like proportion. A large number of negroes are raised in that section, and constitute the chief wealth of the inhabitants; for the land, within thirty miles of the fine markets of Petersburg and City Point, averages in value only about five dollars an acre. Good roads would increase its value, but the spirit of internal improvement is very weak there. I was informed by a gentleman with whom I passed the night within a mile of the Nottaway, that several plantations in his neighborhood did not yield corn and bacon sufficient for the negroes, and that one or two men or women were sold annually from each to buy food for the others. "Thus," as he expressively observed, they eat each other up!" Tobacco is the staple product, yielding from five hundred to one thousand pounds per acre; but, in the absence of manure, it destroys the vitality of the soil. During a ride of seventy or eighty miles toward the Roanoke, I saw hundreds of acres thus deadened and yellow with "poverty grass," or green with shrub pines. Many proprietors are careless or indolent, and leave the management of their estates to overseers. These, in turn, lacking the stimulus of interest, seem to leave affairs in the hands of the negroes, and the negroes are always willing to trust to Providence. The consequence is, fitful labor, unskillfully applied; and the fertile acres remain half barren from year to year. Το a Northern man accustomed to pictures of industry and thrift, directed and enjoyed by enlightened workers, these things appear big with evil consequences. They are the fruits of the social system in the Southern States, which has grown reverend with years; a system deprecated by all sound thinkers there, particularly in the agricultural districts, as a barrier to progress, and inimical to genuine prosperity. This subject involves questions proper for the statesman, the political economist, and the moralist to discuss. They are irrelevant to my theme, and I pass them by with this brief allusion, while resting firmly upon the hope that, through equity and wisdom, a brighter day is about to dawn upon the rich valleys and fertile uplands of Virginia and the Carolinas. The river is narrow, I crossed the Nottaway into Brunswick county, at Jones's Bridge. and lying in a deep bed, its current is often made swift by rains. Such was its condition when I passed over; for rain had been falling since midnight, and when I resumed my journey, it was mingled with snow and hail, accompanied by a strong northwest wind. All day the storm continued, but happily for me I was riding with the wind, and kept dry beneath my spacious wagon top. The red clay roads prevailed, occasionally relieved by a sandy district covered with pines, beautified by an undergrowth of holly and laurel.' My In many places between Petersburg and Hillsborough, in North Carolina, I observed dead trees covering several acres in patches throughout the pine forests. From one eminence I counted six of these patches in different directions, made visible by their yellow foliage in the midst of the surrounding dark green forest. I was told that they were killed by a worm, which perforates and traverses the bark in every direction I observed these perforations, appearing like the wounds of buck shot in the bark four or five inches apart. From these, turpentine often oozed in profusion. These worms are very fatal to the trees. A tree that |