North Carolina that the fugitives could find repose; only where the most miserable poverty took from crime all temptation, that the beaten and maltreated patriots dared to give themselves a breathing-space from flight. In the same manner the frontier-colony of Georgia had already been overrun and ravaged by the conquerors; and there, as it was less capable of resistance, almost all show of opposition had been long since at an end.
The invader, deceived by these appearances, declared, in swelling language, to his monarch, that the two colonies were properly subjugated, and would now return to their obedience. He knew not that,
"Freedom's battle once begun, |
But, though satisfied of the efficiency of his achievements, and himself convinced of the truth of the assurances which he had made to this effect, the commander of the British forces did not suffer the slightest relaxation of his vigilance. Earl Cornwallis, one of the best of the many leaders sent by the mother-country to the colonies in that eventful contest, had taken charge of the southern marching army soon after the fall of Charleston. He was too good a soldier to omit, or to sleep in the performance of any of his duties. He proceeded with due diligence to confirm his conquests; and, aptly sustained by the celerity and savage enterprise of the fierce legionary, Colonel Tarleton, the country was soon swept from the seaboard to the mountains. This active but cruel commander, who enacted the Claverhouse in South Carolina with no small closeness of resemblance to his prototype,[2] was as indefatigable as unsparing. He plunged headlong into fight, with a courage the most unscrupulous, with little reflection, seeming rather to confide in the boldness and impetuosity of his onset than to any ingenuity of plan, or careful elaborateness of manœuvre. Add to this that he was sanguinary in the last degree when triumphant, and we shall easily understand the sources of that terror which his very name was found to inspire among the undrilled, and, in half the number of instances, the unarmed militia which opposed him. "Tarleton's
- ↑ From Lord Byron's 1813 poem, "The Giaour" (Wikisource contributor note)
- ↑ Simms is likely comparing Tarleton's actions to John Graham of Claverhouse's ruthless persecution of Covenantors in Scotland in the 1670s. (Wikisource contributor note)
