That a bounty of two hundred dollars out of the Continental Treasury shall be granted to each recruit who after January 23d hath enlisted or shall enlist during the war, or in case the State shall have granted as great or greater bounty the said two hundred dollars for each such recruit shall be passed to the credit of the State for whose quota he shall be raised.

March 29, Congress recommended Virginia and North Carolina to raise as many battalions of regular troops for the particular defense of the Southern States as their circumstances would admit, the troops to be engaged only for one year and not to be compelled to serve in any enterprise or in any State north of Virginia. To these one year troops, a bounty was given not to exceed two hundred dollars.

Large for the time as were the bounties granted by Congress, those offered by the States were still greater. The legislature of New Jersey, to fill the quota for its three battalions, offered two hundred and fifty dollars to each recruit, in addition to the clothing, land, and two hundred dollars allowed by Congress, while the legislature of Virginia, on the 3d of May, offered to every recruit for the war seven hundred and fifty dollars, a suit of clothes once a year, and one hundred acres of land. From this amount the bounty and clothing given by Congress were reserved by the State.

The sum tendered by Virginia, when compared with the $4 offered by Congress in January, 1776, "for further encouraging the men more cheerfully to enlist in the service of their country," shows that in three years the price of bounties increased more than two hundredfold.

The effect of these large bounties on the men already enlisted for the war, is thus described in Washington's letter of June 9 to the board of war:

The enormous bounties given by the States, towns, and by individuals to men for very short temporary services are the source of the present discontents and of a thousand evils among the soldiers, and as long as they continue to be given so long will they excite dissatisfaction. They induce the soldier, who has undergone a long service, and who engaged for the war in the first instance on a very moderate bounty, to reason upon his situation, and to draw a comparison between what he receives and the great emoluments others get, and put him upon inventing means from which he will be able to derive the same advantage. And from this comparison and these considerations it is, I am convinced, that most of our desertions proceed, especially where the men do not go to the enemy. In consideration of the services of the soldiers who engaged at an early period to serve during the war, and the great disproportion between the bounties they received and those given to others for the service of a few months or perhaps not more than a year at most, I have sometimes thought it might not be improper to give them, by way of gratuity and as an acknowledgment, $100, which, besides operating as a reward, might have a good effect and quiet their discontent.a

In response to this letter it was resolved June 22

That Congress entertain a grateful sense of the virtue and services of those faithful and zealous soldiers who at an early period engaged in the armies of the States during the war, and to encourage a continuance of their exertions, and as far as circumstances admit, to place them on a footing in pecuniary matters with other soldiers, General Washington be empowered to order a gratuity of one hundred dollars each, to be paid to the men so enlisting during war.

Call it by what name we may, it is plain that the bounty equalization authorized by the resolution was extorted from Congress by the dissatisfaction of the soldiery, and this is but one of many instances in which a reliance upon voluntary enlistments and bounties in preference to obligatory military service has proved a menace to freedom.

"Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, p. 198.

It should be carefully noted that this equalization bounty was voted as a largess to allay the discontent of men actually with the colors, if not to prevent the dissolution of the army itself, whereas the millions appropriated to bounty equalization since the War of the Rebellion were voted away after the army was disbanded and the men returned to their homes.

Despairing of filling the quotas by enlistments for the war, Washington, on November 18, wrote to the President of Congress:

The plan I would propose is that each State be informed by Congress annually of the real deficiency of its troops, and called upon to make it up, or such less specific number as Congress may think proper, by a draft; that men drafted join the Army by the 1st of January, and serve till the 1st of January in the succeeding year; that from the time the drafts join the Army, the officers of the States from which they come, be authorized and directed to use their endeavors to enlist them for the war under the bounties to the officers themselves and the recruits granted by the act of the 23d of January last, namely, $10 to the officers for each recruit and two hundred to the recruits themselves; that all State, county, and town bounties to drafts, if practicable, be entirely abolished, on account of the uneasiness and disorders they create among the soldiers, the desertions they produce, and for other reasons which will readily occur; that on or before the 1st of October annually, an abstract or return similar to the present one be transmitted to Congress, to enable them to make their requisitions to each State with certainty and precision.

The advantage of a well-digested, general, and uniform system for levying and bringing them to the Army at a particular time to serve to a fixed period is obvious. We may then form our plans of operation with some degree of certainty, and determine with more propriety and exactness on what we may or may not be able to do; and the periods for joining and serving, which I have taken the liberty to mention, appear to me the most proper for a variety of considerations. It being in January when it is proposed that the recruits shall join, and when the enemy can not operate, they will get seasoned and accustomed in some measure to a camp life before the campaign opens, and will have four or five months to acquire discipline and some knowledge of maneuvers without interruption; and their service being extended to the same time in the succeeding year, the public will have all the benefits that can be derived from their aid for a whole campaign. * * *

The levies that have been raised have come to the Army so irregularly, in such a scattered, divided way, and at such late periods generally, that the aid they were intended to give has never been received, or at least but to a very limited and partial extent; and the time for which they were engaged has been spent in gaining a seasoning to the camp and discipline, and a greater part of it in winter quarters when they ought to have been in the field; or they must have been sent there raw and untutored, a circumstance which may lead in some critical moment before an enemy to most fatal consequences."

At the beginning of the year the ill effect of short enlistments became very marked, even in the Continental establishment. This caused Washington to express the opinion that to operate against New York our troops should be double in number to those of the enemy, and that "this would be far from giving a certainty of success."

OFFICERS.

The rapid depreciation of the currency continued to increase the distress of the officers. During the previous year Congress had voted them half pay for seven years after the close of the war, but as this did not relieve their present wants, Washington wrote to the committee of Congress on the 20th of January

That the officers of the Army are in a very disagreeable situation; that the most unhappy consequences are to be apprehended if they are not speedily placed in a better, and that some provision more adequate than has yet been made is necessary,

a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, pp. 404–406.

are truths so obvious and so generally acknowledged that it would almost seem superfluous to say anything to enforce them. But it is a point in which, in my opinion, the public safety is so essentially concerned that I can not let slip any opportunity of urging its importance and pressing it upon the public attention.

The patience of the officers has been a long time nourished by the hope that some adequate provision was in contemplation. Though nothing satisfactory has hitherto been done, their hopes have been still kept alive; but this can not be much longer the case, and when they come once to fix an opinion that they have nothing to expect, they will no longer combat the necessity that drives them from the service. It is worthy of observation, that the state of inactivity to which we may probably be compelled the next campaign will give leisure for cherishing their discontents and dwelling upon all the hardships of their situation. When men are employed, and have the incitements of military honor to engage their ambition and pride, they will cheerfully submit to inconveniences which in a state of tranquillity would appear insupportable. Indeed, not to multiply arguments upon a subject so evident, it is a fact not to be controverted, that the officers can not support themselves with their present pay; that necessity will oblige them to leave the service unless better provided for, and that, remaining in it, those who have no fortunes will want the common necessaries of life, and those who have fortunes must ruin them.a

Referring to half-pay for life, which he had before recommended, he continues:

The difference indeed in point of expense between the present form of the halfpay establishment and one for life would be inconsiderable. Seven years will probably be the period of the lives of the greatest part of the incumbents, and few of the survivors will much exceed it. But the difference in the provision in the estimation of the officer's own mind is very great. In one case he has provision for life, whether it be long or short; in the other, for a limited period, which he can look beyond, and naturally flatters himself he shall outlive.

Although these suggestions were not wholly adopted, Congress on the 17th of August recommended that the States grant half-pay for life to officers serving during the war, and proper rewards to soldiers as well. It also recommended the States to give pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers killed in the service.

We see, then, that the Government found it necessary, to give bounty in the shape of half-pay.

a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, pp. 167-169.
Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, p. 170.

CHAPTER VI.

CAMPAIGN OF 1780.

TROOPS REQUIRED AND FURNISHED.

The experience of the years 1775 and 1776 was repeated in this campaign. In May the transfer of the British troops to the South, was followed by the siege of Charleston and surrender of Lincoln with more than 5,000 men. Later, on the 15th of August, some 4,000 Continentals and militia under General Gates were totally defeated at Camden, losing nearly 1,800 in killed, wounded, and prisoners.

The rout and capture of Ferguson's detachment at King's Mountain and the exploits of Marion and Sumter did not begin to offset these reverses, which gave the enemy possession of nearly the whole of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The difference in the behavior of raw and of disciplined troops in the open field, and the disasters so apt to happen when dependence is placed upon hastily improvised levies, were strikingly illustrated at the battle of Camden. As this engagement has been described by each of the famous cavalry leaders, Henry Lee and Tarleton, their respective accounts deserve to be quoted here. It will be remembered that the two armies met unexpectedly in a forest at night, each commander seeking his adversary to force him to battle.

Lee's statement is as follows:

The two armies halted, each throbbing with the emotions which the van rencontre had excited. The British army deployed in one line, which completely occupied the ground, each flank resting on impervious swamps. The infantry of the reserve took part in a second line, one-half opposite the center of each wing, and the cavalry held the road, where the left of the right wing united with the volunteers of Ireland, which corps formed the right of the left wing. Lieutenant-Colonel Webster commanded on the right and Col. Lord Rawdon on the left. With the front line were two 6 and two 3 pounders, under Lieutenant M'Leod of the artillery; with the reserve were two 6-pounders. Thus arranged, confiding in discipline and experience, the British general waited anxiously for light.

The Maryland leading regiment was soon recovered from the confusion produced by the panic of Armand's cavalry. Battle, although unexpected, was now inevit able, and General Gates arrayed his army with promptitude. The Second Brigade of Maryland, with the regiment of Delaware, under General Gist, took the right; the brigade of North Carolina the center, and that of Virginia, under Brigadier Stevens, the left. The First Brigade of Maryland was formed in reserve under the command of General Smallwood. To each brigade a due proportion of artillery was allotted, but we had no cavalry, as those who fled in the night were still flying. Maj. Gen. Baron de Kalb, charged with the line of battle, took post on the right, while the general in chief, superintending the whole, placed himself on the road between the line and the reserve.

The light of day dawned-the signal for battle. Instantly our center opened its artillery, and the left of our line, under Stevens, was ordered to advance. The veterans of the enemy, composing its right, were of course opposed to the Virginia militia, whereas they ought to have been faced by the Continental Brigade. Stevens, however, exhorting his soldiers to rely on the bayonet, advanced with his accustomed intrepidity. Lieut. Col. Otho Williams, adjutant-general, preceded him with a band of volunteers, in order to unite the fire of the enemy before they were in reach of the militia, that experience of its efficiency might encourage the latter to do their duty. The British general, closely watching our motives, discovered this movement on the left, and gave orders to Webster to lead into battle with the right. The command was executed with the characteristic courage and intelligence of that officer. Our left was instantly overpowered by the assault; and the brave Stevens had to endure the mortifying spectacle exhibited by his flying brigade. Without exchanging more than one fire with the enemy, they threw away their arms and sought that safety in flight which generally can be obtained only by courageous resistance. The North Carolina brigade, imitating that on the right, followed the shameful example. Stevens, Caswell, and Gates himself struggled to stop the fugitives and rally them for battle; but every noble feeling of the heart was sunk in base solicitude to preserve life; and having no cavalry to assist their exertions, the attempted reclamation failed entirely. The Continental troops with Dixon's regiment of North Carolinians, were left to oppose the enemy, every corps of whose army was acting with the most determined resolution. De Kalb and Gist yet held the battle on our right in suspense. Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, at the head of Williams's regiment, drove the corps in front of our line. Rawdon could not bring the brigade of Gist to recede bold was the pressure of the foe; firm as a rock the resistance of Gist. Now the Marylanders were gaining ground; but the deplorable desertion of the militia having left Webster unemployed, that discerning soldier detached some light troops with Tarleton's cavalry in pursuit, and opposed himself to the reserve brought up by Smallwood to replace the fugitives.

Here the battle was renewed with fierceness and obstinacy. The Marylanders with Dixon's regiment, although greatly outnumbered, firmly maintained the desperate conflict; and De Kalb, now finding his once exposed flank completely shielded, resorted to the bayonet. Dreadful was the charge. In one point of the line the enemy were driven before us with the loss of many prisoners. But while Smallwood covered the flank of the Second Brigade, his left became exposed; and Webster, never omitting to seize every advantage, turned the light infantry and Twenty-third Regiment on his open flank. Smallwood, however, sustained himself with undiminished vigor; but borne down at last by superiority of force, the First Brigade receded. Soon it returned to the line of battle; again it gave ground, and again rallied. Meanwhile De Kalb, with our right, preserved a conspicuous superiority. Lord Cornwallis, sensible of the advantages gained, and aware of the difficulty to which we were subjected by the shameful flight of our left, concentrated his force and made a decisive charge. Our brave troops were broken; and his Lordship, following up the blow, compelled the intrepid Marylanders to abandon the unequal contest. * * The road was heaped with the dead and wounded. Arms, artillery, horses, and baggage were strewed in every direction and the whole adjacent country presented evidences of the signal defeat.

*

Our loss was very heavy. More than a third of the Continental troops were killed and wounded; and of the wounded 170 were made prisoners. The regiment of Delaware was nearly annihilated. * * *The North Carolina militia also suffered greatly; more than 300 were taken and nearly 106 killed and wounded. Contrary to the usual course of events and the general wish, the Virginia militia who set the infamous example which produced the destruction of our army escaped entirely. De Kalb, sustaining by his splendid example the courageous efforts of our inferior force, in his last resolute attempt to seize victory, received eleven wounds, and was made prisoner. * * * The heroic veteran, though treated with every attention, survived but a few days. * * * The British loss is said to have amounted to 80 killed and 245 wounded. "

The account of Tarleton is equally graphic:

Before daybreak General Gates had made the following disposition of the American army, consisting of 2,000 Continentals and 4,000 State troops and militia. Three regiments of the Maryland line, under Brigadier-General Gist, formed the right wing. The North Carolina and Virginia Militia, commanded by Generals Caswell and Stev

"Lee's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 178, 179, 180, 182, 183.