throughout that eventful period, gave unceasing evidences of his zeal and firmness in upholding his falling country. After the victory obtained by Morgan at the Cowpens, Davidson was among the most active of his countrymen in assembling the militia of his district, to enable General Greene, who had joined the light corps under Morgan, to stop the Brigadier-General Nash, to the main army in New-Jersey, where he served under the commander-inchief, until the North Carolina line was detached in November, 1779, to reinforce the southern army, commanded by Major-General Lincoln. Previous to this event, Major Davidson was promoted to the command of a regiment, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel commandant. As he passed through North Caro-progress of the advancing enemy, lina, Davidson obtained permission and was detached by General Greene, to visit his family, from which he on the night of the last day of Januahad been absent nearly three years. ry, to guard the very ford selected The delay produced by this visit by Lord Cornwallis for his passage saved him from captivity, as he found of the Catawba kiver on the next Charleston so closely invested when morning. Davidson possessed himhe arrived in its neighbourhood, as self of the post in the night, at the to prevent his rejunction with his head of three hundred men; and regiment. having placed a picquet near the shore, stationed his corps at some small distance from the ford. General Henry Lee, from whose memoirs of the war in the Southern department of the United States, we copy the present Sketch of General Davidson, gives the following account of the battle: Soon after the surrender of General Lincoln and his army, the loyalists of North Carolina, not doubting the complete success of the royal forces, began to embody themselves for the purpose of contributing their active aid in the field to the subsequent operations of the British general. They were numerous in "A disposition was immediately the western parts of the state, and made to dislodge Davidson, which especially in the highland settlement the British General O'Hara, with about Cross Creek. Lieutenant- the gurads, effected. LieutenantColonel Davidson put himself at the Colonel Hall, led with the light head of some of our militia, called company, followed by the grenaout to quell the expected insurrec-diers.-The current was rapid, the tion. He proceeded with vigour in stream waist deep, and five hundred the execution of his trust; and in yards in width. The soldiers crossan engagement with a party of loy-ed in platoons, supporting each alists near Calson's mill, he was severely wounded; the ball entered the umbilical region, and passed through his body near the kidneys. This confined him for eight weeks; when recovering, he instantly took the field, having been recently appointed Brigadier-General by the government of North Carolina, in the place of Brigadier-General Rutherford, taken at the battle of Camden. He exerted himself, in conjunction with General Sumner and Colonel Davie, to interrupt the progress of Lord Cornwallis in his advance towards Salisbury, and other's steps. When LieutenantColonel Hall reached the river, he was descried by the American sentinels, whose challenge and fire brought Davidson's corps into array. Deserted by his guide, Hall passed directly across, not knowing the landing place, which lay below him. This deviation from the common course, rendered it necessary for Davidson to incline to the right; but this manœuvre, although promptly performed, was not effected until the light infantry had gained the shore. A fierce conflict ensued, which was well supported by Davids son and his inferior force. The of life, and at a moment when his militia at length yielded, and David-services would have been highly son, while mounting his horse to di- beneficial to her. He was a man of rect the retreat, was killed. The popular manners, pleasing address, corps dispersed and sought safety in active and indefatigable. Enamourthe woods. Our loss was small ed with the profession of arms, and excepting General Davidson, an ac- devoted to the great cause for which tive, zealous, and influential officer. he fought, his future usefulness may The British Lieutenant-Colonel Hall be inferred from his former conduct. was also killed, with three of the light infantry, and thirty-six were wounded. Lord Cornwallis's horse was shot under him, and fell as soon as he got upon the shore. Leslee's horses were carried down the stream, and with difficulty saved; and O'Hara's tumbled over with him into the water." The congress of the United States, in gratitude for his services, and in commemoration of their sense of his worth, passed the following resolution, directing the erection of a monument to his memory : Resolved, That the governor and council of the state of North Carolina, be desired to erect a monu States, not exceeding the value of five hundred dollars, to the memory of the late Brigadier-General Davidson, who commanded the militia of the district of Salisbury, in the state of North Carolina, and was killed on the first day of February last, fighting gallantly in the defence of the liberty and independence of these states."* The loss of Brigadier-Generalment, at the expense of the United Davidson would have always been felt in any stage of the war. It was particularly detrimental in its effect at this period, as he was the chief instrument relied upon by General Greene for the assemblage of the militia; an event all important at this crisis, and anxiously desired by the American general. The ball passed through his breast, and he instantly fell dead. This promising soldier was thus lost to his country in the meridian * American Biog. Dictionary. WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE, Colonel Commandant of the State Cavalry of North Carolina. COLONEL DAVIE was born in the village of Egremont, in England, on the 20th June, 1759. His father visiting South Carolina soon after the peace of 1763, brought with him this son; and returning to England, confided him to the Rev. William Richardson, his maternal uncle; who becoming much attached to his nephew, not only took charge of his education, but adopted him as his son and heir. At the proper age, William was sent to an academy in North Carolina; from whence he was, after a few years, removed to the college of Nassau Hall, in Princeton, New-Jersey, then becoming the resort of most of the southern youth under the auspices of the learned and respectable Dr. Witherspoon. Here he finished his education, graduating in the autumn of 1776, a year memorable in our military as well as civil annals. Returning home, young Davie found himself shut out for a time from the army, as the commissions for the troops just levied had been issued. He went to Salisbury, where he commenced the study of law. The war continuing, contrary to the expectations which generally pre vailed when it began, Davie could no longer resist the wish to plant himself among the defenders of his country. Inducing a worthy and popular friend, rather too old for military service, to raise a troop of dragoons as the readiest mode of accomplishing his object, Davie obtained a lieutenancy in this troop. Without delay the captain joined the Southern army, and soon afterward returned home on a furlough. The command of the troop devolving on Lieutenant Davie, it was, at his request, annexed to the legion of Count Pulaski, where Captain Davie continued, until promoted by MajorGeneral Lincoln to the station of Brigade Major of cavalry. In this office Davie served until the affair at Stono, devoting his leisure to the acquirement of professional knowledge, and rising fast in the esteem of the general and army. When Lincoln attempted to dislodge Lieutenant Colonel Maitland from his entrenched camp on the Stono, Davie received a severe wound, and was removed from camp to the hospital in Charleston, where he was confined five months. Soon after his recovery he was empowered by the government of North Carolina to raise a small legionary corps, consisting of one troop of dragoons and two companies of mounted infantry; at the head of which he was placed with the rank of major. Quickly succeeding in completing his corps, in whose equipment he expended the last remaining shilling of an estate bequeathed to him by his uncle, he took the field, and was sedulously engaged in protecting the country between Charlotte and Camden, from the enemy's predatory excursions. On the fatal 19th of August he was hastening with his corps to join the army, when he met our dispersed and flying troops. He nevertheless continued to advance toward the conqueror; and by his prudence, zeal, and vigilance, saved a few of our wagons, and many of our stragglers. Acquainted with the movement of Sumpter, and justly apprehending that he would be destroyed unless speedily advised of the defeat of Gates, he despatched immediately a courier to that officer, communicating what had happened, performing, in the midst of distress and confusion, the part of an experienced captain. So much was his conduct respected by the government of North Carolina, that he was in the course of September promoted to the rank of colonel commandant of the cavalry of the state. At the two gloomiest epochs of the southern war, soon after the fall of Charleston and the overthrow of Gates, it was the good fortune of Colonel Davie, to be the first to shed a gleam through the surrounding darkness, and give hope to the country, by the brilliancy of his exploits. In one instance, without loss or injury, on his part, he entirely destroyed an escort of provisions, taking 40 prisoners, with their horses and arms. In the other, under the immediate eye of a large British force, which was actually beating to arms, to attack him, he routed a party stronger than his own, killing and wounding 60 of the enemy, and carrying off with him 96 horses and 120 stand of arms. When Lord Cornwallis entered Charlotte, a small village in North Carolina, Colonel Davie, at the head of his detachment, threw himself in his front, determined to give him a specimen of the firmness and gallantry, with which the inhabitants of the place were prepared to dispute with his lordship their native soil. Colonel Tarlton's legion formed the British van, led by Major Hanger, the commander himself being confined by sickness. When that celebrated corps had advanced near to the centre of the village, where the Americans were posted, Davie poured into it so destructive a fire, that it immediately wheeled, and retired in disorder. Being rallied on the commons, and again led on to the charge, it received on the same spot, another fire with similar effect. consequence of the accession of force to the enemy by the arrival of three regiments of infantry from 'Ireland, determined to send a con. fidential officer to the legislature of North Carolina, then in session, to represent to them his relative con Lord Cornwallis witnessing the confusion, thus produced, among his choicest troops, rode up in person, and in a tone of dissatisfaction, up-dition, and to urge their adoption of braided the legion with unsoldierly conduct, reminding it of its former exploits and reputation. Pressed on his flanks by the British infantry, Colonel Davie had now fallen back to a new and well-selected position. To dislodge him from this, the legion cavalry advanced on him, a third time, in rapid charge, in full view of their commander in chief, but in vain. Another fire from the American marksmen, killed several of their officers, wounded Major Hanger, and repulsed them again with increased confusion. The main body of the British being now within musket shot, the American leader abandoned the contest. It was by strokes like these, that he seriously crippled and intimidated his enemy, acquired an clevated standing in the estimation of his friends, and served very essentially the interest of freedom. In this station he was found by General Greene, on assuming the command of the southern army; whose attention had been occupied from his entrance into North Carolina, in remedying the disorder in the quarter-master and commissary departments. To the first, Carrington had been called; and Davie was Dow induced to take upon himself the last, much as he preferred the station he then possessed. At the head of this department. Colonel Davie remained throughout the try ing campaign which followed; contributing greatly by his talents, his zeal, his local knowledge, and his influence, to the maintenance of the difficult and successful operations which followed. While before Ninety-six, Greene, foreseeing the difficulties again to be encountered, in effectual measures without delay, for the collection of magazines of provisions and the reinforcement of the army. Colonel Davie was selected by Greene for this important mission, and immediately repaired to the seat of government, where he ably and faithfully exerted himself to give effect to the views of his general. The effect of the capture of Cornwallis assuring the quick return of peace, Colonel Davie returned home', and resumed the profession with the practice of the law in the town of Halifax, on the Roanoke. He was afterward governor of North Carolina, and one of our ambassadors to France, at a very portentous conjuncture. The war in the south was ennobled by great and signal instances of individual and partizan valour and enterprise. Scarcely do the most high drawn heroes of fiction, surpass, in their darings and extraordinary achievements, many of the real ones of Pickens, Marion, Sumpter, and Davie, who figured in the southern states, during the conflict of the revolution. Colonel Davie, although younger by several years, possessed talents of a higher order, and was much more accomplished, in education and manners, than either of his three competitors for fame. For the comeliness of his person, his martial air, his excellence in horsemanship, and his consummate powers of field eloquence, he had scarcely an equal in the armies of his country. But his chief excellence lay in the magnanimity and generosity of his soul, his daring courage, his vigilance and address, and his unrelaxing activity and endurance of toil. If he was less frequently engaged in actual combat, than either of his three compeers, it was not because he was inferior to either of them in enterprise, or love of battle. His district being more interior, was, at first, less frequently invaded by British detachments. When, however, lord Cornwallis ultimately advanced into that quarter, his scouts and foraging parties, found in Colonel Davie, and his brave associates, as formi dable an enemy as they had ever encountered. HENRY DEARBORN, THE subjoined sketch of the revo- | lutionary services rendered by General Dearborn, is collected from his brothers in arms. glorious seventeenth of June, informa tion was received at Mystic (now Medford) where Dearborn was stationed, that the British were prepáring to come out from Boston, and storm the works which had been thrown up on Breed's Hill the night before, by the Americans. The regiment to which he was attached was immediately paraded, and marched to Charlestown Neck. Dearborn's company composed the flank guard to the regiment. They crossed the neck under a galling fire from the British men of war and tained some loss, arrived at the heights. The action soon commenced, and the Americans stood their ground until their ammunition was expended, and they could no longer beat off the British bayonets with the but-ends of their muskets. Dearborn carried a fusee into the battle of Bunker's Hill, and fired regularly with his men. When the British sent a detachment to destroy the military stores in the vicinity of Lexington, Mr. Dearborn, then a young gentleman in the study of medicine, resided at Nottingham, in New-Hampshire. Animated by the patriotic resistance of the Americans, immediately upon being informed of the battle, he assembled the inhabitants, and observed that the time had now arrived, when the rights of the Ame-floating batteries, and having susrican people must be vindicated by arms, or an odious despotism would for ever be riveted upon them. The militia had already gathered; and impressed with these sentiments, a company of 65 men, armed and accoutred, paraded at 10 o'clock of the next day after the battle of Lexington. Dearborn advanced with them in such rapidity, that they reached Cambridge common, a distance of fifty miles, in twenty hours. After remaining at Cambridge for several days, there being no immediate occasion for their services, they returned. Dearborn was soon after commissioned a captain in one of the New-Hampshire regiments, under the command of Col. Stark, and such was his popularity and the confidence of the people in his bravery and conduct, that in ten days from the time he received his commission, he enlisted a full company, and again marched to Cambridge. On the The next arduous service in which he was engaged, was the expedition to Canada, through the wilds of Kennebec, under the command of General Arnold. He was not or dered on this dangerous and difficult service, but persuaded a captain, who was drafted, to exchange places with him. Thirty-two days were employed in traversing the hideous wilderness between the settlements on the Kennebec and the Chaudiere, in which every hardship and fatigue, of which human nature is capable, was endured indiscriminately by the |