| | 1 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The kinsmen, or, The black riders of Congaree  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The colonies of North America, united in resistance to
the mother country, had now closed the fifth year of their
war of independence. The scene of conflict was now
almost wholly transferred from the northern to the southern
colonies. The former were permitted a partial repose,
while the latter, as if to compensate for a three years' respite,
were subjected to the worst aspects and usages of
war. Georgia and South Carolina were supposed by
the British commanders to be entirely recovered to the
sway of their master. They suffered, in consequence, the
usual fortune of the vanquished. But the very suffering
proved that they lived, and the struggle for freedom was
continued. Her battles,
“Once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though often lost,”
were never considered by her friends in Carolina to be
utterly hopeless. Still, they had frequent occasion to despair.
Gates, the successful commander at Saratoga, upon
whose great renown and feeble army the hopes of the
south, for a season, appeared wholly to depend, had suffered
a terrible defeat at Camden—his militia scattered to
the four winds of Heaven—his regulars almost annihilated
in a conflict with thrice their number, which, for fierce
encounter and determined resolution, has never been surpassed;—while
he, himself, a fugitive, covered with shame
and disappointment, vainly hung out his tattered banner in
the wilds of North Carolina—a colony sunk into an apathy
which as effectually paralysed her exertions, as did the
presence of superior power paralyse those of her more
suffering sisters. Conscious of indiscretion and a most
fatal presumption—the punishment of which had been as
sudden as it was severe—the defeated general suffered far
less from apprehension of his foes, than of his country.
He had madly risked her strength, at a perilous moment,
in a pitched battle, for which he had made no preparation
—in which he had shown neither resolution nor ability.
The laurels of his old renown withered in an instant—his
reputation was stained with doubt, if not with dishonour.
He stood, anxious and desponding, awaiting, with whatever
moral strength he could command, the summons to that
tribunal of his peers, upon which depended all the remaining
honours of his venerable head. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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