ldness of the season they must have perished. On the evening of
February the twenty-third they reached dry land, and came unperceived
within sight of the enemy; and an attack being made at seven o'clock,
the inhabitants of St. Vincennes gladly surrendered it, and assisted in
besieging Hamilton, who held out in the fort. On the next day he
surrendered the garrison. Clarke despatching some armed boats up the
Wabash, captured a convoy, including forty prisoners and L10,000 worth
of goods and stores. Hamilton, and some officers and privates, were sent
to the governor at Williamsburg. Colonel Shelby about the same time
attacking the Cherokees, who had taken up the tomahawk, burnt eleven
towns and a large quantity of corn, and captured L25,000 worth of goods.

The assembly of Virginia afterwards presented to General Clarke an
honorary sword, on the scabbard of which was inscribed: "Sic semper
tyrannis;" and on the blade: "A tribute to courage and patriotism,
presented by the State of Virginia to her beloved son, General George
Rogers Clarke, who, by the conquest of Illinois and Vincennes, extended
her empire and aided in defence of her liberties." In his latter years
he was intemperate.

FOOTNOTES:

[687:A] The Rev. Dr. Hill told Mr. Grigsby that he had seen the marks of
the flogging on Morgan's back.

[688:A] Cooper's History of North America, 106.

[689:A] To wit, that he ought by no means to have fired at the American,
as he probably might have wished to speak to him and give him
intelligence.

CHAPTER XCIV.

1779.

Condition of Affairs--Mason's Letter--Convention Troops
removed to Charlottesville--Miscellaneous--Church Establishment
abolished--Clergy and Churches--Suffolk burnt--D'Estaing's
Siege of Savannah--Lincoln surrenders--Gates defeated at
Camden--Sumpter defeated--Battle of King's Mountain--Colonel
Campbell--Colonel Ferguson.

WASHINGTON looked upon the early part of 1779 as more fraught with
danger than any preceding period of the war, not on account of the
strength of the enemy, but owing to the spirit of selfish speculation,
money-making, and stock-jobbing that prevailed, the depreciation of the
paper currency, the States employing their ablest men at home, the
idleness and dissipation of men in public trust, and the dissensions in
congress. The demoralizing influences of war were making themselves
manifest.[693:A]

Colonel George Mercer, of Stafford, who ha