magazines, projecting ignited
fragments of timber like meteors in the troubled air, presented
altogether an awful spectacle of the horrors of civil war. The enemy
shortly after, laden with plunder, embarked for New York.

While Sir Henry Clinton was encamped near Haerlem, and Washington in the
Highlands on the Hudson,[697:A] Major Lee, of Virginia, surprised in the
night a British post at Paulus Hook, and with a loss of two killed and
three wounded, made one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, including
three officers. Soon after this a fleet, commanded by Admiral Arbuthnot,
arrived at New York with re-enforcements. D'Estaing returned to the
southern coast of America with a fleet of twenty-two ships-of-the-line
and eleven frigates, and having on board six thousand soldiers. He
arrived so unexpectedly that the British ship Experiment of fifty guns,
and three frigates, fell into his hands. In September, Savannah,
occupied by a British force under General Prevost, was besieged by the
French and Americans, commanded by D'Estaing and Lincoln.[697:B] In an
ineffectual effort to storm the post the French and Americans suffered
heavy loss. The siege was raised, and D'Estaing, who had been wounded in
the action, sailed again for the West Indies, after this second abortive
attempt to aid the cause of independence. The condition of the South was
now more gloomy than ever.

Clinton, toward the close of the year, embarked with a formidable force
in Arbuthnot's fleet, and sailed for South Carolina. In April, 1780, Sir
Henry laid siege to Charleston; and General Lincoln, undertaking to
defend the place, contrary to his own judgment, and in compliance with
the entreaties of the inhabitants, after an obstinate defence was
compelled to capitulate.[698:A] Shortly after this disaster Colonel
Buford's regiment was cut to pieces by Tarleton. Georgia and South
Carolina now succumbed to the enemy: it was the bending of the willow
before the sweep of the tempest. In June, General Gates was appointed by
congress to the command in the South. Having collected an army he
marched toward Camden in South Carolina, then held by the enemy. While
Gates was moving from Clermont toward that place in the night,[698:B]
Cornwallis marched out with a view of attacking the American army at
Clermont. Thus the two armies, each essaying to surprise the other, met
unexpectedly in the woods, at about two o'clock in the morning. At the
first onset the American line w