cter, was stationed at the site of Yorktown. Across the river
another group fortified Mr. William Howard's house, while in
Westmoreland still another made their headquarters at the residence of
Colonel John Washington.

Hansford, Whaley, Gregory Wakelett, and other officers were men of
ability, who could be trusted to remain firm in the cause for which
they took up arms. But after Bacon's death the rank and file were
filled up partly with slaves and indentured workers, who had little
interest in either the Indian war or in curbing the governor's
despotism. The garrison at Colonel West's house, near West Point,
consisted of about 400 men, of whom eighty were Negroes, and many
others were servants. What they wanted was their freedom. But among
them there must have been some of Bacon's veterans, for they continued
to fight well.

But now the policy of dividing the army into isolated garrisons began
to bear bitter fruit. In November, Major Robert Beverley crossed the
bay with a strong force in a fleet of transports, entered the York
river, and surprised the men at the site of Yorktown. Hansford was
captured. A few days later Beverley returned to the York and after a
brief encounter captured Major Edmund Cheeseman and Captain Thomas
Wilford.

Berkeley now began a series of executions marked by a brutality
unsurpassed in American history. One may excuse the tortures inflicted
by the Indians because they were savages. There can be no excuse for
an Englishman of culture and gentle birth. Extremely avaricious, he
had seen the accumulation of a lifetime taken from him; proud of his
ability as a ruler, he had seen his government overthrown and had been
forced to take refuge in an inaccessible corner of the colony;
revering, almost idolizing, the King, he must now explain to him his
failures. So his vindictiveness against the men he held responsible
knew no bounds.

His first victim was Hansford. When he was condemned by Berkeley's
council of war, he pleaded that he might be shot like a soldier not
hanged like a dog. "But you are not condemned as a soldier, but as a
rebel taken in arms," he was told. As he stood on the scaffold he
spoke to the crowd, protesting "that he died a loyal subject and a
lover of his country."

When Major Cheeseman was brought in, Berkeley sternly asked him why he
had joined the rebels. But as he was about to reply his wife rushed in
and told the governor that it was she who had urged him to take up