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the inhabitants whose houses he had burned, whose
Chap. XXIV.} 1781. May 22. |
relations he had hanged.
On the twenty-second of May,
Greene, with
Kosciuszko for his engineer, and nine hundred and eighty-four men, began the siege of Ninety-Six.
The post, though mounting but three pieces of artillery, was strongly fortified; the garrison of five hundred and fifty was ample for the place; and the commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger, was an officer of ability and enterprise.
A fleet from
Ireland having arrived at
Charleston with re-enforcements,
Rawdon on the seventh of June marched with two thousand men to the relief
of Ninety-Six.
Loath to be baffled,
Greene, on the eighteenth, ordered a party of Marylanders and of
Virginians to make a lodgement in the fort, in which no justifying breach had been made.
Of the brave men who were sent into the ditch, one-third were killed, and but one in six came out of it unwounded.
The next day the general raised the siege and withdrew to the north, complaining of fortune which had neither given him victory at
Guilford, nor at
Camden, nor now at Ninety-Six.
But his fortitude always rose above disasters, and his resources did not fail him. He retreated as far as the
Enoree.
Giving over pursuit, the
British commander returned to Ninety-Six.
That insulated post could no longer be maintained.
Leaving the largest part of his force to assist in removing the loyalists, he marched with a thousand men to establish a detachment on the
Congaree.
Greene followed; and his cavalry, detached to watch the enemy's motions,
