The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [292]
“I shall not ignore anyone who can assist us.”
“It’s like that all over this place, Nat. Partisans and militia. But the word is out there. They’re hearing that finally, the whole country is joining their fight. Washington has done sent his best man. You draw up a plan, they’ll carry it out. That goes for me, as well.”
Greene pushed the papers aside, could see a smile on Morgan’s broad face, the telltale gap of missing teeth.
“Well, then, Daniel, as soon as the men here are fit, I think it’s time we take this fight back into South Carolina.” He pointed at the bottle cradled in Morgan’s hand. “If you don’t mind . . . if I’m going to fight with these fellows . . .”
Morgan seemed to hesitate, then handed the bottle across the desk. Greene pulled the cork, the aroma ripping into his nose. He held the bottle away, looked at the strange clear liquid.
“If they have the courage to drink this . . . no wonder they can fight.”
48. CORNWALLIS
WINNSBORO, SOUTH CAROLINA, JANUARY 1781
HE HAD CHOSEN A HEADQUARTERS THAT WOULD PLACE HIS REGULAR troops close enough to give support to as many of the outposts as possible. They were many and spread far apart, from Augusta and Charleston to Camden, Ninety-Six and Rock Hill. It was essential to offer the citizens of the colony a visible presence, a reminder that this place was ultimately under the control of King George. But the display alone would never be effective without the power of the army. Every examination of the maps, every plan for a new campaign brought out his wrath for what Henry Clinton had done to his army.
Each of the outposts had come under some assault, some sharp probe from at least one of the partisan rebel commanders who ran rampant through the rugged countryside. The result was that a substantial part of his meager army had to remain in place, guarding the crossroads that united the army in this loose-knit web of supply lines. If he was to make any move northward, any invasion of North Carolina that would have good effect, he desperately needed more men.
He had summoned Alexander Leslie from Virginia, with a major portion of the troops Clinton had sent to the mouth of the Chesapeake. Clinton’s plan had been to follow the conquest of the Carolinas with a massed assault on Virginia. The troops there were included in Cornwallis’ command, and despite Clinton’s blanket optimism, Cornwallis knew that his diminished army would need considerable help in South Carolina before any further campaign could begin. Leslie had brought another twenty-three hundred troops, easing the strain on the outposts. But there were other problems besides vulnerability to attack. Each outpost had to be fed and supplied, and though South Carolina was ripe with fertile and productive farmland, none of the outposts could safely draw forage far beyond its own fortifications.
Cornwallis had established a system of supply that originated in Charleston, but the transport ships were few, another infuriating lack of support from Henry Clinton. Those supplies that did arrive were warehoused in Charleston, much of the goods now in useless piles. On his return to New York, Clinton had taken not only the cavalry, he had taken the draft horses and wagons as well. So there was almost no means of moving the essential goods overland. South Carolina’s vast web of waterways, rivers, and navigable streams provided some means of transport, but small boats were as scarce as wagons. Clinton’s assumption had been that the vast population of loyalists would come to the army’s aid, providing all the transportation required. But the loyalists had proven to be more of a headache for Cornwallis than a help.
It was the sad result of Clinton’s decree, which had inspired a stunning display of brutality throughout the colony. Anyone who coveted a neighbor’s land or had some personal grudge, any creditor who wished to pressure his client, could exact his toll by simply claiming his target to be a rebel. Old scores between feuding families were settled