The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [293]
After the fall of Charleston, Clinton and Cornwallis had both assumed that South Carolina could easily be controlled by the army’s establishment of a civil authority. In fact, Cornwallis now understood, the British had no control at all. Far from sweeping away the last dying groans of a rebellion, the British army had stumbled into a colony that was engulfed in its own civil war.
Since Clinton had left him with barely enough troops to maintain civil order in the larger towns, it was essential to bring as many Tories under arms as he could. But any enthusiasm the loyalists had for carrying British muskets had been swept away at Kings Mountain. The only true British soldier there had been Patrick Ferguson, and both Ferguson and his loyalist militia had been annihilated. Worse was the butchery that followed, and never were the signs of civil war so apparent. Many of the loyalist prisoners had been massacred by the rebel militia, retribution for so many of the atrocities committed by the loyalists. Nowhere in the entire theater of the war had the violence been so brutal between American civilians, with almost complete disregard on both sides for the authority of their army.
Clinton had sailed away filled with confidence that the colony was indeed wiped clean of rebel influence. In the months that had followed, that confidence had been strongly reinforced by Cornwallis’ spectacular success against Gates. That would certainly satisfy Clinton, and Cornwallis had even trumpeted his optimism to London. It had seemed certain that in a few short months, North Carolina would come under control as well. But then had come a dozen minor battles, the amazing show of strength and fighting ability of the rebel partisans. Every supply line, every depot, every unguarded troop position was subject at any moment to a sudden torrent of musket fire. Cornwallis had responded by sending Banastre Tarleton and his brutally efficient horsemen stampeding after the elusive rebels. But Tarleton’s success was most pronounced against small units often in retreat, refugees or stragglers the Legion pounced upon with a terrifying lack of mercy. But Tarleton was not always successful. In one sharp fight against Thomas Sumter, at a place called Blackstock’s Plantation, Tarleton had been severely embarrassed, losing twenty percent of his strength. Though Cornwallis continued to have faith in the Legion as his most valuable weapon, his frustration grew. If anything was to be accomplished in the Carolinas, he could not merely sit and wait for rebel militia to make a mistake. There was still a war, and there was still a rebel army to pursue. In their one confrontation, Cornwallis had nearly destroyed Horatio Gates and his entire force. He could do the same to Nathanael Greene.
HE WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE REPORTS HE HEARD ABOUT TARLETON’S Legion, claims of brutality from rebel prisoners, other protests coming even from loyalists. But Cornwallis would not press the man for details, would not lecture his most effective fighter on the proper rules of war. The militia on both sides had shown complete disregard for mercy and civilized conduct in the field. Cornwallis would not condone such brutality, but he could not deny it had become a very real ingredient of the war in South Carolina. If Tarleton strayed beyond the bounds of decency, Cornwallis did not have the luxury of shifting troublesome officers from one post to the other. Tarleton seemed immune to the protests, and if the young man was not impaired by the outcry that followed him, Cornwallis could readily accept that. Tarleton was simply