CHAPTER XIV.

THOMAS NELSON.

NELSON'S ANCESTORS-HIS EARLY EMPLOYMENTS-A MAN OF FORTUNE - Kindling of the REVOLUTION IN VIRGINIA-NELSON A MEMBER OF CONGRESS IN 1776-INFLUENCE OF LEADING MINDS-MIFFLIN SENT TO RECRUIT FOR THE ARMY-NELSON ORGANIZES A CORPs of CAVALRY-ELECTED GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA - ARNOLD AND CORNWALLIS AMERICAN MILITARY LEADERS IN VIRGINIA — DEPRECIATION OF CONTINENTAL MONEY-THE PEOPLE AVOID IT-NELSON'S NOBLE EXAMPLE-ANECDOTE OF HIS PATRIOTISM TOLD BY LAFAYETTE -HE BORROWS MONEY FOR PUBLIC SERVICES ON HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY-PUBLIC NEGLECT THE FAMILIAR FRIENDS OF WASHINGTON-NELSON'S FAMILY UNREWAarded.

AMONG the patriots, statesmen, and soldiers that Virginia contributed to the Congress and armies of the Revolution, Thomas Nelson will ever claim an elevated rank. Descended from ancient and highly respectable English ancestry, General Nelson was educated in England, and was engaged, prior to the Revolution, in mercantile concerns, upon an extensive scale, at Yorktown, in Virginia, strange to say, at that period the importing city for Philadelphia.*

Upon the breaking out of the troubles, Nelson joined the cause of the colonies. He was a man of large for

* Yorktown is now an inconsiderable village, containing about three hundred inhabitants. It is still a port of entry, but commerce has deserted it, and the village is going into decay. A courthouse was built there in the year 1698; and an old church which was destroyed in 1814, had in it a bell inscribed, "County of York, Virginia, 1725." The church was built at the close of the previous century, out of the stone marl which composes the bluff on which the town stands. The water-scenery at Yorktown is very fine. The York river is there a full mile wide, and from the ruins or site of the old church, no land is visible in the direction of Chesapeake bay, into which the river flows.

tune, having many and valuable estates in different counties, particularly the county of Hanover. Greatly beloved in his native colony, he held a high and commanding influence among the people. He threw all into the scale of his country, in her struggle for the natural rights of mankind.

After the battle of Lexington, Virginia put forth all her strength in the senate and the field. The very elite of her statesmen had been sent to the Congress of 1774,*

* Failing in their efforts to obtain a redress of their grievances, by remonstrances and petitions, the colonists, in 1774, resolved to call a general congress of representatives. These were chosen in the several colonies during the spring and summer, and on the fifth of September they assembled, by appointment, in a building known as Carpenter's Hall, in Philadelphia. Some of the wisest and best men in America were there. Their sessions continued until the twenty-sixth of October; and during that time they discussed the great questions of the day in such manner that the representatives of each colony became well informed respecting the temper of the people in general, and were prepared to enter, into that union of effort for independence which was soon afterward formed. Twelve of the thirteen colonies were represented. Georgia was the exception. The delegates from Virginia were-Peyton Randolph, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and Richard Bland.

The author of these Recollections relates the following anecdote, in connection with this Congress, upon the authority of Ludwell Lee, son of Richard Henry Lee: "When the first continental congress assembled at Philadelphia, September, 1774, there had been no provision made for the maintenance of the members, while in the discharge of their public duties. A council being held to determine as to the ways and means of effecting this most just and necessary arrangement, Richard Henry Lee (the same who afterward, in '76,moved the Declaration of Independence), rose, and observed, that as he was assured that every member present was desirous of putting the country to the least possible expense, in the maintenance of the Congress, he would move, that during the session, the honorable members be fed on wild pigeons, that article appearing to be in very great abundance, and certainly the very cheapest food in the market.

"Now let the modern reader remember, that this Richard Henry Lee was bred in the lap of luxury, educated in Europe, and possessed the most polished and courtly manners, while his seat of Chantilly, which he had just left to obey the high and imposing call of his country, was at once the seat of the most refined and enlarged hospitality.

"This illustrious patriot and statesmen, often congratulated himself in his later life, upon his famed motion touching the maintenance of the members of the first Con

while the pride of her chivalry took arms in the succeeding year. Among the illustrious names that composed the Virginia delegation to the Roman-like senate of 1776, we find the name of Thomas Nelson, junior, who affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence on the ever-memorable fourth of July.

The state of society in the South in the olden time was very different from that of modern days, under the republic. Under the ancien regime there were but two orders in society-the rich and educated, and the poor. Hence, the higher classes, as they were then called, held a most material influence over those who were not so fortunately situated. Men of extensive personal influence over the minds of the people at large, were all-important to the cause of American liberty in the commencement and during the whole progress of the Revolution, with the view of diffusing and fostering the whig spirit, in opposition to the powerful and ably-directed efforts of the tories.**

It is well known to history, that the commander-inchief spared, at a very critical period of the war, an active and valued officer (Mifflin), that he might exert his personal influence among the people of his native state, to recruit the wasted ranks of the army.†

gress, declaring it to have been in purity of patriotism, not secondary to even his immortal resolve in '76, That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.'-Such was a patriot of our olden time."

*The terms whig and tory had then long been used in England, as titles of political parties, and continue to be so used to the present day. The former denoted the opposers of royalty; the latter indicated its supporters. These terms were introduced into America two or three years before the Revolution broke out, and became the distinctive titles of patriots and loyalists.

It was late in the autumn of 1776, while Washington and his little army were retreating toward the Delaware, across New Jersey. The army was rapidly melting

On his return to Virginia from serving in the continental Congress, General Nelson exerted himself in keeping alive the spirit of the Revolution, which was often flagging from the severe disasters that had attended our arms. He was also actively employed in organizing a corps of cavalry, in which young gentlemen of the first families served as volunteers. This corps he commanded up to the double invasion of 1781,* when, upon being elected governor of the state, he took the command in chief of its militia.

The invasion of Arnold was more immediately predatory, but that of Cornwallis swept like a tempest through the devoted commonwealth, already much weakened by her untiring exertions to sustain the army of Greene in the Carolinas, and to defend the many points of her territory, assailable by the attacks of the enemy's naval power.†

by desertions and the expiration of terms of enlistment. It was a most gloomy period of the contest, and few hoped for success in the field. However, Washington determined to have personal appeals made to the people for the purpose of recruiting his army, and he sent the eloquent and popular General Mifflin into Pennsylvania, "to exhort and rouse the militia to come forth in defence of their country." In Philadelphia he was very successful, and very soon he was at the head of fifteen hundred new recruits, in full march upon Trenton, to join the army under Washington.

*Early in January, 1781, Benedict Arnold, zealous in the cause of his royal purchaser, went to Virginia with about sixteen hundred British and tory troops, and a few armed vessels. He went up the James river, as far as Richmond, and destroyed much public and private property, and then returned to Portsmouth. In April, he accompanied General Philips up the same river, on a desolating expedition. They were joined at Petersburg by Cornwallis, who had invaded the state from North Carolina, and who then took the general command. Lafayette was sent into Virginia, and manoeuvred skilfully against this "double invasion." He was soon followed by Wayne and Steuben.

† Toward the close of 1775, British vessels, under the general direction of Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, who had been compelled to flee from Williamsburg, were instrumental in great ravages along the Virginia coast, especially in the

The forces under Steuben, Lafayette, and subsequently Wayne, were too limited in point of numbers, and too much straitened for supplies of every sort, to be able to check the victorious career of the enemy. Indeed, the resources of Virginia, great as they originally were, had been sadly reduced in the previous campaign by the capture of her veteran regiments on the surrender of Charleston, by the total discomfiture at Camden,‡ but, vicinity of the capes. Norfolk was burned, and all along the Elizabeth river, to Hampton roads, a vast amount of property, public and private, was destroyed. In 1779, Sir George Collier, with land troops, under General Mathews, again produced great distress along the shores of the same waters; and the armed vessels under Arnold, in 1781, were no better than pirates.

* Cornwallis penetrated Virginia beyond Richmond, and destroyed an immense amount of property. He sent out marauding parties in every direction, to harass the inhabitants, and for several weeks the whole state was kept in great alarm. Tarleton and Simcoe, active officers, at the head of energetic and well-disciplined corps, were busy in all quarters, and Lafayette found it quite impossible to stem the torrent of invasion. But when Wayne, with reinforcements, was approaching from the north, Cornwallis turned his face seaward, and slowly retreated down the peninsula toward Williamsburg.

In the spring of 1780, Sir Henry Clinton, having arrived at Charleston with a large force, borne by a fleet under Admiral Arbuthnot, invested that city. The siege went on for several weeks; the Americans within the city being under the command of General Lincoln. Finally, Cornwallis came with a reinforcement of three thousand men. On the ninth of May, a general cannonade from the ships and the land batteries commenced, and it was kept up for two days. On the night of the eleventh it was perceived that further resistance would be madness. They offered to surrender, and on the following day, the army, city, all passed into the hands of the conquerors.

‡ General Gates was appointed to the command of the southern army, after the surrender of Lincoln at Charleston. Cornwallis had been left in the chief command of the British in South Carolina, and Sir Henry Clinton had returned to New York. In order to make the subjugation of the South complete, the British army, in three divisions, marched into the interior, leaving a garrison for Charleston. One division, under Colonel Brown, marched to Augusta, in Georgia; a second, under Colonel Cruger, penetrated the country to Ninety-Six, in Western Carolina; and a third, under Lord Rawdon, took post at Camden. Toward the latter place Gates approached, early in August. He resolved to fall upon Rawdon on the night of the fifteenth of August, and marched from his camp confident of success, for that purpose. At the same time, Cornwallis (who had hastened to Camden on hearing