Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/250

 218 French fleet off Rhode Island. [ms conduct has been variously judged. A British military historian of authority, Stedman, himself a practical soldier, considers that Lee's caution saved the American army from defeat and possibly from destruc- tion. On the other hand Washington held and forcibly expressed on the spot the opinion that an opportunity of striking a decisive blow had been thrown away. Documents which have come to light in com- paratively recent times raise a strong probability that Lee was at this time in the confidence of the British government and acting in their interests. The summer of 1778 witnessed an extension of the area of the war, and, as a consequence, a series of scattered and indecisive operations. Of these the most important in conception, though not in execution, was the joint action of the French fleet and an American land-force against Rhode Island. In December, 1776, the British had occupied Newport: the Americans however retained possession of Providence. Though trifling hostilities took place, no serious attempt was made for some time by either side to dislodge the other. But in the summer of 1778 the appearance on the American coast of a French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing gave the signal for active operations. A small British fleet lay off Newport, upon which the British forces depended for supplies and, in case of need, for assistance. D'Estaing's superiority in numbers enabled him so to hem in several of the British ships in the strait between the island and the mainland, that they were only saved from capture by being burnt. Fortunately for the British, a storm arose which dispersed d'Estaing's fleet, damaging it to such an extent that he insisted on going to Boston to refit. Thence he sailed to the West Indies without attempting, for the present, anything further. This defection compelled the Americans to abandon their designs against Rhode Island, and called forth an amount of mutual ill-feeling which almost threatened a rupture of the lately formed alliance. The year 1778 also witnessed the extension of the war westward and southward. The western branch of the war, as one may call it, was so detached that it is simpler to deal with it collectively somewhat later. In the south there had been no regular operations since 1776. But bands of loyalists and fugitives from Georgia and the Carolinas had established themselves in Florida, then part of the British dominions, whence they harried Georgia, and were themselves harassed in turn. War was made a pretext for plunder ; and, in consequence, the fighting in the south was from the outset marked by a ferocity and lawlessness which did not disappear even when the war assumed a more regular character. In the autumn of 1778 raids were made on each side : they were more deliberate and better organised than before, but had no lasting effect. Simultaneously Clinton was planning a regular expedi- tion for the reduction of Georgia. Colonel Campbell, with a force of 3400 men, supported by a small squadron, was sent by sea to attack