Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/254

 222 Conquest of the Ohio. Siege of Charleston, [i 778-80 Even more extraordinary was that control over his troops which re- strained them, composed and trained as they were, from any act of outrage which could alienate the inhabitants. Moreover, by diplomacy and by the sheer force of a superior mind, he succeeded in securing the neutrality of the neighbouring Indian tribes. In the following winter (1777-78), Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, headed an expedition and re-occupied Vincennes, one of the towns which had submitted to Clark, but which he had been compelled to leave in the hands of a French garrison. Two hundred and forty miles of wilderness separated Clark at Kaskaskia from the enemy. Nevertheless, regardless of the season, he set out early in February, 1778, and invested the fort at Vincennes, which was occupied by Hamilton. With the active support of some of the inhabitants and the friendly neutrality of the rest, Clark reduced Hamilton to surrender. The Ohio valley was thereafter the scene of raids and desultory fighting, but till the end of the war it remained de facto American territory. The conduct of the French population recalls the successive conquests of New York and the tranquil acquiescence with which the Dutch popu- lation were handed backwards and forwards. It is clear that while on the whole their sympathies were with the Americans, those sympathies were not strong enough to nerve them to anything like a sustained effort. Their attitude might have been widely different if there had been on the British side a commander gifted, like Clark, with the instincts of a born leader. The campaign of 1780 opened with an attack by Clinton on the hitherto impregnable fortress of Charleston. The situation of the town, strong from one point of view, has an element of weakness. It is connected with the mainland by a swampy neck, difficult to cross in the face of an effective fire, especially for a force encumbered with siege artillery. On each side of the town is a navigable river the Cooper on the northern side, the Ashley on the southern giving water-communica- tion with the inland country. In proportion to the size of the harbour, the entrance is narrow. Given a sufficient superiority of naval power to keep up communication with the sea and sufficient command of the inland country to harass and impede a force endeavouring to cross the neck, the position is one of absolute security. But let an enemy once get possession of the neck and of the mouth of the harbour, and the city with its garrison must be doomed; for the same swampy conditions, which make the neck difficult to occupy, render the position of a blockad- ing force, once established there, secure. The fate of the town was virtually sealed when the American naval commander, who lay at the mouth of the harbour, retreated to Charleston, sending some of his ships to block the mouth of the Cooper river. The British fleet then entered the harbour. Clinton was now rendered independent of any landward communication. He was able to operate freely by detached