Major General Nathanael Greene to George Washington, 29 March 1781
From Major General Nathanael Greene
Head Quarters at Colo. Ramsays on deep River [N.C.],1
March 29th 1781.
Sir
Inclosed I send your Excellency a Copy of my Letter to Congress for your information respecting the operations in this department.2
The Marquis de la Fayette has arrived in Virginia; but I beleive his Troops are still in Maryland.3 some Days since I sent Colo. Morris to confer with the Marquis, and see if he has your Excellencys permission to go farther Southward. I received a Letter from him on the road acquainting me that there was an account from Richmond of Admiral Arbuthnots arriving in Chesapeak with 6 Ships of the Line, and upwards of thirty Transports with a considerable reinforcement.4 If this report is true our flattering prospects are at an end in that quarter. Nothing more can be expected than confining the Enemy in their fortifications. It would afford me great releif if the detachment under the Marquis could proceed farther southward. But I fear the state of the Northern Army will not admit of this, nor am I informed of the latitude your Excellency had given him on that subject.
The regular Troops will be late in the field if they are raised at all. Virginia from the unequal operation of the Law for draughting is not likely to get many Soldiers.5 Maryland as late as the 13th of this Month had not got a Man, nor is there a Man raised in North Carolina or the least prospect of it. In this situation remote from reinforcements, inferior to the Enemy in numbers, and no prospect of support I am at a loss what is best to be done. If the Enemy falls down towards Wilmington they will be in a position where it would be impossible for us to injure them if we had a force. In this critical and distressing situation I am determined to carry the War immediately into South Carolina. The Enemy will be obliged to follow us or give up their posts in that State. If the former takes place it will draw the War out of this State, and give it an opportunity to raise its proportion of Men. If they leave their posts to fall they must lose more there than they can gain here. If we continue in this State the Enemy will hold their possessions in both. All things considered I think the movement is warranted by the soundest reasons both political and Military. The Manœuvre will be critical and dangerous; and the troops exposed to every hardship. But as I share it with them I hope they will bear up under it with that magnanimity, which has already supported them, and for which they deserve every thing of their Country.
I expect to be ready to march in about five Days, and have written to Genl Sumpter to collect the Militia to aid the operations.6 I am persuaded the movement will be unexpected to the Enemy, and I intend it shall be as little known as possible. Our Baggage and stores not with the Army I shall order by the route of the Saura Towns and shallow ford to Charlotte.7 By having them in the upper Country we shall always have a safe retreat, and from those Inhabitants we may expect the greatest support. I shall take every measure to avoid a misfortune; but necessity obliges me to commit myself to chance and I trust my friends will do justice to my reputation if any accident attends me.8 I am with the greatest respect Your Excellencys mo: obt hble servt
Nath. Greene
P.S. Inclosed I send you a general return of the Army.9
LS, DLC:GW; ADfS, NjP: De Coppet Collection. Only the LS includes the postscript. Although both documents are dated 29 March, an enclosure and a letter referenced in the final paragraph indicate that some composition occurred on 30 March (see notes 2 and 6 below).
1. Ambrose Ramsey (Ramsay) represented Chatham County in the North Carolina provincial congresses of 1775 and 1776. He became colonel of the Chatham County minutemen in 1775 and colonel of the county’s militia regiment in 1776. The North Carolina legislature later named him a brigadier general. Ramsay served for many years in the state assembly and was a member of the 1788 Constitutional Convention.
Ramsey’s Mill (now Lockport, N.C.) was located along the Deep River in southeastern Chatham County about three miles northwest of that river’s junction with the Haw River, which begins the Cape Fear River.
2. The enclosed copy of Greene’s letter to Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, dated 30 March, begins: “I wrote your Excellency on the 23d from Buffaloe Greek; since which, we have been in pursuit of the enemy, & tho’ without cannon I was determined to bring them to Action again. As most of the inhabitants between Haw River & Pedee are disaffected, we found the greatest Difficulty in procuring supplies & obtaining intelligence. Our reconnoitreing Parties were frequently shot down by the Tories, while they furnished the enemy with a plenty of every thing & doubtless gave them good intelligence.
“On the 27th we arrived at Rigdons ford twelve miles above this, expecting the enemy would have crossed the day before, & that we should have found the River fordable, & that we could have fallen in with the enemy at the junction of the Roads 12 miles beyond the ford. But on my arrival [t]here I found the enemy had not crossed, but still lay at Ramseys Mill, from which I expected they meant to wait an Attack.
“I left our baggage on the ground, & put the Army in motion without loss of time, but we found the enemy had crossed some hours before our arrival, and with such Precipitation, that they left their dead unburied on the ground. The want of Provision and the greater part of the Virginia Militia’s time of service being out, prevented our farther pursuit—Our men had suffered so much for the want of Provisions that many of them fainted on the March. the enemy are on the Route to cross creek & Wilmington.
“I have it from good authority that the enemy suffered in the Battle of Guilford 633 exclusive of officers, & most of their Principal Officers are killed & wounded. They have met with a defeat in a Victory.
“On Monday [2 April], all the Virginia Militia Return home, & once more I shall be left with a handfull of men, exposed to a superior force, & be obliged to seek security in a flight. These are some of the disagreable effects of a temporary Army; The greatest advantages are often lost by the troops disbanding at the most critical moment. Never was an Army in greater distress than the British, they were loaded with their wounded, & must have fallen a sacrifice; had not the Tories given them support. many have joined the enemy and many have fallen off. nothing but blood & slaughter have prevailed among the Whigs & Tories, & their inveteracy against each other must, if it continues, depopulate this Country: We have been exposed to inevitable difficulties in subsisting the Army, & the manner of doing it has been distressing to many of the inhabitants” (DLC:GW). For the full letter, see , 8:7–10.
3. For this detachment, see GW’s second letter to Lafayette, 20 Feb., source note.
4. The letter from brevet Lt. Col. Lewis Morris, Jr., one of Greene’s aides-decamp, has not been identified. For British vice admiral Marriot Arbuthnot’s arrival in Lynnhaven Bay on 18 March with a fleet of seven ships of the line and several smaller warships, see Lafayette to GW, 23 March, n.6.
5. For the draft law in Virginia, see John Parke Custis to GW, 16 March, and notes 2 and 4 to that document.
6. See Greene to Thomas Sumter, 30 March, in , 8:12–13.
7. Lower Saura Town and Upper Saura Town in North Carolina were located along the upper reaches of the Dan River, the former in Guilford (now Rockingham County) about five miles south of the Virginia border, and the latter in Surry County about twenty-five miles southwest of Lower Saura Town.
Shallow Ford crossed the Yadkin River about twenty-five miles southwest of Upper Saura Town and sixty-five miles north of Charlotte, North Carolina.
8. GW replied to Greene on 22 April.
9. Greene evidently enclosed a “Return of Infantry Serving in the Southern Army of The United States, Commanded by the Honorable Major General Greene,” which Col. Otho Holland Williams, deputy adjutant general, prepared for 31 March. The return listed “Total Effectives” in the army’s two brigades as 63 officers, 158 sergeants and musicians, and 1,261 rank and file, with just over a thousand more officers and men on command, sick, or furloughed. Williams concluded the return with notes: “The Corps of Artillery and Cavalry being on Command the returns co[ul]d not be made in time to be sent by this Opportunity. The Virginia Militia (except two Companies) having serv’d Six Weeks according to their Engagements were Discharged this Day. Those of North Carolina amount to about 800 Men, but are so Detach’d at present that a return of the whole cannot be made at this time” (DLC:GW).