eant[28] William Jasper
leaped down, and, while the British shot were striking all around
him, seized the flag, climbed back, fastened it to a short staff,
and raised it to its place, to show that the Americans would never
give up the fort. The British, after fighting all day, saw that they
could do nothing against palmetto logs[29] when defended by such men
as Moultrie and Jasper; so they sailed away with such of their ships
as had not been destroyed.

[Illustration: SERGEANT JASPER AND THE FLAG.]

Several years later, Charleston was taken. Lord Cornwallis then took
command of the British army in South Carolina. General Greene, of
Rhode Island, had command of the Americans. He sent Daniel Morgan
with his sharpshooters to meet part of the British army at
Cowpens;[30] they did meet them, and sent them flying. Then
Cornwallis determined to either whip General Greene or drive him out
of the state. But General Greene worried Cornwallis so that at last
he was glad enough to get into Virginia. He had found North and South
Carolina like two hornets' nests, and the further he got away from
those hornets, the better he was pleased.

[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN STATES IN THE REVOLUTION.]

[Footnote 28: Sergeant (sar'jent): a military officer of low rank.]

[Footnote 29: Palmetto logs: the wood of the palmetto tree is very
soft and spongy; the cannon-balls, when they struck, would bury
themselves in the logs, but would neither break them to pieces nor
go through them.]

[Footnote 30: Cowpens: see map in this paragraph.]

141. Cornwallis and Benedict Arnold; Lafayette; Cornwallis shuts
himself up in Yorktown.--When Lord Cornwallis got into Virginia he
found Benedict Arnold waiting to help him. Arnold had been a general
in the American army; Washington gave him the command of the fort
at West Point, on the Hudson River,[31] and trusted him as though
he was his brother. Arnold deceived him, and secretly offered to give
up the fort to the British. We call a man who is false to his friends
and to his country a traitor: it is the most shameful name we can
fasten on him. Arnold was a traitor; and if we could have caught him,
we should have hanged him; but he was cunning enough to run away and
escape to the British. Now he was burning houses and towns in Virginia,
and doing all that he could--as a traitor always will--to destroy
those who had once been his best friends. He wanted to stay in
Virginia and assist Cornwallis; but t