ress. Accordingly, the North Carolina
brigade took up its march for Charleston in November, and the whole of
the Virginia line in December.

Notwithstanding the recent preparations at New York, the ships
remained in port, and the enemy held themselves in collected force
there. Sir Henry was regulating his movements by those the French
fleet might make after the repulse at Savannah. Intelligence at length
arrived that it had been dispersed by a violent storm. Count
D'Estaing, with a part, had shaped his course for France; the rest had
proceeded to the West Indies. Sir Henry now lost no time in carrying
his plans into operation. Leaving the garrison of New York under the
command of Lieutenant-general Knyphausen, he embarked several thousand
men on board of transports, to be convoyed by five ships-of-the-line
and several frigates under Admiral Arbuthnot, and set sail on the 26th
of December, accompanied by Lord Cornwallis, on an expedition intended
for the capture of Charleston and the reduction of South Carolina.

CHAPTER LIII.
ARMY AT MORRISTOWN.--ARNOLD IN PHILADELPHIA.--CHARLESTON BESIEGED.

The dreary encampment at Valley Forge has become proverbial for its
hardships; yet they were scarcely more severe than those suffered by
Washington's army during the present winter, while hutted among the
heights of Morristown. The winter set in early, and was uncommonly
rigorous. The transportation of supplies was obstructed; the magazines
were exhausted, and the commissaries had neither money nor credit to
enable them to replenish them. For weeks at a time the army was on
half allowance; sometimes without meat, sometimes without bread,
sometimes without both. There was a scarcity, too, of clothing and
blankets, so that the poor soldiers were starving with cold as well as
hunger.

{Illustration: HEAD-QUARTERS, MORRISTOWN, N.J. Vol. III.}

A rigorous winter had much to do with the actual distresses of the
army, but the root of the evil lay in the derangement of the currency.
Congress had commenced the war without adequate funds, and without the
power of imposing direct taxes. To meet pressing emergencies, it had
emitted paper money, which, for a time, passed currently at par; but
sank in value as further emissions succeeded, and that already in
circulation remained unredeemed. The several States added to the evil
by emitting paper in their separate capacities: thus the country
gradually became flooded with a "continen