Clinton. It
was evident from the beginning that the city must fall, and it has
been a point much discussed whether Lincoln should have attempted to
defend it, whether it would not have been better for the cause that he
should withdraw his troops, and besiege the British from the open
country. This was what afterward took place when the conquerors were
reduced almost to starvation. An accident which happened to Marion has
been esteemed a piece of singular good fortune to the cause, in saving
him from surrender. He was in command of the small body of light
troops, outside of the city, when he was called to aid in the defence.
During the first days of the very deliberate investment, he was dining
with some friends in the town, when, according to a custom not unusual
in those hard-drinking times, the door was locked that no one should
avoid his share of the conviviality. Determined to escape the
infliction, he threw himself from the window into the street. The fall
fractured his ankle and incapacitated him from service. In obedience
to an order of Lincoln, commanding all officers unfit for duty to
retire from the city, he left while the country was still open, and
took refuge in his native region of St. John. His freedom was thus
preserved for the service of his country.

Now came the incursions of Tarleton and the devastating warfare of
Cornwallis--a policy of savage extermination which would have driven a
people with less capability of exertion to despair. But it happened,
as it has before, that the very means employed to crush, excited the
spirit of resistance, and deliverers were raised up for the oppressed.
It was a peculiar species of warfare which was now entered upon,
requiring novel resources both for attack and defence. A thinly
inhabited country was the scene of operations, cut up in all
directions by rivers and their branches, and innumerable swamps. Large
bodies of troops could move only with difficulty; it was a service for
small parties of cavalry always in movement, making up by rapidity for
want of numbers. On the side of the British, Lieutenant-Colonel
Tarleton, an officer of spirit, whose fiery youth has been vividly
handed down to us in the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was the
leading representative of this method of warfare, harrying the land
with his mounted troops, and overcoming by his activity and
unscrupulousness. Success added terror to his name, as he gained
victory after victory, and seeme