Chapter 2870 Southern Beacon (Ⅲ)

Three months ago, the manor owners generally held a pessimistic attitude towards the prospects of the independent revolution, thinking that Alfheim would not take long to resist and the whole territory would fall. Waiting for the fate of the people, they had to swear allegiance to King George III of Fizen. One way, for the sake of protecting his family, facing the extortion by Officer Feizhen, he would endure a little bloodshed.

However, today, especially after Earl Winthrop issued the "Emancipation Proclamation", the position of most southern manor owners has reversed, and they have become hardliners resisting the invaders. General Cornwallis sent people to raise food and supplies, I don't care about it, I would rather use it to fund General Green's troops if I have money and food!

The refusing to cooperate attitude of the southern manor owners has angered General Cornwallis!

I ask you for help, but you are so shameless, that's okay, we will grab it ourselves!

With a gun on your forehead, who dares to say "no"? !

Thomas Cornwallis was born in a noble family in Fiji, and he has always called himself a "gentleman in military uniform". Of course, a gentleman should pay attention to his dignity. Slop and Isaac Hooker—conspired, and at last devised a plan to drive away the wolf.

General Cornwallis had three main forces under his command.

The first is the Feizhen Third Infantry Division led by himself, Gen Zhengmiaohong's regular army.

Then there is the Dragoon Brigade under Winthrop Jr., the most capable ace unit in the regiment.

There is also the Prince Port Cavalry Division who followed General Hooker and turned his back.

In addition to these three main forces, General Cornwallis also has a "non-identical army", the so-called "Free Corps", including more than 5,000 black slave soldiers, and the "loyalty" white militia in Yalfheim , that is, "royalists" in the mouth of the revolutionaries, and the total number is nearly a thousand.

General Cornwallis ostensibly supported Earl Winthrop's announcement of the abolition of slavery and enlisted black slaves, but he was also a conservative white supremacist in private. He looked down on blacks at all and did not think that these freed slaves could manage be yourself.

So he summoned the local royalist militiamen in Alfheim and placed them in the "Freedom Corps" where the majority of blacks were in the majority. The old way of managing black slaves".

The treatment of black soldiers is far inferior to that of white officers, and it is inevitable to be whipped and bullied for no reason. The "freedom and equality" that black slaves desire has not been implemented in the army, and it is just a formality.

General Cornwallis didn't want to take this "Freedom Corps" out, thinking that these miscellaneous troops were purely cumbersome, and "the role played by the niggers on the battlefield is not worth the food they spoiled."

But the Governor insisted that he take the "Freedom Corps" with him, saying that he would use it as a mobile billboard and tour around the South to show his achievements in promoting the abolition of slavery, and then encourage more black slaves to defect.

General Kang Huali was forced to have no choice but to hold his nose and take this "Niger Corps" to the south together.

During the march, the Cornwallis Corps exchanged fire with the guerrillas of the Continental Army several times. Due to the shortcomings in cultural education and military training, the performance of black soldiers on the battlefield was indeed lackluster.

This further deepened General Cornwallis' dissatisfaction and prejudice. He regretted not being able to resolutely reject the request of the Governor, and was forced to bring this group of waste.

Until now, General Cornwallis needed someone to do the "dirty work" for him, and only then did he realize that this "Freedom Corps" was still valuable.

With the support of Hooker and Winthrop Jr., General Cornwallis issued a directive appointing Colonel William Tryon, the leader of the "Loyalists" in Alfheim, as the commander of the "Free Corps", leading the This army "visited" the major plantations in the south and was responsible for collecting military supplies-to put it bluntly, it was to rob!

In the name of the army, it is commonplace to do robbery and loot civilians in the name of the army.

After the outbreak of the Revolution, many Royalists had their land and property confiscated, suffered bullying, and had resentment in their hearts, not to mention the black slaves.

With the mentality of revenge against political enemies and slave owners, the "Freedom Corps" led by the Royalist Party looted villages and towns along the way, forcibly confiscated military rations, burned, killed and looted, causing chaos wherever they passed.

At the beginning of September, the fertile and fertile fields on both sides of the Yifen River were completely ravaged, the houses and corrals were burned, the newly harvested grains were swept away, all the cattle and horses were taken away, chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep were slaughtered on the spot, and a large area of ​​the plantation was destroyed. Large tracts of tobacco were ignited, making the field filled with choking smoke for several days, as if a group of old smokers crowded in a tavern and smoked.

In Colonel William Tryon's view, these devastating acts of sabotage were necessary.

On the one hand, it is to collect military supplies, and at the same time, it is also to prevent these materials from falling into the hands of the enemy. As the saying goes, when one goes up, the other goes up.

That's all, it still can't explain why Colonel Tryon slaughtered the local people in addition to looting. The reason why the method is so bloody and cruel is to punish and intimidate the people who support the rebel party in name, but in fact there is no lack of public revenge.

To be fair, every royalist has a history of blood and tears.

In the early days of the independent revolution, the vast majority of them did not stand up against independence, refused to participate in any party of the violent revolution and the suppression of the revolution, and only wanted to live their own lives behind closed doors, or when the revolutionary regime promulgated " After the "Allegiance Act", he refused to swear allegiance to the Continental Congress, and even because he was framed as a "conspirator to destroy the revolution" by neighbors who had had conflicts before, he was inexplicably labeled as a royalist.

"Revolutionary terror" and "counter-revolutionary terror", like a pair of twins, are always born together.

These royalists who were brutally suppressed during the independent revolution were humiliated and beaten, their property and land were confiscated, their wives were even separated, and they were forced to flee to the area occupied by the Fizhen Army. All the suffering, the heart is full of resentment.

Now following Feizhen's army to make a comeback, of course they have the motivation to take revenge and find out the so-called revolutionaries who bullied them in the past.

...

Historical Materials: British Atrocities in the Southern States (A Brief History of the American Revolutionary War [British] Stephen Conway)

In Virginia, the tobacco was burned as the British attacked along the river, even the orchards.

Nor were the inland areas necessarily immune to soldiers marching from the coast. A British officer wrote in Chelow, South Carolina, in September 1780, that his troops "burned about fifty houses and farms."

The motives behind this devastating attack are varied.

Sometimes it was to destroy material useful to the American war effort, or to neutralize armed civilian ships.

We can also see that this is also done to punish and intimidate ordinary people.

He was saddened by the destruction of two churches in Fairfield, Connecticut, during the raids led by William Tryon in July 1779. But at the same time, he wasn't at all sad that the rest of the town had been burned to ashes.

He believes this is necessary to "stimulate a general feeling of fear and frustration".

...

But even if the conduct of the British army and militia were impeccable, problems were almost bound to arise, as the area the British were advancing by then had become starved of food from the need to feed Charleston's Continental Army in the preceding months Therefore, the locals will naturally resist the raids by the British army there.