This brilliant stroke was not, however, followed up. The French islands were more strongly garrisoned than Germain's information showed and the naval superiority so indispensable to further activities against them was less well assured than Grant had been told to calculate. Byron reached St Lucia on 6 January 1779 with ten of the line, but d'Estaing avoided action till reinforced (19 February) by an equal number, while two smaller detachments arrived later, one in April, one in June. Byron's failure to intercept them was severely criticised, but the calls on his squadron were heavy, and he was greatly handicapped by lack of men through sickness. He is described2 as having "met with every neglect from home", having "a fleet to equip without stores, to victual without provisions, to man without men": indeed, he had to seek Grant's help in manning his ships.3 Grant had been obdurate in refusing demands to detach battalions to different islands, feeling convinced that the true policy was to concentrate his troops at St Lucia in readiness to strike: he wrote to Governor Burt of St Christopher, "while we remain together we are formidable to our neighbours, but, once divided, we should be weak in every part". Byron's request was another thing: "assisting the fleet", he wrote to Germain (10 October), "was the most effectual method I could think of for protecting the islands". In June Byron had to escort to St Christopher a great homewardbound convoy which he could not detain longer, "both for the sake of public credit" and to avoid complaints from the merchants. D'Estaing took the opportunity to capture St Vincent (18 June) and then on 2 July appeared off Georgetown, Grenada, with twenty-five of the line and 6000 troops, forcing the little garrison to capitulate just before Byron could arrive (6 July). Byron had only twenty-one of the line, but, seeing the French clustered together in the harbour he promptly attacked, hoping to catch them while still disordered. The French stood out to sea, forming line as they went, and Byron's attack, delivered precipitately and piece-meal, resulted in his leading ships engaging d'Estaing's whole fleet unsupported, so that four of them were crippled and might have been cut off. However, several ships had been beaten out of d'Estaing's line by the British gunnery and instead of pressing his advantage he stood away to rejoin them, breaking off the fight. He had 950 casualties to Byron's 550 but had secured his captures. Further operations were impossible as the "hurricane season" was approaching, indeed d'Estaing was preparing to sail for France when an urgent appeal reached him from America. D'Estaing's departure from the American coast had left the British free to move anywhere along it, and, besides sending Grant to St Lucia, Clinton had despatched 3500 men under Colonel Archibald 2 Pembroke MSS, p. 384. 1 N.R.S. XXXII, 47. 3 C.O. v, 318. • Ibid. THE CAPTURE AND DEFENCE OF SAVANNAH 743 Campbell to Georgia where, as usual, Germain expected wonders from Loyalist assistance. Since the failure against Charleston in 1776 the only fighting in the south had been a desultory warfare along the borders of East Florida, where the British cause was being successfully maintained by Colonel Prevost. Germain had originally ordered Campbell's force to the south because he feared for Florida in the likely event of Spanish intervention, but if detachments must be made, it was better to use them offensively than to lock them up in a passive defence. Campbell, a capable and enterprising officer, got quickly to work. Without waiting for Prevost he promptly attacked and took Savannah (29 December), capturing 500 of the defenders and inflicting heavy losses with under thirty casualties, while on Prevost's arrival with 1100 men all Georgia was soon reduced to subjection.1 Lincoln with 6000 men attempted its recovery but was repulsed, being cleverly beaten at Briar's Creek (3 March). Prevost countered a second advance by a daring move against Charleston (May) which brought Lincoln back post haste, though Prevost evaded him and inflicted a sharp reverse on him at Stono Ferry (20 June). Prevost's success and his own fears for South Carolina drove Washington to appeal to d'Estaing, who reached the coast early in September bringing with him 6000 troops. With these and Lincoln's men he proceeded to attack Savannah. His superiority to the British squadron in American waters rendered Clinton impotent to help, but Prevost and his garrison defended themselves splendidly, finally repulsing a vigorous assault so decisively (9 October) that d'Estaing raised the siege and, detaching ten of the line to the West Indies, returned home. Suffren said, "Had he only been as good a sailor as he was brave!" but it was lack of resolution and enterprise rather than of seamanship which made his campaign so ineffective. In another quarter the same hesitation and reluctance to run risks had been even more conspicuous. In June 1779 Spain had definitely ranged herself against England, and her intervention decidedly increased the strain on the already well-burdened British Navy, for the Spanish Navy, though inferior to the French in organisation and efficiency, was formidable in numbers, mustering sixty sail of the line. Gibraltar and Minorca, for whose recovery Spain had mainly entered the war, were sure to be attacked, and their defence would ultimately depend on the Navy's ability to maintain communications with them. Moreover, with most of the British army already overseas, the incentive to attempt an invasion of Great Britain was stronger than usual. In the summer of 1779 there were at home, including eight in Ireland, only twenty-one old battalions of the line, many of them recently back as skeletons from foreign service and still ineffective. 1 Campbell to Carlisle, Castle Howard MSS, p. 413. The Guards, however, who had found two provisional battalions for service in America, provided a solid body of infantry, and only two of the twenty-seven cavalry regiments were overseas, while the twenty battalions whose formation had been authorised after Saratoga could now be reckoned effective, and most of the militia had been embodied in 1778 and had been some months under arms. Germain indeed informed Clinton that home defence had never been "so well provided for",1 but the fear of invasion had already caused the detention at home of most of the reinforcements Clinton was expecting and thereby kept him inactive in the summer of 1779. Warding off invasion was primarily a naval problem. Could the French and Spanish fleets be prevented from uniting, the French would hardly risk in the Channel the 50,000 troops who had been collected between Havre and St Malo, especially as a British squadron was cruising off Cherbourg and Havre and greatly impeding coastwise traffic. To prevent the junction the Channel fleet must be at sea early in the year and off Brest before the Brest fleet could get out. The situation called clearly for the maintenance, during the summer at least, of Hawke's "close blockade" of Brest, for the objection that by keeping the enemy in port this system reduced the chances of victory in battle did not apply when to prevent his putting to sea was the chief need. But Sandwich's administration was unequal to getting the Channel fleet to sea in time, and, to make things worse, the Keppel-Palliser controversy had so accentuated party feeling that no prominent admiral would take command. Ultimately the veteran Sir Charles Hardy was persuaded, but he was quite unequal to the task:3 Kempenfelt, his flag-captain, described him as one "who never thinks beforehand" and who had in him "not one grain of the commander-in-chief". Fortunately for England Hardy had Kempenfelt to assist him and confronted septuagenarians in d'Orvilliers and Cordova. Hardy with thirty-five of the line left Spithead on 16 June, a fortnight after d'Orvilliers with twenty-eight had left Brest for the Sisargas Islands, twenty miles west of Corunna. At this rendezvous the French spent six inactive weeks waiting for the Spaniards. The haste with which the fleet had been hurried to sea and the drain which this delay imposed on its supplies did not improve its efficiency, and when Cordova at last arrived (23 July) the Spaniards' unfamiliarity with the French signals and manœuvres complicated matters.5 Contrary winds then retarded their progress northward, and not till 14 August were they off the Lizard, where they interposed between Plymouth and Hardy who was cruising in "the Soundings", southwest of the Scillies. 1 Stopford-Sackville MSS, п, 143. 3 Pembroke MSS, p. 382; Cornwallis MSS, p. 322. 2 Lacour-Gayet, p. 264 5 Lacour-Gayet, p. 260. THE ALLIED FLEET IN THE CHANNEL 3 745 Could Hardy have known how long d'Orvilliers would have to await Cordova, he might well have followed him to the Sisargas and forced battle on him: now, when facing double his numbers, it was essential to avoid close action yet keep near enough to the enemy to prevent them detaching ships up Channel to cover the passage of the transports. The situation resembled that which Torrington had faced in 1690, and Kempenfelt's correspondence1 shows clearly that he had grasped Torrington's idea of the preventive possibilities of a "fleet in being". The allies' proceedings were marked by indecision. Never again were they to have such a chance of invading England, but their aged admirals were timid and sluggish and dominated by unsound strategical doctrines.2 They made no serious effort to seek out Hardy and crush him or drive him right away: they did not venture to detach a covering squadron, and after an easterly gale had driven them out of the Channel, they let Hardy, whom they sighted off the Scillies (31 August), slip past them up Channel to Spithead, thereby placing himself in position to watch the transports. Thereupon they abandoned the enterprise, the French and twenty-one Spaniards retiring into Brest (14 September), the remaining Spaniards returning to blockade Gibraltar, an occupation they would all along have preferred. Spanish lukewarmness was only one cause of the combined fleet's ineffectiveness: too large and heterogeneous to be manageable, its internal condition had been deplorable. Epidemics, due to bad sanitation and provisions, had ravaged it; indeed North said afterwards that had Hardy known his enemy's plight he would have sought an action: there were men in his fleet like Jervis and Duncan, who were longing to fight and confident of success,5 but the British fleet's condition was none too good. Worn-out vessels had been hastily commissioned when fitter to be condemned, four which joined Hardy in September were nicknamed the "Provincial ships" because it was said that one could only reach the Hampshire coast, another that of Dorset. If England escaped invasion in 1779, Sandwich can claim little credit. وو The attack on Gibraltar had virtually begun in June when a blockade was established by sea and land. No attack was attempted, but supplies soon began to fail, and Rodney, who had been selected for the West Indian command, was ordered to relieve Gibraltar on his way thither. He was given twenty-two of the line, and, though burdened with large "trades" for Portugal and the West Indies besides convoys for Gibraltar and Minorca, discharged his task with conspicuous success. Sailing on 29 December, after encountering vexatious delays and obstructions,' he captured off Cape Finisterre several Spanish store-ships with their escort, including a battleship 1 N.R.S. XXXII, 290-313. Corresp. of George III, IV, 419 seqq. 5 Corresp. of George III, IV, 424. "Stopford-Sackville MSS, п1, 150. 2 Castex, passim, esp. p. 65. Lacour-Gayet, p. 246. Ibid. p. 439; Pembroke MSS, p. 381. (8 January): a week later (16 January) off Cape St Vincent he sighted eleven of the line who promptly made for Cadiz. Rodney signalled a "general chase", ordering his captains to engage to leeward as they got up, regardless of "the line", and by 4 p.m. the leading pursuers, foremost among them Duncan, were in action. Neither night nor bad weather stopped the fight: by 2 a.m. five Spaniards had struck and three others had sunk. "The Moonlight Battle" was the first real victory of the war at sea, and, if the odds had greatly favoured Rodney, it was a useful success, much enhanced by the promptness and resolution of the chase. Rodney could thus revictual both Gibraltar and Minorca, Cordova's twenty-four sail lying inactive in Cadiz. On 13 February he started for the West Indies with four of the line, Digby taking the rest back to the Channel, capturing on the way part of a French convoy bound for Mauritius. For the rest of the year little happened in home waters. Half the Brest fleet, under de Guichen, an abler and more experienced officer than d'Estaing, had sailed on 3 February for the West Indies, the rest, fifteen of the line, remained mostly quiescent, while the Spaniards concentrated their forces and their attention on Gibraltar. The British Channel fleet, about thirty strong, cruised somewhat aimlessly1 near the mouth of the Channel, and even failed to prevent the allies capturing most of a big West Indian convoy. Further afield, 1780 witnessed greater activity. Clinton, after parting reluctantly with Grant and Campbell, had asked leave to resign rather than "remain a mournful witness of the debility of an army at whose head, had I been unshackled by instructions, I might have indulged expectations of rendering serious service". He had complained especially of having to part with British units, "the very nerves of this army", and had sent to Florida Germans and Provincials "whose loss will not be so much felt". Germain had refused to let him resign, promised him reinforcements and disclaimed any wish to shackle him (3 December), but the reinforcements were slow to appear and without them Clinton's activities in 1779 had been limited to making raids which achieved considerable success in destroying stores and shipping. In May he attacked and took two forts on the Hudson at Verplanck's Point and Stony Point, hoping "to stir Mr Washington" and bring on a general action, but without the promised reinforcements he could not follow up the blow, while Washington was not to be drawn, and even surprised and re-took Stony Point (16 July), evacuating it again at once. Despairing of forcing battle on his cautious and elusive adversary,5 Clinton turned his thoughts towards the south, where Germain was 1 N.R.S. xxxII, 326. 3 Ibid. 10 June 1779, C.O. v, 98. Ibid. 21 Aug. 1779. * Clinton to Germain, 8 Oct. 1778, C.O. v, 96. • Ibid. 25 July 1779. |