304 History of Hingham. 



expedition accomplished important results. On the 29th September 

 General Lincoln with two thousand men joined the main army 

 under Gates, and October 8 he was severely wounded in the leg 

 during a skirmish. Before returning to Hingham, it became 

 necessary to remove a considerable portion of the main bone, and 

 under the painful operation it is said that he exhibited most un- 

 common patience and fortitude. It was years before recovery 

 from the wound was complete, and it occasioned lameness during 

 the remainder of his life. General Lincoln reported for duty at 

 the headquarters of the army in the following August, to the great 

 gratification of Washington. At the request of the delegates 

 from South Carolina and Georgia he was designated by Congress 

 to take command of the southern department. He arrived in 

 Charleston in December, 1778, and was compelled to form an 

 army and raise supplies. In this he showed unconquerable energy 

 and perseverance. For nearly a year he kept the English under 

 Prevost below the Savannah, and being joined by D'Estaing with 

 the French fleet, lie invested Savannah on September 23, 1779. 

 October 9th, the combined forces in three columns and led by 

 D'Estaing and Lincoln in person, made an assault on the enemy's 

 works. The allies were defeated with great loss ; it was here 

 that Count Pulaski was killed, with many other gallant officers. 

 The siege was immediately raised and the French sailed away, 

 leaving Lincoln to contend alone against the victorious army. A 

 more unfortunate ending to what promised to be a brilliant cam- 

 paign can hardly be conceived. The fault lay with the impatience 

 of the French commander, at the necessarily deliberate approaches 

 which the siege required, and his determination to abandon the 

 attempt unless an immediate assault was undertaken. After the 

 disastrous failure to capture the place, General Lincoln retreated 

 to Charleston, where he passed the winter in vain endeavors to 

 hold an army together and inspire the population with the spirit 

 of patriotism and resistance. By March he had only fourteen 

 hundred men left, while the town and the surrounding country 

 were full of Loyalists. In April Sir Henry Clinton invested 

 Charleston with five thousand men, and on May 11th after a re- 

 sistance of forty days, General Lincoln surrendered with his whole 

 army. His conduct of the campaign has received severe criti- 

 cism ; but whatever its merits or demerits, he lost the confidence 

 of neither the army nor the country, and when in the following 

 spring he again reported for duty, it was to receive from Washing- 

 ton an important command. In July he threatened New York, 

 but finding it impracticable to attack the English there, withdrew 

 under Washington's orders, and with his division marched across 

 New Jersey and into Virginia, where he took part in the siege of 

 Yorktown. On the 6th of October the first parallel was com- 

 menced by troops commanded by General Lincoln, and on the 

 19th the garrison surrendered, — Cornwallis' sword being received 

 by Lincoln, who as a special honor from Washington was in charge 



