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to a sort of guerrilla warfare in order to check the ravages of the British and punish the Tories. On August 6, 1780, Sumter surprised the British post at Hanging Rock and routed the whole regiment, capturing those who were not

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killed. Andrew Jackson, then a boy of thirteen, took part in this fight.

On June 20, Baron de Kalb arrived at Hillsboro, North Carolina, with another detachment from Washington's army of 2000 Maryland and Delaware troops. About the same time General Gates was placed by Congress in command of the southern department. On July 27 he began moving

General
Gates as-

sumes com

mand in the

Carolinas

his forces southward, the objective point of his campaign being Camden, South Carolina. On the 13th of August he arrived at Clermont, a few miles north of Camden. Lord Rawdon held Camden with a comparatively small force and Gates should have attacked him before Cornwallis had time to reënforce him. On the 14th General Stevens arrived with 700 Virginia militia, but that same day Cornwallis reached Camden with his regulars. The American army now numbered 1400 regulars, chiefly of the Maryland line, and about 1600 raw militia, while Cornwallis's united force was only 2000, but they were all thoroughly seasoned troops.

Battle of
Camden,
August 16,
1780

Not knowing of Cornwallis's arrival, Gates detached part of the Maryland regulars on a long march to the south to coöperate with Sumter, and on the night of the 15th moved forward on the road to Camden intending to surprise Lord Rawdon before daylight. At about the same hour Cornwallis started forward with the purpose of surprising Gates. About three o'clock in the morning the skirmish lines of the two armies met. Both halted and waited for daylight. Baron de Kalb urged Gates to retire to Clermont and take a strong position there, but Gates insisted on fighting, although he learned that Cornwallis had joined Rawdon.

In the battle that followed the Virginia and North Carolina militia, which formed Gates's left wing, broke and fled before the advance of the British regulars, and Gates was borne along with them. The first Maryland brigade was also forced off the field, but the second Maryland held its position until the rest of the battle was lost, when it retired in good order. While bravely directing the movements of the Maryland and Delaware troops, Baron de Kalb was killed. It was the worst defeat suffered by the Americans during the war and Gates beat a hasty retreat back to Hillsboro.

In February, 1779, Lafayette had returned to France to visit his family and to urge that a French army be sent to America. On the 10th of July, 1780, the French army of 6000 men arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, commanded by Comte Rochambeau. The Frenchmen who had served in the American army prior to this time were individual volunteers. Rochambeau's Comte

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BENEDICT ARNOLD.

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French

government. army, July, Almost im- 1780 mediately after its arrival the French fleet was blockaded in Narragansett Bay by a powerful British squadron and the French army was kept there idle for a year in order to render aid to the fleet if it should become necessary.

The country had not recovered from the dejection following the

The treason

of Benedict

battle at Camden when, in September, 1780, it was startled by the news of Benedict Arnold's treason. Arnold had rendered distinguished services to his country, and Washington had repeatedly recommended him for advancement, but less efficient men had been promoted over his head through political influence. Arnold Arnold, had married the beautiful Margaret Shippen, a September, 1780 member of one of the leading Tory families of Philadelphia, and this had weakened his influence with the Whigs. In July he had been placed by Washington in com

mand of West Point which was the key to the American situation on the Hudson.

Shortly afterwards Arnold entered into a treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, who finally sent Major André, a member of his staff, to West Point to confer with him. While making his way back to the Vulture with a passport from Arnold, André was arrested by a party of patriots and sent to Washington's headquarters under suspicion of being a spy. While not a spy in the ordinary sense, he had come into the American lines under a flag of truce for a purpose not covered by such a flag. He was therefore condemned by a court-martial as a spy and, in spite of the sympathy which his attractive personality and noble bearing elicited, Washington refused to modify the sentence and he was hanged. Arnold had made his escape to the British lines.

About a month after the battle of Camden, Cornwallis invaded North Carolina and advanced as far as Charlotte.

Battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780

He had detached Major Patrick Ferguson with a force of 200 British infantry and 1000 Tories to go through the western counties of South Carolina for the purpose of enlisting more Tories. The approach of Ferguson aroused the backwoodsmen far and wide, and finding himself in danger of being surrounded he began his retreat towards the main army at Charlotte, followed closely by about 1000 picked frontiersmen. These men came from various directions: James Williams from South Carolina, William Campbell from Virginia, Benjamin Cleveland and Charles McDowell from North Carolina, and Isaac Shelby and John Sevier from across the mountains in Tennessee. On the night of October 6, Ferguson camped on one of the southern spurs of King's Mountain. The mountain itself lies in North Carolina, but the battle was fought just across the line in South Carolina. The position was a strong one, and when Ferguson looked

about him on the morning of the 7th he exclaimed: "Well, boys, here is a place from which all the rebels outside of Hell cannot drive us." About three o'clock in the afternoon the position was stormed from three directions by the Americans, who advanced in true backwoodsman's fashion from tree to tree and from rock to rock, picking off the enemy one

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lotte. On December 2, Greene, who had been appointed by Washington to supersede Gates, arrived at Charlotte and took command of the southern department. Shortly before this the southern army had received another accession of strength in the arrival of Daniel Morgan. After the failure of Congress to recognize his services at Saratoga by promoting him to a brigadier generalship, he resigned his commission and returned to his home in Virginia. After the disaster at Camden, however, he was prevailed upon to reënter the service and Congress gave him the rank of briga

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