lina at the feet of royal power. With an activity hitherto unusual for the British officers, Clinton took steps to extend and secure his conquest, and to re-establish royal power in the South. He sent out three strong detachments of his army to overrun the country. One under Cornwallis marched up the Santee toward Camden; another under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was ordered to penetrate the country to Ninety-six,' and a third, under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, marched to Augusta,' in Georgia. A general truce was proclaimed, and a pardon to all who should accept British protection. The silence of fear overspread the whole country; and mistaking this lull in the storm of war for permanent tranquillity, Clinton and Arbuthnot, with a large body of troops, sailed, on the 5th of June [1780], for New York.

The last and most cruel blow struck by the British, was that which almost annihilated an American detachment under Colonel Abraham Buford. He had hastened toward Charleston for the relief of Lincoln; but when he heard of the disasters there, he commenced retreating toward North Carolina. His force consisted of nearly four hundred Continental infantry, a small detachment of Colonel Washington's cavalry, and two field-pieces. He had evacuated Camden, and, in fancied security, was retreating leisurely toward Charlotte, in North Carolina. Cornwallis resolved to strike Buford, if possible, and, for that purpose, he dispatched Tarleton, with seven hundred men, consisting of his cavalry and mounted infantry. That officer marched one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and came up with Buford upon the Waxhaw. Impatient of delay, he had left his mounted infantry behind, and with only his cavalry, he almost surrounded Buford before that officer was aware of danger. Tarleton demanded an immediate surrender upon the terms granted to the Americans at Charleston. These terms were humiliating, and Buford refused compliance. While the flags for conference were passing and re-passing, Tarleton, contrary to military rules, was making preparations for an assault, and the instant he received Buford's reply, his cavalry made a furious charge upon the American ranks. Having received no orders to defend themselves, and supposing the negotiations were yet pending, the Continentals were utterly dismayed by this charge. All was confusion; and while some fired upon their assailants, others threw down their arm and begged for quarter. None was given; and men without arms were hewn in pieces by Tarleton's cavalry. One hundred and thirteen were slain; one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to be unable to travel; and fifty-three were made prisoners, to grace the triumphal entry of the conqueror into Camden. Only five of the British were killed, and fifteen wounded. The whole of Buford's artillery, ammunition, and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy. For this savage feat, Cornwallis eulogized Tarleton, and commended him to the ministry as worthy of special favor. It was nothing less than a cold-blooded massacre; and Tarleton's quarter became proverbial as a synonym to cruelty. The liberal press, and all right-minded

1 Page 336.

2 Page 336. Stedman, one of Cornwallis's officers, and afterward an eminent English historian of the war, says, "On this occasion, the virtue of humanity was totally forgot."

men in England, cried Shame! After the battle, a large number of the wounded were taken to the log meeting-house of the Waxhaw Presbyterian Congregation, where they were tenderly cared for by those who had courage to remain. This blow, however, was so terrible, that fear seized the people, and women and children fled from their homes in dismay, to avoid falling in the track of the invader.'

GENERAL GATES

Brief was the lull of the storm. De Kalb' did not reach the borders o1 South Carolina until midsummer, and then not an American was in arms in the lower country. Although Congress had confidence in the skill of De Kalb (who by the capture of Lincoln, became the commander-inchief at the South), yet it was thought best to send General Gates' thither, because of the influence of his name. The prospect before him was far from flattering. An army without strength; a military chest without money; but little public spirit in the commissary department; a climate unfavorable to health; the spirit of the Republicans cast down; loyalists swarming in every direction; and a victorious enemy pressing to spread his legions over the territory he had come to defend, were grave obstacles in the way of success. Yet Gates did not despond; and, retaining De Kalb in command of his division, he prepared to march into South Carolina. When it was known that he was approaching, southern hearts beat high with hope, for they expected great things from the conqueror of Burgoyne. Many patriots, who, in their extremity, had signed "paroles" and "protections," seeing how little solemn promises were esteemed by the conqueror, disregarded both, and flocked to the standard of those brave partisan leaders, Sumter, Marion, Pickens, and Clarke, who now called them to the field. While Gates and his army were approaching, these partisans were preparing the way for conquest. They swept over the country in small bands, striking a British

Among those who fled, was the widowed mother of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, who, with her two sons, Robert and Andrew, took refuge in the vicinity of Charlotte, North Carolina. The dreadful scenes of that massacre, was the first lesson that taught Andrew to hate tyranny. It fired his patriotism; and at the age of thirteen years, he entered the army, with his brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners; but even while in the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after man appeared in the boy. When ordered to clean the muddy boots of a British officer, he proudly refused, and for his temerity received a sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the Waxhaw settlement with their mother. That patriotic matron and two sons perished during the war. Her son Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert died of a wound which he received from a British officer while he was prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The heroic mother, while on her way home from Charleston, whither she went to carry some necessaries to her friends and relations on board a prison-ship, was seized with prison-fever, and died. Her unknown grave is somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House and Charleston. Andrew was left the sole survivor of the family. 2 Page 316. Horatio Gates was a native of England, and was educated for military life. He was the first adjutant-general of the Continental army [note 5, page 238], and was made major-general in 1776. He retired to his estate in Virginia at the close of the war, and finally took up his abode in New York, where he died in 1806, at the age of seventy-eight years.

4

O Page 281.

Note 6, page 311.

detachment here, and a party of Tories there; and soon, they so effectually alarmed the enemy in the interior, as to check the onward progress of invasion. General Sumter' first appeared in power on the Catawba River. Already Whigs, between that and the Broad River, led by local officers, had assailed the enemy at different points. In the mean while Sumter had collected a considerable force, and on the 30th of July, he attacked a British post at Rocky Mount, on the Catawba. He was repulsed, but not disheartened. He immediately crossed the river, and at Hanging-rock, a few miles eastward, he fell upon and dispersed a large body of British and Tories, on the 6th of August. Through the folly of his men, he did not secure a victory. They commenced plundering, and drinking the liquors found in the camp, after they had secured it, and becoming intoxicated, were unable to complete the triumph. Yet the British dared not follow Sumter in his slow retreat. Marion, at the same time, was smiting the enemy, with sudden and fierce blows, among the swamps of the lower country, on the borders of the Pedee. Pickens was annoying Cruger in the neighborhood of the Saluda; and Clarke was calling for the patriots along the Savannah, Ogeechee, and Alatamaha, to drive Brown' from Augusta.

GENERAL SUMTER.

General Clinton left Earl Cornwallis in the chief command of the British army at the South, and his troops on the Santee were intrusted to Lord Rawdon, an active and meritorious officer. When that general heard of the approach of Gates, he gathered all his available forces at Camden, where he was soon joined by the earl. Rumor had greatly magnified the number of the army under Gates. The loyalists became alarmed, and the patriots took courage. He came down from the hill country, through Lancaster district, and took post at Clermont, a few miles north of Camden. Feeling certain of victory, he marched from his camp on the night of the 15th of August, to surprise the British at Camden. Without being aware of this movement, Cornwallis and Rawdon advanced at the same hour to surprise the Americans. A little after midnight the belligerents met [August 16, 1780], near Sanders's Creek, about seven miles north of Camden, on the Lancaster road. The sand was so deep that the footsteps of the approaching armies could not be heard by each other. They came together in the dark, almost noiselessly, and both were equally surprised. A slight skirmish between the vanguards ensued, and early in the morning a general battle began. After a desperate struggle with an overwhelming force, the

AMERICANS

BATTLE

BRITISH

CREES

Americans were compelled to yield to the British bayonets in SANDERS'S CREEK.

'Thomas Sumter was a native of South Carolina, and was early in the field. Ill health compelled him to leave the army just before the close of the war, in 1781. He was afterward a member of the National Congress, and died on the High Hills of Santee [page 337], in 1832, at the ge of ninety-eight years. Page 336.

2

front, and the sabres of Tarleton's dragoons on their flanks. The rout became general. The militia fell in great numbers, under the heavy blows from the British cavalry; and for more than two miles, along the line of their retreat, the open wood was strewn with the dead and dying. Arms, artillery, horses, and baggage, were scattered in every direction. More than a third of the continental troops were killed; and the entire loss of the Americans, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was about a thousand men, besides all of their artillery and ammunition, and a greater portion of their baggage and stores. The British loss was three hundred and twentyfive. Among the killed was the brave Baron de Kalb,' whose remains were buried at Camden, and there they yet lie, under a neat monument, the corner-stone of which was laid by La Fayette in 1825.3

BARON DE KALB.

Having vainly endeavored to rally his flying troops, eighty miles distant. There he continued to be joined by officers and men, and he began to hope that another army might be speedily collected. But when, a few days after his own defeat, he received intelligence that Sumter's force had been nearly annihilated by Tarleton' near the Catawba, he almost despaired. That event was a sad one for the republicans. Sumter had been ordered, by Gates, to intercept a British detachment which was conveying stores for the main army, from Ninety-Six. He was joined by other troops sent to assist him, and they captured forty-four wagons loaded with clothing, and made a number of prisoners. On hearing of the defeat of Gates, Sumter continued his march up the Catawba, and on the 18th [August, 1780] he encamped near the mouth of the Fishing Creek. There he was surprised by Tarleton, and his troops were routed with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and three hundred were made prisoners. All the booty captured by the Americans fell into the hands of Tarleton. Sumter escaped, but was stripped of power.

COLONEL TARLETON.

With the dispersion of Gates's army, and Sumter's brave band, the victory of the British was again complete; and at the close of summer, there were no

1 General Gates had felt so certain of victory, that he had made no provisions for a retreat, or the salvation of his stores in the rear. His troops were scattered in all directions, and he, apparently panic-stricken by the terrible blow, fled, almost alone, to Charlotte. Even now [1867] bullets are found in the old pine-trees on the route of their retreat. Gates did indeed, as General Charles Lee predicted he would, when he heard of his appointment to the command of the southern army, "exchange his northern laurels for southern willows."

4

De Kalb was a native of Alsace, a German province ceded to France. He had been in America as a secret French agent, about fifteen years before. He came to America with La Fayette in 1777, and Congress commissioned him a major-general. He died of his wounds at Camden, three days after the battle. Page 453. Page 237. Tarleton was one of the most active and unscrupulous officers of the British army. He was distinguished for his abilities and cruelties during the southern campaigns of 1780-'81. He was born in Liverpool, in 1754. He married a daughter of the Duke of Ancaster, in 1798, and was afterward made a major-general Page 336.

Within

republicans in arms in South Carolina, except Marion and his men. three months [May 12 to August 16], two American armies had been annihilated, and one of the most formidable partisan corps (Sumter's) scattered to the

The exploits of Marion' and his men, form the materials of one of the most interesting chapters in the history of our War for Independence. He was in Charleston during the long siege, but having been disabled by an accident,' he had retired to the country, and was not among the prisoners when the city passed in the possession of the British.' He was therefore untrammeled by any parole, and as soon as he was able, he mounted his horse, and took the field. With a few ragged followers, equal in grotesque appearance to any Falstaff

Francis Marion was a descendant of a Huguenot [page 49] settler, and was born near Georgetown, South Carolina, in 1732. His first military lessons were learned in the war with the Chero kees [page 204], in 1761. He entered the army at the commencement of the Revolution, and was one of the bravest and most useful of all the partisan officers at the South. He was also a member of the South Carolina Legislature, during, and after the war. He died at his home, near Eutaw Springs, on his beloved Santee, in 1795, in the sixty-third year of his age.

2 Marion was dining with some friends at a house in Tradd-street, Charleston, when, on an attempt being made to cause him to drink wine. contrary to his practice and desire, he leaped from a window, and sprained his ankle. The Americans yet kept the country toward the Santee, open, and Marion was couveyed to his home. 'Page 311.