stream quenched their thirst; their guns, their knapsacks, or a few cattle driven in their rear, supplied them with food. Their numbers made them formidable, and the rapidity of their movements rendered it difficult to escape them. They amounted to nearly 3,000 men.

On hearing of their approach, Ferguson began to retreat toward Charlotte, and sent messengers to Cornwallis to apprize him of his danger. But the messengers were intercepted; and the earl remained ignorant of the perilous situation of his detachment. In the vicinity of Gilbert town, the Americans, apprehensive of Ferguson's escape, selected 1,000 of their best riflemen, mounted them on their fleetest horses, and sent them in pursuit. Their rapid movements rendered his retreat impracticable; and Ferguson, sensible that he would inevitably be overtaken, chose his ground on King's mountain, on the confines of North and South Carolina, and waited the attack.

On the 7th of October the Americans came up with him. Campbell had the command; but his authority was merely nominal, for there was little military order or subordination in the attack. They agreed to divide their forces, in order to assail Ferguson from different quarters; and the divisions were led on by Colonels Cleveland, Shelby, Sevier, and Williams. Cleveland, who conducted the party which began the attack, addressed his men as follows :—

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When

My brave fellows! we have beaten the tories, and we can beat them. engaged, you are not to wait for the word of command from me. I will show you by my example how to fight; I can undertake no more. Every man must consider himself an officer, and act on his own judgment. Though repulsed, do not run off; return, and renew the combat. If any of you are afraid, you have not only leave to withdraw, but are requested to do so."

Cleveland instantly began the attack; but was soon compelled to retire before the bayonet. But Ferguson had no time to continue the pursuit: for Shelby came forward from an unexpected quarter, and poured in a destructive fire. Ferguson again resorted to the bayonet, and was again successful. But at that moment, Campbell's division advanced on another side, and a new battle began. Campbell, like his comrades, was obliged to retreat. But Cleveland had now rallied his division, and advanced anew to the combat. The royalists wheeled, and met this returning assailant. In this way there was an unremitting succession of attacks for about fifty minutes. Ferguson obstinately defended himself, and repulsed every assailant; but at last he fell mortally wounded; and the second in command, seeing the contest hopeless, surrendered. Ferguson and 150 of his men lay dead on the field; as many were wounded; nearly 700 laid down their arms; and upward of 400 escaped. Among the prisoners the number of regular British soldiers did not amount to 100. The Americans lost about twenty men, who were killed on the field, and they had many wounded. They took 1,500 stand of arms. Major Ferguson's position was good but the hill abounded with wood, and afforded the Americans, who were all riflemen, an opportunity of fighting in their own way, and of firing from behind trees.

The Americans hanged ten of their prisoners on the spot, pleading the guilt of the individuals who suffered, and the example of the British, who had executed a greater number of Americans. Those rude warriors, whose enterprise was the spontaneous impulse of their patriotism or revenge, who acknowledged no superior authority, and who were guided by no superior counsels, having achieved their victory and attained their object, dispersed and returned home Most of the prisoners were soon after released.

The ruin of Ferguson's detachment, from which so much had been expected, was a severe blow to Cornwallis: it disconcerted his plans, and prevented his progress northward. On the 14th of October, as soon after obtaining certain information of the fall of Major Ferguson as the army could be put in motion, he

left Charlotte, where Ferguson was to have met him, and began his retreat toward South Carolina. In that retrograde movement the army suffered severely; for several days it rained incessantly; the roads were almost impassable; the soldiers had no tents, and at night encamped in the woods in an unhealthy climate. The army was ill supplied with provisions: sometimes the men had beef, but no bread; at other times bread, but no beef. Once they subsisted during five days on Indian corn collected as it stood in the fields. Five ears were the daily allowance of two men; and it seemed as if the hand of Providence was about to requite them for the murderous barbarities they had inflicted on inoffensive women and children.

In these trying circumstances, the American loyalists who had joined the royal standard were of great service; but their services were ill requited, and several of them, disgusted by the abusive language, and even blows, which they received from some of the officers, left the army for ever. At length the troops passed the Catawba, and on the 29th of October reached Wynnesborough, an intermediate station between Camden and Ninety Six.

During those movements of the British army, the Americans were not idle. Defeated, but not subdued, they were active in preparing to renew the struggle. After the defeat and dispersion of his army at Camden, General Gates fled to Charlotte, eighty miles from the field of battle. There he halted, to collect the straggling fugitives, and to endeavor, from the wreck of his discomfited army, to form a force with which he might check or impede the advancing foe. He was soon joined by Generals Smallwood and Gist, and about 150 dispirited officers and soldiers. Most of the militia who escaped returned home; and Genera Caswell was ordered to assemble those of the neighboring counties. Major Anderson, of the third Maryland regiment, who had collected a number of fugi. tives not far from the field of battle, proceeded toward Charlotte by easy marches in order to give stragglers time to join him. But as Charlotte was utterly inde

fensible, and as no barrier lay between it and the enemy, General Gates retreated to Salisbury, and sent Colonel Williams, accompanied by another officer, on the road leading to Camden, to gain information of the movements of Cornwallis, and to direct such stragglers as he met to hasten to Salisbury. From Salisbury General Gates proceeded to Hillsborough, where he intended to assemble an army with which he might contend for the southern provinces.

At Hillsborough every exertion was made to collect and organize a military force; and ere long General Gates was again at the head of 1,400 men. Even before the royal army entered North Carolina, that state had called out the second division of its militia, under Generals Davidson and Sumner ; and they were joined by the volunteer cavalry under Colonel Davie.

When Cornwallis entered Charlotte, General Gates ordered General Smallwood to take post at the fords of the Yadkin, in order to dispute the passage of the river; and Morgan, who had often distinguished himself by his courage and activity, and who had joined the southern army with the rank of brigadiergeneral, was employed with a light corps to harass the enemy.

When Cornwallis retreated, General Gates advanced to Charlotte; he stationed General Smallwood farther down the Catawba on the road to Camden, and ordered General Morgan to some distance in his front. Such was the po

sition of the troops when General Gates was superseded in the command of the southern army.

On the 5th of October, congress passed a resolution, requiring the commander-in-chief to order a court of inquiry into the conduct of Major-General Gates, as commander of the southern army; and to appoint another officer to that command till such inquiry should be made. The order of congress to inquire into the conduct of General Gates was dissatisfactory to the best American officers · it was afterward dispensed with, and Gates restored to a command in the army. Meanwhile, General Washington recommended Major-General Greene to congress, as a person qualified to command the southern army. Nathaniel Greene, a native of Rhode Island, was brought up among the quakers, but was cast out of their society when he joined the army. He was in camp when General Washington took the command before Boston; and, by his activity, intrepidity, and good conduct, gained the confidence of the commander-in-chief in a high degree, who recommended him as an officer in whose ability, fortitude, and integrity, he could trust. Writing on the subject to Mr. Matthews, a delegate of South Carolina, he said: "I think I am giving you a general; but what can a general do without men, without arms, without clothes, without stores, without provisions?" Greene did not discredit the recommendation of his superior, nor disappoint the hopes of his country. In his progress southward, he visited the governors and legislatures of the states through which he passed; but in some parts of the country found the people so hostile, that ne was not without apprehensions of personal danger.

On the 2d of December, General Greene arrived at Charlotte, and informed General Gates of his commission. That was the first official notice which General Gates received of his removal from the command of the southern army. Next day Gates resigned the command of the army with becoming dignity and patriotism, and Greene behaved toward him with the most polite attention.

In a few hours after General Greene entered on his command, he received the report of one of Morgan's foraging parties, not far from Camden. The party advanced to the vicinity of the British posts at Clermont, which was viewed by Colonel Washington, who saw that it was too strong to be taken by small arms and cavalry, the only weapons and force present; he therefore had recourse to stratagem. Having made an imposing show of part of his men, and having placed the trunk of a pine-tree in such a situation as, at a distance, to have the

appearance of a cannon, he summoned the post to surrender, and it yielded without firing a shot. The militia-Colonel Rugely and 112 men whom he had collected in the place were made prisoners. This event elated General Greene's army, and was considered by them as a good omen of success under their new leader.

General Greene's situation was embarrassing: his army was feeble, consisting, on the 8th of December, of 2,029 infantry, of whom 1,482 were in camp and 547 in detachments; 821 were continentals, and 1,208 were militia. Besides these there were 90 cavalry, 60 artillerymen, and 128 continentals on extra service, constituting in all a force of 2,307 men.

In North Carolina there were many loyalists, and hostilities were carried on between them and their republican neighbors with the most rancorous animosity. They pursued, plundered, and massacred each other with the ruthless fury of beasts of prey; and, even without the presence of contending armies, threatened, by their mutual violence, to render the province a scene of carnage and devastation. The country was thinly inhabited, and abounded in woods and swamps. The cultivated parts were laid waste by hostile factions, and no magazines for the army were provided. The troops were almost naked, and General Greene was obliged to procure subsistence for them day by day: yet, in these circumstances, he was expected instantly to drive the British from the southern provinces. He was sensible that everything depended on public opinion, and felt the difficulty of at once preserving the good will and promoting the interests of the people. He was well aware that by rushing into precipitate measures he might gain their momentary approbation, but would ruin their cause. After maturely considering all circumstances, he resolved to divide his forces and carry on a desultory warfare.

In order to repress some irregularities which had been practised in the army, he was obliged to have recourse to severity, and succeeded in establishing more exact discipline than had been formerly enforced. At a very early period of his command he received a letter from Cornwallis, complaining of the treatment of the prisoners taken at King's mountain, and stating that he had found himself obliged to make some retaliation. General Greene replied that he was too much a stranger to the transaction at King's mountain to reply fully on that point; but alleged that the excesses at that place must have been committed by volunteers independent of the army, and that what had been done there was only in imitation of the example set by Cornwallis himself. He also complained of the transportation of the inhabitants of Charleston to St. Augustine, as a violation of the articles of capitulation.

This epistolary correspondence was soon succeeded by more active operations. General Greene found that he could not long remain at Charlotte, for the country between that place and Camden, having been traversed by the contending armies, was quite exhausted. In order, therefore, to procure subsistence for his troops, as well as to distract and harass the enemy, the American general though full aware of the danger of such a measure, felt himself constrained to divide his little army.

General Morgan had been invested with the command of the light troops by General Gates; and General Greene placed him at the head of one of the divisions of his army, consisting of nearly 400 infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, 170 Virginia riflemen under Major Triplett, and 80 light dragoons under Lieutenant-Colonel Washington. With this small force Morgan was sent to the south of the Catawba to observe the British at Wynnesborough and Camden, and to shift for himself, but was directed to risk as little as possible. On the 25th of December he took a position toward the western frontier of South Carolina, not far from the confluence of the Pacolet and Broad rivers, and about

fifty miles northwest from Wynnesborough. With the other division of his army General Greene left Charlotte on the 20th of the same month; and, on the 29th, arrived at Hick's corner, on the east side of the Pedee, opposite the Cheraw hills, about seventy miles northeast from Wynnesborough, where he remained some time. He marched to that place in the hope of finding more plentiful subsistence for his troops; but his difficulties in that respect were not much diminished, for the country was almost laid waste by the cruel feuds of the hostile factions.

General Morgan did not long remain inactive. On the 27th of December he detached Colonel Washington with his dragoons and 200 militia, who next day marched forty miles, surprised a body of loyalists at Ninety-Six, killed or wounded 150 of them, and took forty prisoners, without sustaining any loss. At that time Morgan was joined by Major M'Dowal with 200 North Carolina, and by Colonel Pickens with 70 South Carolina militia.

The British were assailed not only with the force under Greene and Morgan, but were also obliged to watch other adversaries not less active and enterprising. Sumpter had been defeated by Tarleton on the 18th of August, and his followers dispersed but that daring and indefatigable partisan did not long remain quiet. He was soon again at the head of a considerable band, and had frequent skirmishes with his adversaries. Always changing his position about Enoree, Broad, and Tiger rivers, he infested the British posts in that quarter. On the 12th of November he was attacked at Broad river by Major Wemyss ; but repulsed the party, and made the major prisoner. On the 20th of the same month he was attacked by Colonel Tarleton at Black Stocks near Tiger river : the encounter was sharp and obstinate; Tarleton was repulsed with loss; but Sumpter was wounded in the battle, and, being unfitted for active service, his followers dispersed. Sumpter showed much humanity to his prisoners. Although Major Wemyss had deliberately hanged Mr. Cusack in Cheraw district, and although he had in his pocket a list of several houses burnt by his orders, yet he met with every indulgence. At Black Stocks the wounded were kindly treated by the Americans, who, although irritated by the sanguinary excesses committed on non-combatants by their cruel opponents, were yet too noble and magnanimous to retaliate.

Other partisan chiefs arose, and among them General Marion held a distinguished place. That gentleman had commanded a regiment in Charleston at the time of the siege; but having received a wound which fractured his leg, and being incapable of discharging the active duties of his office, he withdrew from the town. He was created a brigadier-general by Governor Rutledge. On the advance of General Gates, having procured a band of followers, he penetrated to the Santee, harassed the British detachments, and discouraged the loyalists. After the defeat of the Americans at Camden, he rescued a party of continental prisoners who were under a British guard. So ill was he provided with arms, that he was obliged to forge the saws of the sawmills into rude swords for his horsemen; and so scanty was his ammunition, that at times he engaged when he had not three cartridges to each of his party. He secured himself from pursuit in the recesses of the forest, and in deep swamps.

In order to discourage his followers, Major Wemyss burned many houses on the Pedee, Lynch's creek, and Black river, on pretence that their proprietors were followers of Marion: but that severe policy only strengthened the hands of the daring leader; for despair and revenge made these ruined citizens cleave to his standard. He became so troublesome that Tarleton was sent against him, but was unable to bring him to action.

Cornwallis impatiently waited the arrival of reinforcements. After the victory at Camden, when he was flushed with the sanguine hope, not only of over