Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-07-06
Misturp uf s. Gatolima.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
EarIy Settlement of South Carolina.
BY REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
THE BATTLE OF CAMDEN.

sary that we 90 back and take cursory view
of the general affairs of the American forces
during the early part of 1880. General
Washington saw, so soon as Sir Henry Clln-
ton directed bis attention toward Savannah
and Charleston, that it was the intention OF
the British General to make the South the
seat of the war.
Heretofore, this section had suffered COM
paratively nothing by the war. The seat Of
hostilities had been in the North. The Amer
leans had, in one sense, been unsuccessful in
another sense, they had been very successful.
They had gained no decisive victories and III
several instances, had suffered very great re-
verses Still, the Americans in the North
we're successful. They had bafied the efforts
of the British. The country was no nearer
being subiugated than it was after the battle
of Lexington. Sir Henry Clinton determined
to subject, at the same time, the extremes OF
the colonies to the horrors of war. bis OBJ
iect was to subdue the Southern States in de-
tail. Success crowned his first effort, but in
the end fortune deserted him.
To assist General Lincoln in his efforts to
beat back the invading foe, General Washing
ton was not prepared to do much. line
American army of the North was weak, and
the British had well-appointed force IN that
region. which required constant watching.
Notwithstanding the straitened circumstances
Of the commander-in-chief of the American
forces, he determined to send General Lincoln
all the assistance in bis power. For the pur-
pose of reinforcing the Southern army, the
MARYLAND and Delaware troops, amounting
to fourteen hundred effective men, under the
command of Baron de Kalb, were selected.
On the fourteenth of April, 1880, DeKaib
left Morristown, New Jersey, for the South.
he passed throug Oh Petersburg, Virginia, early
in, June. Then he passed through Hilisbor'
ouph, North Carolina, and encamped on Deep
river, seventy-6ve or eighty miles east OF
Charlotte, North Carolina. he halted on
Deep river on the sixth of July. Two months
previous to this, Charleston, South Carolina,
had fallen into the hands Of the British, and
General BENJAMIN Lincoln, the commander
of the Southern army, was prisoner on pa
role. Baron DeKalb was, consequently, the
commander of the Southern army.
The Colonial Congress, always patriotic,
generally in great straits, and sometimes not
very wise or just in its decisions, determined
to place some man of greater fame than De-
Kalb at the head of the Southern army:
General Horatio Gates, the illegitimate son of
Horace Walpole, Lord Oxford, of England,
was. At this time, at the zenith of his glory.
At Saratoga, the army under his command
gained victory over General Burgoyne. The
honor of that victory was not due to General
Gates but to Generals Schuyler, Arnold and
Morgan.
On the thirteenth of June, General Gates
was appointed BY Congress to the command
Of the Southern army. Dekalo was tnen oe'
tween Petersburg, Virginia, and Deep river,
in North Carolina. General Gates was at
bis home in Virginia, near Shepherdsto~n;,
when he received the appointment: General
Gates was man of good mind, hne CLASSIC
al scholar, and bred soldier but Withal
vain man, who would not scruple to do dis
honorable act, provided his own position
would be advanced, or his power increased
His heart was set upon the position held oy
Washington, and he had used means to have
WASHINGTON removed and himself appointed
in his place. General Gates was one OF those
men who could bear neither success nor de-
feat. =,
Thirteen days after his appointment to the
command of the Southern army, ne set out
with heart full of JOY. In vision, many
Saratogas loomed up before him. Charles
Lee, who was strangely eccentric, remarked
to Gates on his setting out for the South
"Take care that you do not exchange North
ern laurels for Southern willows" The words
we're, as we will see, prophetic, .,
On the twenty.fflh Of July, Gates, with
his secretary, William Clajon, reached De
Kalb's camp on Deep river. The army which
he was appointed to command, and the cir
cumstances by which it was surrounded, were
calculated to chill his ardor; but his hopes
were as great as his ambition. 1t was now
midsummer. The troops were poorly provl'
ded for and the country greatly depressed.
General Caswell was in the field with con-
siderable force of North Carolina militia.
The first step taken BY General Gates was to
form a junction of his troops with those OF
General Csswell. Retaining DeKalb in com.
mand of his own division, the troops crossed
Deep river, at Buffalo ford, on the afternoon
of the twentv.seventh Of July, just two days
after he had taken command of the Southern
army. This shows that be was not disposed
to idle his time in lettering about camp. Du'
ring the evening of the twenty.seventh,
consultation was held with regard to the fu:
ture movements of the army. Dekalb and
Colonel Otho H. Williams, acting adJutant-
general, advised that the army be led to
Charlotte, and that the heavy baggage and
women be left at Salisbury. 1t was also re-
commended by DeKalb and Williams that
hospital and magazine be established at Sails
bury. From Charlotte, it was proposed to
lead the army toward Camden, South Caro-
lima. through the Waxhaw settlement. The
reason ASST gned for this course was that the
army would be led through rich country,
inhabited by Wings, and in the event re-
treat should be necessary, they would have
something to fall back on at Salisbury.
In the counsel of DeKalb and Williams,
there was a vast amount of good sense, but
General Gates would do his own way. HE
was encamped on the road leading to Camden,
and to no other place would ne 60 out to
Camden. He was anxious to meet the toe as
soon az possible. The shortest route to Cam
den. no matter what might be its disadvan-
taqes, was the route he would 60, and no other.
On the morning of the twenty.eigbth, ne was
Joined by Colonel Porter6eld and one hum
dred Virginians. At once, the army, with
General Gates at its head, set out for Camden:
The sufferings of the army under General
Gates. in its march toward Camden, can be
better imagined than described. The coun-
try was poor and but sparsely populated
The army was poorly provided with suppl'es'
and the country afforded neither bread nor
meat The weather was intensely hot, and
the men sick. The bad food and green corn
and neaches the soldiers we're forced to eat,