Battle of Camden The Battle of Camden was a major victory for the British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War ( American War of Independence ) . On August 16 , 1780 , British forces under Lieutenant General Charles , Lord Cornwallis routed the American forces of Major General Horatio Gates about 10 km ( five miles ) north of Camden , South Carolina , strengthening the British hold on the Carolinas following the capture of Charleston . The rout was an humiliating defeat for Gates , the American general best known for commanding the Americans at the British defeat of Saratoga , whose army had possessed a large numerical superiority over the British force . Following the battle , he never held a field command again . His political connections , however , helped him avoid inquiries and courts martial into the debacle . Background . Following the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777 and French entry into the American Revolutionary War in early 1778 , the British decided to renew a " southern strategy " to win back their rebellious North American colonies . This campaign began in December 1778 with the capture of Savannah , Georgia , and gained further ground in January 1780 , when General Sir Henry Clinton led an army and captured Charleston , South Carolina . Clinton returned to New York in the summer of 1780 , leaving Lord Cornwallis the task of fortifying the South and raising the anticipated large numbers of Loyalists . The Continental Army in the south , most of which had surrendered at Charleston , was completely driven from South Carolina in the May 1780 Battle of Waxhaws . The only Patriot resistance remaining in South Carolina consisted of militia partisan companies under commanders like Thomas Sumter , William Davie , and Francis Marion . The Continental Army began to reform at Charlotte , North Carolina under Horatio Gates , the " hero of Saratoga " . Gates arrived in late July , and met with the local militia and Continental Army commanders . Against the advice of council , Gates , even before he knew the full capabilities of the troops under his command , ordered a march into South Carolina through an area he had been advised had strong Loyalist tendencies . A significant number of his troops were relatively untested militia companies , and even some of the Continentals under his command had little battlefield experience . Because of its crossroads location , Camden was considered a key to controlling the back country of the Carolinas . On July 27 , Gates advanced into South Carolina , heading towards Camden , then garrisoned by about 1 , 000 men under Lord Rawdon . Gates established a camp at Rugeley ' s Mill , north of Camden , where he was joined by militia companies from North Carolina and Virginia . The weather was extremely hot , and a significant number of troops were put out of action by the heat and diseases like dysentery . Although Gates had over 4 , 000 men in camp , only about 2000 of them were effective for combat , in part because Gates further reduced their numbers by sending several hundred men in support of operations by Sumter and Marion , and because the night before , the men had been fed green corn , known for giving humans bowel problems . General Cornwallis , alerted to Gates ' movement on August 9 , marched from Charleston with reinforcements , arriving at Camden on August 13 , bringing the effective British troop strength over 2 , 000 men . Deployments . Gates formed up first on the field . He had about 3 , 700 troops , of which only 1 , 500 were Continental regulars . On his right flank he placed Mordecai Gist , Johann de Kalb ' s 2nd Maryland and the Delaware Regiment . On his left flank , he placed 2 , 500 untried North Carolina militia under Colonel Richard Caswell . Gates stayed with the reserve force , the 1st Maryland Brigade under William Smallwood . Gates placed seven guns along the line . Behind the militia , he placed companies of cavalry and light infantry . With this formation , though a typical British practice of the time , Gates unbelievably was placing the untested militia , his weakest forces , against the most experienced British regiments , while his best troops would face only the weaker elements of the British forces . Cornwallis had roughly 2 , 100 men , of which about 600 were Loyalist militia and Volunteers of Ireland . The other 1 , 500 were British regulars . Cornwallis also had the infamous and highly experienced Tarleton ' s Legion , some 250 cavalry and 200 infantry who were formidable in a pursuit situation . Cornwallis formed his army in two brigades . Lord Rawdon was in command of the left , facing the Continental Infantry with the Irish Volunteers , Banastre Tarleton ' s infantry and the Loyalist troops . On the right was Lt . Col James Webster , facing the inexperienced militia with the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers and the 33rd Regiment of Foot . In reserve , Cornwallis had two battalions of the 71st Regiment of Foot and Tarleton ' s cavalry force . He also placed four guns in the British centre . Battle . Both armies advanced at each other just after dawn . The British troops opened the battle , when the right flank fired a volley into the militia regiments , causing a significant number of casualties . They followed the volley up with a bayonet charge . The militia , lacking bayonets , panicked and fled before the British regiments even reached them . Only one company of militia managed to fire a volley before fleeing . The panic quickly spread to the North Carolina militia , and they also broke ranks and fled . Seeing his left flank collapse , Gates fled with the first of the militia to run from the field . Within a matter of minutes , the whole American left wing had evaporated . The Virginia militia ran away so quickly that they suffered only three casualties . While the militia was being routed , and before Gates ' flight , he ordered his right flank under de Kalb to attack the opposing British militia forces . Rawdon ' s troops advanced in two charges , but a heavy fire repulsed his regiments . The Continental troops then launched a counterattack which came close to breaking Rawdon ' s line , which began to falter . Cornwallis rode to his left flank and steadied Rawdon ' s men . Instead of pursuing the fleeing militia , Webster wheeled around and launched a bayonet charge into the left flank of the Continental regiments in the center . The North Carolina militia that had been stationed next to the Delaware regiment held its ground , the only militia unit to do so . The Continental regiments fought a stiff fight for some time , but only 800 Continentals were by this time facing over 2 , 000 British troops . Cornwallis , rather than fight a sustained fight with a heavy loss , ordered Tarleton ' s cavalry to charge the rear of the Continental line . The cavalry charge broke up the formation of the Continental troops , who finally broke and fled . De Kalb , attempting to rally his men was shot eleven times by musket fire . After just one hour of combat , the American troops had been utterly defeated , suffering over 2 , 000 casualties . Tarleton ' s cavalry pursued and harried the retreating Continental troops for some before drawing rein . By that evening , Gates , mounted on a swift horse , had taken refuge away in Charlotte , North Carolina . Casualties . The British casualties were 68 killed , 245 wounded and 11 missing . Hugh Rankin says , " of the known dead , 162 were Continentals , 12 were South Carolina militiamen , 3 were Virginia militiamen and 63 were North Carolina militiamen " . David Ramsay says , " 290 American wounded prisoners were carried into Camden after this action . Of this number , 206 were Continentals , 82 were North Carolina militia and 2 were Virginia militia . The resistance made by each corps may in some degree be estimated from the number of wounded . The Americans lost the whole of their artillery - 8 field pieces , upwards of 200 wagons and the greatest part of their baggage . " A letter from Cornwallis to Lord George Germain , dated 21 August 1780 , says that his army took " about one thousand Prisoners , many of whom wounded " on August 18 . The website Documentary History of the Battle of Camden , 16 August 1780 details on its Officer Casualties at Camden page the fates of 48 Continental officers at Camden : 5 were killed , 4 died of wounds , 4 were wounded without being captured , 11 were wounded and captured and 24 were captured without being wounded . These ratios would suggest that a significant number of the Americans wounded in the battle escaped capture . Analysis . There are many reasons given for Gates ' defeat . The most prominent are the following : Tactical evaluation . The Battle of Camden has been scrutinized as one of the worst tactical decisions made on part of the Americans throughout the entire war . Following the surrender at Saratoga , Gates became overconfident in the ability of the American troops , which was displayed during this battle as he rushed his tactical deployment . Gates was a former British officer , and was therefore accustomed to the traditional British deployment of the most experienced regiments on the place of honor — the " right " flank of the battle line . Gates had therefore placed the Continental regiments on his right flank , and the mass of militia which had joined him , nearly all of which had never even fought in a battle before on the left flank , facing the most experienced British regiments . At first impression , it may seem curious that Gates putting his regiments in the fashion was a grave tactical error , as Cornwallis had done exactly the same thing : his Loyalist troops faced the Continentals just as his Regulars faced the militia . However , the forces were dissimilar , in that the Loyalists were far more experienced in combat at this point than their southern colonial counterparts . As a result , the Loyalists therefore managed to hold the line against the best Continental troops during the battle , while the Regulars effectively broke the colonial militias . Strategic evaluation . Aside from tactics on the battlefield , Gates had made several strategic errors before joining the battle : Aftermath . Gates ' army had been utterly defeated ; it had suffered over 2 , 000 casualties , some 1 , 000 of the troops being prisoners . They lost all seven guns and the whole baggage train . Gates lost control of the southern army . Major General Nathanael Greene , rated next to George Washington as the most able and trusted Colonial officer of the Revolution , was given command of the southern army and started recruiting more troops . Gates , who had strong political connections in the Continental Congress , successfully avoided inquiries into the debacle . Legacy . The Camden Battlefield , located about north of Camden , is owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution , and is undergoing preservation in a private - public partnership . The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961 , and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 . Aspects of the battle were included in the 2000 movie " The Patriot " , in which Ben and Gabriel Martin are seen watching a similar battle . Ben comments at the stupidity of Gates fighting " muzzle to muzzle with Redcoats " . The film is not historically accurate , depicting too many Continental troops relative to the number of militia , and showing the Continentals and militia retreating at the same time . Order of battle . British . Overall Command : Lord Cornwallis Right Brigade : Commanding Officer : Colonel Williams Left Brigade : Commanding Officer : Lord Rawdon Reserve : Commanding Officer : Fraser American . Overall Command : Horatio Gates Right Flank : Commanding Officer : Gist Center Flank : Commanding Officer : Caswell Left Flank : Commanding Officer : Seymour Johnson Reserve : Commanding Officer : Smallwood