76th and 18th, were 4 lieutenant-colonels, 3 majors, 14 captains 4 captain-lieutenants, 16 lieutenants, 3 ensigns, 4 staff, 78 subalterns, and 604 rank and file. The impossibility of accounting with certainty for those who fell in battle, and those who fell into the hands of the enemy, obliged the officers to make many missing who were probably killed or prisoners. Though Cornwallis's victory was complete, yet from the accounts which the British gave of the action, it may be inferred that it was dearly bought. Gates apprehended early in September, that he had established it as a certain fact, that more than 500 of their old troops were killed and wounded.

On the 17th and 18th of August, brigadiers Smallwood and Gist, with several other officers, arrived at Charlotte (full 80 miles from the place of action) where upward of an hundred regular infantry, col. Armand's cavalry, and a major Davie's small partizan corps of horse from the Waxhaw settlement had collected. Smallwood had been separated from the first Maryland brigade, after the men had been engaged a while, by the interposal of the enemy; and finding it impracticable to rejoin them, as well as apprehending they must be overpowered and could not retreat, rode off for personal safety. The little provision which the troops met with at Charlotte, proved a most seasonable refreshment. The drooping spirits of the officers began to revive; and hopes were entertained that a respectable force might soon be again assembled from the country militia and from the addition of col. Sumpter's victorious detachment. All these prospects however, were soon obscured, by intelligence on the 19th, of the complete dispersion of that corps. On hearing of gen. Gates's defeat, col. Sumpter began to retreat up the south side of the Wateree, with his prisoners and captured stores. Lord Cornwallis, on the morning of the 17th, dispatched Tarleton with his legion and a detachment of infantry to pursue him. This was done with so much celerity and address, that he was overtaken the next day at Fishing-creek. The British horse rode into the camp before he was prepared for defence. The Americans having been four days without sleep or provisions, were more obedient to the calls of nature, than attentive to her first law of self-preservation. Col. Sumpter had taken every prudent precaution to prevent a surprise, but his videttes were So fatigued that they neglected their duty. With much difficulty he got a few of his corps to make a short stand, but the greater part fled to the river or to the woods. The British prisoners, about 300, were all retaken and conducted to Camden. The colonel lost all his artillery, and the whole detachment was either killed, captured or dispersed.

Every

Every hope from that quarter being thus banished, and the mi litia not expected to assemble in less than three days, the officers and soldiers at Charlotte began to think their situation again dangerously critical. No order had yet taken place among those who had fortuitously met there. The troops were half famished; and there was no store of provisions in the town, which was open on all sides, and no more defensible than a plain, There was nothing to oppose or impede the approach of the enemy, for the Wateree was fordable. In fact there was reasons sufficient to apprehend that the wretched remnant of an.. únfortunate army might be cut to pieces before night. The offi cers therefore were generally of opinion, that no time should be lost in making a retreat toward Salisbury; and the whole were prepared to march at the moment when gen. Smallwood, who quartered at a small distance from the town, came to take the command. Col. Williams, the deputy-adjutant-general, and one of the brigade-majors, took the route toward Camden, to direct those coming that road to file off for Salisbury, as also to get fur ther intelligence of the enemy. The necessary information was sent by express to maj. Anderson. The troops were followed. by a number of whig families and the whole tribe of the Cawtaba Indians, in number about 300, of which there were about 60 warriors. There was greater plenty of provisions in this part of the country, than in that through which the army had advanced. The troops supplied themselves, under the direction. of the officers, there being no magazines. In such circumstances. 2 strict regularity could not be preserved, and the inhabitants.. necessarily felt the effects of the general distress.

A minute representation of the retreat from Charlotte to Salisbury, would be the image of complicated wretchedness. Care, anxiety, pain, humiliation and dejection, poverty, hurry andconfusion, promiscuously marked the shocking scene. Painful objects presented themselves to view-several men without an arm-some with but one-and many standing in need of kind and powerful assistance.

The exertions of col. Williams, of Ninety-Six, on the side of congress, have been already noticed; it must now be mentioned, that on the day Sumpter was surprised, he engaged a considera-... ble party of British and tories at Musgrove's mills, on the Eno-ree river. On the 17th he marched with colonels Shelby and Clark, and a party of about 200 South-Carolinians and Georgians, to attack a body of about 200 tories. These were reinforced at night by 100 more and 200 regulars. The next day they advanced upon the whig party; every man of which was ordered to take his tree for defence; not to fire till the enemy

was

was within 8 yards, and then to be sure of his object. A warm fire began: after a while the enemy was obliged to retreat, having 60 men killed, mostly British, and 70 wounded: the others had 3 killed and 8 wounded."

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T

Major Anderson, having obtained intelligence of lieut. col. Tarleton's retiring after surprising Sumpter, moved slowly in order to give the fugitive soldiers an opportunity of joining him and continued his march toward Charlotte as the nearest place of repose and refreshment, of which his little party was in great want, From Charlotte the major sent an express to gen. Smallwood at Salisbury, to inform him of his arrival, the situation of the enemy, and the wish of the people in that neighbourhood that he would continue with his party among them. He also acquainted the general, that it was the request of the militia that he would return and take the command of them, Caswell having left Charlotte before the time appointed for their meeting. The general declined the honor of the invitation, considering the feebleness of his force, that the men were worn down with fatigue and fasting, were destitute of all necessaries, and therefore inadequate to the needful assistance in case the British should advance. He sent also the particular friend of major Anderson to hasten his departure from Charlotte, and to conduct him to Salisbury, where he continued with the effective soldiers who had joined him from time to time. After the major's arri val at Salisbury, Sinallwood received an order from Gates to ad-" vance toward Hillsborough, which order he had anticipated by having crossed the river before he received it. The troops were halted for a day or two at Guildford court-house, and then upon fresh orders from Gates marched on to Hillsborough, where they arrived the 6th of September. A few officers and men had arrived there before by a different route.*

Lord Cornwallis, notwithstanding the completeness of his victory, was restrained for some time from pursuing his conquests, through the loss he had sustained in the battle, the extreme heat of the weather, the sickliness of the season, and the want of necessary supplies, he therefore remained at Camden." But he dispatched proper people to North-Carolina the day after the action, with directions to the loyalists to take arms and assemble immediately, and promised to march without loss of time to their support. Iill he could advance toward that state, his attention was engaged in adopting measures to crush all future opposion

In compiling the above narrative from July the 28th, recourse has been had to a detail of facts written by the deputy adjutant-general col. Otho H. Williams,

to

to the royal government, which betrayed him into a still severer policy than had hitherto deen adopted.

On the 18th of August he thus addressed lieut. col. Cruger, the commandant of the British garrison at Ninety-Six-" I have given orders that all the inhabitants of this province who had submitted, and who have taken a part in this revolt, should be pu nished with the greatest rigor, that they should be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them or destroyed. I have likewise directed, that compensation should be made out of their effects to the persons who have been plundered and oppressed by them. I have ordered, in the most positive manner, that every militia man, who had bore arms with us, and had afterward joined the enemy, should be immediately hanged. I have now, Sir, only to desire, that you will take the most vigorous measures to extinguish the rebellion in the district in which you command, and that you will obey in the strictest manner the directions have given in this letter relative to the treatment of this coun try. "Similar orders were addressed to the commanders of dif ferent posts. Executions and severities followed, which instead of extinguishing what his lordship pronounces rebellion, will on ly cause it to rage in the breasts of the determined friends to congress, till it bursts forth with redoubled fury whenever a promising opportunity offers.

Notwithstanding the triumph of the British arms in the con quest, first of the capital and then of the state of South-Carolina, several of the inhabitants, respectable for their numbers, but more so for their weight and influence, had continued firm to the cause of independence: though restrained by their paroles from doing any thing injurious to the interest of his Britannic majesty, yet by their silent example they had induced many to decline exchanging their paroles as prisoners, for the protection and privi leges of British subjects. To remove every bias of this kind, and to enforce a general submission to royal government, lord Cornwallis gave orders to send out of the state a number of such principal persons, prisoners on parole in Charleston. On the 27th of August, Christopher Gadsden, esq. the lieutenant-governor, most of the civil and militia officers, and some others of the hearty friends of America, were taken early in the morning out of their houses and beds by armed parties, and brought to the exchange, from whence, when collected together, they were removed on board the Sandwick guardship, and from thence transported in a few days to St. Augustine. The manner in which the order was *It was sent to gen. Greene as a genuine copy of the order of his lordship, in a letter of December 27, 1789.

executed

executed, was not less painful to the feellings of gentlemen, than the order itself was injurious to the rights of prisoners entitled to the benefits of a capitulation. Guards were left at their respective houses. The private papers of some were examined. Reports were immediately circulated to their disadvantage, and every circumstance managed so as to induce a general belief, that they were all apprehended for violating their paroles, and for concert ing a scheme for burning the town and massacreing the loyal sub jects. On the very day of their confinement they remonstrated to lieut. col. Balfour, the commandant of Charleston, asserting their innocence, and challenging their accusers to appear face to face with their charges against them. To this a message from the commandant was delivered officially, in which he acknowledged that this extraordinary step had been taken "from motives of policy." "On the first of September gen. Moultrie, as the senior continental officer that was a prisoner under the capitulation, demanded a release from the prison-ship, of those gentlemen particularly who were entitled to the benefit of that act; and request ed, that if the demand could not be complied with, he might have leave to send an officer to congress to represent the griev ance. The commandant, under the pretence that the terms of the letter were very exceptionable and unwarrantable, declined returning an answer; and cleared himself of a business that he was not capable of defending, by declaring, in a note from a major of brigade, that he would not receive any further appli cation from the general on the subject.

The British endeavored to justify the sending of the citizens to St. Augustine, by alledging the right of captors to remove prisoners whithersoever they please, without regarding their convenience. It was generally conceived, that the right of the citi zens of Charleston to reside at their homes, was not only strongTy implied, but plainly expressed in the capitulation; however as the article respecting the inhabitants of the town, only promised that they should be prisoners on parole, and did not immediately add in Charleston, the British commanders took the advan tage of it for removing gentlemen charged with no breach of the capitulation from their houses, wives and children, by offering them that parole in St. Augustine, to which they had an undoubted right in Charleston, upon the established rule among civilized nations, to construe capitulations, where ambiguous, in favor of the vanquished. The suffering individuals might justly complain upon the occasion; but, congress could not, consider ing what had taken place with regard to the convention troops under gen. Burgoyne,

On