When Gates was pressing forward toward Camden, Marion, with about twenty men and boys, was annoying the Tories in the neighborhood of the Pedee. With his ragged command, worse than Falstaff ever saw, he appeared at the camp of Gates, and excited the ridicule of the well-clad Continentals. 5 Gates, too, would doubtless have thought lightly of him, if Governor Rutledge, who was in the American camp, and knew the partisan’s worth, had not recommended him to the notice of that general. Gates listened to his modestly-expressed opinions respecting the campaign, but was too conceited to regard them seriously, or to offer to Marion a place in his army. While he was in Gates’s camp, the Whigs of Williamsburg District, who had arisen in arms, sent for him to be their commander. Governor Rutledge gave him the commission of a brigadier on the spot, and he hastened to organize that brigade, which we shall hereafter meet frequently among the swamps, the broad Savannahs, and by the water-courses of the South. 6

Fort Motte, where the brave Marion exhibited his skill and courage, was the principal depôt of the convoys between Charleston and Camden, and also for those destined for Granby and Ninety-Six. The British had taken possession of the fine large mansion of Mrs. Rebecca Motte, 7 a widow of fortune, which occupied a commanding position. They surrounded it with a deep trench (a part of which is yet visible), and along the interior margin of it erected a high parapet. Mrs. Motte and her family, known to be inimical to the British, were driven to her farm-house, upon a hill north of the mansion, and their place was supplied by a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, under Captain M‘Pherson, a brave British officer. After Colonel Watson eluded the pursuit of Marion and Lee, and crossed the Congaree (see page 474), those indefatigable partisans moved upon Fort Motte. A few hours before their arrival at that place, M‘Pherson was re-enforced by a small detachment of dragoons sent from Charleston with dispatches for Lord Rawdon. They were on the point of leaving, when Marion and Lee appeared upon the height at the farm-house where Mrs. Motte was residing.

After cautiously reconnoitering, Lee took position at the farm-house, and his men, with the field-piece sent to them by Greene, occupied the eastern declivity of the high plain on which Fort Motte stood. This gentle declivity is a little southwest of the rail-way station, in full view of passengers upon the road. Marion immediately cast up a mound (see page 477), upon which he planted the six-pounder, in a position to rake the northern face of the parapet of the fort, against which Lee prepared to approach. M‘Pherson had no artillery, and his safety depended upon timely extraneous aid, either from Camden or Ninety-Six.

Between the height on which Lee was posted and Fort Motte is a narrow vale, which allowed the assailants to approach within four hundred yards of the fort. From that vale they began to advance by a parallel, which, by the assistance of some negroes from neighboring plantations, was sufficiently advanced by the tenth [May, 1781.] to warrant the Americans in demanding a surrender. A flag was accordingly dispatched, with a formal summons, but M‘Pherson gallantly refused compliance. That evening, intelligence of Rawdon’s retreat from Camden toward Nelson’s Ferry was communicated to the Americans, and in the course of the night a courier from Greene confirmed the report. Delay would be dangerous, for Rawdon, with his superior force, could easily repulse them. Early on the morning of the eleventh, the light of his beacon-fires were seen on the high hills of Santee, and that night their gleamings upon the highest ground of the country, opposite Fort Motte, gave great joy to the beleagured garrison. To batter down the enemy’s works with the field-piece, or to approach by a trench, was too slow for the exigency of the case. The fertile mind of Lee, full of expedients, suggested a quicker plan for dislodging the garrison. The mansion of Mrs. Motte, in the center of the enemy’s works, was covered with shingles, now very dry, for no rain had fallen for several days, and the rays of the sun were powerful. To communicate fire to this mansion was Lee’s expedient. That officer had enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. Motte during the siege, and her only marriageable daughter was then the wife of his friend, Major Thomas Pinckney. These circumstances made it a painful duty for him to propose the destruction of her property. Her cheerful acquiescence, and even patriotic desire to be able to serve her country by such a sacrifice, gave him joy and, communicating his plan to Marion, they hastened to execute it. It was proposed to hurl ignited combustibles upon the roof of the house, by arrows. These were prepared, when Mrs. Motte, observing their inferiority, brought out a fine bow and a bundle of arrows which had been brought from the East Indies, and presented them to Lee. On the morning of the twelfth [May, 1781.], Lee sent Dr. Irvine, of his cavalry, with a flag, to state truly the relative position of the belligerents; that Rawdon had not yet crossed the Santee, and that immediate surrender would save many lives. M‘Pherson still refused compliance and at meridian, when the ditch was advanced within bow-shot of the fort, several arrows from the hand of Nathan Savage, a private in Marion’s brigade, winged their way, with lighted torches, toward the house. Two struck the dry shingles, and instantly a bright flame crept along the roof. Soldiers were ordered up to knock off the shingles and put out the fire, when one or two shots from Marion’s battery, raking the loft, drove them below. M‘Pherson hung out a white flag, the firing ceased, the flames were extinguished, and at one o’clock the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war. By invitation of Mrs. Motte, both the victorious and the captive officers partook of a sumptuous dinner from her table, while she presided with all the coolness and easy politeness for which she was remarkable when surrounded by friends in the enjoyment of peace. 8

The prisoners were treated with great humanity, notwithstanding some of them were Tories of a most obnoxious stamp. As soon as paroled, they were sent off to Lord Rawdon, then crossing the Santee at Nelson’s Ferry, near Eutaw Springs. The fall of Fort Motte greatly alarmed that officer, and two days afterward [May 14.], he blew up the fortifications at Nelson’s Ferry, and hastened toward Charleston. During the day of the capitulation, Greene arrived with a small troop of cavalry, being anxious to know the result of the siege, for he was aware Rawdon was hastening to the relief of the garrison. 9 Finding every thing secure, he returned to his camp, then on the north side of the Congaree, after ordering Marion to proceed against Georgetown, toward the head of Winyaw Bay, near the coast, and directing Lee with his legion, and Captain Finley with his six pounder, to attack Fort Granby, thirty-two miles above Fort Motte, near the present city of Columbia. Thither we will presently proceed.

About a mile eastward of Fort Motte is the residence of Charles Thomson, Esq., known as Belleville. It was taken possession of, stockaded, and garrisoned by the Loyalists for a while. The fine old mansion, which I am told exhibits many bullet-marks made by some Whigs, who attacked a party of Tories stationed in the house, was owned by William Thomson, who, next to Moultrie, was most conspicuous in the battle on Sullivan’s Island, at the entrance to Charleston harbor, in 1776. I intended to visit Belleville, but it was so late when I had finished dinner with Mr. Love, that I was obliged to mount one of his horses and hasten to the station to take passage for Columbia. While waiting for the cars, the overseer of a plantation near requested me to write a pass for a sick female slave, whom he was about to send to her master at Columbia for medical aid. Regardless of the penalty, 10 I wrote upon a card from my port-folio, "PASS DIDO TO COLUMBIA, January 19, 1849. J. SMOKE." Two hours afterward I was there also, but did not again see the namesake of the Queen of Carthage.

The morning after my arrival in Columbia was very inclement. A cold drizzle, which iced every thing out of doors, made me defer my visit to Fort Granby until noon, when, seeing no prospect of abatement, I procured a conveyance, and crossing the great bridge over the Congaree, rode to the house of James Cacey, Esq., the "Fort Granby" of the Revolution, two miles below. It is a strong frame building, two stories in height, and stands upon an eminence near the Charleston road, within three fourths of a mile of Friday’s Ferry, upon the Congaree. It overlooks ancient Granby and the country around. Several houses of the old village are there, but the solitude of desolation prevails, for not a family remains. Mr. Cacey was a hopeless invalid, yet he was able to give me many interesting reminiscences connected with that locality, 11 and I passed an hour very pleasantly with him and his family.

The dwelling of Mr. Cacey was originally built by some gentlemen of Pine Tree (Camden) as a store-house for cotton and other products of the country, whence they were sent upon flat-boats down the river to the sea-board. When the chain of military posts from Camden to Charleston was established, this building, eligibly located, was fortified, and called Fort Granby. A ditch was digged around it; a strong parapet was raised; bastions were formed; batteries were arranged; and an abatis was constructed. The garrison consisted of three hundred and fifty men, chiefly Loyalists, with a few mounted Hessians, under the command of Major Maxwell (a refugee from the eastern shore of Maryland), of the Prince of Wales’s regiment. He was neither brave nor experienced, and the want of these qualities of the commandant being known to Lee, he felt no hesitation in attacking him in his strong position. Detaching a small troop of cavalry, under Captain Armstrong, to watch the movements of Rawdon, Lee pushed forward with his usual celerity, to the investment of Fort Granby. Sumter, instead of joining Greene before Camden, had made a demonstration against Fort Granby, a few days before, but finding it too strong for his small arms, had retired, and marched to attack the British post at Orangeburg, fifty miles below. Lee arrived in the vicinity of the fort on the evening of the fourteenth of May [1781.], the day on which Sumter took possession of Orangeburg; and in the edge of a wood, within six hundred yards of the fort, he began the erection of a battery. A dense fog the next morning enabled him to complete it, and mount the six pounder brought by Captain Finley from Fort Motte, before they were discovered by the garrison. When the fog rolled away, Captain Finley discharged his cannon, and, at the same moment, the legion infantry advanced, took an advantageous position, and opened a fire upon the enemy’s pickets. This sudden annunciation of the presence of an enemy, and his imposing display, alarmed Maxwell excessively, and he received Captain Eggleston, who was sent with a flag to demand a surrender, with great respect. After a brief consultation with his officers, the major agreed to surrender the fort, on condition that private property of every, sort, without an investigation of title, should be left in the hands of its possessors; 12 that the garrison should be permitted to retire to Charleston as prisoners of war, until exchanged; that the militia should be held in the same manner as the regulars; and that an escort, charged with the protection of persons and property, should attend the prisoners to Rawdon’s camp. Lieutenant-colonel Lee’s practice was always to restore plundered property, when captured, to the rightful owners; yet, knowing the danger of delay, with Rawdon so near, he acquiesced, on the condition that all the horses fit for public service should be left. To this the mounted Hessians objected, and the negotiations were suspended. During this suspense, Captain Armstrong arrived with the intelligence that Rawdon had crossed the Santee, and was moving upon Fort Motte. Lee waved the exception; the capitulation was signed, and before noon Captain Rudulph raised the American flag on one of the bastions, and the captive garrison marched, with its escort, for Rawdon’s camp. 13 Among the spoils of victory were two pieces of cannon, and a considerable quantity of ammunition, salt, and liquor. It was a glorious, because almost a bloodless victory, for no life was lost.

Resting one day, General Greene moved toward Ninety-Six, which place he reached on the twenty-second of May. In the mean while, he strengthened Lee’s legion by the addition of some North Carolina levies under Major Eaton, and then directed him to hasten toward Augusta, on the Savannah River, to join Pickens, who, with a body of militia, was in the vicinity of that post. We will follow them presently.

The house of Mr. Cacey yet bears many "honorable scars" made by the bullets of Lee’s infantry; and in the gable toward the river, between the chimney and a window (indicated by a black spot in the engraving), is an orifice, formed by the passage of a six-pound ball from Finley’s field-piece. In one of the rooms are numerous marks made by an ax when cutting up meat for the use of the garrison; and an old log barn near, which stood within the intrenchments, has also many bullet scars.

While at Columbia, I met a gentleman from Abbeville District, in the vicinity of old Fort Ninety-Six. He informed me that the traveling was wretched, and quite dangerous in that direction, and that nothing of Revolutionary interest worth visiting yet remained at that military post, now the pleasant village of Cambridge, seventy-nine miles westward of Columbia. He also informed me that a gentleman of Cambridge, who was familiar with every historical event in his neighborhood, would cheerfully communicate all I could possibly learn by a personal visit. Willing to avoid a long and tedious journey unless it was necessary, I wrote to that gentleman, and by his kind and prompt compliance I am furnished with all necessary details respecting the locality, together with the plan of the fortification, printed on page 485 {original text has "691".}. We will here consider the events which render Ninety-Six historically famous.

Ninety-Six was garrisoned by about five hundred and fifty Loyalists, three hundred and fifty of whom were from New York and New Jersey, 14 and the remainder were South Carolina Tories, under Colonel King, the whole commanded by Lieutenant-colonel John Cruger, a native of the city of New York. Cruger was an energetic officer, and possessed the entire confidence of his superiors in the royal army. He did not receive instructions from Rawdon when that officer abandoned Camden, for Sumter cut off all communications; therefore, he had not prepared to evacuate Ninety-Six and join Colonel Browne at Augusta, as Rawdon desired him to do. When he learned that Greene was approaching Camden, he began to strengthen his works; and when informed that Lee, with his legion, had got between him and the post at Augusta, and that Greene was approaching to besiege him, his garrison labored night and day still further to strengthen the defenses. Already he had built a stockade fort on the borders of the village, in addition to a star redoubt. This was strengthened; a parapet was raised; a ditch was dug around it, and a covered way, communicating with the palisaded village, was prepared. Block-houses, formed of notched logs, were erected on the northeastern side of the village, near where a star redoubt was constructed. Before Greene reached there, Cruger’s energy and skill had so directed the efforts of the garrison, under the superintendence of Lieutenant Haldane, one of Cornwallis’s aids, that the place presented an apparently insurmountable strength against the attacks of Greene’s little army of a thousand men.

In the mean while, Marion and Sumter were directed to keep watch between the Santee and Edisto Rivers, and hold Rawdon in check, if he should attempt to march to the relief of either Ninety-Six or Augusta, now menaced by the Americans; while Lee, who left Fort Granby, with his legion, in the evening after its capture, was scouring the country between those two posts, and proceeding to form a junction with Pickens. Informed that quite a large quantity of powder, balls, small arms, liquor, salt, blankets, and other articles, intended for the Indians, and much wanted by the Americans, were deposited at Fort Galphin (sometimes called Fort Dreadnought), a small stockade at Silver Bluff, upon the Carolina side of the Savannah, twelve miles below Augusta, 15 he hastened thither to capture them. On the morning of the twenty-first of May [1781.], he reached the vicinity, and Captain Rudulph, with some of the legion infantry, gallantly rushed upon the fort, while a small body of militia attacked the garrison from another quarter. With the loss of only one man, the fort, with all its contents, was captured by the Americans. After resting a few hours, Lee ordered Major Eggleston, who was a Continental officer, to cross the Savannah, join bodies of militia in that neighborhood, proceed to Augusta with a flag, inform Colonel Browne of the approach of Greene, and demand an instant surrender of Forts Cornwallis and Grierson, at that place. The events which followed will be detailed in another chapter.

PLAN OF THE SIEGE OF NINETY-SIX. 16

Greene arrived before Ninety-Six on the twenty-second of May [1781.], with less than one thousand regulars 17 and a few undisciplined militia. He found quite a strong fort, well situated. On the left of the village, in a valley, was a spring and rivulet, which furnished water to the garrison. On the western side of this rivulet, upon an eminence, was a stockade fort, and upon the other side, near the village, was a fortified jail. These were to defend the water of the rivulet, for none could be had within the town. Eastward of the village stood the principal work, a star redoubt, consisting of sixteen angles, salient and re-entering, with a ditch and abatis, and furnished with three pieces of cannon. Every thing was judiciously arranged for defense, and Lieutenant-colonel Cruger defied Greene when he appeared.

Colonel Kosciuszko was with Greene, and under his direction the besiegers began approaches by parallels. They broke ground near the star redoubt on the evening of the twenty-second. Perceiving this, Cruger placed his three cannons upon a platform, in that direction, before noon the next day, and manned the parapet with infantry. Under cover of these, a sally party, under Lieutenant Roney, rushed out upon the besiegers, drove the guards back toward the lines, bayoneted all who fell in the way, destroyed the American works as far as they had progressed, and carried off all of the intrenching tools. Lieutenant Roney was mortally wounded, and that was all the loss the enemy sustained. All this was accomplished with great gallantry, before a detachment sent by Greene to re-enforce Kosciuszko, arrived upon the ground. Kosciuszko now commenced another approach to the star redoubt. He broke ground on the night of the twenty-third, under cover of a ravine, and day by day slowly approached the fortress. In the mean while, Pickens and Lee besieged and captured Forts Cornwallis and Grierson at Augusta, and hastened to the assistance of Greene. Lee arrived on the eighth of June [1781.], and Pickens soon afterward joined him. These active partisans were directed to attack the enemy’s works on the west. They immediately commenced regular approaches to the stockade to cut off the enemy’s supply of water; and at a proper distance from it erected a battery to cover further approaches, and planted a six pounder upon it, under the direction of Lieutenant Finn. Cruger saw the inevitable destruction of the garrison when these parallels, made slowly, day by day, should be completed. He had found means to inform Lord Rawdon of his critical situation, and hourly he expected aid from him. To gain time for this succor to arrive, he made nightly sallies, and bloody encounters frequently occurred, while almost daily the American foraging parties were attacked by bands of Tories. 18 Yet slowly and surely the Americans approached; and when the second parallel was completed, Greene sent Colonel Williams to demand a surrender, with promises of kind treatment. Cruger promptly replied that he should defend the fort till the last extremity, and regarded neither the threats nor the promises of the American general. A battery, constructed in the second parallel, now opened upon the redoubt, and under its cover Kosciuszko pressed forward his approach with vigor. On the eleventh [June 1781.], Greene received a dispatch from Sumter, announcing the startling intelligence that on the third, a fleet arrived from Ireland with re-enforcements for Rawdon, consisting of three regiments, a detachment from the Guards, and a considerable body of volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Gould. Rawdon had been anxiously awaiting at Monk’s Corner, near Charleston, this propitious event. He had heard of the fall of Fort Cornwallis at Augusta and the investment of Ninety-Six, but with his small force, and Marion and Sumter before him, he dared not march to the aid of Cruger. On the arrival of these troops, he repaired to Charleston, and on the seventh [June.] marched to the relief of Ninety-Six, with seventeen hundred foot and one hundred and fifty horse. A few other troops from his camp at Monk’s Corner joined him, and with more than two thousand men he proceeded toward Orangeburg. Greene dispatched Pickens to the aid of Sumter, and ordered Marion from the lower country to joint them in retarding the advance of the royal army. They could do little to oppose him, and Greene began to despair of reducing the garrison to submission before Rawdon’s arrival.

On the evening of the nineteenth, a countryman was seen riding along the American lines south of the town, talking familiarly with officers and soldiers. It was a circumstance too common to excite special notice. At length, reaching the great road leading directly into the town, he put spurs to his horse, and, amid a storm of bullets, rode safely to the gate, holding a letter in his raised hand. He was received with the greatest joy, for he was the bearer of a dispatch from Lord Rawdon, announcing his approach with a large force. The beleaguered garrison, almost on the point of surrendering (for this was the first intelligence Cruger had received from Rawdon since his evacuation of Camden), were animated with fresh hope, while the besiegers, aware of the approach of succor for the besieged, were nerved to greater exertions. They completed their parallels, and commenced the erection of a Mayham Tower, 19 from which to fire into the star redoubt. To guard against this advantage of height, Major Greene, the commander of the redoubt, piled bags of sand upon the parapets. On the morning of the seventeenth, a general fire was opened upon the works, and so effectual was it upon the stockade and its vicinity, that the garrison was deprived of water from the rivulet. Had this advantage been maintained, and Rawdon been delayed thirty hours longer, Cruger must have surrendered.

While this bloody scene was transpiring at the star redoubt, one more successful effort for the besiegers occurred at the stockade. Rudulph made his way into the fort, and the enemy, with some prisoners, 20 hastily retreated to the main works. This advantage Lee intended to follow up, by entering the town, assailing the fortified jail, and then to assist in reducing the star redoubt; but General Greene, perceiving the slaughter in the ditch, and desirous of saving his troops, ordered Lee to do nothing more than to hold the stockade he had gained. Greene then sent a flag to Cruger, proposing a cessation of hostilities for the purpose of burying the dead. Cruger refused, claiming that service for the victor, whoever he might be. Believing the reduction of the post to be doubtful before the arrival of Rawdon, and unwilling to encounter that general’s superior force, Greene withdrew the detachment from the stockade, and prepared for a general retreat. Thus ended the siege of Ninety-Six, which continued twenty-seven days. During this siege, the Americans lost about one hundred and fifty men in killed, wounded, and missing. Captain Armstrong, of the Maryland line, a most valuable officer, was shot through the head, during the assault on the eighteenth, and fell dead. He was the only American officer who was killed. Captain Benson, also of the Maryland line, was severely wounded in the neck and shoulder. The exact loss of the besieged was not reported.

On the evening of the nineteenth, Greene raised the siege, crossed the Saluda, [June 20, 1781.] and rapidly retreated toward the Ennoree. 21 He had communicated to Sumter notice of the events of the eighteenth, advised him of the route of his retreat, and ordered the corps in his front, with the cavalry of Washington, to join him as speedily as possible.

When Greene heard of the retrograde movement of Rawdon, he halted, and ordered Lieutenant-colonel Lee to follow the enemy with his corps, for the purpose of obtaining intelligence. Greene had intended to retreat to Charlotte, but now his future movements depended upon those of his adversary. Lee soon ascertained that Rawdon had determined to abandon Ninety-Six, and to join a force under Colonel Stewart, whom he had ordered to advance from Charleston to Friday’s Ferry at Granby; while Colonel Cruger, with his garrison and those Loyalists, with their property, who might choose to follow, were to march directly to Orangeburg. While Rawdon was thus preparing to abandon the upper country, Sumter intercepted a letter to that officer from Colonel Balfour at Charleston, informing him that he had recalled Stewart after he had commenced his march for Friday’s Ferry. This letter was sent to Greene, who immediately directed his hospital and heavy baggage, then at Winnsborough, to be forwarded to Camden, while he prepared to pursue Rawdon with all his force. He sent Lee to gain the front of the British army before it should reach Friday’s Ferry, and dispatched messages to Marion and Sumter, ordering them to take a similar position. 22 Lee accomplished his purpose, and in a skirmish with a part of his corps, under Captain Eggleston, a foraging party of fifty or sixty dragoons, with some wagons, were captured and sent to Greene’s camp, then on the banks of the Saluda, near its junction with the Broad River at Columbia. Rawdon, not meeting with Stuart, and ignorant of the cause of his delay, was baffled, and turning southward, pushed on toward Orangeburg, unwilling now to encounter the Americans, for he had only a thousand men with him. In the mean while, Stuart had again marched from Charleston; and Marion and Lieutenant-colonel Washington being engaged in retarding his progress, did not join Lee until the morning of the tenth of July, when that officer and his corps were upon Beaver Creek, in the present Lexington District.

Orangeburg was one of the chain of military posts established by the British after the fall of Charleston [May, 1780.]. The jail was fortified and garrisoned by about seventy militia and a dozen regulars. Sumter, when marching to join Greene at Camden, according to orders, conceived a plan for capturing Fort Granby, and therefore did not re-enforce his general. He began the siege successfully, when, learning the fact that Rawdon had ordered the evacuation of Orangeburg, he left Colonel Taylor, with a strong party, to maintain the siege of Fort Granby, while he should strike the garrison at the former place, before it should retire. By a rapid march he reached Orangeburg on the morning of the eleventh of May [1781.], and, after one or two volleys, the garrison surrendered themselves unconditional prisoners of war. Paroling his prisoners, Sumter hastened toward Fort Granby; but before his arrival, Lee had invested and reduced it, allowing, as we have seen (page 483), the most favorable terms. Sumter was incensed at the conduct of Lee, for he felt that he had not only snatched from him the laurels he had almost won, but that he had hastened the capitulation, and allowed favorable terms, in order to accomplish the surrender before Sumter could arrive. No doubt the garrison would have surrendered unconditionally, if besieged a day or two longer. Sumter sent an indignant letter of complaint to Greene, inclosing his commission. Greene, knowing his worth, returned it to him with many expressions of regard, and Sumter, sacrificing private resentment for the good of the cause, remained in the army.

On the day after Rawdon’s arrival at Orangeburg, he was joined by Lieutenant-colonel Stewart, with the third regiment from Ireland, called the Buffs, whom Rawdon had ordered from Charleston. The retirement of Greene to the high hills of Santee, and the rendezvous there of the several corps of Marion, Sumter, and Lee, indicating a present cessation of hostilities, Lord Rawdon proceeded to Charleston, and embarked for Europe, for the purpose of recruiting his health. 23 The command of all the troops in the field now devolved upon Colonel Stuart. That officer soon left Orangeburg, and, moving forward, encamped upon the Congaree, near its junction with the Wateree. The two armies were only sixteen miles apart by air line, but two rivers rolled between, and they could not meet without making a circuit of seventy miles. Stuart’s foraging parties soon spread over the country. Marion was detached toward the Combahee Ferry, and Washington went across the Wateree to disperse them. Many brisk skirmishes ensued. In the mean time, Greene was re-enforced by a brigade of Continental troops from North Carolina, under General Sumner. 24 Intent upon the recovery of South Carolina, he determined, with his augmented strength, to attack the enemy. He left the Santee Hills on the twenty-second of August [1781.], with about twenty-six hundred men (only sixteen hundred of whom were fit for active service), crossed the Wateree at the Camden Ferry, and made rapid marches to Friday’s Ferry, on the Congaree. There he was joined by General Pickens, with the militia of Ninety-Six, and a body of South Carolina state troops recently organized, under Colonel Henderson. On hearing of Greene’s approach, Stuart decamped from Orangeburg, and pitched his tents at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below, vigorously pursued by the Americans. Thither let us proceed, where we shall meet the two armies in terrible conflict.

I left Orangeburg for Eutaw Springs at eleven o’clock [Jan. 26, 1849.]. The day was so warm that the shade of the pine forests was very refreshing. My horse was fleet, the gig light, the road level and generally fine, and at sunset I arrived at the house of Mr. Avinger (Vances’s Ferry post-office), thirty miles distant. About fourteen miles from Orangeburg I crossed the Four-hole Swamp, 25 upon a narrow causeway of logs and three bridges. The distance is about a mile, and a gloomier place can not well be imagined. On either side was a dense undergrowth of shrubs, closely interlaced with vines; and above, draped with moss, towered lofty cypresses and gums. At two o’clock I passed one of those primitive school-houses, built of logs (for portrait, see next page), which the traveler meets occasionally in the South. It stood in the edge of a wood, and in front was a fine Pride-of-India Tree, under which the teacher sat listening to the efforts of half a dozen children in the science of orthography. The country is very sparsely populated, and many of the children, living four or five miles away from the school-house, are conveyed on horseback by the negro servants. I stopped a moment in conversation with the pedagogue, who was a Vermonter, one of those New England people described by Halleck as