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Chapter XIX
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HistRevolV2_401-450.indd 27 3/16/12 11:58 AM C H A P T E R X I X General Gates surrenders the Command of the Southern Army to General Greene, on his Arrival in South Carolina • Action between General Sumpter and Colonel Tarleton • General Morgan's Expedition-Meets and defeats Colonel Tarleton • Lord Cornwallis pursues General Morgan • Party of Americans cut off at the Catawba • Lord Cornwallis arrives at Hillsborough-Calls, by Proclamation, on all the Inhabitants of the State to join him • Battle of Guilford-Americans defeated • Lord Cornwallis marches towards Wilmington-General Greene pursues himGeneral Greene returns towards Camden • Action at Camden • Lord Rawdon evacuates Camden, and returns to Charleston • Barbarous State of Society among the Mountaineers, and in the back Settlements of the Carolinas • Attack on Ninety-Six-Repulse-General Greene again obliged to retreat • Execution of Colonel Hayne • Lord Rawdon leaves the State of South Carolina, and embarks for England • Action at the Eutaw Springs • General Greene retires to the High-Hills of Santee • Governor Rutledge returns to South Carolina, and resumes the Reins of Government [306] After the misfortune and suspension ofgeneral Gates, immediate cHAP. x1x steps were taken by congress and the commander in chief, to restore 1 1 s 1 the reputation of the American arms, to check the progress of the British, and defeat their sanguine hopes of speedily subduing the southern [307] colonies. Major general Greene was ordered on to take the command in that quarter. He arrived about the middle of autumn, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, at the headquarters ofgeneral Gates; soon after which, every thing seemed to wear a more favorable appearance, with regard to military arrangements and operations in the American army. General Gates surrendered the command with a dignity and firmness becoming his own character, conscwus that his disappointment and 427 HistRevolV2_401-450.indd 28 3/16/12 11:58 AM 428 W A R R E N ' S H I S T 0 R Y 0 F T H E R E V 0 L U T I 0 N CHAP. xix defeat did not originate in any want of courage or generalship, but I 7 s 1 from the unavoidable and complicated difficulties of existing circumstances . General Greene succeeded him, received the charge of the army, and took leave of general Gates, with a delicacy and propriety that evinced the high respect he felt for his predecessor. All the prudence and magnanimity, valor and humanity, that adorned the character of general Greene, were necessary in the choice of difficulties that attended his new command. He had succeeded a brave, but unfortunate officer, whose troops were intimidated by recent defeat, dispirited by their naked and destitute situation, in a country unable to yield sufficient subsistence for one army, and which had for several months been ravaged by two. [308] Lord Cornwallis's army was much superior in number and discipline, his troops were well clothed and regularly paid, and when general Greene first arrived, they were flushed by recent successes, particularly the defeat of general Gates. It is true, the death of major Ferguson and the rout of his party, was a serious disappointment, but not of sufficient consequence to check the designs and expectations of a British army, commanded by officers of the first military experience . The inhabitants of the country were indeed divided in opinion; bitter, rancorous, and cruel, and many of them without any fixed political principles. Fluctuating and unstable, sometimes they were the partisans of Britain, and huzzaed for royalty; at others, they were the militia of the state in continental service, and professed themselves zealots for American independence. But general Greene, with remarkable coolness and intrepidity, checked their licentious conduct, and punished desertion and treachery by necessary examples of severity; and thus in a short time, he established a more regular discipline. Skirmishing parties pervaded all parts of the country. No one was more active and busy in these scenes, than the vigilant Tarleton. An affray took place in the month of November, between him and general Sumpter. After victory [309] had several times seemed to change sides, the continental troops won the field without much loss. General Sumpter was wounded, but not dangerously. The British lost in wounded and killed, near two hundred. The British troops had yet met with no check, which had in any degree damped their ardor, except the defeat of major Ferguson. The most important movement which took place for some time...