the east
side of the Yadkin to a British post at the Cheraws, whence they
proceeded to Camden.

Having made his dispositions, and fixed on Camden as the place for his
principal magazines, Cornwallis left the command of the frontiers to
Lord Rawdon, and retired to Charleston for the purpose of making those
farther arrangements of a civil nature, which the state of affairs and
the interest of his sovereign might require.

His lordship, as well as Sir Henry Clinton, seems to have supposed the
state of South Carolina to be as completely subdued in sentiment as
in appearance. Impatient to derive active aids from the new conquest,
his measures were calculated to admit of no neutrality. For some time
these measures seemed to succeed, and professions of loyalty were made
in every quarter. But under this imposing exterior, lurked a mass of
concealed discontent, to which every day furnished new aliment, and
which waited only for a proper occasion to show itself.

The people of the lower parts of South Carolina, though far from being
united, were generally attached to the revolution, and had entered
into the war with zeal. They were conducted by a high spirited and
intelligent gentry, who ardently sought independence as a real and
permanent good.

Several causes had combined to suspend the operation of this
sentiment. Many of their leaders were prisoners; and the brilliant
successes of the British arms had filled numbers with despair. Others
were sensible of the inutility of present resistance; and a still
greater number, fatigued and harassed with militia duty, were willing
to withdraw from the conflict, and, as spectators, to await its issue.
To compel these men to share the burdens of the war, was to restore
them to their former friends.

Late in March, General Washington had obtained the consent of congress
to reinforce the southern army with the troops of Maryland and
Delaware, and with the first regiment of artillery. This detachment
was to be commanded by the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran who had
engaged early in the service of the United States.

Such, however, was the deranged state of American finances, and such
the depression of public credit, that these troops could not be put
immediately in motion. They were at length embarked at the Head of
Elk, and conveyed by water to Petersburg, in Virginia, whence they
marched towards South Carolina. Their progress was delayed by that
difficulty of obtaining subsistenc