war of devastation, and the army is ordered into
South Carolina. Gen. Gates is ordered to the command of the southern
army.

X.

DISASTERS AT THE SOUTH.

Gen. Gates takes the command of the southern army. The British at this
time had almost undisputed possession of South Carolina, Georgia and
North Carolina. In this condition Gates resolved to risk a general
battle with Lord Cornwallis, and for which he was severely blamed. He
lost the battle, hence the blame. If, on the other hand, he had gained
it, he would have gained another laurel to place by the side of the one
gained at Saratoga. At this battle, Gen. Gates lost more than two
thousand men, and among them three valuable officers. Gen. Gregory was
killed, and Baron de Kalb and Gen. Rutherford of Carolina were taken
prisoners. This was the result of the battle at Camden. At this time,
Col. Bigelow was watching the movements of the British troops in New
York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In this stage of the narrative, the
writer cannot refrain from a passing tribute of respect to the memory of
those patriotic women of South Carolina, who displayed so ardent, so
rare a love of country, that scarcely could there be found in ancient or
modern history an instance more worthy to excite surprise and
admiration. They repaired on board ships, they descended into dungeons
where their husbands, children or friends were in confinement. They
carried them consolation and encouragement. "Summon your magnanimity,"
they said, "yield not to the fury of tyrants; hesitate not to prefer
prisons to infamy, death to servitude. America has fixed her eyes on her
beloved defenders; you will reap, doubt it not, the fruit of your
sufferings; they will produce liberty, that parent of all blessing; they
will shelter her forever from the assaults of British banditti; you are
the martyrs of a cause the most grateful to Heaven, and sacred to man."
By such words these generous women mitigated the miseries of the unhappy
prisoners. Exasperated at their constancy, the English condemned the
most zealous of them to banishment and confiscation. In bidding a last
farewell to their fathers, their children, their brothers, their
husbands, these heroines, far from betraying the least mark of
weakness, which in men might have been excused, exhorted them to arm
themselves with intrepidity. They conjured them not to allow fortune to
vanquish them, nor to suffer the love they bore their families to