s no command to retreat from any
general officer until it became too late to retire in order. Williams
gained in this action, unfortunate as it proved, a character for cool
courage, for discretion, and that thorough knowledge of tactics so
essential in the officer, and without which impetuosity would be but an
explosive gas, but which, guarded by the master-hand of the philosopher,
burns steadily through the thickest gloom. Never off his guard, he knew
when and where to strike, and when to reserve the blow that opportunity
only served to encourage; for it is hard for the brave in battle to
retain the gauntlet of defiance, and so armed, "out of the nettle danger
pluck the flower safety."

General Gates never entirely recovered from the odium showered upon him
by the event of the battle of Camden, and the consequences finally led
to his displacement, and the appointment of Gen. Greene to the command
of the Southern army, but Williams always continued his firm friend, and
speaks of him in several instances as the "good old man."

(It is impossible, in a sketch so brief as this, to give any detailed
account of the war in the Carolinas; it will be sufficient to introduce
successively Col. Williams' graphic pictures of the battles and scenes
in which he was engaged.)

The tide of fortune could not flow forever with the English, and at the
battle of King's Mountain, in which Williams took part, they were
utterly defeated; this victory proved a severe blow to the interests of
Lord Cornwallis. Sometimes by good luck, advantages were gained, as in
the following circumstance during the same year, and of which Williams
gives this account, dated 7th Dec. 1780:

"A few days ago Gen. Morgan, with the Light Infantry of our army and a
party of Light Dragoons under Lieut. Col. Washington, moved towards
Camden. Col. Rugely's farm was defended by a strong block house, which
was garrisoned by Col. Rugely and a party of new levies. A good block
house is proof against musketry and sometimes against light artillery.
Therefore Gen. Morgan would not risk his troops in an assault, but had
recourse to stratagem, and Lieut. Col. Washington executed the plan. He
paraded the cavalry in view of the block house and mounted the trunk of
a pine tree upon three prongs, instead of a field piece, and which he
manned with dismounted dragoons, then summoned Rugely to surrender,
which the poltroon did, without hearing a report of this new invented
piece of