tous and disgraceful results; he, therefore,
tendered his resignation. The tone and manner assumed by General
Greene in offering his resignation, were deeply offensive to Congress.
His resignation was promptly accepted, and Colonel Pickering appointed
to succeed him. The commissariat was equally in a state of
derangement. "At this very juncture," writes Washington (Aug. 20th),
"I am reduced to the painful alternative, either of dismissing a part
of the militia now assembling, or of letting them come forward to
starve; which it will be extremely difficult for the troops already
in the field to avoid.... Every day's experience proves more and more
that the present mode of supplies is the most uncertain, expensive and
injurious that could be devised. It is impossible for us to form any
calculations of what we are to expect, and consequently to concert any
plans for future execution." The anxiety of Washington at this moment
of embarrassment was heightened by the receipt of disastrous
intelligence from the South.

CHAPTER LVI.
BATTLE OF CAMDEN.

Lord Cornwallis, when left in military command at the South by Sir
Henry Clinton, was charged, it will be recollected, with the invasion
of North Carolina. It was an enterprise in which much difficulty was
to be apprehended, both from the character of the people and the
country. The original settlers were from various parts, most of them
men who had experienced political or religious oppression, and had
brought with them a quick sensibility to wrong, a stern appreciation
of their rights, and an indomitable spirit of freedom and
independence. It was this spirit which gave rise to the confederacy,
called the Regulation, formed to withstand the abuses of power; and
the first blood shed in our country, in resistance to arbitrary
taxation, was at Almance in this province, in a conflict between the
regulators and Governor Tryon. Above all, it should never be
forgotten, that at Mecklenburg, in the heart of North Carolina, was
fulminated the first declaration of independence of the British crown,
upwards of a year before like declaration by Congress.

The physical difficulties arising from the nature of the country
consisted in its mountain fastnesses in the northwestern part, its
vast forests, its sterile tracts, its long rivers, destitute of
bridges, and which, though fordable in fair weather, were liable to be
swollen by sudden storms and freshets, and rendered deep, turbulen