t
and impassable. These rivers, in fact, which rushed down from the
mountain, but wound sluggishly through the plains, were the military
strength of the country, as we shall have frequent occasion to show in
the course of our narrative.

Lord Cornwallis forbore to attempt the invasion of North Carolina
until the summer heats should be over and the harvests gathered in. In
the meantime he disposed of his troops in cantonments, to cover the
frontiers of South Carolina and Georgia, and maintain their internal
quiet. The command of the frontiers was given by him to Lord Rawdon,
who made Camden his principal post. This town, the capital of Kershaw
District, a fertile, fruitful country, was situated on the east bank
of the Wateree River, on the road leading to North Carolina. It was to
be the grand military depot for the projected campaign.

The proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, putting an end to all
neutrality, and the rigorous penalties and persecutions with which all
infractions of its terms were punished, had for a time quelled the
spirit of the country. By degrees, however, the dread of British power
gave way to impatience of British exactions. Symptoms of revolt
manifested themselves in various parts. They were encouraged by
intelligence that De Kalb, sent by Washington, was advancing through
North Carolina at the head of two thousand men, and that the militia
of that State and of Virginia were joining his standard. This was soon
followed by tidings that Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne, was on his
way to take command of the Southern forces.

The prospect of such aid from the North reanimated the Southern
patriots. One of the most eminent of these was Thomas Sumter, whom the
Carolinians had surnamed the Game Cock. [He was now between forty and
fifty years of age, brave, hardy and vigorous. He had seen service
against the Indians, and in the French war, and had held the rank of
lieutenant-colonel in the Continental line. After the fall of
Charleston he had sought refuge with his family in one of the open
savannahs that lie concealed amid the swamps with which the lower part
of South Carolina abounds. In one of his temporary absences his
retreat had been invaded, his house burnt to the ground, and his wife
and children driven forth without shelter.] Private injury had thus
been added to the incentives of patriotism. Emerging from his
hiding-place, he had thrown himself among a handful of his
fellow-sufferers who had