taken refuge in North Carolina. They chose
him at once as a leader, and resolved on a desperate struggle for the
deliverance of their native State. Destitute of regular weapons, they
forged rude substitutes out of the implements of husbandry. Old
mill-saws were converted into broad-swords; knives at the ends of
poles served for lances; while the country housewives gladly gave up
their pewter dishes and other utensils, to be melted down and cast
into bullets for such as had fire-arms.

When Sumter led this gallant band of exiles over the border, they did
not amount in number to two hundred; yet with these he attacked and
routed a well-armed body of British troops and tories, the terror of
the frontier. His followers supplied themselves with weapons from the
slain. In a little while his band was augmented by recruits. Parties
of militia, also, recently embodied under the compelling measures of
Cornwallis, deserted to the patriot standard. Thus reinforced to the
amount of six hundred men, he made, on the 30th of July, a spirited
attack on the British post at Rocky Mount, near the Catawba, but was
repulsed. A more successful attack was made by him, eight days
afterwards, on another post at Hanging Rock.

The advance of De Kalb with reinforcements from the North, had been
retarded by various difficulties, the most important of which was want
of provisions. This had been especially the case, he said, since his
arrival in North Carolina. The legislative or executive power, he
complained, gave him no assistance, nor could he obtain supplies from
the people but by military force. There was no flour in the camp, nor
were dispositions made to furnish any. His troops were reduced for a
time to short allowance, and at length, on the 6th of July, brought to
a positive halt at Deep River. The North Carolina militia, under
General Caswell, were already in the field, on the road to Camden,
beyond the Pedee River. He was anxious to form a junction with them,
but a wide and sterile region lay between him and them, difficult to
be traversed, unless magazines were established in advance, or he were
supplied with provisions to take with him. For three weeks he remained
in this encampment, foraging an exhausted country for a meagre
subsistence, and was thinking of deviating to the right, and seeking
the fertile counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan, when on the 25th of
July, General Gates arrived at the camp.

Gates approved of De Kalb's stand