les Campbell of the 71st regiment. The heat was excessive;
many of the horses failed on the march, and not more than forty of the
infantry were together in front, when, on the morning of the 18th, they
came in sight of Fishing Creek, and on their right saw the smoke at a
short distance. The sergeant of the advanced guard halted his party and
then proceeded to ascertain the cause of the smoke. He saw the
encampment, with arms piled, but a few sentinels and no pickets. He
returned and reported the same to Captain Campbell who commanded in
front. With his usual promptness Captain Campbell formed as many of the
cavalry as had come up, and with the party of Highland infantry, rushed
forward, and directing their route to the piled arms, quickly secured
them and surprised the camp. The success was complete; a few were
killed; nearly five hundred taken prisoners, and the rest dispersed. But
the victory was dampened by the loss of the gallant Captain Campbell,
who was killed by a random shot.

These partial successes were soon counterbalanced by defeats of greater
importance. From what had been of great discouragement, the Americans
soon rallied, and threatened the frontiers of South Carolina, and on
October 7th overthrew Major Ferguson at King's Mountain, who sustained a
total loss of eleven hundred and five men, out of eleven hundred and
twenty-five. At the plantation of Blackstocks, November 20th, Colonel
Tarleton, with four hundred of his command, engaged General Sumter, when
the former was driven off with a loss of ninety killed, and about one
hundred wounded. The culminating point of these reverses was the battle
of the Cowpens.

A new commander for the southern department took charge of the American
forces, in the person of Major-General Nathaniel Greene, who stood, in
military genius, second only to Washington, and who was thoroughly
imbued with the principles practiced by that great man. Lord Cornwallis,
the ablest of the British tacticians engaged in the American Revolution,
found more than his equal in General Greene. He had been appointed to
the command of the Southern Department, by Washington, on October 30,
1780, and immediately proceeded to the field of labor, and on December
3rd, took formal command of the army, and was exceedingly active in the
arrangement of the army, and in wisely directing its movements. His
first arrangement was to divide his army into two detachments, the
larger of which, under himself wa