f a defensive War in South Carolina, & the hopes that our
friends in North Carolina, who were said to be very numerous, would make
good their promises of assembling & taking an Active part with us, in
endeavouring to re-establish His Majesty's Government. Our experience
has shown that their numbers are not so great as had been represented
and that their friendship was only passive; For we have received little
assistance from them since our arrival in the province, and altho' I
gave the _strongest & most pulick assurances_ that after refitting &
depositing our Sick and Wounded, I _should return to the upper Country_,
not above two hundred have been prevailed upon to follow us either as
Provincials or Militia." Colonel Tarleton, the principal officer under
lord Cornwallis, observes: "Notwithstanding the cruel persecution the
inhabitants of Cross creek had constantly endured for their partiality
to the British, they yet retained great zeal for the interest of the
royal army. All the flour and spirits in the neighborhood were
collected and conveyed to camp, and the wounded officers and soldiers
were supplied with many conveniences highly agreeable and refreshing to
men in their situation. After some expresses were dispatched to lord
Rawdon, to advertise him of the movements of the British and Americans,
and some wagons were loaded with provisions, earl Cornwallis resumed his
march for Wilmington."[193] Not a word is said of the proposed
reinforcement by the Highlanders. Stedman, who was an officer under lord
Cornwallis, and was with him in the expedition, says:[194] "Upon the
arrival of the British commander at Cross Creek, he found himself
disappointed in all his expectations: Provisions were scarce: Four days'
forage not to be procured within twenty miles; and the communication
expected to be opened between Cross Creek and Wilmington, by means of
the river, was found to be impracticable, the river itself being narrow,
its banks high, and the inhabitants, on both sides, for a considerable
distance, inveterately hostile. Nothing therefore now remained to be
done but to proceed with the army to Wilmington, in the vicinity of
which it arrived on the seventh of April. The settlers upon Cross Creek,
although they had undergone a variety of persecutions in consequence of
their previous unfortunate insurrections, still retained a warm
attachment to their mother-country, and during the short stay of the
army amongst them, all the pr