m five o'clock in the evening to eight or nine the
following morning, oftentimes with a very scanty allowance, or no
provisions, as it was through an exhausted country, without bread, (as
the corn mills had been rendered unserviceable,) except some Indian corn
used by the cattle, and this corn was taken from the fields. The troops
were without tents or any covering to shelter them from the intense heat
and heavy rains peculiar to the climate. They had to ford frequently
four or five rivers and creeks in a day; some of these were deeper than
their waist, and so rapid, that the officers and soldiers found it
requisite to tie and support each other. Under these circumstances the
men were frequently exposed to a most galling fire from the enemy,
strongly posted: if a man was wounded, he was let go down the stream and
drowned.

During a march of 1500 miles through South and North Carolina and
Virginia, the officers and soldiers were subjected to the greatest
sufferings, privations, and hardships, which, (as Lord Cornwallis
frequently observed in his despatches,) could not be possibly exceeded,
their clothes being worn out, especially their boots and shoes. They
were, moreover, almost without wine or spirits, having destroyed the
greater part when orders were issued at Camden to lessen the baggage as
much as possible, which deprived the officers of the comforts they so
much required, and which they had obtained with the greatest trouble and
expense: for this sacrifice, they never received the smallest
recompence. The officers having the rank of captain were allowed to ride
on a march, but in consequence of a requisition made to Lord Cornwallis
by Colonel Tarleton, commanding the cavalry, not only for the riding
horses, but also for all the cart horses, which were most serviceable to
mount his troopers, his lordship most reluctantly compelled every
officer to deliver the best of the horses for the cavalry. The captains
naturally lent their horses to the officers and men who might require
them from illness or otherwise; it was soon found out that they could
not be dispensed with, so that cast-off horses were substituted for
those they had been obliged to give up.

The little army being nearly exhausted with fatigue, the officers and
men became most anxious that, instead of the minor actions and
skirmishes to which they were frequently exposed, the enemy would
collect all his force and give them an opportunity to fight and end