ttle with Greene should be such as to remove all fears of
future danger from that officer.

[Sidenote: Lord Rawdon retires into the lower country.]

{May 12.}

Having failed in his hope of bringing on a general engagement, he
evacuated Camden, and marched down the river on its north side to
Neilson's ferry. Among the objects to be obtained by this movement was
the security of the garrison at Motte's house. But the siege of that
place had been so vigorously prosecuted that, on crossing the river,
his lordship received the unwelcome intelligence that it had
surrendered on the twelfth, and that its garrison, consisting of one
hundred and sixty-five men, had become prisoners. On the preceding
day, the post at Orangeburg had surrendered to Sumpter.

On the evening of the fourteenth, Lord Rawdon moved from Neilson's
ferry, and marched to Monk's Corner, a position which enabled him to
cover those districts from which Charleston drew its supplies.

{May.}

While the British army was thus under the necessity of retiring, the
American force was exerted with a degree of activity which could not
be surpassed. After the post at Motte's house had fallen, Marion
proceeded against Georgetown, on the Black river, which place he
reduced; and Lee marched against fort Granby, a post on the south of
the Congaree, which was garrisoned by three hundred and fifty-two men,
principally militia. The place was invested on the evening of the
fourteenth, and the garrison capitulated the next morning.

The late movement of the British army had left the garrison of Ninety
Six and of Augusta exposed to the whole force of Greene, and he
determined to direct his operations against them. Lee was ordered to
proceed against the latter, while the general should march in person
to the former.

The post at Ninety Six was fortified. The principal work, which, from
its form, was called the Star, and which was on the right of the
village, consisted of sixteen salient and reentering angles, and was
surrounded by a dry ditch, fraize, and abattis. On the left was a
valley, through which ran a rivulet that supplied the place with
water. This valley was commanded on one side by the town prison, which
had been converted into a block-house, and on the other by a stockade
fort, in which a block-house had been erected. The garrison, commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel Cruger, was ample for the extent of the place,
but was furnished with only three pieces of artiller