r were burnt, and the garrison retired to the
Quarter House, where their principal force was encamped. Greene
returned to the army at the Round O, at which place he purposed to
await the arrival of the reinforcements marching from the north under
the command of General St. Clair. In the mean time, General Marion and
Lieutenant Colonel Lee were stationed on each side of Ashley, so as to
cover the country between the Cooper and the Edisto; thus confining
the influence of the British arms to Charleston neck, and the adjacent
islands.[7]

[Footnote 7: During this campaign a very effective
expedition against the Cherokees was conducted by General
Pickens. When the struggle for South Carolina recommenced,
those savages were stimulated to renew their incursions into
the settlements of the whites. At the head of about four
hundred mounted militia, Pickens penetrated into their
country, burned thirteen of their villages, killed upwards
of forty Indians, and took a number of prisoners, without
the loss of a single man. On this occasion a new and
formidable mode of attack was introduced. The militia horse
rushed upon the Indians, and charged them sword in hand.
Terrified at the rapidity of the pursuit, the Cherokees
humbly sued for peace, which was granted on terms calculated
to restrain depredations in future.]

While in his camp at the Round O, General Greene was informed that
large reinforcements from Ireland and from New York were expected by
the army in Charleston. This intelligence excited the more alarm,
because the term of service for which the levies from Virginia were
engaged was about expiring, and no adequate measures had been taken
for supplying their places. It proved untrue; but such was its
impression, that the general addressed a letter to the governors of
South Carolina, in which, after taking a serious view of the state of
his army, he recommended that it should be recruited from the slaves.
The governor thought the proposition of sufficient importance to be
laid before the legislature, which was soon afterwards convened; but
the measure was not adopted.

On the fourth of January, General St. Clair, who conducted the
reinforcement from the north, arrived in camp, and, five days
afterward, General Wayne,[8] with his brigade, and the remnant of the
third regiment of dragoons, commanded by Colonel White, was detached
over the Savannah for th