itish army retires
towards Charleston.

{1781}

In South Carolina and Georgia, the campaign of 1781 was uncommonly
active. The importance of the object, the perseverance with which it
was pursued, the talents of the generals, the courage, activity, and
sufferings of the armies, and the accumulated miseries of the
inhabitants, gave to the contest for these states, a degree of
interest seldom bestowed on military transactions, in which greater
numbers have not been employed.

When Lord Cornwallis entered North Carolina, the military operations
in the more southern states were committed to Lord Rawdon. For the
preservation of his power, a line of posts slightly fortified had been
continued from Charleston, by the way of Camden and Ninety Six, to
Augusta, in Georgia. The spirit of resistance was still kept up in the
north-western and north-eastern parts of the state, by Generals
Sumpter and Marion, who respectively commanded a corps of militia.
Their exertions, though great, seem not to have been successful; and
they excited no alarm, because no addition to their strength was
apprehended.

Such was the situation of the country when General Greene formed the
bold resolution of endeavouring to reannex it to the American union.
His army consisted of about eighteen hundred men. The prospect of
procuring subsistence was unpromising, and the chance of
reinforcements precarious. He was apprized of the dangers to be
encountered, but believed it to be for the public interest to meet
them. "I shall take every measure," said this gallant officer, in a
letter communicating his plan of operations to General Washington, "to
avoid a misfortune. But necessity obliges me to commit myself to
chance, and if any accident should attend me, I trust my friends will
do justice to my reputation."

The extensive line of posts maintained by Lord Rawdon, presented to
Greene many objects, at which, it was probable he might strike with
advantage. The day preceding his march from the camp on Deep river, he
detached Lee to join General Marion, and communicated his intention of
entering South Carolina to General Pickens with a request that he
would assemble the western militia, and lay siege to Ninety Six, and
Augusta.

{April.}

[Sidenote: Green invests Camden.]

Having made these arrangements, he moved from Deep river on the
seventh of April, and encamped before Camden on the nineteenth of the
same month, within half a mile of the Bri