truction of all the scows, boats, ferry-flats and barges on
the route, by which the enemy might make his escape. The fancy of the
American General already beheld the army of Lord Cornwallis in full
flight. His great solicitude seems to have been how to secure his
captives. He had, strangely enough for a military man, never taken
counsel of the farm-yard proverb, which we need not here repeat for the
benefit of the reader.* With the departure of Marion, his better genius
left him,--the only man, who, in command of the militia, might have
saved him from destruction. Leaving our partisan, with his little squad,
to make his way cautiously through a country infested with Tories, we
follow for the present the progress of the Continental army. On the
night of the fifteenth of August, 1780, the Americans moved from
Rugely's Mills. At midnight, without dreaming of an enemy, they
encountered him. The first intelligence communicated to either army of
the presence of the other, was from the fire of the British advance upon
the Americans. The two armies recoiled and lay upon their arms the
rest of the night. So far the affair was indecisive. The Americans had
sustained themselves in the face of some disadvantages, chiefly the
result of their leader's imprudence. A night march of raw militia in
the face of a foe, and in column of battle, was itself an error which a
sagacious commander would never have made. It is not to be denied, that
the Americans were not satisfied with their situation. Some of their
officers openly declared their discontent. But it was too late for a
retrograde movement, nor is it likely, feeling as he did and sanguine as
he was, that Gates would have believed any such movement necessary. The
ground was equally unknown to both commanders; but Cornwallis had one
advantage: he was in the command of veterans, who are generally cool
enough in such situations to look about them, and make the most of their
exigencies. The American line was soon formed and in waiting for the
dawn and the enemy. The first Maryland division, including the Delawares
under De Kalb, was posted on the right; the Virginia militia under
Stevens on the left; the North Carolinians, led by Caswell in the
centre; and the artillery, in battery, upon the road. Both wings rested
on morasses, and the second Maryland brigade was posted as a reserve, a
few hundred yards in the rear of the first. The British formed a single
line, with each wing covered and