overed, they opened their fire upon the advanced guard,
and followed it up with a gallant charge. But the van being vigorously
and promptly supported, they were driven back, and resumed their
position upon the hill. Under this hill the line of march lay for a
considerable distance. To attempt, therefore, to continue the march
before dislodging the enemy in possession of it, would be to expose
the troops to a protracted fire, the more murderous, as it would be
delivered by a foe in a position of perfect security. The advanced guard
was ordered upon this duty, and from this body a forlorn-hope of thirty
men was chosen, to force the perilous entrance to the foe. The command
of this devoted corps was assigned to Francis Marion, still a lieutenant
under the command of Moultrie, in the provincial regiment of Middleton.
The ascent of the hill was by means of a gloomy defile, through which
the little band, headed gallantly by their leader, advanced with due
rapidity; a considerable body of the army moving forward at the same
time in support of the advance. Scarcely had the detachment penetrated
the defile, when the war-whoop gave the signal. The savages, still
concealed, poured in a deadly fire, by which no less than twenty-one of
this fated band were prostrated.* Fortunately their leader was not
among them. He seems, like Washington, to have been the special care
of Providence. The residue were only saved from destruction by the
proximity of the advance, whose hurried approach, while giving them
safety, brought on the main action. The battle was fought with great
carnage on both sides. The Cherokees were not only well posted, but
they were in great numbers. Repeatedly dislodged by the bayonet, they as
repeatedly returned to the attack; and, driven from one quarter, rallied
upon another, with a tenacious and unshaken valor becoming in men who
were defending the passes to the bosom of their country. From eight
in the morning until noon, the fight was continued, not only without
intermission, but seemingly without any decisive results on either side.
But, at length, the patient resolution of the whites prevailed; and,
about two o'clock in the day, the field was yielded by the reluctant
Cherokees to their superior foes. This victory determined the fate of
Etchoee, a town of considerable size, which was reduced to ashes.

* Weems, p. 21. Horry's MS. Memoir, p. 58.--

The result of this fierce engagement seems to have broken t