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History of Jeremiah in the Revolutionary War

The Battle of Camden

The Battle of Camden (view map) was an important battle in the Southern Theatre of the American Revolutionary War. On August 16, 1780, British Forces under Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis routed the American forces of Major General Horatio Gates (view Gates image) about six miles north of Camden, South Carolina, strengthening the British hold on the Carolinas.

Background - The threatening situation in the Carolinas alarmed the Continental Congress and General George Washington, and measures were taken to protect the distressed section. However, before Cornwallis could be brought to bay, he successfully faced four antagonists—Generals Gates, Greene, Lafayette and Washington. They found in him the most capable and dangerous opponent of the war. Greene called him "the modern Hannibal."

With Benjamin Lincoln's surrender of nearly all the Continental soldiers in the South, a new force had to be supplied to meet the British veterans. Two thousand men, mainly the Maryland line (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Maryland Regiment), were hurried down from Washington's camp under Baron Johann de Kalb; Virginia and North Carolina put new men into the field, and the entire force was placed under command of General Gates. American forces numbered 4,100, of which about 3,000 were fit for duty, as opposed to 2,239 in the British force.

Battle - Gates' force marched towards Camden, South Carolina on August 15, and on August 16 encountered Cornwallis north of the town at 2 A.M. Each army by a night march attempted to surprise the other, and fought a confused skirmish. At daybreak, both armies deployed face-to-face. Gates placed Baron de Kalb's regular troops on his right flank and the militia on his left, and ordered De Kalb forward. Cornwallis, meanwhile, sent his right flank forward as well, and Gates' inexperienced militia fled. The British regulars wheeled around and flanked De Kalb, mortally wounding the baron in the swirling action. Gates was utterly routed and fled the battlefield. The reputation he had won at Saratoga was ruined on this occasion by overconfidence and incompetence.

American casualties at Camden were 1,000 killed and wounded, 1,000 captured with another 132 missing, and included the loss of General De Kalb. (view of death of DeKalb image) The American army also lost most of the supplies currently in the Southern Department, and all of its artillery. British losses were 324 killed and wounded, and 68 missing.

Aftermath - General Nathaniel Greene, standing next to George Washington as the ablest and most trusted officer of the Revolution, succeeded Gates in command of the southern army and started recruiting additional troops.

Cornwallis marched leisurely into North Carolina, but before meeting Greene some months later, he suffered the loss of two detachments sent at intervals to disperse various partisan corps of the Americans. On October 7, 1780, a force of 1,100 men under Major Patrick Ferguson was surrounded at King's Mountain, South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, by bands of riflemen under Colonels Isaac Shelby, James Williams, William Campbell and others, and after a desperate fight on the wooded and rocky slopes, surrendered. Ferguson himself was killed. On January 17, 1781, American General Daniel Morgan was attacked at Cowpens, southwest of King's Mountain, by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton with his British Legion and the 7th and 71st Regiments of Foot. Both were leaders of repute, and a stirring action occurred in which Morgan, with Colonel William Washington leading his cavalry, practically destroyed Tarleton's corps. Despite his army's weakening through the losses suffered at Camden and subsequent encounters, Cornwallis marched rapidly through North Carolina, giving Greene a hard chase to the Virginia line.
Source: The Wikipedia - Gates' Defeat at Camden