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| The Death of Baron de Kalb at the Battle of Camden. Engraving from painting by artist Alonzo Chappel. |
The Battle of Camden
Cornwallis Defeats Gates
Wednesday, August 16, 1780
By: C.W. Roden
By: C.W. Roden
(Part 9 or a 15 part series)
In April of 1780, General George Washington, responding to the call for reinforcements by General Benjamin Lincoln in Charleston, South Carolina, sent two Maryland Line regiments and the Delaware Line regiment supported by the 1st Continental Artillery Regiment with 18 guns to the southern theater. These men were under the command of Major General Baron Johann de Kalb.
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| Portrait of Baron Johann de Kalb by Charles Wilson Peale. |
Baron de Kalb was perhaps one of the more interesting personalities that supported the American cause.
He was born in 1721 in Hüttendorf, a village near Erlangen, Principality of Bayreuth (modern-day Bavaria, Germany) and later earned a military commission as a lieutenant in the Loewendal German Regiment of the French Army in 1743. He trained in the military school of Marshall Maurice de Saxe -- called “the Professor of all the generals of Europe” by Frederick the Great. A veteran of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, Baron de Kalb was promoted to lieutenant colonel and won the Order of Military Merit in 1763, and was elevated to the nobility with the title of baron.
When the American States declared their formal independence from Britain, Baron de Kalb sailed with eleven other European officers on the ship fitted out by the Marquis de Lafayette. They arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in July 1777 and joined the Continental Army. He was appointed to the rank of major general on Friday, September 5, 1777. Baron de Kalb would spend the winter of 1777-87 at Valley Forge and serve in the Northern campaign against the British and fought at the Battle of Monmouth on Sunday, June 28, 1778.
De Kalb preferred to march on foot with his men rather than riding and hike up to 30 miles a day. He drank only water and was always a completely sober and controlled person. He would sleep by a camp fire with is soldiers, wrapped in his horseman's cloak. A perfect example of a classical field officer, he was well loved and respected by the men under his command.
These reinforcements departed New Jersey on Sunday, April 16, 1780, but were unable to reach Charleston before the city surrendered after a six week siege by British forces on Friday, May 10th.
General de Kalb remained with his troops in Granville County, North Carolina. It was hoped that the presence in the area of the Continentals would boost Patriot morale and entice recruitment after the disasters at Charleston and the Waxhaws Massacre. Unfortunately, during those early months, few recruits appeared.
The Continentals also experienced several hardships with campaigning in the South in late spring and early summer -- particularly an infestation of chiggers (Redbugs) and ticks that infested their camps, as well as mosquitoes that breed near the rivers and swampy areas. It must have been a miserable time for the Maryland and Delaware Continentals being covered in severe bites and suffering diseases contracted from the bugs.
Short of proper food and with many his men sickening and suffering from the unaccustomed heat, bugs, and poor diet. Major General de Kalb moved his troops to camp near Buffalo Ford on the Deep River, 30 miles south of Greensboro, North Carolina in July.
On Tuesday, July 25, 1780, his new commanding officer, General Horatio Gates arrived in camp.
"The Hero Of Saratoga"
Baron de Kalb was an excellent soldier, but as a foreigner did not have very much influence with the Continental Congress, where decisions of command were ultimately made.
General Horatio Gates, on the other hand, was widely admired by most of the Congress, largely for his supposed role in the major American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 -- a battle that was largely won because of the efforts of the field officers, notably Benedict Arnold, Enoch Poor, Benjamin Lincoln, John Stark and Daniel Morgan. The battle was instrumental in winning the French over to the cause of American independence. Because he was in overall command of the soldiers, the title "Hero of Saratoga" was bestowed upon Gates by the Continental Congress.
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| General Horatio Gates in a 1794 portrait by Gilbert Stuart. |
Horatio Gates was born in Maldon, Essex, Great Britain in 1727. In 1745, Gates obtained a military commission with financial help from his parents and political support from the Duke of Bolton. Gates served with the 20th Regiment of Foot in Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession. Later he arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia under Edward Cornwallis (uncle of British General Lord Charles Cornwallis, against whom he would later fight) and later was promoted to captain in the 45th Regiment of Foot the following year.
During the French and Indian War, Gates served with General Edward Braddock in America. In 1755, he accompanied the ill-fated Braddock Expedition in its attempt to control access to the Ohio Valley. This force included other future Revolutionary War leaders such as Thomas Gage, Charles Lee, Daniel Morgan, and George Washington. Gates was severely injured early in the action, among many other British soldiers. His experience in the early years of the war was limited to commanding small companies, but he apparently became quite good at military administration, and achieved the rank of major.
Later he would resign his commission in the British Army due to frustration with achieving higher rank from his lack of connections and settle in Virginia. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he volunteered to serve in the newly formed Continental Army where he found himself at odds with Washington. Later he would become a major figure in the infamous Conway Cabal, which sought to replace Washington for Gates as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
When General Lincoln surrendered Charleston in May of 1780, the Continental Congress assigned Gates to take command in the Southern theater. Washington himself was never even consulted, though his low opinion of General Gates was well known. If Washington would have had his way, command in the South would have gone to Major General Nathaniel Greene, the quartermaster general of the Continental Army and one of Washington's best field officers. Greene would later get the job in the late fall of 1780, but not until after the tragic events that would soon transpire for the Patriots in South Carolina under the dubious command of Gates.
With Gates' appointment begins the tragic story of a series of mistakes and bad judgments that would lead to one of the worst disasters in American military history.
Gates Marches Into South Carolina
Horatio Gates and Baron de Kalb met at camp near the Deep River on Tuesday, July 25, 1780. Gates was greeted with all proper ceremony -- including a 13-gun salute as he took command of the entire Southern Department. Major General de Kalb was confirmed in his leadership of the Maryland and Delaware Continentals and made second in command.
The "Grand Army" as Gates called it, was not much of an army at this point. It consisted of de Kalb's Continental infantry, three companies of artillery with 8 guns -- de Kalb had been forced to leave behind 10 of his 18 cannons in Granville County due to a lack of proper horses -- and Colonel Charles Armand's Legion of 60 dragoons and 60 foot soldiers.
Baron de Kalb's original plan was to march southwest through Salisbury, North Carolina, taking advantage of the strong support for the Continental Army in that area and the rich farmland for provisions, then march on to Camden, South Carolina.
However, Gates did not approve of taking the longer route. Instead, two days later on Thursday, July 27th, against the advise of his officers, including de Kalb and Colonel Otho Holland Williams of the Maryland Line, the "Hero of Saratoga" decided to march the army from Deep River directly on to Camden.
Although this route was fifty miles shorter than the one proposed by Baron de Kalb, it traversed the poor and somewhat barren Carolina Sandhills region. Gate's route also ran through the Cross Creek country, one of the Carolina's most pro-Loyalist areas, meaning the Patriots would find no local help with supplies as they struggled along the roads and through the creeks and swamps. What little food they found -- usually the occasional peach orchard, green corn, or small herds of sickly cows -- made the men sick as they were mercilessly pushed hard by their commanding general.
All of the troops had been short of food since arriving at Deep River, so once the army finally reached the Pee Dee River, they found crops of green corn which was harvested and eaten by the hungry men, with unhealthy consequences.
The "Grand Army" was soon joined by cavalry dragoons under Colonel William Washington and Colonel Anthony White, both of whom had taken refuge with their remaining men in North Carolina after both had been badly beaten by Tarleton's Legion at Moncks Corner and Lenud's Ferry back in May. They rode into camp expecting to join forces for the attack on Camden.
General Gates informed them that he did not want their help because he erroneously believed that cavalry was not useful for the southern field. A bizarre view given the successes of the mounted partisan bands operating in South Carolina since the fall of Charleston.
As military historian Henry Lumpkin explained in his 1981 book From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South:
"The South was especially well adapted to use of cavalry because of its wide reaches of open pine barrens, broad savannahs, great distances, wild forests and swamps for concealment, and year-round natural forage for horses. Francis Marion, William Davie, Thomas Sumter, and Elijah Clarke -- all the great partisans on both sides -- were to prove time and time again the value of fast-moving, heavily armed, well mounted men in southern warfare."
The people in the South were natural horse soldiers, practically raised in the saddle, but this fact was apparently dismissed by Gates. The fact that William Washington was second cousin to Gates' rival General George Washington might also have been a huge factor in his decision. Gates' foolish pride and his uninformed decision would deprive his army of essential troops in the coming battle.
Other partisans came forward to meet with Gates, including General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion, who offered his services, as Washington and White had. Gates however had little use for Marion and his men, despite their successes in the Lowcountry against the British and Loyalists -- especially the hated "Bloody Ban" Tarleton. Gates had little use for militia, his view of them largely clouded due to experiences in the North with undisciplined guerilla bands like Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys, and treated Marion and his men with utter contempt.
Fortunately for the State of South Carolina and the future United States of America, Gates ordered Marion to leave his camp and move into the coastal regions to observe and harass the enemy there.
On Thursday, August 3rd, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Porterfield, an officer with an excellent record as a captain in the Continental Army, arrived at Gates' camp with 100 Virginia troops. The half-starved army then crossed the Pee Dee River and continued its ill-advised march through the sparsely populated enemy country.
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| Brigadier General Francis Lord Rowdan of the Volunteers of Ireland. |
The arrival of Gates' "Grand Army" did not go unnoticed by the British. General Francis Lord Rawdon was watching the approaching Patriots from the other side of the Little Lynches River with a strong reconnaissance force consisting of some of his Volunteers of Ireland -- a Provincial force consisting of American Loyalists from Pennsylvania attached to the British Army. As he watched the Americans approach, Rawdon ordered his forces and those stationed at Rugely's Mill, 15 miles north of Camden, to fall back to a post called Log Town, a mile above Camden. Despite de Kalb's advise to outflank Lord Rowdan by a forced night march, Gates pushed forward in broad daylight.
On Sunday, August 6th, General Richard Caswell arrived with 2,100 North Carolina militia, which now doubled Gates' army. At Rugely's Mill Gates halted and was soon joined by an additional 700 Virginia militia under the command of General Edward Stevens.
During this time the upcountry Patriots under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Sumter had been operating on the British supply line to Charleston. He sent a courier (possibly young Andrew Jackson) to Gates requesting reinforcements to attack a British wagon train bringing supplies and ammunition to Camden.
For some reason, in spite of his dismissal of Marion, Gates seems to respond to Sumter favorably. Despite the fact a major battle was in the offering the closer he reached Camden, Gates somehow saw merit in Sumter's plan. Against the advice of his officers, he sent 100 of his Maryland Continentals and 300 North Carolina militiamen with two cannons to assist Sumter. This reduced his artillery to seven guns (an additional gun had come in with Caswell's militia).
For his part, Sumter wasted little time in implementing is plan. This time he hit a small outpost on the Wateree River below Camden. A garrison of 30 men defended a makeshift fort at a ferry crossing -- a vital link in the British communications chain. A detachment of Sumter's band commanded by Colonel Thomas Taylor took the outpost by surprise and captured the entire garrison and thirty-six wagons full of war supplies. In questioning his prisoners, Taylor discovered that a wagon convoy was en route from the British outpost at Ninety Six. Taking advantage of this intelligence, Taylor planned and executed a successful ambush of the convoy.
Sumter informed Gates of the capture of the crucial ferry crossing and said that he would defend it until he received instructions to the contrary. No sooner had he sent the report than the British Army began crossing the Wateree River in large numbers below the ferry. Without hesitation, Sumter withdrew his men and moved his command ten miles up the river in order to protect his captured prisoners and supplies.
Gates, anxious to win more laurels for himself in the South, had pushed his now starving army to the point of exhaustion. At one point the miserable soldiers came close to mutiny. Totally oblivious to the condition of his men, the "Hero of Saratoga" pressed on, anxious to force a confrontation with Cornwallis.
He wouldn't have much longer to wait.
The British Response And Line of Battle
General Lord Cornwallis, having been informed by courier of Gates' advance on Camden, rode from Charleston to Camden in four days. He also detached four companies of light infantry on a forced march from Ninety Six to Camden.
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| Lieutenant General Charles Lord Cornwallis, British commander of the Southern Campaign in the Carolinas 1780-81 from a painting by Thomas Gainsborough. |
The combat elements of the British forces included: three companies of the 23rd Regiment Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the 33rd Regiment of Foot, five companies of the 71st Regiment of Foot (Frazer's Highlanders), the Royal North Carolina Regiment, Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland, Tarleton's Legion of horse and foot, 170 men of the royal artillery with four 6-pounders and two 3-pounders, as well as an additional 300 South Carolina Loyalist militia. Cornwallis and Rawdon now had around 2,200 men, mostly British regulars and highly trained provincials, some of the best men in the British Army.
Meanwhile Baron de Kalb's Maryland and Deleware Continentals had been reduced to 900 men by sickness, desertion, and the 100 soldiers that Gates sent to aid Sumter. Armand's Legion consisted of 60 horsemen and 60 foot soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Porterfield commanded 100 Virginia light infantry, while Stevens and Caswell both led a combined 2,800 Virginia and North Carolina militia. Also included were about 70 South Carolina militia and 100 artillerymen with seven guns. Gates' "Grand Army" totaled around 4,100 Continental regulars and militia, but only 3,000 of which were fit for duty due to sickness caused by poor rations.
With an army composed primarily of untrained militia, Gates ordered a night march to commence at 10 PM on Tuesday, August 15th. A night march in column is a difficult and complicated maneuver even for well-trained regular soldiers to perform, let alone for militia. Armand's 60 dragoons had been assigned the task of leading the army. Gates ignored the protests of Armand that cavalry had no place in the lead because of the noise the horses hooves made over great distances.
To make matters worse for the Patriot forces, beef, corn meal, and molasses that had been served for the evening rations. These had been procured locally in adequate quantities and the men prepared them hastily over fires before the march began. These men had been half-sick from a diet of green apples and corn, combined with bad water and the long march in hot and muggy August weather. The hastily cooked supper unfortunately acted as a purgative causing severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. While they marched many of the men had to stop and go to the woods to relieve themselves all night long.
Apparently Gates planned on building defensive works a few miles north of Camden in an effort to force British abandonment of that important town. Gates told his aide Thomas Pinckney he had no intention of directly attacking Cornwallis with an army consisting mostly of militia, despite having the British outnumbered.
According to tradition, as Gates watched the column of his army file by, he is said to have boasted to his aides that he would have breakfast the next morning with Cornwallis as his prisoner and guest at his table.
Unknown to Gates however, Cornwallis' army was also commencing a night marching north on the road from Camden with Tarleton's dragoons at the lead of the British column, intent of fighting Gates just outside of the town.
The Battle
The first encounter between the two forces happened when Armand's horsemen ran into Tarleton's dragoons around 2 AM on the morning of Wednesday, August 16th. After some pistol firing in the dark, the aggressive Tarleton ordered a saber charge and smashed Armand's cavalry back on the leading elements of the American infantry commanded by Porterfield and Armstrong. In the confused night skirmish, Porterfield fell mortally wounded by a stray bullet as he swung his light infantry out of the woods and caught Tarleton's dragoons in an enfilading fire, forcing them to withdraw under the support of British infantry.
It was then, for the first time, that Gates discovered that he had literally stumbled into Cornwallis.
With an army composed largely of inexperienced and undisciplined militia, most of them sick from the poor rations, and his plan to fortify and let Cornwallis come to him in ruins, Gates once again made another military gaffe. Against the advise of Maryland Line's Colonel Otho Williams -- who believed rightly that the best strategy would have been to retreat, find a good defensive position, and await the British attack -- Gates instead took the advise of the Virginia militia commander who insisted it was too late to retreat and that the army must fight. Gates concurred and ordered the army into a line of battle.
The battle was fought astride the road between the Waxhaws and Camden with a narrow, open forest of pine trees almost free of undergrowth on both sides. Flanking both sides were swamps impassable by wagons. Gates held a better position on slightly rising ground with a clear escape route behind him.
Gates formed his troops just before first light. Mordecai Gist's 2nd Brigade of three Maryland and one Delaware Continental regiments were stationed to the right of the road. On the left from the road Caswell's North Carolina militia and Steven's Virginia militia stood with the now leaderless Virginia light infantry on the flank and Armand's small legion in support. Smallwood's 1st Maryland Brigade was held in reserve behind the 2nd Maryland, and the seven artillery pieces were placed on the road in front of the center and between Caswell and Stevens. Baron de Kalb was given the place of honor, command of the right wing, while Gates and his staff took position some 600 yards to the rear of the line.
In the very early morning, Colonel Otho Williams, riding along the waiting American line, saw the British advancing up the road. He summoned Captain Singleton of the artillery who estimated the enemy to be about 200 yards away. Williams ordered him to open fire. The British promptly unlimbered their advance field guns and replied.
The main battle was now joined.
Williams rode back and reported to Gates that the enemy were deploying from column into battle lines and that if he attacked them before they were fully formed he could throw them into confusion. Gates ordered Stevens and de Kalb to attack -- it was the last recorded order Horatio Gates gave in the battle.
Opposing Gates, Cornwallis quickly formed his line of battle with the Royal North Carolina Regiment, the infantry of Tarleton's Legion, and Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland from the left of the road, with Bryan's North Carolina Volunteers a short distance behind them on the left flank. Command of the left flank was given to Lord Rawdon. On the right were detachments of the 23rd Welsh Fusiliers and 33rd Regiment of Foot with the 4th Light Infantry company hugging the right flank. The right was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Webster. The five companies of the 71st Highlander Regiment were held in reserves behind the center with two 6-pounder field guns. Two more 6-pounders and two 3-pounders were placed in the front of the British center. Tarleton's dragoons waited in the rear of the battle line, ready to exploit any retreat by the enemy.
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| A detailed map of the Battle of Camden. |
At the same time both commanders order their armies to attack. The outcome of the battle was no contest, as Gates would make his final -- and ultimately fatal -- gaffe of the entire campaign.
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| A British Soldier of the 33rd Regiment of Foot. |
Williams dismounted and called for volunteers, leading some 80 or so men within 40 yards of the deploying British, taking cover behind trees, and delivering harassing fire at close range. Cornwallis ordered Webster to counter-charge.
The 800 strong 33rd Fusiliers and 23rd Regiment closed ranks, fixed bayonets, and drove forward on the double quick, shoulder-to-shoulder. The 2,500 Virginia and North Carolina militia heard the deep British "Huzzah!" and saw the red coated line advancing on them with bayonets towards them in perfect order. They hesitated, a few of them firing and a few of the British soldiers dropped. This was the first time that most of these militiamen had been in battle or seen a real line of enemy soldiers, and a dreadful fear of those cheering soldiers and their steel-tipped muskets gripped the entire line.
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| A Virginia militiaman. |
The entire left wing of Gates' "Grand Army" collapsed as the Virginia militia broke and ran. A moment later the North Carolinians on their flank also fled, many of them without even firing a shot, throwing down their still-loaded muskets and rifles. The Virginians fled so fast that they suffered only 3 wounded. The North Carolinians fled all the way back to Hillsborough, North Carolina. The fleeing militia broke through the 1st Maryland Brigade stationed in reserve behind the line, throwing the Continental unit into confusion. Tarleton's dragoons chased many of these men down, their sabers inflicting many casualties on the retreating Virginians and North Carolinians -- a number of them unarmed.
Seeing half of his army break and run from the British, the now-panicked Horatio Gates, the "Hero of Saratoga" and the darling of the Continental Congress, mounted his horse believing the day was lost, turned and raced away, deserting the remainder of his army at full gallop to their fate. He did not stop until he reached Charlotte sixty miles away, and only then to procure a fresh horse and gallop off another 120 miles to Hillsboro to put as much distance between him and Cornwallis' victorious army as he could.
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| A Continental soldier of the Delaware Line. |
General de Kalb and Mordecai Gist with the American right wing and the 1st Maryland Brigade still held the field. One regiment of North Carolina militia under the command of Colonel Henry Dixon did not join in the rout of the other militia on the left and fell back linking up with the Delaware Continentals. De Kalb called for the reserves, and Otho Williams, finding that Smallwood had also fled the battle, tried to bring the regulars to the left of the 2nd Brigade and Dixon's militia to form an L-shaped defensive line. However they could end up getting no closer than several hundred feet. Elements of the British 23rd and 33rd Regiments and already had advanced between the two American brigades and the gap could not be closed. Instead of ordering a pursuit of the routed militia, Cornwallis sent in Webster and his regulars against the 1st Marylanders. They fought, retreated, rallied around their colors and then finally broke completely, some of them escaping to safety through the swamps along the nearby Wateree River.
Now only the 2nd Maryland Brigade, the Delaware Regiment, and Henry Dixon's North Carolina militia continued to struggle against Cornwallis -- about 600 Continentals and militia against 2,000 British and Provincial regulars. The numbers now favoring the redcoats.
Twice Radwon's wing of the British army attacked the Continentals with bayonet charges, only to be driven back. The Continentals had even managed to take a few prisoners. The Continental troops then launched a counterattack which came close to breaking Rawdon's line, which began to falter. Cornwallis rode to his left flank and steadied Rawdon's men. For another hour both sides charged, reformed, then charged again. De Kalb led his men personally on foot and with sword in hand, his horse having been killed early in the battle. Despite being wounded by a saber cut and being urged by his officers to withdraw while they still could, de Kalb refused to consider retreat.
Baron de Kalb himself led one more charge, killing at least one British soldier opposing him, until finally being brought down mortally wounded after sustaining 11 wounds (the saber cut, 2 bullet wounds, and 8 bayonet cuts). His men closed ranks and repelled another bayonet attack courageously. By this point Tarleton had returned with his green-coated dragoons and attacked the American rear. The last remnant of the 2nd Maryland Brigade, the Delawares, and Dixon's militia stood and fought for a few moments, then broke and ran. However, Gist was able to move 100 Continentals in good order through a swamp, where the cavalry could not follow. Additionally, about 60 Maryland and Delaware Line Continentals, under the leadership of Major Archibald Anderson, Colonel John Gunby, Lieutenant Colonel John Eager Howard, and Captain Robert Kirkwood, were able to retreat in good order from the battle through the surrounding woods in a compact fighting group.
The rest of Gates' "Grand Army" were either killed, wounded and captured, or scattered throughout the forests and swamps being pursued by Tarleton's Legion.
The battle of Camden lasted just over an hour.
The Aftermath
When British soldiers ran up to finish off Baron de Kalb, who lay mortally wounded on the field where he fell, his aide put his own body between the fallen general and the enemy bayonets shouting out de Kalb's name and rank. The wounded general was then propped up against a wagon wheel by the British soldiers and sat there until Cornwallis rode up seeing de Kalb and recognizing him.
Cornwallis told him, "I am sorry, sir, to see you, not sorry that you are vanquished, but sorry to see you so badly wounded." The British general then ordered Baron de Kalb carried on a litter to Camden to be given proper medical treatment. It is reported that Cornwallis supervised as de Kalb's wounds were dressed by his own surgeons in Camden, South Carolina.
As he lay dying, de Kalb was reported to have said to a British officer, "I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."
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| Baron Johann de Kalb's grave in front of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Camden. |
According to legend, Cornwallis ordered this after he discovered that de Kalb was also a fellow Freemason. While this is likely, it was also customary in the 18th century for wounded captured officers to be given proper -- sometimes preferential -- treatment, including military burials with full honors.
The brave Baron Johann de Kalb died with great courage and dignity three days later. Cornwallis had him buried with full military and Masonic honors in the churchyard of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church. Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon, and all the British and Loyalist officers attended the funeral. Years later, after the war, George Washington himself would visit the grave during his first term as the 1st United States President.
The British casualties at Camden were 68 officers and men killed, 18 officers and 245 enlisted personnel wounded, and 11 men missing -- a total of 342 casualties. American losses were never fully reckoned, but 3 officers were killed in action with another 30 captured. From the 3,000 men Gates had at Camden, around 700 - 900 were killed or wounded, and another 1,000 were captured by the British.
The defeated Patriots -- those who were able -- fled north towards Charlotte, relentlessly pursued by Tarleton's Legion. Charles Steadman, an American Loyalist officer in Cornwallis army, reported the aftermath of the battle:
"The road for some miles was strewed with the wounded and killed, who had been overtaken by the legion in their pursuit. The number of dead horses, broken wagons, and baggage, scattered on the road, formed a perfect sense of terror and confusion: knapsacks and accoutrements found were innumerable: such was the terror and dismay of the Americans."
Patriot Major William Davie, who'd been on detached duty from General Sumter's brigade escorting wounded from the attack at Hanging Rock just over a week before to the field hospital at Charlotte, was riding back to join Sumter and possibly Gates' army, when he first received information of the disaster at Camden from one of the militia deserters. The tragic news of the defeat was soon confirmed by the sudden appearance of General Gates himself, shouting to Davie as he rode by that Tarleton and his dragoons were not far behind them. When Davie inquired if he and his men should ride to Camden and bury the American dead. Gates is reported to have told Davie that retreat was the only possible course of action -- that the dead could bury the dead. Gates did not stop any longer, and continued his retreat.
The battle of Camden ended in utter disgrace for the Continental Army. Despite having Cornwallis outnumbered, the many blunders made by Gates: marching his army through barren and hostile territory, the lack of proper provisions, ignoring the advise of his officers and men like Francis Marion and William Washington, and finally his tactical errors in the battle itself; all of which contributed to the costly defeat of the Southern Continental Army -- the second in three months. The tactical genius and expert skill of the experienced British General Lord Cornwallis and Lord Rowdan were also factors. The only redeeming actions by the Americans were the steadfast courage of Baron de Kalb and his Continentals, as well as Dixon's North Carolina militia.
The story of Gates abandoning his command completely destroyed his reputation. Many in the Continental Congress were prepared to place Gates before a board of inquiry and a possible court-marshal for his actions. Fortunately for Gates, his previous efforts at Saratoga were enough to give his allies in Congress the room to allow him to simply retire from the army. Gates never held another command for the rest of the war.
Even more fortunately for American independence, the disgrace of Horatio Gates gave George Washington the opening to recommend to Congress that his original choice, General Nathaniel Greene, should be given command of the Southern Department. This time the Congress was willing to listen to the commanding general and approved Greene's appointment.
In the meantime, the Patriot forces in South Carolina were once again on their own, and just two days following the disaster at Camden, General Thomas Sumter and his men would find themselves facing off against Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his British Legion, which will be detailed in the next chapter of this series.
For
more information about the Battle of Camden and its significance
to American history please consult the following sources that were used
to help
with this blog post:
Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned The Tide of the American Revolution
by Walter Edgar (2001) ISBN 0-308-97760-5
From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South by Henry Lumpkin (1981) ISBN0-87249-408-X
South Carolina's Revolutionary War Battlefields: A Tour Guide by R.L. Barbour (2002) ISBN 1-58980-008-7
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