the Wateree at Camden ferry, intending to turn the flank of his enemy, and to attack his rear, where the ground was less difficult than in front. On being informed that the American army had changed its position, he followed it to its new encampment. This was so judiciously chosen that he despaired of being able to force it; and, after some ineffectual manœuvres to draw Greene from it, returned to Camden.

Lord Rawdon had been induced to relinquish, thus hastily, his de signs upon Greene, by the insecurity of his situation. The state of the British power in South Carolina was such as to require a temporary surrender of the upper country. Marion and Lee, after completely destroying his line of communication on the north side of the Santee, had crossed that river, and permitted no convoy from Charleston to escape their vigilance. On the eighth of May, after Watson had passed them, they laid siege to a post at Motte's house, on the south side of the Congaree, near its junction with the Wateree, which had been made the depot of all the supplies designed for Camden.

From the energy of this party as well as from the defection of the inhabitants, Lord Rawdon had reason to apprehend the loss of all his lower posts, unless he should take a position which would support them. He had therefore determined to evacuate Camden, unless the issue of a battle with Greene should be such as to remove all fears of future danger from that officer.

Having failed in his hope of bringing on a general engagement, he evacuated Camden, and marched down the river on its north side to Neilson's ferry. Among the objects to be obtained by this movement was the security of the garrison at Motte's house. But the siege of that place had been so vigorously prosecuted that, on crossing the river, his lordship received the unwelcome intelligence that it had surrendered on the twelfth, and that its garrison, consisting of one hundred and sixtyfive men, had become prisoners. On the preceding day, the post at Orangeburg had surrendered to Sumpter.

On the evening of the fourteenth, Lord Rawdon moved from Neilson's ferry, and marched to Monk's Corner, a position which enabled him to cover those districts from which Charleston drew its supplics.

While the British army was thus under the necessity of retiring, the American force was exerted with a degree of activity which could not be surpassed. After the post at Motte's house had fallen, Marion proceeded against Georgetown, on the Black river, which place he reduced and Lee marched against fort Granby, a post on the south of the Congaree, which was garrisoned by three hundred and fifty-two men, prin.

cipally militia. The place was invested on the evening of the fourteenth, and the garrison capitulated the next morning.

The late movement of the British army had left the garrison of Ninety Six and of Augusta exposed to the whole force of Greene, and he determined to direct his operations against them. Lee was ordered to proceed against the latter, while the general should march in person to the former.

The post at Ninety Six was fortified. The principal work, which, from its form, was called the Star, and which was on the right of the village, consisted of sixteen salient and re-entering angles, and was surrounded by a dry ditch, fraize, and abbattis. On the left was a valley, through which ran a rivulet that supplied the place with water. This valley was commanded on one side by the town prison, which had been converted into a block-house, and on the other by a stockade fort, in which a block-house had been erected. The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Cruger, was ample for the extent of the place, but was furnished with only three pieces of artillery.

On evacuating Camden, Lord Rawdon had given directions that the garrison of Ninety Six should retire to Augusta; but his messengers were intercepted; and Cruger, remaining without orders, determined to put his post in the best possible state of defence.

On the 22nd of May the American army, consisting of about one thousand continental troops, appeared before the town, and encamped in a wood, within cannon shot of the place. On the following night they broke ground, within seventy yards of the British works; but the besieged having mounted several guns in the star, made a vigorous sally under their protection, and drove the advanced party of the besiegers from their trenches, put several of them to the bayonet, and brought off their intrenching tools.

This sortie was made with such rapidity, that, though General Greene put his whole army in motion, the party making it had accomplished the object and retired into the fort, before he could support his troops in the trenches. After this check, the siege was conducted with more caution, but with indefatigable industry.

On the 8th of June, Lee rejoined the army with the troops under his command.

The day after the fall of fort Granby, that active officer proceeded with great celerity to join General Pickens, and lay siege to Augusta. On the march, he took possession of fort Golphin, on the northern bank of the Savannah, which surrendered on the 21st of May; immediately after which the operations against Augusta were commenced.

The place was bravely defended by Lieutenant Colonel Brown; but the approaches of the besiegers were so well conducted, that on the 5th of June he was reduced to the necessity of capitulating; and the prisoners, amounting to about three hundred, were conducted by Lee to the main army.

This reinforcement enabled General Greene, who had till then made his approaches solely against the star, to commence operations agains the works on the left also. The direction of the advances to be made in that quarter was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Lee. While the besiegers urged their approaches in the confidence that the place must soon capitulate, Lord Rawdon received a reinforcement which enabled him once more to overrun the state of South Carolina.

On the third of June three regiments arrived from Ireland; and, on the seventh of that month, Lord Rawdon marched at the head of two thousand men to the relief of Ninety Six. Greene received intelligence of his approach on the eleventh, and ordered Sumpter, to whose aid the cavalry was detached, to continue in his front, and to impede his maich by turning to the best account every advantage afforded by the face of the country. But Lord Rawdon passed Sumpter below the junction of the Saluda and Broad rivers, after which that officer was probably unable to regain his front.

Greene had also intended to meet the British and fight them at some distance from Ninety Six, but found it impossible to draw together such aids of militia as would enable him to execute that intention with any prospect of success. The only remaining hope was to press the siege so vigorously as to compel a surrender before Lord Rawdon could arrive.

In the execution of this plan, the garrison was reduced to extremities, when the near approach of his lordship was communicated to Cruger, by a loyalist who passed through the American lines, and extinguished every hope of carrying the place otherwise than by storm. Unwilling to relinquish a prize he was on the point of obtaining, Greene resolved to essay every thing which could promise success; but the works were so strong that it would be madness to assault them, unless a partial at tempt to make a lodgement on one of the curtains of the star redoubt and at the same time to carry the fort on the left, should the first succeed.

The proper dispositions for this partial assault being made, Lieutenant Colonel Lee, at the head of the legion infantry and Kirkwood's company, was ordered to assault the works on the left of the town; while Lieutenant Colonel Campbell was to lead the first regiment of Maryland, and the first of Virginia, against the star redoubt. The lines of the third parallel were manned, and all the artillery opened on the besieged

About noon the detachments on this service marched cheerfully to the assault. Lee's attack on the left was successful. He forced June 18. the works in that quarter and took possession of them. But the resistance on the right was more determined, and Campbell, though equally brave, was less fortunate. Lieutenants Duval of Maryland, and Selden of Virginia, led the forlorn hope, and entered the ditch with great intrepidity; but its depth, and the height of the parapet opposed obstructions which could not be surmounted. After a severe conflict of more than half an hour, during which Lieutenants Duval and Selden were both badly wounded, and nearly all the forlorn hope were either killed or wounded, the assault was relinquished, and the few who remained alive were recalled from the ditch. The next day, Greene raised the siege, and, crossing the Saluda, encamped on Little River. The loss of the besieging army, in killed and wounded, amounted to one hundrea and fifty-five men, among the former of whom was Captain Armstrong of Maryland. That of the garrison has been stated at eighty-five.

On the morning of the 21st of June, Lord Rawdon arrived at Ninety Six; and, on the evening of the same day, marched in quest of the American army. In the preceding operations of the campaign, he had felt the want of cavalry so severely that, while at Monk's corner, and in Charleston, he had formed a corps of one hundred and fifty horse.

Greene, foreseeing that his active adversary would avail himself to the utmost of his superiority, had sent his sick and wounded northward; and, as soon as Rawdon had crossed the Saluda, he retreated towards Virginia. Lord Rawdon pursued him to the Ennore, whence he returned to Ninety Six.

June 25.

The retreat ceased with the pursuit. General Greene halted near the cross roads, on the north of Broad River.

As Rawdon retired, he was followed close by the legion as far as Ninety Six, at which place he remained but two days. Still retaining the opinion that circumstances required him to contract his posts, he left the principal part of his army, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Cruger, to protect the loyalists while removing within those limits which were to be maintained by the British forces; and, at June 29. the head of less than one thousand men, marched in person towards the Congaree.

Supposing that his adversary intended to preserve the post at Ninety Six, where the royalists were numerous, and to establish one or two on the Congaree, where provisions were more plentiful than in any other part of the state, Greene determined to interrupt the execution of the plan which he believed to have been formed. Leaving his sick and bag

July.

gage at Wynnsborough, to be conducted to Camden, he marched with the utmost expedition for Friday's ferry on the Congaree, at which place Lord Rawdon had arrived two days before him. As Greene drew near to his enemy, a detachment from the legion under the command of Captain Eggleston, announced his approach by attacking a foraging party within a mile of the British camp, and bringing off a troop consisting of forty-five men, with their officers and horses. Rawdon retreated the next day to Orangeburg, where he formed a junction with a detachment from Charleston, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stuart.

On the Congaree, Greene was reinforced by Sumpter and Marion with about one thousand men; and, on the 11th of July, marched towards Orangeburg with the intention of attacking the British army at that place. He arrived there the next day, but found it so strongly posted as to be unassailable. He offered battle, but prudence restrained him from attacking the enemy in his camp.

At this place, intelligence was received of the evacuation of Ninety Six, and that Lieutenant Colonel Cruger was marching down to Orangeburg. The north branch of the Edisto, which, for thirty miles, was passable only at the place occupied by Rawdon, interposed an insuperable obstacle to any attempt on Cruger; and Greene thought it most adviseable to force the British out of the upper country by threatening their lower posts at Monk's corner and at Dorchester. Sumpter, July 13. Marion, and Lee, were detached on this service; and, on the same day, Greene moved towards the high hills of Santee, a healthy situation, where he purposed to give some refreshment and repose to his harassed army, and where he hoped to be joined by a few continental troops and militia from North Carolina.

The detachments ordered against the posts in the north-eastern parts of the state, under the command of Sumpter, were not so completely successful as their numbers, courage, and enterprise deserved. The several corps took distinct routes, intending to fall on the different posts between Ashley and Cooper rivers, at the same time. That at Dorches ter was broken up, on the approach of Lee, who captured horses, military stores, and baggage to a considerable amount, and obtained some trivial successes over the flying enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Wade Hampton, of the state cavalry, fell in with a body of mounted refugees. dispersed the whole, and made forty or fifty prisoners.

Sumpter advanced against Monk's corner. This post was defended by Lieutenant Colonel Coates with the 19th British regiment, and a troop of horse. He had taken possession of a brick church at a bridge over B