The Armies March to Camden

The Armies March to Camden. Battle of Camden. "...a more compleat Defeat could not possible have taken place...in short, picture it as bad as you possible can and it will not be as bad as it really is." , -Letter from Brigadier General Edward Stevens, Commander, Virginia Militia, to Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, after the Battle of Camden, The Battle of Camden, fought among long-leafed pines native to these sandy grounds, occurred here on August 16, 1780. It was a bloody contest between American troops, led by the decorated Continental Army commander in the South, Major General Horatio Gates, and British and Loyalist troops, fighting under one of the Crown's most capable officers, Lieutenant General Charles Lord Cornwallis. The devastating defeat of the Patriots that day decimated Gates's ranks and cost him his reputation and command., After the strategic port city of Charleston fell to the British in the spring of 1780, the Crown established a supply and communication network throughout the South Carolina interior. In late July, Gates marched his forces through the stifling sandhills of North Carolina in hopes of disrupting operations at a key British military base in Camden. Burdened with provisions and equipment, his men covered more than 160 miles, eventually stopping at Rugeley's Mill, about five miles north of here, in mid-August. Upon learning of Gates's whereabouts, Cornwallis quickly mobilized troops at Camden, preparing to surprise and stop the Patriots., By August 15, both armies were on the move. Gates's 3,000 American soldiers, many sick and weakened from a meal of meat and molasses the night before, slowly headed south from Rugeley's toward Camden at 10 p.m. Baggage waggons extended for miles behind them. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Armand's cavalry rode in front. Cornwallis, traveling with 2,185 British and Loyalist troops and less encumbered, headed north toward Rugeley's at a quicker pace, with Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion dragoons leading the way on what is now Flat Rock Road., (captions) , Major General Horatio Gates , Early in the war, Horatio Gates led the Patriots to a stunning victory at Saratoga. When Charleston fell in May 1780, he was appointed to command the Southern Department of the Continental Army and charged with taking the region back from British control., Lieutenant General Charles Lord Cornwallis , Charles Lord Cornwallis participated in a failed attempted to seize Charleston in 1776 and fought in the New York and Philadelphia campaigns. When the British captured Charleston in 1780, Cornwallis's commander, Sir Henry Clinton, returned north, leaving Cornwallis to secure the South for the British.