Recovering from Camden

Recovering from Camden. Battle of Camden. , "I will not say that we have been betrayed; but if it had been the purpose of the general to sacrifice his army, what could he have done more effectually to have answered that purpose?" , Patriot Colonel Charles Armand on General Gates's command at Camden, The Battle of Camden dashed the Patriots' hopes of taking back the southern colonies from the British and cost Gates most of his army. It is estimated that 250 Americans were killed here, as well as about 800 wounded, and as many as 1,300 captured. The British reported 324 casualties, with 68 killed, 245 wounded, and 11 missing. Fleeing American survivors, including Gates, managed to regroup as a disheveled and degraded Southern Department army on August 20, in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Colonel Otho Holland Williams reported, "The only apology that General Gates condescended to make to his army for the loss of the battle was, 'a man may pit a cock, but he can't make him fight' , 'the fate of battle is uncontrollable' , and such other common maxims as admit of no contradiction.", While blood still soaked the sand in these woods, Cornwallis moved his army back to their base in the town of Camden. The fight here was quickly condemned as an American disgrace. Gates was denounced for his errors in battle, his lack of leadership on the field, and for abandoning his men as he fled toward Rugeley's. He managed to avoid a court martial, but the Continental Congress lost faith in his ability to lead. Several months later, Major General Nathanael Greene replaced him. Greene rebuilt the southern forces and brought renewed hope to Patriots in the South. For more than a year, he and his army, including some of the troops who survived this brutal contest, would fight relentlessly to ensure an American victory in the War for Independence.