Flight of the Patriots

Flight of the Patriots. Battle of Camden. , "He who has never seen the effect of a panic upon a multitude, can have but an imperfect idea of such a thing… The best disciplined troops have been enervated and made cowards by it… Like electricity, it operates instantaneously , like sympathy, it is irresistible where it touches." , -Patriot Colonel Otho Holland Williams, You would have seen rightened Patriot soldiers streaming north if you looked directly ahead of where you stand now on August 16, more than two centuries ago. Gates gave up all attempts to lead. He too fled toward Rugeley's, leaving Patriot officers with no commander and a grave problem. The wagon train with the army's valuable supplies and provisions, which had been ordered north before the march to Camden, had not gone far, leaving it vulnerable to the enemy., As the Patriot commanders labored to rally the stalled wagons and control the frenzied militia, the British cavalry appeared. Though Armand's dragoons put up some resistance, they were no match for Tarleton's Legion. Tarleton continued to chase the retreating Americans some 22 miles to Hanging Rock, the site of an earlier battle between the two armies. The British ultimately captured 20 ammunition wagons, 120 supply carts, and more than 1,300 American troops. Patriot Colonel Otho Williams recalled the chaotic scene: "The general order for moving off the heavy baggage, &c. to Waxaws, was not put in execution, as directed to be done, on the preceding evening. The whole of it, consequently, fell into the hands of the enemy… Other waggons also had got out of danger from the enemy; but the cries of the women and the wounded in the rear, and the consternation of the flying troops, so alarmed some of the waggoners, that they cut out their teams, and taking each a horse, left the rest for the next that should come. Others were obliged to give up their horses to assist in carrying off the wounded; and the whole road, for many miles, was strewed with signals of distress, confusion, and dismay.", (sidebar) , Gates in Retreat , Major William Richardson Davie was riding toward Camden, when he passed Patriot soldiers fleeing north, followed by their commander. As Gates neared Davie, he remarked, "I say, retreat; and let the dead bury the dead." Then he quickly rode on. Confused, Davie asked a senior officer if he should obey that order and was told "Just as far as you choose; for you will never see him again."