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through morasses and swamps almost impassable, succeeded in entering the town with a reinforcement of troops, and thus decided the victory. Unfortunately for the service, he was soon afterwards carried off by a fever, brought on by his exertions in that unhealthy country.

About this time also the British garrison was withdrawn from Rhode Island, and the troops brought to New York. The flank companies of each of the young regiments were ordered to join the battalions of light infantry, and grenadiers composed of the companies of this description of force of all regiments of the line, and commanded by distinguished officers. The encampment broke up in November, and the two regiments went into winter quarters.

His Excellency Sir Henry Clinton, the commanderin-chief, having resolved to attack Charleston in South Carolina, gave orders for a large body of troops with stores, artillery, etc., to be put on board ship for this purpose, and embarking himself in command, set sail with a large fleet under the orders of Admiral Arbuthnot about Christmas, leaving the command of New York and its dependencies to General Knyphausen, a Hessian commander of the foreign troops. The fleet encountered heavy gales and bad weather on their voyage to the southward, which greatly retarded the intended operations of the army. At New York the frost was so severe

as to induce a large body of Americans under the orders of a general they called the Earl of Stirling to cross over upon the ice to Staten Island, where they remained for some days, but did not venture to attack the British posts under the orders of Colonel Stirling of the 42d Regiment, a Brigadier-General. Part of the 76th Regiment was sent over from New York to that island at the time, but returned soon after on the departure of the enemy. Major Lord Berriedale, commanding the 76th, having succeeded to the Earldom of Caithness, was permitted to go to South Carolina to wait upon His Excellency, and while acting as aid-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief was badly wounded on a reconnoitring party, and obliged to return to Europe, and never again joined the regiment.

The 76th was now left without a field officer, nevertheless they bore a good character, owing to the steadiness and sobriety of the men, and they improved in the performance of their military duties by mixing with other troops.

General Knyphausen thought proper to cross over to the Jersies by a bridge of boats with a considerable body of men in the month of April, and marched in the direction of the army of General Washington; but could not prevail upon the Americans to quit their stronghold, although some sharp skirmishing occasionally took place. Charleston surrendered to His Excellency Sir Henry

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Clinton on the 18th May 1780, and as that part of the country seemed to be brought into a state of tranquillity after this capture, Sir Henry returned to New York, taking with him the élite of his army, and leaving Earl Cornwallis in command of the troops to the southward. Part of these troops, on their arrival at New York, were sent over to join the army of General Knyphausen in the Jersies, but as the enemy declined to leave their post, the army was withdrawn and cantoned in the three islands.

On the 11th July, a French fleet, commanded by M. Ternay, having a large body of troops on board under the orders of the Count de Rochambeau, appeared on the coast of America, having escaped from Brest Harbour, and anchored off Rhode Island. Whether the news of this circumstance produced an effect on the people of South Carolina, or that their apparent return to their allegiance to the British Government in taking out protections from the commanders, had been an act of dissimulation, is known only to themselves; at all events, their minds apparently underwent a sudden change. Earl Cornwallis, who had been employed in selecting proper places for the frontier defences of the state of South Carolina, with a view to moving into North Carolina, was suddenly called at this time to Charleston, and left Lord Rawdon in command on the frontier, whose active mind and military knowledge enabled him

to carry out the Earl's wishes to their fullest extent, of which ample proof was afterwards given at the posts of Camden and ninety-six. His lordship was also very successful in obtaining accurate and certain intelligence of the motions of the enemy. Earl Cornwallis's time was much occupied at Charleston in consequence of the discovery of a conspiracy to an alarming extent, in which many of the principal inhabitants were implicated; and it became necessary to arrest above thirty of them, but such was the lenity shewn upon the occasion by Sir Henry Clinton, that these people were only sent out of the country to St. Augustine in Florida, and their estates sequestrated for the time to pay the expenses of the war.

The American army, under the command of General Horatio Gates, the victor of Saratoga, was now sent from the north into Carolina. Of this movement Lord Rawdon got early intelligence, which he communicated to Earl Cornwallis at Charleston. His lordship also made every preparation in case of an attack, putting his troops in the best possible state of efficiency, and on being informed that the advance of the enemy under the command of Baron de Thalbe, a foreign officer, were moving towards him, he sent an express to Earl Cornwallis, who arrived at Camden on the 13th August. On the 15th, in the evening,* the Earl ordered the

* Camden, South Carolina, 120 miles north-west of Charleston, was the scene of two actions in this war.

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troops to move out. The right wing consisted of the 23d and 33d Regiments, under the command of Colonel Webster of the 33d. The left wing consisted of the Volunteers of Ireland, Lord Rawdon's corps, afterwards the Regiment of the line, and two other provincial battalions (troops raised in America), the whole being commanded by Lord Rawdon. It also contained the infantry of the British Legion, or Tarleton's corps. The reserve included a battalion of the 71st Regiment and the cavalry of the British Legion, under LieutenantColonel Tarleton. The enemy also marched out of his cantonments on the evening of the 15th for a similar purpose, and the two armies, feeling one another in the night, halted until daybreak of the 16th, when a conflict took place, in which the Americans sustained a most signal defeat, losing their baggage and artillery. The enemy, in a state of the utmost disorder, were pursued twenty-two miles from the field of battle. His lordship, in his despatch, pays the highest compliments to Lord Rawdon, Colonel Webster, Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, and all the officers, and praises the discipline and gallantry of the different corps. Our loss was not very great considering the immense superiority of the enemy in numbers. Baron de Thalbe died of his wounds.

At New York, after the arrival of the French fleet, it was at one time proposed to embark a body of troops and attack them in the harbour of Rhode Island; but