pied in his seat in the Board of War, in to the North. His forces were already some of his conciliatory measures affect on the borders of North Carolina, and ing the Quakers. In the succeeding he was planning the subjugation of April any dreams which might have been entertained by his followers, of his superseding Washington in the chief authority, were dissipated by his being ordered to resume his command at the North, at a special station on the Hudson, with the power of carrying on operations against the enemy, if any favorable opportunity should offer; while he was particularly enjoined from undertaking any expedition against New York, without previously consult ing the commander-in-chief." He was stationed for a while at Fishkill; subsequently, in the autumn, at Danbury and at Boston; and in the spring of 1779 had his headquarters at Providence. Towards the close of the year, declining the command at West Point, he was granted leave of absence to look after his private affairs in Virginia. There he remained at his residence till he was called by Congress, June 13, 1780, to take the command of the Southern Department. He left with an ominous intimation from his old Virginia friend, General Charles Lee, "Beware that your northern laurels do not change to southern willows."

The situation of affairs at the South was not very encouraging at the time. Lincoln had been compelled to surrender his forces at Charleston to Clinton, and for the present the British rule was supreme in South Carolina, leaving Cornwallis free to push his conquests

Port Folio, December, 1809, p. 484.
Sparks' Washington, V. 334.

that State. Lord Rawdon was in command on the frontier of Camden-a spot destined to be fatal to the military reputation of Gates. It was necessary that something should be done to check the British operations in this quarter, which now presented a very formidable appearance; yet the state of the Ameri can army was such, badly equipped and supplied, and so greatly dependent on raw recruits, the finances at the last ebb of exhaustion, that a successful contest with the resolute veterans of Cornwallis might well have been despaired of. In this emergency, in the spring of 1780, De Kalb was sent by Washington with reinforcements of the Maryland and Delaware troops to strengthen the local defenders. He met with considerable difficulties on his march, from want of provisions, and there was everything to suggest caution to a prudent commander in his future movements. He was joined at his camp on Deep River, in North Carolina, in the vicinity of Guilford, by General Gates on the 25th of July. The new commander, sanguine of the results of a rapid advance, and impatient of the prudential considerations of De Kalb, resolved upon the shortest route to the enemy, though it led through a barren country, while a more circuitous one, which was pointed out, might have supplied his army with food. Gates, expecting sup plies to overtake him by the way, set out for the enemy on the 27th, two days only after his arrival. He literally hur ried his men to destruction by a series

establish himself at a point nearer the enemy, where he might coöperate with the partisan, Sumpter, who was then in the field; Cornwallis, to surprise his

of midsummer marches in a southern latitude, with a scanty subsistence on lean cattle met by chance in the woods, while, says Marshall, "meal and flour were so scarce that the army was antagonist. The troops met on the obliged to make use of green corn and peaches, as the best substitutes for bread the country could afford." The consequence was a general attack of dysentery, and in this condition his troops were hurried into action. He doubtless thought haste indispensable to secure the spirit of the recruits who had flocked to his standard. In addition to this error of judgment, in the method of his advance, he appears to have been quite ignorant of the condition of the enemy. He was not aware of the movement, from Charleston, of Lord Cornwallis, whom Rawdon, at the intimation of danger, had summoned to his aid. In the summary of a southern historian, "he had given himself little time to learn anything. He committed a variety of blunders. He undervalued cavalry, one of the most important portions of every army, and one particularly important in a level and sparsely settled country like that through which he had to march. He hurried his men, when fatigued, without necessity, and commenced a night movement with untried militia in the face of an enemy.' 991

Gates was at Clermont, within twelve miles of Camden, on the 13th August, and on the same day that Cornwallis reached the British camp from CharlesOn the night of the fifteenth, both Generals left their camps, Gates to

ton.

Simms' History of South Carolina, p. 261.

road, at midnight; a skirmish took place, "the fire of the British advance first announcing to the Americans the presence of their foes." Both parties recoiled, and waited for daylight, when the action commenced. The American forces consisted of some three thousand, more than two-thirds of whom were militia, while the British numbered about two thousand, of whom five hundred were militia and refugees. The army of Gates was drawn up with the Maryland division, and the Delawares on the right, under De Kalb, the Virginia militia, under Stevens, on the left, and the North Carolinians, under Caswell, in the centre. The attack was commenced by the Virginia militia, who were promptly met by a charge from the British, by which they were at once disconcerted. The other militia were also discomfited in the confusion of the scene, the smoke hanging thickly over the field in the sultry morning, and a general rout was the result, the Continentals alone remaining to stand the entire British army. They maintained themselves gallantly, but valor could not avail against courage and superior numbers. The brave contest was determined by an onset of Cornwallis' dragoons, and a bayonet charge, after De Kalb had fallen pierced by eleven wounds. General Gates had previously been borne away in the confusion with the fugitives. Such was the battle of Camden, such were the southern wil

lows which the hero of Saratoga ex- ordered by Congress, cheered meanwhile changed for his northern laurels.

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

MAJOR GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER | a lady whose force of character ana was a descendant of that respectable cultivation were every way equal to race of colonists who came from Hol- the charge. The youth, of an ingenuous land to the first settlement of New disposition, was well trained at home York. They were men of many virtues; and at a seminary at New Rochelle, in a pious, industrious, liberty-loving race. Westchester County, in New York, The Schuylers held rank with the fore- where he acquired the French language. most of them in their advanced post at A severe attack of the gout, which he Albany. Colonel Peter Schuyler, the inherited and which afflicted him grandfather of Philip, rose to be mayor greatly in these school-days, did not of the city, commander of the northern prevent his acquisition of much solid militia, agent of Indian Affairs, and learning. He was especially fond of president of the Provincial Council. the mathematics, and as he grew up, He had great influence with the became versed, says Irving, in finance, Indians of the Five Nations, and a pro- military engineering and political ecoportionate jealousy of the French, nomy. He entered the army on the whom he attacked with vigor at the breaking out of the French war, at the head of Lake Champlain in 1691. He age of twenty-two, commanding a comafterward carried with him five Indian pany of New York levies, under Sir chiefs to England, to assist in his repre- William Johnson, at Fort Edward. sentations of the policy of opposing the Three years after, in 1758, he was with French in Canada. His son, John, left Abercrombie's expedition against Ticonseveral children, of whom Philip was deroga, attending Lord Howe as chief the oldest, and hence at that time the of the commissariat department, and heir to his father's real estate. It is when that nobleman fell, in conflict related as characteristic of his magna- with the French, in the advance at nimity, that he waived this right of Lake George, it became Schuyler's birth, and generously shared the pro- honorable though mournful charge to perty with his brothers and sisters. convey the body of the chieftain to Albany for burial.

Philip Schuyler was born at Albany, November 22, 1733. His father, dying while he was quite young, his early education was provided by his mother,

With this experience in an important department of the army, Colonel Schuyler, when the war was closed, continued