Three months after capturing Charleston (May 12, 1780), with virtually the entire Continental army in the South, British forces under Lord Cornwallis overwhelmed Revolutionary troops at Camden, South Carolina, and brought about the fall of Horatio Gates, the hero of Saratoga (October 17, 1777). After the surrender of Charleston, Congress had appointed Gates as head of the Southern Department. Unfortunately for the Revolutionary cause, his tenure was riddled with poor decisions. Upon assuming his command, Gates immediately targeted the British supply base at Camden, which was vital to their intended campaign to subjugate the Carolinas and Virginia. His subordinates, who were familiar with the region, suggested a circuitous route to Camden through rich farming country, where anti-British sentiment was high and the troops would easily find sustenance. Unwilling to march an extra 50 miles, Gates ignored the advice and plotted a direct route through a barren, pro-British area that was permeated with sandy plains, swamps, and dense forests.

Although Gates promised issues of rum and rations en route, none were forthcoming, and the soldiers were forced to subsist mainly on peaches, green apples, and green corn as they marched in the heat and humidity of a Carolina summer. As reinforcements slowly joined Gates's army, its strength in numbers grew, but the men were sick and debilitated. In Charleston, word reached Cornwallis of Gates's advance, and he set off for Camden, ordering additional troops into the area so that ultimately about 2,200 men were at his command. Gates, on the other hand, was ignorant as to the size of his army, believing he had over twice the number of available troops than the slightly more than 3,000 men who were actually fit for duty.

Gates continued to undermine his own operations. Planning a night march to surprise the enemy, he placed dragoons at the front of the line, despite protests from his officers that the enemy would be able to hear the horses' hooves from a great distance. Presumably trying to fortify the sick and hungry army for the battle ahead, rations of beef, cornmeal, and molasses were procured and given to the men prior to breaking camp. The meal had severe gastrointestinal consequences, however, and throughout the march, soldiers continually broke ranks in order to relieve themselves, which only weakened them further. Around 2:30 a.m., British cavalry ran into Gates's dragoons, and after a flurry of gunfire and saber fighting in the dark, the Continental cavalry retreated to its line of infantry, upon which both armies halted further action until daylight.

With the knowledge that Cornwallis was personally commanding the British forces and that the two armies were fairly even in size, Gates would have been wise to retreat to a stronger defensive position. As an ex-British officer, he must have known that, even with fewer men, the superior training and experience of the British gave them the advantage over the raw militia units that constituted much of his army. Vacillating over his course of action, Gates asked his officers for their opinions. None suggested a withdrawal, but one emphatically stated that it was too late to do anything but fight. Gates agreed and ordered the officers to their various commands straddling the Charlotte road. Stands of pine trees on either side of the route offered cover for sniper fire, and swamps on both sides of the trees protected against flanking movements. Gates positioned himself and his staff at the remote distance of 600 yards to the rear of the line. Following European military convention, the British placed their strongest unit on the right of their line. Gates, also a traditionalist, deployed his troops in similar fashion, which meant his inexperienced militia units would be on the left, facing the best of the enemy forces.

The British began their advance in the early morning hours, and Gates's artillery opened fire as they approached. British artillery responded, and as their troops were moving from columns into the line of battle, one of the Revolutionary officers reported to Gates that he could attack them before they completed their deployment. Gates gave him the order to do so, which was apparently the last command he gave at Camden. Receiving their instructions, the militia on the left of the line advanced clumsily. Many of these men had never been in battle and had little or no training with the bayonets they had been issued. Cornwallis noticed their hesitation and ordered a bayonet charge. Seeing the steady advance of the British regulars with their deadly steel implements and hearing their blood-curdling shouts, the raw troops ran for their lives. When more than 2,000 of these fleeing men came storming through the reserve units behind the main line of battle, Gates, mounted on an excellent horse and believing the cause was lost, left the field in full gallop. He maintained the frantic pace until he reached the safety of Charlotte, 60 miles away. Meanwhile, the experienced troops at the right of the Revolutionary line, though badly outnumbered, managed to push the enemy back with repeated bayonet charges. When the British dragoons finally joined the fray, the Revolutionaries gave up the fight and escaped into the woods and swamps, ending the battle. Total British casualties in killed, wounded, and missing comprised about 15 percent of the number engaged. Estimates of Revolutionary losses reach as high as one-third of Gates's army, a devastating blow following the losses at Charleston. Gates, who claimed he went to Charlotte to rally the survivors of the battle, was exonerated for his conduct, but he never held a command again.

Bibliography:

1) Robert Leckie, George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

2) Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South (New York: University of South Carolina Press, 1981).

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