Chapter XXIII.
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN OF 1781.
When Sir Henry Clinton sailed away from Charleston
in June, 1780, two Hessian regiments were included
in the garrison which he left behind him, and one more
such regiment was brought from Savannah soon afterwards.
I do not find any record of an active part
taken by these regiments in the campaigns which Lord
Cornwallis conducted in South and North Carolina.
On the 16th of August, 1780, the American army
under General Gates was routed at Camden, and on
the 18th Tarleton surprised a party under Sumter.
Six weeks later the tables were partially turned by
the brilliant engagement at King's Mountain, where
about fourteen hundred backwoodsmen surrounded
and stormed a hill held by an equal number of British
regulars and Provincials, killing and wounding two
fifths of them, and taking the remainder prisoners.
In the month of October, 1780, General Leslie, with several English regiments, the Hessian Regiment von Bose, and a detachment of one hundred chasseurs left New York for the Southern States. They landed at Portsmouth, in Virginia, but shortly afterwards abandoned this post and proceeded to Charleston, where they arrived in the latter part of the year.
Having this reinforcement within reach, Lord Cornwallis started from Wynesborough, west of Camden,